Sh*t To Help You Show Up October 18, 2024

The home stretch

Happy Friday, friends. Are you feeling the strain heading into the home stretch of this presidential election? I am. So, I’m not going to write about it. There are plenty of other people who will. Feel free to find them if that’s what you need.

What I need is to be reminded of what matters to me no matter what happens on November 5— empathy, community, honesty, connection, integrity, just to name a few things. Also, great writing, great art, great insight, and great courage.

This week I read an essay, Letter From Home, written by Kiese Laymon and published in The Bitter Southerner that somehow exemplifies all of them. Laymon is, to my mind, one of the best writers of his generation. If you read his essay (linked above), I think you’ll agree.

“I do not want to disappoint God, Mississippi, or home with this letter,” he begins, “but I have to disappoint God, Mississippi, and home with this letter. I am currently succumbing to evil.”

What unravels next is not at all what you might expect. It is not what I expected. And it is gut-wrenching and true and loving in the most blistering way.

Just read it. Please.

If, after reading it, you want to know more about Laymon, you can read this newsletter I wrote about him three years ago:

In it, there are links to his books and a great interview with him, which is worth your time.

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If you read this newsletter right after it publishes, as you do I’ll be driving to Indiana for my 30th college reunion with my younger kid. It’s been a whirlwind of a week clearing space for this trip, so I’ll end here.

I hope you all have wonderful weekends. Take care of yourselves in this home stretch.

XO,

Asha

This is my neighbor’s house. How great, right?!? Perfect for the season. The funny part, though? They put these skeletons out in various outfits and stagings for any and every holiday— Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, May Day, July 4th— you name it. Needless to say, I really love my neighbors.