oof

Boys were told to harden up, girls to compose themselves, parents to keep private grief private. That training doesn’t vanish; it lingers as reflexive stoicism that often passes for professionalism.

We should be wary of a culture that treats relational rupture as a form of self-care. Human development does not occur inside bubbles of self-righteousness. It occurs through friction, disappointment, repair, and humility.

Yet, despite this abundance of enthusiasm for cultural research, it often feels like it’s easier than ever to slip into the gravity well of banality. Cookie-cutter essays optimized for algorithmic engagement. Hot takes stripped of depth. Fleeting fads interpreted as extreme, paradigm-shifting hyperbole. We resort to dramatic binaries, either... See more

The playful wildness that made them successful gets replaced by increasingly hollow repetition as they struggle to maintain the career they worked so hard to achieve.

bite the peach

Joy moves like weather, sudden, undeserved, soaking everything it touches.

Most of us hesitate at the threshold, trying to decide if it’s safe to step into the light. But joy doesn’t linger for deliberation. It passes through, brief and dazzling, and what it leaves behind is not possession but trace: the shimmer of having been met.

It... See more

Sherry Ning wrote recently about this exact phenomenon in her piece how lucky are you allowed to get:

When I ask my friends how things are going and they’re doing well, they get shy. Most people can tolerate only a moderate dose of happiness before they begin to self-regulate. They grow suspicious of their own good fortune like they’ve stumbled upon... See more

I’ve been there so many times, deep in the matrix of capitalism. Contorting my values and beliefs into a professional, ROI-shaped-object. It felt… not optional.