The Thursday! Newsletter 2-25: The Funk Called Life
Volume 2, Issue 25
"Dearly beloved", Prince once wrote, "we gather here today to get through this thing called life."
That song, by the way, has one of the five greatest grooves every written in a pop song, but that's a subject for a later time. The subject for today is life and funks. Not "funk" in the groovy sense but "funk", the word we use to describe the foggy, soggy, grey, one-half-step-behind feeling we all get from time to time. Some of us, of course, get the feeling more often and if you've been around Thursday! for more than a couple of weeks you know I'm one of those folks. The thing is, the funk of life gets all of us. We get a feeling -- smothered, hassled, weary, discouraged, barraged -- that knocks us out of what we consider our normal mode of operation. We stop having fun. We don't walk with our head up because our back is bent under more weight than usual. Maybe we're ducking a bucket of sour trouble someone chucked at our face. Whatever's happening, though, is enough to take thoughts of creativity right out of our heads.
Sucks, doesn't it? Yes. Yes it does.
It's okay to say that, by the way. Sometimes stuff happens and we have to handle it and we can't do our creative stuff because we don't have the available brainpower or the space in our heart free for it. Say that now and get it our of your system because we're about to take a big step ahead and I want you along when we do.
As the man sang, oh no let's go!
The funk is temporary. That is the most important thing to remember. It might last days or it might last months but the funk won't last forever. At some point it will lift and you, like Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith in an alien mothership, will find yourself free to fly. You won't want to waste that precious time putting on your seatbelt and reaching for the steering yoke. You want to be ready to create like you're wanted to since then funk arrived (we've left the Independence Day analogy, by the way). I'm telling you this because I've needed to remember it often this year. My newsletters have been long on "woe is me" and short on "woohoo". My creativity hasn't been what I've wanted it to be because I've had to work in small periods of time and in small spaces of inspiration. I've had to refill my pot of ideas with small things because I've had no time for more. I've had to write small because I could not write big, no matter how much big writing I've wanted to do. I think those "big" times are coming for me, perhaps sooner than I think, and I want to be ready.
I want you to be ready, too.
If you remember that the funk isn't permanent, you'll look for the moment it lifts and you get clear, bright sky and fresh creative air. You'll be ready for your time because you've been looking for it. That's not to say you shouldn't create the best work you can even when the funk is upon you, because you can and you should. Plenty of writers did great work while mired in funks that lasted decades. They scrapped and battled and did their stuff. You can, too. But be ready for the day the funk leaves, because that's the day your work will have the room to fly. You want to be ready for that, right? Me too!
So, what does that mean, practically? It means you have to know what's happening with you, inside you. You have to do healthy things and get help when you need help and take the very best care of yourself you can. If your load is too heavy, turn to the people around you who love you so you don't get crushed by it. If the funk feels smothering, get the help you need to breathe. And remember, it does not last forever. While you're doing that, bank the big stuff. Keep notes and set them aside. Visit them once in a while and add to them. Keep them ready for the day you can do far more with them. You don't want to throw open that idea storage area and find a bunch of age-rusted crap, right? No. No way. Tend your ideas well, my friends. Make the things you have room in your life to make right now and keep the others fresh and ready.
The day is coming. The funk ain't forever. Not this funk, anyhow.
Prince's funk? Now that's a different story. Let's get nuts!
---> Over the next couple weeks, Thursday! is going to change a bit. I don't expect you will have to do anything other than sit back and thoroughly enjoy this tasty, tasty piece of weekly correspondence, but I do think I should let you know, just in case any of them don't work for you and you want to opt out.
First, I'm moving Thursday! from Tinyletter to Substack. Tinyletter's been a bit quirky lately, and I don't like quirkiness in my software. More importantly, Substack provides me a bit more room to do what I'd like to do with Thursday! not just right away but also well into the future.
Secondly, I'm going to give you more of my poetry here in forms other than simple links. A couple trusted friends noted that what I do here is not quite what I do elsewhere, creatively, and I'd like to bring everything together in a sensible, interesting, and fun way. Expect changes, but for the better! As ever, if what I'm doing here isn't working for you, you can bail out. I'd much rather be your choice than your obligation!
---> Tomorrow -- actual Thursday -- is my birthday, unless you are the only Tina I know, in which case my birthday isn't until a little later. I hope the world is a bit kinder to you over the next 12 months because that's one of my two birthday wishes when I blow out whatever candles present themselves to me that way. I won't tell you the other one, though. It's a secret. :)
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What I Wrote Last Week
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One Last Thing
Next week, this will look entirely different. Right now, it'd be cool if you shared the new subscription link with someone you think would love what I'm doing here. As ever, let me know what you think! I'm only a reply away.