Shared with permission

Read time: 3 min 37 sec

Whatup Reader!

“It is better to teach people than to scare them.” – Reverand Olamina, from Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler

That quote in mind, my response to all that is going on in the world right now is to invite you to the Mafia family dinner next week.

YOU'RE INVITED

What follows is an excerpt from the email I sent out to my Mafia yesterday (I write to them every Monday). I’m sharing it here, with their permission, because I think it best encapsulates the real reason why I want you to come to dinner.

I don’t feel normal.

And no, I don’t mean in the “everyone is different than me and I feel alone” kind of way.

I mean it in the that “nothing about what’s going on in life right now is ‘normal’, so I don’t feel normal” kind of way.

Right off the bat, I have no actual solutions or action items to present here. I’m writing to share my feelings with the hope that it will make me feel better, largely because past experience that have taught me that if I’m feeling something there’s a good chance that other people are feeling the same way too.

If you’re feeling normal, awesome. Love that for you. This is in no way any sort of commentary on how people should be feeling right now. Y’all already know I hate that S word.

Right now I feel a bit like I’m waiting for a hurricane to hit, but I have no idea when it’s going to hit or just how bad it’s actually going to be. All I know is that it has the potential to be catastrophic…but I can’t really prepare for it, even though it feels like it’s completely avoidable, but also like it needs to happen…and so right now I just get to not feel normal.

Adding to that, at least for me, is the fact that work doesn’t feel like a welcome distraction. Work actually highlights the weird feeling and has me asking if said work has in fact actually contributed to how things :::gestures around broadly::: are today.

Again, no solutions or action items here. Just sharing.

But, regarding sharing, I want to share my gratitude for all of you, and this family.

The Mafia is a family and a place that I feel certain about the impact. A place where I always feel like I’m preaching to the choir – ain’t nothing better than basking in shared values. A family that stands for something.

Thank you for being all of this and MOAR.

Ok, so I lied. I do have a “solution” to the aforementioned situation: Community.

Very much looking forward to next week’s dinner.

I wrote that email after spending 4 ½ hours in my good friend’s garage, chasing joy and living out my high school dream by having a jam session with her and another close friend.

Things are not at all good or normal right now, but, like I shared in yesterday’s Reel, my action items of choice are to lean on my people and double down on the things that bring me joy.

Not as an “ignorance is bliss”, head in the sand sort of approach. Quite the contrary.

We can only run away from things for so long. Fear as a motivator is short-lived.

Hope and joy on the other hand, we can chase them for a lifetime.

They are renewable fuel in the fight for change.

Again, I invite you to come hang out at next week’s Mafia dinner.

If you’ve got your people, if you’ve got your joy, if you’ve got your space to process, all good. I love this for you. Lean in.

If you’re looking for any of the above, we’d love to have you.

If this dinner feels at all opportunistic, it’s because it is. I am 100% taking advantage of the absolute dumpster fire that is the current state of affairs and using it as an opportunity to remind you that you’re not alone.

This connectedness, and community, and sharing of resources is exactly why I built the Mafia in the first place five years ago.

If you don’t feel normal right now, you’re not alone. If you’re disappointed, you’re not alone. If you believe there’s a better way to do things, you’re not alone.

The dinner is free. There’s no hard sell. There’s no obligation to join the Mafia.

We're there for each other, and if you'd like, we can be there for you too.

Cheers to building community and chasing joy.

Happy Tuesday, Reader.

Maestro out.

Do the thing.