If I could change careers again, I'd become a vintner or a sommelier.
5 Thoughts I'm Having
Dear Friend,
I write to you from a rainy Kentucky this morning. I’m up before the sun rises, listening to a hard rain outside my window while sipping my morning coffee. Typically, I would tell you it’s the perfect writing environment, but these rains are causing flooding, mud slides, and other destruction across my state, so my heart hurts as I suspect Kentucky’s cries for help will fall on deaf ears at the federal level. And before anyone reminds me in the comments that “that’s what Kentuckians voted for,” believe me, I get it.
Update: Before I hit publish, Governor Andy Beshear posted on Threads that more than 300 roads were closed across our Commonwealth and that he had written to the president to request an emergency disaster declaration for Kentucky. “The declaration would make federal funding available to affected areas, helping us better respond and support Kentuckians affected.” The request was granted shortly after, so I take back the “deaf ears” comment. (See, I can admit when I am wrong.)
For the record, if Andy Beshear ever decides to run for a higher office, I will personally do my part to talk to others about what an incredible leader he is.
Let’s get into the 5 Thoughts I’m Having this week. They’re a mixed bag, but I bookend my thoughts with what I’m reading and a bit of wine and Italy, so…
📚What I’m Reading: Continuing my desire for literature and entertainment that makes me laugh, I’m currently listening to Funny Story by Emily Henry.
Emily Henry writes such witty banter and interesting characters that I keep downloading her books. And they do not disappoint. My favorite by her continues to be Book Lovers.
🎙What I’m listening to: In Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic podcast on Valentine’s Day, he reminds listeners that “In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius says that he learned from Sextus that the core of all stoicism is love.” And as Rich Roll explains on The Daily Stoic after a conversation with the Dalai Lama, “…no matter what alludes you or what aspect of your life feels unfulfilled, the answers that you seek will always be found by exploring the nature of love.”
And when the Dalai Lama speaks of love, he’s talking about “love in its broadest definition.” Roll said “the Dalai Lama kept using the metaphor of looking at a mother’s love for a child.”
I typically listen to The Daily Stoic every morning, and I can almost always apply the ancient teachings to my life. And I love how the meditations overlap with religious teachings.
📺What I’m watching: Mike and I started the movie, The Gorge, last night with Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller. We will finish it tonight, but I gotta say, it’s super creepy, but with a great premise. It’s about two highly-trained operatives who are assigned to guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from a mysterious evil that lurks within. They are not supposed to have contact with each other, but… come on… you know they do!
I read yet another “Warning to Authors” on social media this week that warned fiction writers against being too out there with their politics, and I want to be extremely clear: I care about my readers and the people I’m sending this letter to a great deal. I wouldn’t write a personal letter to anyone I didn’t care about. But this Substack is and always has been my personal way of working through how I’m seeing the world. This newsletter is not about politics and never will be; it’s about the people, places, and things of this world that inspire, intrigue, and, quite frankly, scare me. This has not changed. But politics will bleed into my letter writing for the simple reason that politics is affecting my life these days, as well as the lives of people I care about.
📰 Where I get my news: I’m often asked what I read on the daily and where I get my news. Here are a few of the things I regularly read (yes, I get most of my news by reading not watching):
The Daily Stoic - While this is not news, the Daily Stoic newsletter (you can sign up on the website), the book, and podcast are great ways to start the day. The teachings of stoics help me process not only the news but everything that happens in life.
Heather Cox Richardson - a professor of American history who breaks down the day’s political events and often throws in a bit of history and constitutional knowledge to help make sense of what has happened. I love reading Heather because she breaks down the day’s events into an easy-to-read summary and provides links to the facts she writes about in case you want to read more or verify anything. (Full disclosure: I sometimes take breaks from this newsletter for the simple reason that too much politics affects my mood.)
The New York Times - I don’t just read the news. I read opinions, travel pieces, and human interest stories.
BBC - Because I enjoy traveling, I like to read what a world publication is reporting and get a feel for how the world is seeing America. BBC has great travel pieces.
Substack - I read a number of Substack newsletters on the regular. You can see my current recommendations on this newsletter’s homepage. I spend more time on Substack and Substack Notes than any sort of social media these days. I find that writers and artists are making sense of this world in longer form writing these days and by displaying art here on Substack, and it’s a great place to find community online without the chaos that is occurring elsewhere.
🍷Wine: If I could change careers again, I would study all things wine. I woke up today to a most interesting article about Italian wines—Barolo to be specific—from one of my favorite Substacks, Baur Studio. I love it when Diana teaches us a little bit about wine, knowledge I presume she obtains alongside her husband, a sommelier. She writes about many topics—creativity, pottery, wine, living as an American expat in Germany and Italy—in her Substack. Here is the comment I left on her post:
If I’d learned more about wine at an earlier age, I’m pretty sure I would have become a sommelier or a vintner. The farming, the chemistry and science, the pairing of wine to excellent cuisine, and the social aspects of sharing a bottle… Love!
You can read the full comment and our conversation below the post, which notably includes the age in which her husband studied to become a sommelier. Let’s just say, I’m dreaming of another career change. Or possibly a novel that features a character as a somme or a vintner. Anything is possible…
I struggled to write this letter this week. I added and deleted many thoughts throughout the process. Not sure why I was filtering my thoughts so hard. But here we are.
Until next time,
Heather
If you enjoyed this, do me a favor and hit the ❤️ button. And don’t forget to subscribe.
Thanks for reading. This newsletter is a consistently inconsistent publication of my thoughts, though I’ve vowed to be more consistent in 2025. You can find more of my shorter thoughts and links to things I’m reading in my Notes.
If you enjoy my thoughts and want to encourage more writing, you can do one or all of the following: leave a comment and join in the discussion, buy my books or become a paid subscriber (you can also subscribe for free, and I welcome it).