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Excerpts from the newsletter:
"I have changed my life as a less-young man — it's just that the changes are the result of gradual growth, of slower-moving processes. My life might be an unwieldy, heavy ship, laden with habits, thoughts, and experiences, but even a tiny shift of the steering wheel will have an effect. Enough of them can even produce a revolution." - On the Urge to Change Your Life
"It's time for Americans to recognize the privileged place we currently occupy in history—a place from which we can actively thwart the solidifying of a fascist dictatorship. We've already let things go too far. But the best day to redouble our efforts is today. The second best day is tomorrow." - Authoritarianism Is Happening; How to Get Brave and Fight Back
"There's a certain type of wisdom that looks like this: "If A, then B. If B, then C. Excellent, C is a wonderful insight!" But this isn't the only type of wisdom there is. There's also a vaguer kind — the kind, incidentally, that one often experiences during a mystical moment or psychedelic trip — defined not by concrete insights, but by a sustained heightening of attention, a tireless capacity for association, a ceaseless grasping for meaning that doesn't quite reveal itself from whispers softly "I'm here; I'm here; I'm here." That is what Vuong seems intent on capturing." - On Ocean Vuong (and Poetic Wisdom)