7.1, Like a star in our hand

“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand – and melting like a snowflake.” – Marie Beyon Ray

Feb 26

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Friends

The news out of Ukraine is devastating and horrific. I'm not a foreign policy expert, and this is outside the purview of this newsletter. However, I will join reasonable people in hoping for peace, and for resolution.

I’ve been pretty busy with life and work, so The Invitation took a little bit of a backseat to real life. I hope 2022 (or pandemic, season 3) is going relatively well for you, despite gestures vaguely everything.

So I was listening to the Six: The Musical soundtrack (it's pretty good), to prepare for watching the show this evening with my husband. What I found interesting was “Villain Mode”, the next playlist Spotify recommended to me. “Villain Mode” features mostly songs from female artists.

Some thoughts... First off, does this recommendation imply that Spotify thinks the women of Six were villains? Is that why it recommended Villain Mode? And, why does a song from Beyoncé warning her husband not to cheat on her again ("this is your final warning") make HER the villain? Or make the song (”Don’t hurt yourself”) villainous? Why is “Feeling Good” villainous? Lastly, why is this such a great playlist???

I’m not gonna lie. The Villain Mode playlist is a bop! Just asking questions...

On with the show!

📚The Bookshelf

Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins.

I published my book notes on my website. Goggins overcame a childhood of poverty and abuse to become a Navy Seal, public speaker, author, and world-class athlete, among other accomplishments . It’s a rigorous book that asks you to get out of your comfort zone, become less complacent, and to not let fear, pain, or doubt overcome your attempts to improve your life. It’s pretty intense at times; but there’s a few useful lessons. (3/5 stars)

The Rundown

A Child’s TikTok Stardom Opens Doors. Then a Gunman Arrives

Ava Majury, a 14-year-old girl, has 1.2 million followers on TikTok. A young man named Eric Justin became obsessed with Ava through her TikTok. He shows up at her house.…This story is absolutely horrifying, for so many reasons.

The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master

Longtime readers know I love a good scam. And this story is probably going to be the next Netflix scammer limited series.

"On Oct. 11, 2019, the day he turned 37, he was living in a penthouse apartment at the Palazzo Versace Dubai, with a private pool and hot tub on his lanai. A typical @hushpuppi post on Instagram, where he had more than 2 million followers, featured Abbas smiling in front of one of his Ferraris or Rolls-Royces, kicking back in his seat on a private jet, or exiting a designer store with a passel of rope-handled bags…"

Queens of Infamy: Boudicca

An interesting #longread about Queen Boudicca’s murderous and vengeful rampage against Rome that literally burned London to the ground.

"Worst of all, they publicly flogged Boudicca and raped her daughters. This last act was not only meant to terrorize the girls both physically and psychologically, but, from a Roman perspective, the soldiers were also marking them as damaged goods." …"The destruction was so intense and so fiery that the layer of soil from that period is a strange orange-red."

Project Cassandra: the real-life plan to use novels to predict the next war

We’ll see how this goes in 2022. “At the beginning, I thought: this is crazy shit,” he recalls. “It won’t fly.” #longread

One family, 30 years, 30 photographs