14 Comments
Oct 30Liked by Amanda Saint, Kaitlyn Ramsay, Matthew Long

I really enjoyed these two personal essays. Very nice to hear from my friend-whom-I’m-yet-to-meet, Amanda. Amanda and I support each other here on Substack and I really enjoyed getting to know her a little bit better.

Thanks, Matthew!

Expand full comment
author

We really should arrange a time to meet on Zoom, Don! As in person is a bit tricky! 💙

Expand full comment
Oct 30·edited Oct 30Liked by Amanda Saint

We really should. I will tell you that I am terrible about committing to meeting someone new on zoom because I get nervous; my shyness and introversion kick in, plus anxiety around phone/FaceTime conversations. I wish we could just meet at the local coffee shop. I wouldn't even be nervous about that at all! Telling you in the hopes it helps me find a solution. 😊 (I've been putting off scheduling a zoom with Maia Durrer as well)

Expand full comment
author

Ah well I don’t want you to do it if it doesn’t feel right! Sadly the great big Atlantic Ocean makes your local coffee shop hard to get to! 💙

Expand full comment

Yes, the Atlantic ocean is something of an obstacle isn’t it? And it’s not that I don’t want to. I want to! Well, what I really want is to have talked to you so many times that I no longer feel anxious about setting up a zoom meeting 😀

Expand full comment
author

There’s only one way for that to happen!

Expand full comment

That is correct. When shall we meet? 😊 I'm available now!

Expand full comment

Or we can set up a time. I work a lot during the day, but I know you are 5 hours ahead of me so I'm sure we can arrange something. You'd have to set it up since I don't have a zoom account of my own.

Expand full comment
Oct 30Liked by Amanda Saint, Kaitlyn Ramsay, Matthew Long

Three very good writers and thinkers here! I really enjoyed this piece—and now I even have a new Tao Te Ching translation to place on my TBR list! Thanks to each of you! Substack community at its best.

Expand full comment
author

It’s a really great translation!

Expand full comment
Oct 30Liked by Amanda Saint, Kaitlyn Ramsay

It was fun to see you in Matthew’s post. I’ve never considered myself a “misfit,” but I fit how you defined it. (No pun intended.) As an introvert, especially over the span of my teen years through high school, I was never one for crowds and didn’t really care to “fit in” with certain fashion trends, party-attitudes, or cliques. Just content to do my own thing but aware of solitude and loneliness at times. If that doesn’t define “misfit,” I’m not sure what does—unless you are a Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer fan and wish you were on “the island of misfits.”

Expand full comment
author

I tried my hardest to fit in when I was a teenager and young adult but always knew underneath the facade it wasn’t really working!

Expand full comment

Or necessary, right?

Expand full comment
author

Yep. It’s been a huge relief to let it go.

Expand full comment