Thanks for a lovely introduction! I also have a hard time with just one niche. So I often have several lol.
My background is as a thespian too! I agree, it very early on teaches you to be more comfortable with the uncomfortable. I think this has served me so well in life.
Also, I agree that survivor is amazing. It's such an interesting social experiment. I'm a therapist by day, writer in my spare time, and I find the show captivating.
Lastly, cherish your little one! They grow up so fast (I know everyone says this, but it's also true). Mine is 7 now and I can remember his toddler years.
Hi there! Thank you so much for reading and for your note. It sounds like we have a lot in common. 🩷 I’m so glad you get what I mean about being a thespian! It definitely does teach you to be “more comfortable with the uncomfortable.” I love how you put that. And thank you—I will. I feel like these first two years have flown by with my little one, so I can imagine how it keeps speeding up! Thanks for being here!!
Completely agree. The whole niche thing.. I understand it but it can feel so suffocating. It's a hard line to walk for me. This substack of mine is definitely a niche so I can find a specific group of people but overall I usually am all over the place haha
My "brand" across multiple platforms since 2008 has been "Running After My Hat." It comes from an essay by G.K. Chesterton; here's the key passage:
"…there is a current impression that it is unpleasant to have to run after one’s hat. Why should it be unpleasant to the well-ordered and pious mind? Not merely because it is running, and running exhausts one. The same people run much faster in games and sports. The same people run much more eagerly after an uninteresting little leather ball than they will after a nice silk hat. There is an idea that it is humiliating to run after one’s hat; and when people say it is humiliating they mean that it is comic. It certainly is comic; but man is a very comic creature, and most of the things he does are comic—eating, for instance. And the most comic things of all are exactly the things that are most worth doing—such as making love. A man running after a hat is not half so ridiculous as a man running after a wife.
"Now a man could, if he felt rightly in the matter, run after his hat with the manliest ardour and the most sacred joy. He might regard himself as a jolly huntsman pursuing a wild animal, for certainly no animal could be wilder. In fact, I am inclined to believe that hat-hunting on windy days will be the sport of the upper classes in the future. There will be a meet of ladies and gentlemen on some high ground on a gusty morning. They will be told that the professional attendants have started a hat in such-and-such a thicket, or whatever be the technical term. Notice that this employment will in the fullest degree combine sport with humanitarianism. The hunters would feel that they were not inflicting pain. Nay, they would feel that they were inflicting pleasure, rich, almost riotous pleasure, upon the people who were looking on. When last I saw an old gentleman running after his hat in Hyde Park, I told him that a heart so benevolent as his ought to be filled with peace and thanks at the thought of how much unaffected pleasure his every gesture and bodily attitude were at that moment giving to the crowd."
I share this with you because it's my own version of containing multitudes: I wear multiple hats, and pursue them all when the wind kicks up... sometimes pursue them all at once. It's a confusion of hats!
Instantly in love and staying forever <3
Yayyyyy so glad you’re here ✨✨✨
Hello!
Thanks for a lovely introduction! I also have a hard time with just one niche. So I often have several lol.
My background is as a thespian too! I agree, it very early on teaches you to be more comfortable with the uncomfortable. I think this has served me so well in life.
Also, I agree that survivor is amazing. It's such an interesting social experiment. I'm a therapist by day, writer in my spare time, and I find the show captivating.
Lastly, cherish your little one! They grow up so fast (I know everyone says this, but it's also true). Mine is 7 now and I can remember his toddler years.
Thanks for your whimsy!
Hi there! Thank you so much for reading and for your note. It sounds like we have a lot in common. 🩷 I’m so glad you get what I mean about being a thespian! It definitely does teach you to be “more comfortable with the uncomfortable.” I love how you put that. And thank you—I will. I feel like these first two years have flown by with my little one, so I can imagine how it keeps speeding up! Thanks for being here!!
Completely agree. The whole niche thing.. I understand it but it can feel so suffocating. It's a hard line to walk for me. This substack of mine is definitely a niche so I can find a specific group of people but overall I usually am all over the place haha
I think you’re using Substack in a perfect way for your project! And, yes! I am all over the place all the time! I think it’s fun that way :)
I agree with all this!! ☺️
Kindness and curiosity! Two of my highest values!
My "brand" across multiple platforms since 2008 has been "Running After My Hat." It comes from an essay by G.K. Chesterton; here's the key passage:
"…there is a current impression that it is unpleasant to have to run after one’s hat. Why should it be unpleasant to the well-ordered and pious mind? Not merely because it is running, and running exhausts one. The same people run much faster in games and sports. The same people run much more eagerly after an uninteresting little leather ball than they will after a nice silk hat. There is an idea that it is humiliating to run after one’s hat; and when people say it is humiliating they mean that it is comic. It certainly is comic; but man is a very comic creature, and most of the things he does are comic—eating, for instance. And the most comic things of all are exactly the things that are most worth doing—such as making love. A man running after a hat is not half so ridiculous as a man running after a wife.
"Now a man could, if he felt rightly in the matter, run after his hat with the manliest ardour and the most sacred joy. He might regard himself as a jolly huntsman pursuing a wild animal, for certainly no animal could be wilder. In fact, I am inclined to believe that hat-hunting on windy days will be the sport of the upper classes in the future. There will be a meet of ladies and gentlemen on some high ground on a gusty morning. They will be told that the professional attendants have started a hat in such-and-such a thicket, or whatever be the technical term. Notice that this employment will in the fullest degree combine sport with humanitarianism. The hunters would feel that they were not inflicting pain. Nay, they would feel that they were inflicting pleasure, rich, almost riotous pleasure, upon the people who were looking on. When last I saw an old gentleman running after his hat in Hyde Park, I told him that a heart so benevolent as his ought to be filled with peace and thanks at the thought of how much unaffected pleasure his every gesture and bodily attitude were at that moment giving to the crowd."
I share this with you because it's my own version of containing multitudes: I wear multiple hats, and pursue them all when the wind kicks up... sometimes pursue them all at once. It's a confusion of hats!
Love that! Thanks for sharing it with me!