🙏🏽 Don't worry, I'm still here.
Hello friends and damn-givers!
It’s been a while. I apologize for just disappearing like that. To be completely transparent with you, I am recovering from a fairly intense burnout. In late January, I decided it was absolutely essential for me to take a couple of months to reassess how I’m living and working and to refocus on what is most important. One of the decisions I made back then was to take a break from the podcast until late April. This was a difficult decision for me because I love having these conversations and sharing them with you. Now, I don’t know whether or not I’ve been accomplishing these goals (reassessing and refocusing) since then, but I’m sure as hell trying.
“I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.” — Audre Lorde
If you’ve heard me tell my story, you’d know that since I was a little boy, I have helping other people survive. But I’ve done a shitty job helping myself survive. I’ve spent decades showing up for other people at the expense of my own survival. That needs to change. It is changing, I think. It has to.
More on my burnout, my recovery, and how that will affect Let’s Give A Damn soon. I promise. For now, I want to share a few things I’ve seen, read, heard, or have been thinking about lately.
1. Before I share those things, here is a reminder that even though the Let’s Give A Damn podcast is on a break for a few more weeks, we still have 250 incredible conversations waiting for you to consume. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And while you’re in Apple Podcasts, leave us a rating and review if you haven’t already. It takes 30 seconds, y’all. Just do it:)
2. I came across this incredible poem by Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa called Dear White People. I won’t spoil it for you here, but the last line gave me the most intense goosebumps.
3. I’m part of the team that makes the Justice Film Festival happen. We finished the 2023 festival here in New York last week. It was fantastic, inspiring, and hopeful! We screened several dozen short films and feature films during the festival but the one I want you to see right now is a 30-minute short called Stranger at the Gate.
“An Afghan refugee named Bibi Bahrami – and the members of her little Indiana mosque – come face to face with a U.S. Marine who has secret plans to bomb their community center. But Mac McKinney's plan takes an unexpected turn.”
That’s the description I grabbed from the website and it’s all I want to you to know about this short film before you watch for yourself. It’s truly astonishing. Lastly, guess who is the Executive Producer? The inimitable Malala Yousafzai!
4. Do you know who Allison Russell is? If not, she’s about to change your life. I don’t know why it took me so long to discover her, but I’m so glad I did. Allison is a mother, a musician, and a writer. In her own words, “I left the universal healthcare, cleaner air and safer streets of Canada – for love – and for the Dream of America.” I’ve been listening to her Outside Child album non-stop for days. You should, too. It’s brilliant. The last song on that album is called Joyful Motherfuckers and it’s a simply beautiful and brilliant call-to-action.
🎶 Where in the world are the joyful motherfuckers?
The fearless lovers, the rainbow shooters
The wild acceptors, the hopeful sinners
The gentle teachers, the true forgivers
If you've got love in your heart, but it's way down in the dark
You better let it see the sun, this world is almost done
Grandma always told me love will conquer hate
I don't know if it's too late, I don't know if it's too late
Hey you, hey you, who you think I'm talking to?
Show 'em what you got in your heart 🎶
5. Raise your hand if you’re an over thinker! Any perfectionists refusing to take the next step?
As I recover from burnout, I’ve been thinking about the scene in Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse where the the boy is leading the horse through the woods and says, “I can’t see my way through.”
The horse says, “Can you see to take the next step?”
The boy responds, “Yes.”
Then, the horse says, “Just take that.”
Friends, JUST TAKE THE NEXT DAMN STEP. Right now. Today. Go for it.
That's all for this week. Thank you for reading. I'm truly grateful. Consider forward this email to a friend? Or send them this link so they can sign up! And you can always email me. We have so much work to do. For now, rest. Love y'all.
Keep giving a damn, my friends!
Nick Laparra