Bold explorers / Dangerous arguments
Today: Talia Lavin, author of Wild Faith; and Nathan Schneider, author and Professor of Media Studies.
Issue No. 336
None but Cowards
Talia Lavin
Victors of HYDRANYM No. 2
The Editors
Antisemitism and the Unspeakable
Nathan Schneider
None But Cowards
by Talia Lavin
Agoraphobia comes in waves for me. When it’s better I can leave my house, even take car trips by myself. Sometimes I can be places alone—even, on occasion, crowded or large ones.
When it’s bad, I can’t… do any of that. It’s pretty unpredictable: for a few months I’ll be A-OK doing something, and then suddenly, the next day, I can’t, and I know I’m in for a downturn. Friends were in New York this week and I pathetically invited them over for takeout—during a rainstorm. Understandably, they went out to a nice restaurant instead.
It’s been a bad few months. I temporarily lost the ability to write, a family member is undergoing major surgery, the country is descending into uncontrolled fascism, etc., etc. Still, the relationship between the external weather of the world and my perpetual internal thunderstorm is somewhat mysterious. We all deal with our mental issues differently. Some people exercise, or do therapy, or take meds, or do that thing where you expose your butthole to the sun, or do “forest bathing” (I think this means taking a walk in the woods). I do therapy, take meds, and, lately, I’ve been reading an absolutely bananas amount about (perversely!) explorers.
Keep us breathing fire!
For $3/month you can read this whole post and get our weekdaily newsletter too!