More or less since 2016, I’ve had a tough time following the news. It got even worse in 2020. I’ve managed the chaos and destruction in the world the way people manage Tinder – swiping left to ignore all the darkness, swiping right to focus on the beauty. There is a lot of darkness, but there is still so much beauty in our world.

But I was watching Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth interviews with Bill Moyers a couple of weeks ago. In the second episode Campbell talked about the idea of embracing all of it. All of reality. All of the beauty and all of the darkness.

Can I do that?

A few weeks ago my manicurist said to me, “I can’t imagine you getting angry.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

When I had my last day job, at a big multi-national PR agency serving a big multi-national client, there was almost never a moment when I was NOT angry. I wrote a whole essay about those years: Leaving the Bitch Behind.

The first of Stephen King’s 22 Lessons on Writing is this: “Stop watching television. Instead, read as much as possible.” Oh dear. I’m sorry Stephen. I watch TV every night. Mea culpa.

My sister and I used to talk about how we managed our media diet. There are not enough hours in the day to read, watch and listen to all the podcasts, magazines, books, music, movies and TV that one wants to, let alone all of the content that one should get to. How does a writer who needs to read as much as possible budget her media time?

I am a lifelong music lover (and sometimes a singer too). I studied and adore opera, I throw myself into the blues, I grew up on The Eagles, James Taylor, Van Halen and Willie Nelson. But last year, on August 13, to be exact, I found BTS. I was at Oracle Park for post-baseball Fireworks Night. When BTS’s Dynamite played over gorgeous bursts of sparkling color, I was filled with transcendent joy, an essential nutrient that had been absent for far too long in 2020 and 2021.

After that night at the ballpark I couldn’t let go of the pure and powerful happy feeling that song gave me. So I downloaded a BTS playlist…

In the tech industry you’ll often hear a founder say “We have no competitors! We are creating a new category! No one does what we do!” Whenever a company says that, reporters and analysts roll their eyes. PR people do too, because it’s much easier to take over and change markets than it is to forge a brand new path. Remember the Newton anyone?

As spring slides into summer San Francisco and I are both in that betwixt and between place – windy, warm, foggy, radiant. I am not sure what to write about this month, so I am turning to the ever generous, ever reliable George Saunders again. His radical preference exercise was a delight. He invited his Story Club readers to randomly pick…