Still doomscrolling? Yep, me too. In between crocheting sunflowers, that is. I literally can’t keep up with demand. A colleague was moved to remind me, when I scolded myself for this, that tiny woollen badges are not the only way for people to donate to Ukraine. Indeed not. From the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal all the way down to a restaurant I spied donating the proceeds from their Ukrainian vodka cocktails (Le Garrick, if you’re interested), there’s a hundred ways for people to help. Charity work is not pegged to the speed at which I can crochet. Thank god.
With that in mind, and heeding my own words last week about the dangers of downing tools, I used an unexpected day off this week to finish the second draft of my book. Initially, I was inclined to use the time for yet more handicrafting, my thoughts being along the lines of “Who cares about a stupid book?” But then I remembered some advice from Kate McKean’s excellent Agents and Books newsletter. She was taking on the thorny subject of self-promotion on social media at this time, but her overarching argument is that it’s OK to keep doing the thing you were supposed to be doing if all this wasn’t happening. It won’t tip the balance one way or the other.
Do we keep going on our stupid little walks and doing our stupid little jobs? And does anyone really care if you published a book? Does it matter? Should you bother? And is it wrong to ask people to preorder or tweet or click or leave a review or ask a librarian to stock your book in times like these? The answer is: it doesn’t matter. Not that your book/career/personal interests don’t matter. But your tweets don’t matter. They won’t change the world. They will not stop megalomaniac dictators or global warming … Your tweets aren’t going to change the world in a larger sense because the people who can change the world are not reading your tweets. Honestly. Think about who is reading your tweets. People probably like you in some ways. (And if you’re a big deal, please, by all means, tweet at the people who can change the world.) You can absolutely share resources that they might not know about, fundraisers, voting information, local school board information, etc, etc. You can share anything you want! You can tweet anything you want!!! It barely matters! Do it anyway!
And on the subject of attempting normality, if we learned one thing from the covid years, it’s that sometimes some of us need a little breather from the news on our devices, in order to do good things the rest of the time. I’ll confess I’m not really there yet (I cannot look away from current affairs) but if you're feeling that way, I have a couple of recommendations.
Firstly, if you need a bit of good news, try Squirrel News - available as a daily email or an app to download. Every day, you’ll get a selection of stories from around the world of humans doing excellent things. Things that leave you saying “Oh. That’s good.” From scientific breakthroughs, to social and educational advances, to how the tequila fish is being saved from extinction. Yes, the tequila fish is a thing. Yes it is. (Side note: Hello, German-speaking readers! Squirrel News is available in German too, if you prefer.)
Alternatively, if you just need a few seconds of whimsy here and there, I’ll refer you to Stuart Heritage’s roundup of silly social media. You’ll get no judgement from me if you follow all 50 of his suggestions. Despite having said that I don’t need a news break yet, the fact that I even looked at this article suggests otherwise. And as a result, I am now a keen follower of the extraordinary miniature worlds of Tatsuya Tanaka and the compelling videos by Adventures in Jelly.
The fact is that, however devoted we are to helping people, if we don’t keep the wheels turning or if we burn out mentally, we’re no good to them at all. So, do your day job when you need to and look at daft videos if you want to.
That's all for this week. I’ve got some crocheting to do... 🌻🌻🌻