24 Comments

Self-Pity

by DH Lawrence

I never saw a wild thing

sorry for itself.

A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough

without ever having felt sorry for itself.

Expand full comment

Another great one. Just makes me want to buy, hold, and ignore the Wall Street talking heads even more. It’s almost impossible for me to find the signal through the noise so I’ll just stick with my simple plan. Thanks Kyla.

Expand full comment
founding

I dig it...I was thinking about, "People are so anti-establishment that they forget to stand for something." and I also see it as people having a hard time expressing what they are aspiring towards cause they feel so powerless. It showed up a lot in my journalism and was always painful to observe. I do think there is a collective sense of despair that feels really evident to me but also seems elusive.

Expand full comment

Insightful, as always. Thank you.

Expand full comment
founding

The discussion about a lack of community is something I have seen in other media. Are we as a country headed to something resembling the 4 walls of tv from “Fahrenheit 451” where people interact with avatars and AI but not actual people. Other news has shown how church attendance has been dropping year over year, a historically significant location for community building that is seemingly going by the wayside. I’m not advocating for people to go to church, what I am wondering is how do we as a society maintain cohesion when community gathering centers continue to fade away. Your favorite subreddit or discord server cannot replace the chemical releasing effect that in person community events provide. The US Surgeon General has spoken about a lack of community and the impact that it has on the growing epidemic of loneliness in this country.

I think the lack of community also speaks to Kyla’s comments about insensitive comments. When you have no community then shame and embarrassment no longer exist, leaving people to go even farther with the insults that are lobbed on social media platforms.

I don’t know how we get a sense of community back and would love to see others’ thoughts on what can be done to address this issue.

Expand full comment

Phenomenal. Thank you for writing this. When we put money in a bank ~ any bank ~ it may not be obvious, but we are also putting in belief and confidence in our society, our system, our ways of knowing and being. I think of this, sometimes. Your piece goes into much greater depth ~ things are not as bad or as good as they appear, often. And in the attempt, we are solidifying our connections to 'the all.' I also totally agree that branding should not be the focus of culture ~ other places are more aware of that in some respects, but also, have their tradeoffs. Mature, thoughtful, and beautiful writing that clarifies many, many important things we are all mulling over and about, whether consciously, or not. Thanks again.

Expand full comment
founding

"All I can hear, I me mine

I me mine, I me mine

Even those tears, I me mine

I me mine, I me mine

No-one's frightened of playing it

Everyone's saying it

Flowing more freely than wine

All through your life I me mine"

-- George Harrison, "I Me Mine"

Expand full comment
founding

Thank you, Kyla, for your thoughtful and entertaining work. I highly recommend the Hulu series, "Reservation Dogs". In one of the early episodes, our heroes steal a truckload of snack food, "Flaming Flamers", which doesn't really solve any problems.

Expand full comment

Great post! I agree that thing that are always available, whether that be food, entertainment etc. loses value just by always being there. I get that feeling all the time with thing that are always available.

Expand full comment
Jul 6, 2023Liked by kyla scanlon

The people who are the establishment like to pretend they are anti-establishment.

Expand full comment
Jul 6, 2023Liked by kyla scanlon

@kyla : Congratulations on the century! And on your choice to focus on the process, to stay alive awake alert (enthusiastic?) in each tiny dot of the present, which taken together from afar form the experience. "It was hard." lol five-star review :) but as a three-word summary, sounds about right.

Expand full comment
Jul 6, 2023Liked by kyla scanlon

To just exist is not to live. How can we deal with nostalgia, fleetingness, and the crushing burden of the future. These are not easy questions of course.

Expand full comment

In my opinion this was a brilliant piece. Thanks for including the Toni Morrison long quote.

Expand full comment

Just love your compositions Ms. Kyla. Your thoughts are incredibly wide-ranging and so much fun to think about as is your voracious reading list! Thanks for the sermon; thanks for the community of beautiful thoughts!

Expand full comment

I'd like to see a soft landing and low inflation but I think the gambling party went too long. The intoxication of easy money/rising asset prices means that mistakes outside of SVB were made and putting the inflation and debt genie back into the bottle will be hard.

Jamie Dimon's firm makes money from being bullish even when it may be in their client's best interest to sit on a pile of gold and snarl at passers by - you may consider such behaviour antisocial but a true friend will tell you the truth if it will help you even when it's difficult for you to hear it.

Expand full comment

The ADP data you’re quoting is largely driven by leisure and hospitality jobs // not high paying IT, finance & other jobs. Also we slashed mfg jobs by a big margin.

Likely there’s no soft landing, it’ll be a hard one in the coming 12-18mo.

Expand full comment