The Grasshopper Letter

The state of my universe

Photo by Tijs van Bommel on Unsplash

The Grasshopper Letter 8/14/24

A few random summer observations

I’m going to take a break today from political stuff to have a little conversation with my readers, something I plan to do now and then. There may be some politics here and there but these are more likely to be short observations that don’t really fit into a longer article format.

For example, last night I was watching a PBS American Masters about the first three groundbreaking black diplomats who finally broke through the State Department’s notoriously patrician ranks (the expression is Male, Pale, and Yale). In it they briefly showed some footage of the notorious anti-Communist Joe McCarthy who led a reign of terror in Congress resulting in many careers and lives being destroyed in the fifties.

He eventually was revealed for the petty despot he was. But something about the images of McCarthy hit me. His facial expressions as he ranted about commies looked exactly like J.D. Vance as he rants about women, abortion, and his other attack dog tactics. And it’s not a pretty look.

Changing gears, I usually spend a half hour or so each summer evening meditating in the beautiful Japanese style garden behind the nearby Rochester Zen Center. It is an island of calm in the midst of my urban neighborhood, open, yet I seldom see anyone else there. The Zen Center itself, one of the first in the US, is housed in a beautiful gothic Victorian mansion.

Behind the mansion, in the garden, is a lovely carriage house with a veranda overlooking the garden that houses a yoga center. That’s my meditation spot, protected from rain with handmade benches I can sit on (no kneeling or crossed legs for this stiff older guy). It’s my happy place.

Meditating helps me retain a perspective and a degree of optimism while immersing myself in this crazy political year. And it may be good training if Trump wins and I want to disappear into a Buddhist monastery!

Lately, after my subscription growth had stalled for a year or so, they have picked up again along with more comments and feedback, partially because I am gradually planning to move my focus away from writing on Medium and readers there are following me to this newsletter.

But I like to think that as the election nears and heats up, increases in readership are a positive sign that more people are getting engaged in this all important moment in US history. This is history, folks. And I feel the need to record my take on it.

Whether you are familiar with the platform this newsletter is built on, Substack, or not, I need to say that they seem to have captured magic in a bottle and that magic is a sense of community. Their Notes app, a kind of smarter and more fun Twitter stream, is where you can see that community in action.

It’s late summer, occasionally a melancholy time as sunsets come earlier, weather cools and fall looms. I love all the seasons but late summer and early fall may be my favorite, less extreme and a bit mystical, with the huge dense trees and the cicadas singing into the warmer nights. They’re hypnotic, especially at dusk when the light sometimes hits that deep blue the painter Magritte was known for.

I have plans for one or two new newsletters on very different topics than The Witness Chronicles, fka The Grasshopper. Fall seems like the time to get into that. I’m actually writing a few posts to test my concepts and see if they are things I really want to do and people might want to read. We’ll see.

Finally a little word about side hustles, that tired term for finding a sideline to earn a few dollars and maybe turn them into a full time gig. Writing or giving advice about writing seem to be the most prevalent form they take but more of it seems driven by fantasies about money than actually knowing what you are talking about.

They are one of the reasons Medium doesn’t feel like my place these days. These get rich quick articles dominate the feed there and now it seems Medium management is all on board with this latest form of information spam. Not surprising as their CEO is a former life coach.

It’s his baby and he can run with it as he wants. But this feels like a form of pollution much of the time, especially for those of us trying to make a living of sorts by doing something we love. We love it because it has rewards beyond money, but I’m all for getting paid too.

Well, that’s my brain dump for now. You’re going to get these now and then under the Grasshopper name, just a glimpse into this writer’s world beyond pure politics.

Thanks and thank you, 

Martin Edic

P.S. Get outdoors! That’s where I’m headed on a gorgeous summer day.

If you are reading this on Medium, I am leaving the platform at the end of August. Here’s why. You can continue to read me by subscribing, free or paid, to my newsletter.

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