Spring "Curation"

I find spring kind of exhausting. 

Maybe it's all that spring energy, the energy for growing, gathering itself as the snow melts off. 

Maybe I'm just that introverted. (Ha, no maybe there.)

Maybe the exhaustion feels more concentrated this year because people are excited about the possibilities of vaccinations and seeing other people in real life. (I'm not immune, haha, to this myself.)

Maybe it's something else. Or nothing.

Regardless, I feel (yet again) as if people are talking a lot, producing lots of "content," as we are meant to say of artistic work, "content" that I must "curate." I'm not necessarily arguing with those terms but they're part of my fatigue, I suspect. 

Earlier this week: the fox listens before pouncing. 

More! More recognition! More lists! More podcasts, and more podcast episodes with more guests! More discussions and debates! More writing around my own writing to get recognition from readers and writers for my writing. More posts in many places to talk about me and my work!

So I'm curating. Fewer "hot takes" (which I suspect is no longer what they're called) and more considered opinions. Considered opinions often lend themselves to the form of books, whether electronic or printed. Which I'm enjoying even more, as I turn away from noise of people and toward noise of chickadees and dripping water as the snow melts from the deck. 

So when I say "here are two things worth looking into," know HOW I mean it. These two things have been worth looking into FOR ME. You may curate differently. 

For analysis of a show about book discussion and analysis, you can't beat Jael Richardson's post-Canada Reads chats. Find her on Instagram, where she's @jaelrichardson. Even if you're not much into Canada Reads (sorry; I'm not), I enjoy her enthusiasm for the event and find her comments wise. They add needed perspective. 

And at LitHub, this essay about one of my favourite writers, Marilynne Robinson. (LitHub is an excellent pre-curator, by the way.) I love the interrelated sections of this essay. I love the awe with which an established writer views one of his teachers and mentors. 

Meanwhile, I just heard a gull--an early one--and want to go see it for myself. I hope you are the same.