Thanks, Mom!

Some thoughts and gratitude around tangible support

There was this really wonderful moment right after I launched this newsletter, when my mom was my only paid subscriber. There was something so sweet and also so dorky about that, but dorky like good things are dorky, like love as big as mom love is dorky, dorky as in not the cool facades, but the real deal.

See, my mom is the kind of mom who really believes in me, and in my writing and teaching and parenting and life. She one time left me a voicemail to tell me she’d thought of who my writing reminded her of, and that person was Steinbeck. That’s my mom. (I mean, she’s also weird and human and one time she said, “your feet are so small, why don’t you fall over?” about my entirely proportional appendages, but being a mom is big. It’s not one-dimensional. The point is, she has always had this kind of fierce belief in me.)

These were not my feet. Mine were much bigger.

Anyway, when I saw she was my only paid subscriber I was thinking, Aw, I get to write a paid post just for my mom! But before I could, three more people signed up, all people who have been big supports in my life and really cheered me on in certain ways.

There was a tiny little moment where I was kind of disappointed, not that people were supporting me — I’m SO thrilled about this tangible encouragement and weight towards my writing paying the bills — but that my cool idea passed me by. And then I realized, no, this is all upside. Because now I get to write a special note to all of these special people. Which I’m about to do. And if you ever sign up as a paid subscriber, you can go back and read them too.

We don’t choose who our champions are. Sometimes maybe we don’t even notice or know. But nobody gets very far without other people. I think rugged individualism will probably just get you an awkward belt buckle and some lung cancer. I’m so thrilled all of you are here, making this into something. Money is just one way of supporting something, but it’s a real one, and I’m excited to have paid subscribers to thank. And I promise I won’t name all future subscribers (or probably any of them) on the internet, but I want to celebrate these four awesome women.

Alright, here goes: