Category — Uncategorized

It has been on my to-do list for over a year, but I finally got around to cleaning out my closet and drawers. I took every article of clothing out and placed it on the floor. And then I only put back things I would wear today OR during a special situation. For instance, I have a cocktail dress that I clearly do not wear to work, but it fits, and I would wear it if I had to go to a cocktail party.

My closet and drawers were pretty empty by the time I finished, but at least I could see what I owned that also fit. Figuring out what to wear to a meeting suddenly became a lot easier.

But I felt anxious about getting rid of so much clothing all at once. Most of it didn’t fit, but what if I wanted to return something to the closet that was on the line? I put all of the clothes in storage with a note to return to them in one year. If I haven’t missed them in one year, I could look at them one more time and then release them.

It was sort of the best of both worlds: low risk (getting rid of something I may want in the future) and high reward (easy-to-navigate closets and drawers).

It may or may not be International Blog Delurking Week. The first full week of January (January 5 – 11, 2025) is when we’re supposed to slither out of the reading closet and check in with an “I’m here” comment. I don’t know if anyone does this anymore. In the olden days, people would pop out of the woodwork. Nowadays, not so much.

So let’s see what happens.

So welcome to International Blog Delurking Week. I make a badge every year to mark the occasion, giving you full permission to right-click and grab it for your own.

My reward for remembering to do this (when I could have just as easily forgotten) is that you have to delurk for this worldwide holiday, which is super serious and important. Right?

It is relatively easy. Leave a comment in the comment section below, admitting that you’re here. You can raise your hand and meekly acknowledge that you’re here with a simple, one-word “here” comment; or you can proudly raise your hand and tell us all a bit about yourself (my preferred method); or you can tell me the last good book you read (see, I’m trying to make it easy for you by even providing a comment prompt). The point is that I want to know about the people who read me since there is a huge discrepancy between the number of readers in actuality and the number of readers I actually know are reading. Or a tongue-twister like that.

And that’s all you have to do to celebrate.

So (clears throat to nudge you along), who is here?

It feels weird to celebrate a new year when the world looks so uncertain. I mean, what did the year even do so far except allow the sun to hit its surface another day? But what else can we do? We can’t wait for life: this is the only one we get, and we have to get through this uncertainty, too.

So a tentative hello to 2025. May you bring good things.

Erin McKeown recently wrote a newsletter about her will called “to die for.” Isn’t that a clever title? I thought it was a clever title.

Anyway, she writes about drafting her last wishes with her lawyer. Some of them are logistics about the funeral (cremated or not?) and understanding why she is making these decisions rather than leaving them for someone else to make at a later date: “of course, the overarching question of all this: who is this for? it’s not for me, that’s for sure. i will be dead.”

But then the conversation turns to what happens to her things. And that is the part that ties into the title. She writes,

not having a spouse or children and not owning a home in some ways made all the decisions simpler. but also… again…. strange! marriage and children are such shortcuts from hard decisions. if you don’t have those easy answers, the questions are harder.

And I love her answer and the longer unpacking of it, but it comes down to using your things to say thank you:

i have decided that whatever assets i do have at my death, will benefit a range of non-profits that i have had long, personal relationships with. these are not activist-type choices, these are choices that reflect gratitude for places that helped me become a better person.

Isn’t that such a lovely idea? Not to change the world (an activist-type choice) but to thank the world (a gratitude choice).

Erin McKeown seems like a lovely human being, so it fits. Go read her whole newsletter.

Josh suggested that we return to our family tradition of watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy between Christmas and New Year’s, but I’m still unsure how this day will unfold beyond the consuming of appetizers for dinner, reading, playing Balatro, bothering Beorn, bothering the twins, and trying to convince everyone that we should put the fake fire up on the television. If PBS doesn’t air it, I’m sure we could find it on YouTube.

And how are you spending today? Hope it is merry and bright.