Brain Dump: Get Off Your High Horse

Serving some humble pie

Hello, beautiful humans

Well, some of you are beautiful humans and some of you might be assholes. To be determined. I’m back after a long hiatus from writing. But I have been posting notes a few times a week, so not completely slacking. Listen, I’m a Cancerian. We crabs go into our holes and sometimes take a long time to come out.

For context, I jumped into Substack without knowing much about the platform. Not exaggerating here. Apparently doing Substack my way, not the right way. I didn’t start posting notes until a month in, started interacting with other writers around that time as well, and decided to change the name of my Substack following a repetitive thought to do so that would not leave me alone.

Oh, and I finally decided to download the Substack app on my phone four days ago.

Let’s just say I jumped into the deep end of the ocean without checking the temperature of the water or knowing how deep it really was. Seems about right considering what I’m doing with my life at the moment. Just learning as I go.

For the last two months, I’ve been in the in-between space deciding how much of my life I want to share so I don’t feel like I’m writing about superficial shit.

Today I’ve decided to share my experience traveling to Portugal and Spain in April of last year with my then 71-year-old mother. Fun!

The woman has more energy than the Energizer Bunny. There were days when I just wanted to say “Woman, can you not see I’m tired?”

But first, a short rant on some posts I’ve had the misfortune to read lately that royally pissed me off. For a split second, I considered getting off Substack if it was going to feel like a prison.

I’m good if you click the heart or decide to leave a comment. Both work. I’ve never considered myself a “writer,” and frankly I’m not asking for your left kidney. Happy if something I write clicks for you or even helps you liberate yourself from whatever chains are holding you back in life.

That said, some writers on this platform seem to be sitting pretty on very tall pedestals about twelve feet high. They have decided to nominate themselves the comment police by talking down to readers advising them on how they should comment on a post.

So, I will say this, “Get off your fucking high horse” and shove your suggestions where the sun does not shine. A respectful comment should be enough.

As humans, our most valuable asset is our time. Time you can never get back no matter how much money, power or fame you have.

So, to the writers who think that because they have over 1k subs they can be condescending to readers on this platform, try some humble pie. Not a slice, but the whole fucking pie. It tastes really good.

Someone just spent time reading what you wrote, clicked the heart or wrote a short comment, and you think that’s not enough. Sure, it would be nice if people wrote a dissertation on your post. Good luck with that.

History has taught us one thing: empires have risen and fallen. Something to do with arrogance and lack of self-awareness. Yes, you will have those who agree with you and not push back. I will not be one of them.

I do have many writers in mind whose essays I would absolutely love to comment on soon. But I’ve been moving around a lot and I’m tired all the time. I can't tell you how many times I have fallen asleep with my laptop open, woken up in the middle of the night to place it on the desk so it doesn't accidentally land on the floor.

My time and energy are incredibly valuable. I have the attention span of a cat. If I clicked on the heart, it is because I enjoyed what I read, felt something or remembered a personal experience. That’s it. Do you want blood too?

Comments should be left up to the reader, not the writer. Gratitude will cost you nothing. Rant over.

And now I’ve noticed this was a long-ass rant. Saving the Portugal/Spain story for the next post. It involves the dense topic of infantilizing and disempowering adult children. It's very personal and also the first time I pushed back on my mother’s need to control so much. Long story and too much info for this post.

This was my brain dump for today. Feel free to comment or not. And thank you for reading the shit that lives in my head.

Note: I didn’t have a proper photo to go with this rant but thought these 30+ ft prickly cacti were a good fit.

Lara