On Presents and a New Year
Happy new year! You are here! And given the year we were all coming from, that must feel like its own present. I trust the new year has been kind to you. And of course, I trust you are well in the home of your body. This question, of wellness, has grown more intimate in its meaning to me, in ways I could not have previously imagined.
I am writing to you at the end of the first week of a new year, and things are already getting interesting. I have had conversations concerning not-so-saner climes and the opinions vary from how the chaos is a shameful tragedy, to how it serves as an unveiling of a truer nature. Yet, I promise that is not today’s subject; it is only amusing how easily we can be reminded of the fiction of categories—how easily a world can fall from first to third through a crack in its institutions. I have been honoured with conversations around craft and writing. I have written in new forms. I have been accepted as a reader for a publication I enjoy, one that published Ope Adedeji, and even the mere thought of being a reader for the Masters Review is a delight. I am taking chances at the possibility of success; with no certainty needed, just chances. It's a numbers game.
Before the crossover into the new year, as we like to call it, people shared their woke insights into the construct of a new year. This is true: A new year is not a reset button, not an automatic new start, not some fairyland of resolutions. A new year, however, like most things, is what you make of it. Mutters something about a hybrid of a philosophical theory that posits that meaning is not inherent but attributed. Hence, this new year as a mere passing of days, does not erase the validity of this construct as a means of measuring growth or otherwise.
365 days ago, who were you?
On the last day of the past year, I did something I had set out to do earlier but couldn’t make the time to, in a form I had not intended. I wrote a letter to myself, or rather, dictated a letter to myself, moving through the months and speaking to my future self as kindly as I could, reporting myself to him, telling him the growth and otherwise I had recorded in attempts to reach him, declaring a few goals to give myself things to measure against at a similar time this year. When I was done, I had a lengthy voice note ready for my future ear.
My point here is, leave a present for your future self. Although I would have ordinarily written to myself, even preferred to, I left the present regardless. I would suggest you do the same, in whatever form pleases you. It will help, I think, to make the changes in your self more visible and consequently appreciated.
A segment of an essay I completed this week, made a list of joys. In any way you can, make a list of your joys. In whatever form they take. In every nook and cranny they appear. Joys of course are not equal, yet no joy is too little. A list can serve both as a reminder and an articulation of what was not already in consciousness.
It might also form a subject of joy, or amusement for you, to discuss the moral emphasis usually associated with the use of marijuana, in relation to Elon Musk's recent declaration as the world's richest man—given that he occasionally uses marijuana himself; with your parents or an African elder.
Warning: You might end up listening to a three-hour sermon.
I enjoyed and was haunted by Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance in Nightcrawler. Not only am I saying see it, but if you are a fan in any way of the Joker character and how he has been portrayed, look at Jake Gyllenhaal in that light, even if briefly, and ask: could he do it?
This fortnight, inspired by and carrying-over the jolly potbellyness of Santa, there are no thoughts or ironies, just presents:
Enjoy watching and listening to the dreamy SZA in her performance that blends two of her songs, here.
Enjoy any of your favourite artists who have appeared on NPR music desk, here.
Readings
Because I have been working on and conceptualizing an essay—one that is lyrical, critical and personal—I have been reading, among other genres, a number of essays.
Enjoy these brilliant form-teasing essays.
The One Who Battled Time by Mofiyinfoluwa Okupe
Purple Ode to Madness, Love and Grief by Ernest Ògúnyẹmí
Craft Capsule: On Becoming a Pop Star, I Mean, a Poet by Chen Chen
Poet's Dictionary Entry
Country [noun]
coun·try | \ ˈkən-trē \
plural: countries
Definition of country
1a :the drawing of a line.
Etymology: English word country; from Safia Elhillo's poem 'Self-Portrait as Map'.
Playlist / TV Series
I have been listening to albums this fortnight, lingering from the intro to outro and for some reason, I returned to Kendrick Lamar the most this fortnight; I must have listened to DAMN about a dozen times. The storytelling on DUCKWORTH is brilliant. But why listen to me talk about it when you could hear from the rapper’s mouth.
Enjoy listening to Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN, Pop Smoke’s Meet The Woo 2, Adaeze Obiagu’s Lovequest, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Everything is Love.
I hear from very trusted sources that Power is doing a brilliant job with their spin-off, Power Book II: Ghost. I promised my sources I would get back on where I fell off. If you’ve never seen Power, you could watch your way to the spin-off.
Happy new year. I wish you a kinder year and resilience in the face of your goals. I wish you a blissful fortnight. I hope to read from you soon.
Love.
Ọbáfẹ́mi