—MR. BLUE, I TOLD YOU THAT I LOVED YOU, PLEASE BELIEVE ME

 

 

…I recently came across the photograph above. That’s me and some great people I worked with in the Northeast a long time ago. Those four years were some of the most grueling of my career, but also incredibly gratifying. I learned a lot. I grew a lot. Plus, I got to be in NYC every other week.

 

…Yesterday it really wanted to snow and I really wanted to see it snow, but it didn’t happen. On Wednesday, however, a heady hailstorm arrived, so I went outside in my bare feet and danced in it, face tilted upward at all those pellets of white bombarding me. It was thrilling. There’s something about hail and snow that seems miraculous.

 

…The last week has seen me working on my publisher’s edits for a new book I’ll have coming out later—This Is Me, Being Brave, a collection of essays. I’m at the point now where I pretty much hate the thing, which is typically a good sign. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a book out. If things go well, I’ll have two. Fingers crossed.

 

…Wednesday I finished the mini-series The Night Of on HBO. It’s a few years old and I’d not even heard of it until my best friend mentioned it in an off-hand comment. It was spell-binding and a master class in acting.

 

…Yesterday I finished BoJack Horseman. What an amazing show. Definitely one of the most inventive and thought-provoking things I’ve ever seen. The first six episodes are a little so-so, but then very quickly it becomes yowzah.

 

…I hope you’re doing well. I hope you’re even doing great, if that’s at all possible. I’m certain remarkable things are coming your way. Silly Goose, just be hopeful.

 

…Some of my friends are struggling. One of my best friends called the other morning and from the second after I said, “Hello,” they started crying and shrieking for the entirety of our hour-long conversation. I know I was meant to just listen, but I think there were also times where I was meant to say something encouraging, and I think I mostly failed on that account.  I hate it when I’m supposed to say the right thing but I can’t find the words that make up the right thing. By the time I hung up, we were both gutted.

But I’ve been checking in on them every day, a few times a day. I know what’s it like to have people who are there for you when you most need someone to be there for you.

 

--“Sometimes life is sh*t and you're still living, but you'll have moments in life that will be beautiful.” —Diane Nguyen, BoJack Horseman

 

--“And I thought about how, actually, if you wanted to, you could say the same thing about life. That life is terrifying and overwhelming and it can happen at any moment. And when you're confronted with life you can either be cowardly or you can be brave, but either way you're going to live. So, you might as well be brave.”

 

“A statue isn't built from the ground up — it's chiseled out of a block of marble — and I often wonder if we aren't likewise shaped by the qualities we lack, outlined by the empty space where the marble used to be. I'll be sitting on a train. I'll be lying awake in bed. I'll be watching a movie; I'll be laughing. And then, all of a sudden, I'll be struck with the paralyzing truth: It's not what we do that makes us who are. It's what we don't do that defines us.”

 

“You had every intention of being depressed forever, but as it turns out, there's work to be done, meals to eat, movies to see, errands to run. You meant to be in ruins permanently, your misery a monument, a gash across the cold hard earth, but honestly, who has the time for that? Instead, you survived - apparently, you both did - and things are shockingly okay.” —Raphael Bob-Waksberg, creator of BoJack Horseman