#3 - The coronation, facing fear, vulnerability and the need for a break
What you may have missed this week
Hey there! I'm glad to have you here.
If you’re new, this is The Substacker, the best of the indie side of Substack, hand-picked every week. It encompasses art, science, history, books, movies, and all other forms of inspiring ramblings common to Substack. Click the link to learn more:
This week we have some sarcasm and history around Charles' coronation. We also have a little insight into how people deal with all kinds of struggles, from visual impairment to fear and self-loathing. I hope it will make you laugh and give you perspective and hope. After all, it's good to remind ourselves that there are others who feel the same way we do.
Nepo Baby? King Charles Looks Suspiciously Like Queen Elizabeth
Are we looking at yet another instance of nepotism? When people say it’s difficult to break into the industry, they’re not lying. Just ask any one of the thousands of people who thought they had a chance to be the next King of England.
Self-Deprecation Isn’t Salvation
Ramblings On Self-Loathing & Meaning-Making
![Claude Monet - In the Garden, the Artist's Family [1875] | Flickr](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6ZD5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fea557dad-90a4-4502-972c-cf9e0b4a0d3c_1024x771.jpeg "Claude Monet - In the Garden, the Artist's Family [1875] | Flickr")
I was obsessed with beauty when I was a teenager. Not the kind of beauty that sprouts in the wild - the sound of a creek winding through a damp forest, or a rainbow arching over a misty sea, or a line of baby chicks filing behind their mother. Not the kind of beauty that exists in the absence of humans. Is a tree in a forest beautiful if no one is around to see it?
Coronations and Queen Consorts: An Early Medieval Invention
Special Coronation Edition of Ælfgif-who?
You might have heard that there will be a ceremony happening tomorrow at Westminster Abbey, officially titled ‘The Coronation of His Majesty the King & Her Majesty the Queen Consort’. During this ceremony both Charles and his wife Camilla will be anointed on the head with holy oil, solidifying their existing roles as King and Queen of the United Kingdom. As I am a historian of queens and early medieval inauguration ceremonies, it would be remiss not to provide you with a brief history of the coronation and the queen consort’s role within it.
The Bookish Life of a Visual Storyteller
Her name is Imuetinyan Ugiagbe. We met on Instagram after I reached out to her, curious about the phrase emblazoned on her profile. It reads…..
“I am a visual storyteller who happens to be visually impaired.”
On midlife vulnerability and custard
Where's the fucking zest?
I just went to the post office, my first outing in weeks after a long, miserable (supposedly non-Covid) illness. Driving there, I felt like a naked baby bird, possibly not yet ready for the chilly, spring world. After weeks of rain and budding, it’s gorgeous out there, leaning lush. The greens are popping and the sky is particularly big and wet, all conspiring to stir awe in my raw, post-sick self. I drove, gape-mouthed and slow, into the tiny town for my big adventure, shaky like a shut-in with a day pass.
Sometimes we just need a damn buffer...
When I started publishing Great Things in November last year, I had no real plan or expectation. All I knew was that writing on Substack had the light feeling that good, inspired ideas tend to have.
How to swim, how to fly, how to operate in the world
We never stop learning.
Yesterday afternoon, my daughter completed her first swim lesson. She was excited, then nervous, then a mix of the two. She refused to blow bubbles, kicked like a champ, and left the pool a few times to sit her dripping-wet bottom in my dry lap. Through it all, Billy and I cheered her on. We were all grins and thumbs up—proudly and nervously watching from the sidelines as our little girl learned something new.
I Don't Want to Live in Fear
But what happens when you find yourself in a culture that thrives on the fear of others?
Jeff and I were preparing for our family’s Christmas break vacation to Big Bend National Park and I couldn’t contain my excitement. Not only were we going to visit a beautiful national park, but we were also going to finally use the passports we had gotten for our family the year before. I shared with a coworker, who had also taken his family to Big Bend a couple of years before, that we were excited to cross the Rio Grande and visit Boquillas, Mexico. He shocked me with “Why would you want to do that? The border is dangerous.”
If you think this edition could be of interest to others, consider sharing it.
See you next time! :)
Thrilled to be included in this great list, thanks so much! 💐
Thank you for the shoutout!