Delete

Sometimes you have to free up some mental gigabytes

Last week I Marie Kondoed my space. After 7 years of living in the same little room I had accumulated the dreaded STUFF and, as I prepare to spend the next year preparing for my 40s I needed a place to breathe, and space to add more books. Now that my physical space is clear, the next step is to do the same with my mental space. This is the decidedly more difficult, but infinitely more important space to tackle.

Years ago I stopped transferring all of my data from my old MacBook to the next one (yes, I am trapped in the Applehole and I have accepted that I will never escape). I choose to start with a clear memory bank rather than dumping all of the old memory into the new one. Of course, this is much more difficult now that everything is in the cloud. But the analogy holds. Each year I try to clear out as much of the old memory as I can, but short of an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind machine, this is more difficult than it sounds. Meditation is no good. Alcohol is temporary. Therapy is expensive and yet, disappointingly, not a magic pill. Time fades, but never completely erases the things we most want to forget. Pen and paper though- they do the trick better than most.

I have always found that writing down the things I want to stop thinking about is an almost foolproof way of making them go away. Errands I have to run. Speeches I need to give. Pains I want to avenge. Write them down and poof, they’re gone, or at least significantly faded. This is easy for errands and speeches. The pains though- those are hard. Because writing things down make them real and somehow it is easier to play things over and over in your head for years than to put the words to pen and paper. There’s an old myth that you can defeat an evil by naming it. In those stories, naming it is the hardest part.

THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR TIME

Watch:

Tár (theatres)- This is still in limited release but given the reception should be playing everywhere soon. It is enough to say that this is Cate Blanchett’s best performance. It’s an extraordinary film and I really want to talk to you after you see it so ping me.

Derry Girls (Netflix)- Season 3 just came out and it continues to be the most quotable show on television. For another Irish delight tune in to Bad Sisters on Apple TV.

What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu)- Somehow after four seasons this vampire mockumentary based on the movie that made us all fall in love with Taika is still hilarious and incredibly heartwarming. When you finish this watch Our Flag Means Death on HBO.

**A rare but important unrecommendation: I watched The Watcher so you don’t have to. Save yourself. It’s not even a fun hate watch.**

Listen:

The Journal “How to Build a Metaverse” series (podcast)- Remember Second Life? Well this podcast dives deep into the world of the first metaverse and it is both fascinating and history that might help you in the coming Metaverse Wars.

Madame Magenta (podcast)- This pod is completely ridiculous and hilarious and perfect to listen to when you don’t want to listen to crime (weird) or the news (understandable).

Hadestown- Someone please listen to the Hadestown soundtrack so we can obsess about it together and then plan a trip to New York to see it. Please.

Read:

VAMPIRES ARE REAL! OR WOMEN WERE BEING MURDERED FOR BEING DIFFERENT!

The war in Ethiopia has reached peak crisis levels.

This incredible story of a woman sailing across the world alone. It’s long and worth it. Then subscribe to The Atavist so we can keep getting stories like this.