Well Begun Is Half-Done
And that's just fine!!!
In Praise of Being One Third to Halfway Done Most Things
Yes, of course, this has always been the case. We’re always in progress, and therefore always in the middle of something. I wonder if that’s a bit of why our culture attaches so much significance to tidiness? It’s something we can control (sorry, we need to pause for a moment for me to catch my breath after nearly passing out lolsobbing in shockingly depleted executive function). Where was I? Oh, yes, somewhere in the middle of something. Again!
In medias res-ness is both a cliche and a very real everyday heightened reality in these panna cotta times. The last year has brought out a lot of the most optimistic impulses we have as a species: pandemic pets! pandemic babies! career changes! Wholesale re-evaluation of our priorities! It’s really striking that we keep choosing to do things that are rooted in the assumption that we will be alive 6 months, a year, five years from now. I know we have a tendency now to laugh sort of cringingly at things like the great sourdough fad of Spring 2020, but trying to learn something new is a wildly hopeful thing to do.
In the last few months alone, I’ve seen a bunch of people on my various social media timelines learning how to forage, bake, paint, rollerskate, skateboard. It’s really heartening, and is another reminder that our value as people isn’t rooted in our accomplishments or output.
That value is intrinsic, and we don’t have to add to it by getting good at anything. It’s 100% ok to be pretty mediocre at something important to you, especially when whatever that is brings you joy or just helps you feel more like your full self. Consider this a license to be a dilettante. Not that you need a license at all! Just know that if you find yourself wanting to learn or do something fun or interesting just because, you have the full support of this newsletter. I’m glad to be here, being a bit of a perennial, in-progress mess, and I’m glad that you’re here, too.
For transparency, posterity, and fun, herewith, a brief list of things I’m in the middle of, and/or trying to learn about and from:
clearing out and reorganizing all the drawers and cabinets in our kitchen (Tupperware, I’m coming for you, your days of independently and voluminously proliferating and yet having hardly any matching lids are drawing swiftly to a close)
my years-long incremental progress on a pullover featuring cabled-in owls (update: it’s now off-needles, with all loose ends woven in! Button eyes and final arm-to-bodyseaming are next! Right in time for pool season to begin!)
a lifelong project of watching Sad Man Solves Murders shows (I am currently wolfing down 90-minute episodes of Hinterland, aka Sad Man Solves Murders: Wales Edition, and eagerly await the insightful comments of any & all Dames Nationals who find joy -- yes, ok, it’s weird, we don’t have time to unpack all that today -- in the abject misery of dudes who are married to their trauma-inducing jobs exiling themselves to a windswept bluff and living in a camper van with no discernible sources of heat, electricity, or water, rather than going to therapy to process a hideous personal tragedy so they can be present for their family, just to pull one example out of thin air. The saaaaaaaad version of the Byronic hero is alive & well, possibly even thriving in his own dysfunctional way)
with my 15 year-old, baking our way through Dessert Person (biggest hits so far: focaccia, chocolate birthday cake, malted brownies, dinner rolls) & looking forward to bringing my classic flaky pie crust game to the next level in anticipation of the swiftly approaching berry & stone fruit seasons
sorting through, trying on, and organizing the many tiny perfume samples I’ve accrued thanks to Rachel Syme’s Perfume Genie threads (pro tip: I save enticing recommendations to a Note on my phone and then periodically choose a batch to buy by selecting one decant/sample-providing emporium to order from)
writing this newsletter (oooooh, meta! cheeky!)
Oh, hush, you!
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