I LOVED Don’t Look Up. The scene, towards the end, where they are in a grocery store literally shopping for the last supper, and Timothee Chalamet gets excited because they are having fingerling potatoes. Brilliant. After seeing that movie I stopped screwing around, decided what I want, and am actively still going for it. I sold a house in a city I hated and moved to Vermont (LOVE). I wrote, and posted, my story about Cannabis Addiction even tho I was scared. I booked a trip to India (leaving in 4 weeks). I ended a relationship with a nice man who could not see me. I ended friendships with women who did not respect me. I’m learning to knit complex things, and weave, and spin wool. Im reading more than I have ever read before. These days, Im crying frequently, and that feels like the healthiest response ever. I’m marching with my tiny awake community. Im taking sewing classes and making clothing with wool and linen. The new economy will be the skill economy and the community economy. Okay. Loved this piece. Love your writing and your voice always. Thanks for helping me get sober almost ten years ago. Prayers for peace and freedom.
Omg I’m obsessed with this. All of this!!! Yes go baby go!! Also you’re the slow drain author!! I really want to interview you actually!! When you get back from India maybe?? And no worries if you can’t! Contact@hollywhitaker.com
That article series is chefs kiss. I’m so happy for this update!!
Such a good reminder that how you see the world in any given moment is all about your perspective. We are raising our nephew, who has significant social/emotional/behavioral issues due to FASD. I think about the person I was before him (caring about so many things that you reference here, career, looks, what people think of me, productivity) and the person I am now. Our world has both expanded and contracted. My capacity to care about anything surface level is nonexistent. Which is why I love your writing/work! 💕
Thank you so much for this. I was just thinking this week that oh, ok, we’re living in a crumbling empire, so all those plans and goals and kind of luxurious desires I had don’t matter when the only option left is just to survive, right? And I thought about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, how capitalism has made industries out of our self-actualization desire and turned it into an obsessive pursuit of self-optimization, and how empty and awful that feels all the time.
But people have been surviving through instability for centuries. And it feels good to band together and support each other and just focus on what’s in front of you, today.
I am in no way happy to be living through all this shit, and fretting for the victims of this collapse and wondering when the powerful come for me is not something I ever thought I’d be seriously considering. But you articulated acceptance and clarity in a time we’re all stunned by it all (“they can just DO that?”). And you articulated a way forward: all we have is today, and each other.
I’m glad you had another birthday, and a grilled cheese IS celebrating, isn’t it?
I guess it’s because I’m currently reading it , but this piece made me think, all the way through, of Joan Tollifson’s uplifting book, ‘Death - The end of self-improvement’
I tried to decide whether I’d prefer to be post-apocalypse with Jennifer Lawrence or my dogs, and it was a pretty straightforward one, much as I appreciate Jennifer’s work.
This resonates so much, down to the leaking toilet! I have been so totally done and "over it" (the hustling, juggling, so many things in-person and digitally) for so many years, and I still have to remind myself all the time that those feelings are valid.
This piece made me laugh and cry out loud, often simultaneously. And when I arrived at the footnote ….. holy freaking goosebumps!!!! This was also a fun peek into why my husband and our daughter enjoy those same types of movies. I want to vomit watching those stories, and they can’t get enough!
This is so good, Holly. First, best wishes to you. You have such a gift and I am so glad you share it with us! Recently, I read something along the lines that in 200 years, no one will know who you are (and even that is aspirational unless you are famous etc). It is depressing to think about but also, has me thinking, well, what do I want to do with this time I have left? What really matters? I never really thought about this perspective until I stopped drinking a few years back and allowed myself to sit in this more. Maybe I tried to escape the reality of it for a long time.
Isn’t that so freeing?? That it’s all going to explode anyway because of the second law of thermodynamics and we might as well do good things and love each other and have fun and stuff?
Our family moved all together for the dream of a baby, and now one is coming and it’s rearranging my entire life to look at supporting a descendant. If I’m lucky, I will live another couple of decades, but I don’t see it as time anymore, instead it’s immediacy taking shape. There’s a radical rearranging that is a force for ending the patriarchal shit wherever it shows itself, and there’s a fucking lot of it around rn. This piece helped me find myself today. I love you, signed, the anarchist granny.
I was a four wing three for years but after my adhd diagnosis, an adhd coach or something gave me a WILDLY LONG test and convinced me I’m a two, and damn I am a two.
That's really interesting! I tested as a 4 wing 3 multiple times for 15 years but recently took a more extensive test and, though still a 4, had a lot of 2. When I was younger I think I would definitely have tested as a 2. I have ADHD which was diagnosed only recently after my youngest child was diagnosed. It explains so much! It also makes me wonder if a lot of the 'Type 4 uniqueness' I have always felt is neurodivergent uniqueness. I have also abused alcohol for the past 9 years. I am trying again to finally stay sober. You are definitely one of my greatest recovery resources! ❤️ Stefanie
I LOVED Don’t Look Up. The scene, towards the end, where they are in a grocery store literally shopping for the last supper, and Timothee Chalamet gets excited because they are having fingerling potatoes. Brilliant. After seeing that movie I stopped screwing around, decided what I want, and am actively still going for it. I sold a house in a city I hated and moved to Vermont (LOVE). I wrote, and posted, my story about Cannabis Addiction even tho I was scared. I booked a trip to India (leaving in 4 weeks). I ended a relationship with a nice man who could not see me. I ended friendships with women who did not respect me. I’m learning to knit complex things, and weave, and spin wool. Im reading more than I have ever read before. These days, Im crying frequently, and that feels like the healthiest response ever. I’m marching with my tiny awake community. Im taking sewing classes and making clothing with wool and linen. The new economy will be the skill economy and the community economy. Okay. Loved this piece. Love your writing and your voice always. Thanks for helping me get sober almost ten years ago. Prayers for peace and freedom.
Omg I’m obsessed with this. All of this!!! Yes go baby go!! Also you’re the slow drain author!! I really want to interview you actually!! When you get back from India maybe?? And no worries if you can’t! Contact@hollywhitaker.com
That article series is chefs kiss. I’m so happy for this update!!
Im honored at the mere suggestion. I’ll email you 🩷
Such a good reminder that how you see the world in any given moment is all about your perspective. We are raising our nephew, who has significant social/emotional/behavioral issues due to FASD. I think about the person I was before him (caring about so many things that you reference here, career, looks, what people think of me, productivity) and the person I am now. Our world has both expanded and contracted. My capacity to care about anything surface level is nonexistent. Which is why I love your writing/work! 💕
Thank you for these thoughts Anna. 🫂
Thank you so much for this. I was just thinking this week that oh, ok, we’re living in a crumbling empire, so all those plans and goals and kind of luxurious desires I had don’t matter when the only option left is just to survive, right? And I thought about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, how capitalism has made industries out of our self-actualization desire and turned it into an obsessive pursuit of self-optimization, and how empty and awful that feels all the time.
But people have been surviving through instability for centuries. And it feels good to band together and support each other and just focus on what’s in front of you, today.
I am in no way happy to be living through all this shit, and fretting for the victims of this collapse and wondering when the powerful come for me is not something I ever thought I’d be seriously considering. But you articulated acceptance and clarity in a time we’re all stunned by it all (“they can just DO that?”). And you articulated a way forward: all we have is today, and each other.
Thank you, Holly, for all that you do.
I feel every drop of this
I’m glad you had another birthday, and a grilled cheese IS celebrating, isn’t it?
I guess it’s because I’m currently reading it , but this piece made me think, all the way through, of Joan Tollifson’s uplifting book, ‘Death - The end of self-improvement’
I tried to decide whether I’d prefer to be post-apocalypse with Jennifer Lawrence or my dogs, and it was a pretty straightforward one, much as I appreciate Jennifer’s work.
lol. I’d honestly kill to have J Law with me. Thank you dear Graham. This article is a wee bit old, turning 47 in a week 🙃🫂😘
Beautiful and profound. And so, so important this week in a country that is breaking.
♥️
This resonates so much, down to the leaking toilet! I have been so totally done and "over it" (the hustling, juggling, so many things in-person and digitally) for so many years, and I still have to remind myself all the time that those feelings are valid.
♥️
This piece made me laugh and cry out loud, often simultaneously. And when I arrived at the footnote ….. holy freaking goosebumps!!!! This was also a fun peek into why my husband and our daughter enjoy those same types of movies. I want to vomit watching those stories, and they can’t get enough!
Well I tried watching leave the world behind again this week and I don’t recommend it
This reinforces my personal motto, “Nothing matters, money isn’t real, we all die.”
I repeat this to myself often and yet- find it hard to truly live in this mindset.
I meant to respond that I have a. Sweatshirt that says something like money isn’t real the sun is going to explode etc etc ♥️
That’s epic.
This is so good, Holly. First, best wishes to you. You have such a gift and I am so glad you share it with us! Recently, I read something along the lines that in 200 years, no one will know who you are (and even that is aspirational unless you are famous etc). It is depressing to think about but also, has me thinking, well, what do I want to do with this time I have left? What really matters? I never really thought about this perspective until I stopped drinking a few years back and allowed myself to sit in this more. Maybe I tried to escape the reality of it for a long time.
Isn’t that so freeing?? That it’s all going to explode anyway because of the second law of thermodynamics and we might as well do good things and love each other and have fun and stuff?
Thanks for sharing. I wish I didn’t worry about
nasolabial folds, but was literally obsessing over mine twenty minutes before reading this rich and relatable essay.
You’re so funny Julie
Lolol
This world is sick; we are not. Yes times 800 million. Your words are medicinal as always. Thank you for the work it takes to share them 💛
Fuck, the work to share it. Girl you know. Love you so much little beacon of light on the west
I love this, Holly. Brilliant and so resonant. We're wired so similarly.
🥰 good wiring
Our family moved all together for the dream of a baby, and now one is coming and it’s rearranging my entire life to look at supporting a descendant. If I’m lucky, I will live another couple of decades, but I don’t see it as time anymore, instead it’s immediacy taking shape. There’s a radical rearranging that is a force for ending the patriarchal shit wherever it shows itself, and there’s a fucking lot of it around rn. This piece helped me find myself today. I love you, signed, the anarchist granny.
Immediacy taking shape ♥️
What you feel about this, now some years later,Holly?
Too much to even know where to start. But the biggest thing is, I don’t feel relieved by post apocalyptic films anymore. 😘
That was great I really liked reading it, thank you!
♥️
Holly, do you know your Enneagram Type? Just wondering if you're a 4. You think and feel and value so much of what I think and feel and value.
I was a four wing three for years but after my adhd diagnosis, an adhd coach or something gave me a WILDLY LONG test and convinced me I’m a two, and damn I am a two.
That's really interesting! I tested as a 4 wing 3 multiple times for 15 years but recently took a more extensive test and, though still a 4, had a lot of 2. When I was younger I think I would definitely have tested as a 2. I have ADHD which was diagnosed only recently after my youngest child was diagnosed. It explains so much! It also makes me wonder if a lot of the 'Type 4 uniqueness' I have always felt is neurodivergent uniqueness. I have also abused alcohol for the past 9 years. I am trying again to finally stay sober. You are definitely one of my greatest recovery resources! ❤️ Stefanie