Little Things To Inspire You This Week #22

Happy birthday to Angela Davis and Virginia Woolf.

Hi there,

For those new here, Little Things To Inspire You is a big round-up containing a thought, a quote, a writing tip, a journaling prompt, and reading, watching, and listening recommendations.

Enjoy!
Ali

Last week, in my post about a $200 candle, I explored something called the knowing-doing gap: The period in which you know you should do something, or want to do something, but don’t take action towards it.

Discussing this with a friend later in the week, she told me the post inspired her to have more empathy towards others because the knowing-doing gap impacts us all differently. I loved this response and hadn’t considered it myself.

We all know exactly in which areas of our lives we can relate to this concept — so why are we so hard on others dealing with the same thing?

In the now-famous book The Four Agreements, its author lists four central agreements you must make with yourself to be happy. One is not taking anything personally. Understanding that the knowing-doing gap impacts everyone is a good reminder of this: Other people’s actions or inactions are hardly ever about you.

Happy belated birthdays to two great women, Virginia Woolf and Angela Davis. Let’s learn from them:

I love this quote from Angela Davis that reminds us why we must constantly work to get closer to our core selves:

“Everyone is familiar with the slogan ‘The personal is political’ — not only that what we experience on a personal level has profound political implications, but that our interior lives, our emotional lives are very much informed by ideology. We oftentimes do the work of the state in and through our interior lives. What we often assume belongs most intimately to ourselves and to our emotional life has been produced elsewhere and has been recruited to do the work of racism and repression.”

— Freedom Is A Constant Struggle

Working on yourself does not replace working on your community, and working towards justice. But connecting to your core self — which many of us are doing now through The Artist’s Way — is so crucial in part because we can unlearn what “has been produced elsewhere” and what beliefs represent who we truly are.

Create for yourself. For you, and only you. Not for an audience, for the approval of a parent of a teacher, for more subscribers or followers or sales. Write from your soul. Take it from Virginia Woolf:

“So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its colour, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot in his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery, and the sacrifice of wealth and chastity which used to be said to be the greatest of human disasters, a mere flea-bite in comparison.”

— A Room Of One’s Own

New to Angela Davis? Read Women, Race and Class, or Freedom Is A Constant Struggle. Or, check out this stunning New York Times profile from 2020: Angela Davis Still Believes America Can Change

New to Virginia Woolf? Read A Room Of One’s Own, or Orlando. Or, read this gem from a 1954 edition of The New Yorker: In her diary, Virginia Woolf left behind the most truthful record of what a writer’s life is actually like.

Here’s what I’m reading online:

• David Sedaris in the New Yorker

• Here are the best movies from the Sundance Film Festival that you can look forward to watching later this year

• A list of the best fiction books of 2024 (I can’t wait to read Martyr!)

• Feeling stuck? The New York Times offers 5 tips to help you move forward in life.

• I now eat about an 80% plant based diet and I have never felt better (sorry but it’s true!!) If you’re interested in eating more vegetables, here are some genuinely helpful suggestions.

• The New Yorker on the classics of lesbian cinema (But She’s A Cheerleader will always be my #1)

• Here are the best TV shows on Netflix

• Why are millennials stuck in “adulting,” and not growing up?

• On Book Hoarding and the Perilous Paradox of Clutter, via Lit Hub

• Elle profiled Jodie Foster — who’s having a killer year — on living authentically.

• The anxious precision of Jacqueline Novak’s comedy

• TRUE DETECTIVE (HBO), speaking of Jodie Foster, she is great in this dark, eerie, and mystical season. It’s a lot at times, but I love the slow-rolled central mystery.

• ANATOMY OF A FALL, with the Barbie Oscar discourse, this film, also written and directed by a woman and exploring the impossible standards women face, has fallen (hehe) by the wayside. It is excellent.

• BEEF (Netflix), I finally watched this after it swept the Emmys and I did not expect it to emotionally wreck me??? While also making me laugh out loud?

• Up next: GET ON YOUR KNEES, Jacqueline Novak’s new Netflix special

• Two-time Oscar winner Michael Arndt back on This Screenwriting Life talking plot and emotion:

• A social life, with friends
  , which is a lovely newsletter and podcast exploring what it’s like being a person in the world with other people, hosted by the always insightful
  Madeleine Dore
  . An excellent, tested interviewer, she talks to experts, authors, strangers and friends about the joys, tensions, misunderstandings and miracles of being alive. Madeleine’s work always resonates with me, and you might love it, too.

Divide your life into quadrants that make sense for you: work, health, family, friends, hobbies, religion, etc.

Consider if taking something personally is preventing you from taking action in any of these quadrants. Are you not following up on a project? Ignoring calls from a family member or friend? List out other possible reasons — that are not personal — for what could have caused this situation. If you feel it’s necessary, write a letter forgiving this person.

Then, if you’re ready, take the action you’ve been putting off.

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

Thank you for reading! Here’s how you can say hello or point out typos:

• Email me at aliv@substack.com

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