Leela R Sinha
@leelasinha
Leela R Sinha
My primary aim as a human is intertwined with my aims as a writer: I want the truth. I want to be ruthlessly honest with myself as a human and with my readers as a writer. I want to accept myself fully as I am in any moment while also working to unearth and expose the ways I’ve learned to survive, in order to find new ways to trust myself and the w
... See moreI want digital things mostly for the efficiently of space, not time. Space and thought. My handwriting is a mess because I'm trying to keep up with what I'm thinking. I want to be legible and I don't want to lose everything.
But that's also why I fear digitizing. I fear the ephemerality of it all.
Leela Sinha
what if public libraries were open late every night and we could engage in public life there instead of having to choose between drinking at the bar and domestic isolation
Clubs and salons are like this too, but libraries democratize them in exactly the way that clubs and salons do not
Are we idealists or pragmatists? Do we have principles we hold dear, and a vision for the future we want to create? Or are we fumbling along, tinkering, finding what works, and forever allowing contact with reality to rearrange our mental furniture, make a mess on our conceptual floor, and occasionally punch so many holes in the walls that need to
... See moreLater, I sit myself down and pretend I’m the therapist.
“What will you have when this puzzle is finished?” the pretend-therapist asks.
“Something that looks like a life,” I blurt. “Something that feels like I lived. It’s not about pride, fame, or success. I just want to complete something—a task, a sentence, to let a train of thought run all the way
... See moreIf you have ideals but you don't take responsibility for making a change in the world, you are working on your self-image, not a product for other people. If all you have is pragmatism, then you have speed but not a direction and the purpose of your work will get set by default to, at best, the same conventional things that everyone else is chasing
... See moreBut mostly changing the world is a matter of luck, not effort or brilliance or ambition.
Mette Marie Ivie in her substack Kicking and Screaming:
https://open.substack.com/pub/metteh/p/i-was-going-to-change-the-world?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1ny8v
Idealism and
In her book Create Dangerously, Edwidge Danticat writes of the “floating homeland” of the diaspora.
https://open.substack.com/pub/aplaceforwriters/p/navel-gazing-a-space-for-outsiders