Friday Notes, November 1, 2024
Dear Friends —
Every once in a while I feel the need for a booster shot of Brené Brown’s advice on leadership. Partly, I need to be reminded that we’re aspiring to courage, not perfection. Partly, I need to hear what fear and courage look and feel like so that I can locate my own experience. Ah yes, that sort of discomfort is the anticipation of being seen as less-than; and this sort, it’s being brave. And partly I need a refresher on things like asking open-ended questions, or setting aside judgment in favor of curiosity.
I discovered Brown’s approach long after many others did, at a time when I was charged with leading an organization and was called on to do things — to be someone — I had not done or been before. I was unmoored, and it was reassuring to hear someone say, with authority:
You don’t need to know everything.
You will make mistakes.
You can learn.
You can forgive; you can ask for forgiveness; you can be forgiven.
You can ask for help.
You are enough.
There is so much power in these plain facts. When we hide from them, we live in shame and deceit, harming ourselves and everyone around us — sometimes in little ways, and sometimes in big ones. The brilliant and liberating paradox is that by acknowledging and embracing our weaknesses we are better able to make up for them. We can learn (getting stronger!) and we can lean (asking others to share the load!). It is not easy to remember to get out of our own way and just be who we are.
On Monday, Brown released an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. It is clear that this is not the first conversation these two have had; I have never heard the Vice President sound so unguarded. It is very much worth a listen before Tuesday.
Here are pieces I listened to and read this week that made the world easier to understand (if not simpler or less anxiety-provoking):
The intensifying economic and environmental pressures of the warming climate are now beginning to drive new wedges into old divisions. That flash point foretells an America becoming more polarized the hotter things get, more sharply divided between its rural and urban communities and more hateful and more dangerous. It suggests we’re entering an era of climate nationalism, where the right could be poised to reclaim climate change as an issue of its own.
An interview with Lawrence O’Donnell and author Isabel Wilkerson
Q: Why doesn’t she have 90% of the vote? What are we missing here?
A: When people look at this as an election it doesn’t make sense. When you look at this as an existential crisis over what the country will be, then it begins to make sense. People are not voting against their own interest. They’re voting for the interests that matter most to them and for many, many, many Americans. As we saw on January 6, this means maintaining their position at the very top of the American hierarchy at the top of the American caste system with all the rights and privileges that accrue to that. That is not saying that is in the best interest of the planet or country, but that is best interest of the people as they ascertain it for themselves.
A long article about Elon Musk’s perspective on families and fertility. (Spoiler: it involves many women having many babies that carry the DNA of extremely rich and celebrated tech bros to forestall the collapse of civilization — and to populate outer space.)
In a biography published in 2015, Mr. Musk worried that educated people weren’t having enough children. “I’m not saying like only smart people should have kids. I’m just saying that smart people should have kids as well,” he said. “I notice that a lot of really smart women have zero or one kid. You’re like, ‘Wow, that’s probably not good.’”
His views seem to echo those of his father, Errol Musk. The elder Mr. Musk, who is 78 and has seven children with three women, praised his son’s “good genes” and desire to have many children.
“You breed horses,” Errol Musk said in an interview in September. “People are the same. If you have a good father and a good mother, you’ll have exceptional children. If you have no children, I feel very sorry for you.”
Last week I forgot to mention that the amazing cookies are gluten-free. Enjoy!
Feeling the need to breathe? There’s an app for that. Highly recommended for now through January 7, 2025.
Have a good weekend,
-Ruth