On creative lists

(and being crushed by Adolescence)

A list of things I want to try making:

1. A line of perfumes called “Nostalgia.” One of the scents will be inspired by those bubbly stickers I had as a kid. The second smell will be called “outside.” Sometimes my girls tell me I smell like outside. It’s because I’ve been…outside. Living in the outside air. Like walking maybe.

   “Oh Mommy, you smell like outside.”

   But I see an opportunity here to reframe “outside” into a scent that everyone wants!

2. A line of 3D printed art objects. Like this shark. Violet and I will do this together, using her drawings as inspiration. Which means a cat in a cloud, flowers growing out of the wall, fungi shelves…

   

3. A zine about loneliness or sadness or maybe the word…“languid.”

Student approved wide leg jeans—unless they were lying when I said, “Do you like my jeans?”

Adolescence. I holed up in my bedroom to watch this while homework was happening at the dining room table. I needed to finish this series! My students hipped me to it when I asked them in my Storytelling class what they were watching. They were so excited about the “oners” (when a shot continues on without cutting) that run through each of the episodes.

And yes, the shooting style is super interesting and personally inspiring as a filmmaker. Not to mention the structure where each episode follows a different thread (the school environment, an entire episode between the therapist and the boy). But even more compelling for me is the tragic premise—around a 13-year-old boy accused of killing his female classmate over what we learn was the inculcation of incel propaganda.

The final episode between the family at home as they await the boy’s trial is particularly heart wrenching. The parents weep together about what part they may have played in their son’s actions. The father says,

“It wasn’t our fault.”

And the mother responds with,

“I think it would be okay for us to say we played a part.”

It’s her statement that hits deep. Recognizing the crapshoot that is raising children? Or…just being human? How agonizing it is to try and do our best and still fail—with our children, with ourselves. And can we ever totally abscond?

Maybe we are responsible for each other’s actions.

Lots of people are talking about this show:

congrats, you have feelings. now what?

At the end of the day though, Jeanette Winterson encourages us to “flood the zone with light.”

Brain Drain