This is Western Coffee—notes on building the creative body. Last time: Flawless. The whole series is here. Please share this email; you can sign up free below.
Welcome new readers! I’ve compiled a short list of some of my favorite posts below if you’d like to get more of a sense of what Western Coffee is about.
If you were with us already, please check out my new piece in The Atlantic, about how your phone is probably the last place you should go for help meditating:
But what are the apps selling, really? Mindfulness—let’s define that tersely as the ability to be present in your sensations without judgment—is an aim compatible with a range of lifestyles and beliefs. It’s so compatible as to invite blanket application: mindful eating, mindful meetings, mindful sleeping, mindful fights. Stripping some of the negative charge from life’s tediums and hardships can benefit anybody. But the mindfulness platforms have taken each of these use cases as a jumping-off point for another tile on the screen, another video or podcast, another claim on your gaze. And here, mindfulness seems to blur into something bigger and so different as to verge on its opposite: mindfulishness.
— Your Phone Is a Mindfulness Trap (atlantic.com)
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And for the new arrivals, an intro to Western Coffee, which I’ve published most Tuesdays and Fridays since last July:
Tricks. Long, mostly undifferentiated struggle is boring. So, we have invented tricks.
Woo woo. I’m going to break your heart, maybe: I don’t believe in astrology.
Invention. There’s no “re-” needed, in my opinion.
Stillness. Some things I wish I had known sooner about meditation.
Heaven. Is New York City heaven? Obviously not.
We’ll be back Friday with a regular post. Happy summer.
Kindly send me your thoughts, questions, and provocations: dmichaelowen@gmail.com. And say hi on Instagram, or let’s Peloton together: @leggy_blond.