@theatlantic.com, thank you

love poems ❤️

Oliver Willis has a banger Substack out today. open.substack.com/pub/oliverwi...

*watching a movie where everyone succumbs to a corrupting force*

it wouldn’t corrupt me

I was a hungry kid. I often went without school lunch because I didn’t have the money.

I later moved to Oklahoma and attended school on native land. Guess what the Cherokee did? They fed every kid with no questions asked. I was able to learn with a full belly with no shameful stigma attached.

My friend Amber shared a playlist with me a long time ago.
It helped me drown out a lot of voices that made me feel small and hopeless.
I would play it over and over, eyes filled with tears.
She passed away, but I still think of her whenever I feel hope, and thank her.

My decades long writers block is coming to an end. The creative neuropathy has given way to what was once mythical to me. The painful urgency to write the story that is demanding to be told.

Day 11! There’s nothing remarkable, but that’s okay! I focused on not dragging my feet, which made for a very hyperbolic run, similar to using exclamation points! Cheer up, knees up!

The New Writing Flash Fiction Competition 2025 is open for entries: newwriters.org.uk/flash-fictio...

- Top prize: £1,100
- Head Judge: Shreya Sen-Handley (@shreyasenhan on Insta)
- Donating £1 from each entry to the brilliant creative writing charity First Story

#flashfiction #writingcommunity

Day 10: did a solid 30 minutes of mixed walking/running. A note on nutrition. I asked my Italian girlfriend to buy me boxed macaroni and cheese this week. She likely thinks I am 5 years old, to my lack of consternation. What’s worse, honey, is I like to add a can of tuna. Poor man’s puttanesca.

Day 9: focusing on not dragging my feet. Could feel the difference in how the exercise impacted my body. Still at a slow pace, happy to not have any sense of speed yet. I’m tired but only because the day itself was pretty active. Week 2 off to a great start.

Did I possibly give myself a little cold and end up staying home on a day that began blanketed in snow? And did I as a result, spend the morning at a bookstore reading and sipping various hot beverages? That the cold in question and its origin was born of chaos and bloodshed. Do we declare victory?

I keep trying to write something eloquent and just being tired.
History matters. Philosophy matters. Languages and literature matter. Indigenous studies matter. Arts and humanities and social sciences matter. All of them.

Signed,
a physicist

Welp, looks like I’m adding 10 more books to my list.

Day 5, needed the release. Had a heck of a morning rescuing a bunny from my two dogs. Dropped it off with an animal rehabilitator, hoping for the best.

Day 4. I didn’t need music today, and instead thought about what I am hoping to recover with running. This week will be a good test for whether that is something tangible. The more I can avoid existentialism, the better.

Finished Day 3- some thoughts about running headspace: mine can get really self-defeating, especially starting again after a long time. My prep for this was having a running playlist, and a book on hand for the “dull” walking bits (see: gentle). Also, Coach Bennett. More on that, another day.

On Day 2 of my first running program since 2018. Trying to do things differently this time, slow and steady. Heading out to volunteer at a 5k soon, after my run ✌🏻

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