Issue No. 6: A Bit Different

July 30, 2020

Dear Readers,

It's been a while.

I've been reflecting on my previous adamant choice to make the newsletter strictly NOT topical. I did not want the constant fluctuating atrocities of the world to dictate my creativity. I felt that my most valuable contribution sprung from the infinitely deep well of my mind, unbothered by any outside influence. While I still maintain that one of the best things about having a brain is its ability to endlessly provide for you thoughts, feelings, ideas, and stories, I also acknowledge that this is also one of the worst parts about having a brain.

I fear that stubbornly churning out Sarah's cute little musings while plugging my ears and singing "la la la!" is not only priming a platform for boring and masturbatory navel-gazing, it is a dangerous misuse of my time.

You may remember the last newsletter in which I provided short reviews of movies I haven't seen. The purpose of this (sorry if I'm about to spoon-feed you) was to argue that the cultural ubiquity of these movies negated the need to actually watch them because I already get the references, thank you.

My plan was to follow up with reviews having actually watched the movies, but even being forced to stay indoors for the better part of the past four months, I could only get through one. And, quite honestly, I don't even want to write a review of The Godfather because spoiler alert–I thought it was just fine. Just okay! I watched it and was like "Yup, that's The Godfather. Checks out." Sue me!

Since the murder of George Floyd, we have social media to thank (despite its insidious evils) for providing a platform for discussion and education about racism in our country and the world. It has even expanded, in my circles, to more serious consideration for all kinds of evils: microplastics, human trafficking, fast fashion, and so on.

There is immense proliferation of information available to you, dear reader, so I'm not going to lecture you on every cause I care about (bad news: I care very deeply about everything, unfortunately). I'm choosing to talk about racism here, however, because I can sense the conversation fading out of the news cycle. I'm finding this to be a good time for me to reflect on donations I've made and see how far along I am in the anti-racist books I bought. Something that I really fucking hate about Banksy* is that he is attributed to coining one of my favorite motivational quotes:

"If you get tired, learn to rest, not quit."

Jesus H. Christ do you believe Banksy said that? Anyway.

It's so true! And I've been tired. So I rested, but I'm here now typing away tappa tappa (that's the sound of the keyboard) from the pampered comfort of my green velvet couch telling you, my mostly white readership, that I am still thinking about this. You know where to donate, you know how to protest, you know what to read, you've seen the same goddamn Desmond Tutu quote 750 times. You get it.

I don't know what the answer is, but I will say this: I'm creating an event in my iCal for six months from now, setting a deadline for myself to finish up whatever activism I'm working on, however small, and look to what I can do next. Hold me accountable, and call me out if it wasn't enough. I'm a big girl in my Pull-Ups™ asking for companionship in this. Failing to acknowledge this to my small but potent readership would not be giving you the full picture of what I'm about.

This image doesn't give you the full picture of what I'm about, either, but it's a good photo to break up the text.

Tabitha Brown says we can't all lay bricks to build a house; someone has to lay a foundation, someone else has to wire the electricity, a third group of people have to take care of the plumbing, etc. I will try to remember this when I feel overwhelmed by how dark things seem. It gives me a little bit of solace to know that others are out there, picking out what kind of tile to put in the kitchen and figuring out the insulation while I find ways to focus my energy and skills in meaningful ways.

There are so many problems and how could I possibly address them all? I have to accept that I can't. But I can definitely do more than nothing.

Okay, now for some

Updates

There are quite a few of you here for the first time, so if you're new I will say this issue is a bit different. For long-time subscribers, fear not. I am not abandoning the frivolity that typically characterizes the Sarah Davis Newsletter. I'm not going to withhold from you how much I miss the photobooth at Cha Cha Lounge (so much) or deprive you of the fact that sometimes when my water is too cold I blow on it like soup. Do I think this is going to change its temperature??

Ok that's it for now. Have a great weekend, and please let me know if you have any questions/comments/concerns, I'd love to have a ~conversation~ with you.

With love,

Sarah