What Resonated.

Giottino's Pieta, Mixed media on Paper, 2020. (from my quarantine drawings)

Hey there. Last newsletter of 2020 here.

We all know I love a good list. So I took some inspiration from Laura Olin's newsletter (it's a treasure) and put together 10 ideas that got me through the year. I could add so much more, but here's the big stuff that resonated:


1. Ethan Hawke on Playing the Fool.

2. Ann Helen Peterson on Re-thinking Productivity during a pandemic.

3. Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr. on Resistance.

4. Courtney Martin on how to mourn and just being sad (and basically everything she writes).

5. Pauline Boss on Navigating Loss without Closure.

6. Catherine Andrews on 40 Lessons from Age 40.

7. Esther Perel on Couples Under Lockdown and the stress this pandemic put on marriages (and all relationships).

8. The Getty Museum's podcast Recording Artists: Radical Women.

9. Beth Picken's on Does My Art Really Matter? Short answer: YES it does.


10. My conversations with the brilliant students at Pratt Institute, Washington University, Concordia Montreal, and Texas State this year, including this piece of wisdom from one of them, which I still think about: "Reacting is about setting yourself in opposition to something ... versus responding is about engaging in a conversation and adding your point of view..."


I'll be letting this marinate over the holidays while I watch Lord of the Rings in my pajamas with a bowl of ice cream.

Have a restful holiday y'all.

Psst: if you’re picking up what I’m putting down, sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter, A Mighty Practice: