Recently I enjoyed two very similar email interactions with strangers. They went like this:
Them — May I have (insert a relatively easy ask) as soon as you’re able?
Me (sending right away to get it off my plate) — Here you go.
Them — Wow! Thanks for your speedy response!
Me (pleasantly surprised to feel so seen!) — I appreciate email efficiency! It’s one of my love languages
Them — Same. 💛
I’ve taken liberties with the heart emoji but it was inferred! So much positive energy loaded into a very short email exchange = major mood boost.
My reality is that my work requires emailing a lot with strangers, colleagues that I will never meet in person because they live all over the country. And the human being behind the email can be very easily lost. It’s part of the reality of the online academic sphere. And when I wear my producer hat these email exchanges are all the more global with far away contacts in Europe and South Korea. But every once in a while, when I experience that kind of efficient “sharing is caring” energy, the win feels even bigger crossing time zones!
The truth is I want to believe in people. I want to like these strangers. But sometimes they make it hard. The non-replies. The late responses that impact a grant submission. Those people who don’t do what they said they would do. Those people who ghost without warning. And a scary thought is that I might inadvertently be one of those people to someone else. There could be someone out there walking around having a bad day because I missed the mark in an email and didn’t even know it.
For two weeks now I’ve written a post on LinkedIn where I shout out some of the positive conversations I’ve had in a week. The posts started as part of my research on supporting collegial care in the arts — a thought experiment in the public space that I wanted to give a try. Then
suggested I make it a weekly practice: part Ceres Productions amplification, part self-care. Like Pilates but with online “thank yous.” A strengthening of my core (values). And she was right. It is becoming a self-care practice because it actually feels good to name those folks who have added to my week. It feels good to like people.In that vein, here are two people who helped see the good out there in spite of the world-burning that is dominating my feed:
Vivian Kaye on TikTok who talks Canadian politics into a mini mic held up by a Barbie — so many wonderful layers to unpack and I’m here for them all:
@itsviviankayeStrategic voting? It’s not selling out. It’s survival.✅ In the final part of the Canadian Elections 101 series, I’m breaking down: → What strategic voting really means (and what it doesn’t) → How to use tools like smartvoting.ca without outsourcing your brain → And what you need to know before you show up to vote This isn’t the year to guess. Know your riding. Know your power. Make your ballot count. ___________ Barbie holds the mic while I drop the facts. Show us ♥️: 👉🏾 buymeacoffee.com/viviankaye 💓 Buy NHNN merch 🛍️ viviankaye.printify.me ______________ #cdnpoli #canada_life🇨🇦 #canadianpolitics #canadatiktok
Tiktok failed to load.
Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserAs I get ready for the upcoming election it feels good to know that her videos are out there in the midst of so much misinformation, presenting folks with some digestible well-explained political facts.
In her essay “On Writing the Hospital” Madeleine Wulfahrt reviews
’s memoir Small Rain. She writes about the extremes of care—both given and received that show up in Greenwell’s hospital experience:Sometimes I felt…that language was curing us all—that communication itself wound its way in and out of our sick bodies, explaining them back to health…it felt as though language was curing me.
As one who has lived a similar kind of care while navigating illness, Wulfahrt’s essay hit home for me on a number of levels.
I am here for the healing power of language, be it served up in a TikTok video, a book, an essay or an efficient but friendly email. Each one gives me hope for the person behind the words.
More details to come on both events. To stay in the loop just click on the link!
you rock. xo