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Now you know my story up to 2016. A lot has happened since then, but I don’t feel like I have enough perspective on it to write it out for other people yet.
A few notes to finish:
I’m not depressed anymore. I very rarely get anxiety attacks, maybe a couple per year and they last for hours rather than days.
I am still grateful every Sunday when I wake up and don’t go to church. I miss the hanging out with people at i61 Church’s legendary barbecues. (If you were there, you know.) I’m sometimes nostalgic for the early days of i61 when we were making stuff up, growing fast and having lots of fun doing it. But I do not miss attending church meetings. At all.
The early posts in this series were perhaps more effective. Each was a small, self-contained anecdote. In the later posts I sometimes covered years in one go. I think there is often more depth in a single small story, and FFOREST folk are the type of people who can see the universe in a grain of sand.
I’ve got more stories to tell, like the time I realised in one horrific flash that I was a racist, and the time I mentioned earlier where I went overnight from being able to run eight miles to barely limping through four, and the incredibly stupid thing I did with my car’s headlight in January.
I’m going to spread the stories out. The majority of you said in the poll I did that you like the ‘normal’ TREE posts best. We’re getting back to those tomorrow with the seat-at-the-FFOREST-table thing I mentioned Tuesday.
Thanks for reading along with this very long series. I recommend writing down or recording stories about the important events in your life. The deliberate thinking it requires will give you insight into who you are and why.
The world is always ending. (And beginning.) This song has been in my ears all week.
Grow slowly
Jeff
As usual, I’m abnormal and enjoyed your autobiography immensely! I look forward to the additional gems you leave for us in the future. But I’m also intrigued by what “normal” looks like! Thank you for being so honest and vulnerable these past few weeks. Seeing someone go through a similar spiritual path (my late father was the pastor in my scenario) made me feel less abnormal.
For some reason, Malwarebytes is blocking access to the videos--claiming they are phishing sites. I don't know if this is a Substack issue or a YouTube issue. If you include the artist and song's name, I will be able to find it on my own. The past two videos have had this problem.