In one of my many unpaid passion projects, I routinely subject myself to half days spent baking in the sun and logging 20,000 steps, all under intellectual load such that I forget to eat or drink many, or any, calories. Many others are doing this alongside me, all of whom are running those same 20,000 steps while I luxuriously walk them. They, too, must try to care for themselves. In a generous act, one of my peers pointed at a tool they had found to effectively to stay alive: Pedialyte™, the hydration drink for children. I was saved, in a way: I was thirsty, and I was brought to (nutrient filled) water. I drank deeply, and I continue to visit that fountain of youth every time I return to the desert.

In one of his many Instagram stories, writer Hanif Abduraquib was talking through receiving a literary award, and his continued awe and surprise at the reception to his simple and humble work of “pointing at things”, of being excited about someone, or someone’s work, or something, or anything, and telling people to come experience it with him. Hanif creates shared moments in time where he, and we, look at a moment in time (a woman dancing, a man playing basketball, an old clock, a pair of shoes) and luxuriate in it, the size and scope and feasibility and commodifiability left to other poor souls to commiserate about.

I only came across this story¹ because my friend wyt shared it on her feed (her usage of the app is marginal, so I knew the activity would be critical), sharing her own awe and appreciation, doing her own pointing.

We never know what will come out of pointing a finger and smiling. Typically, nothing will. But allowing an invite — for someone else to join your life for a small moment — to be cast off into the world, or the world wide web, is an act of hope, and an act of love, the returns of which are not the point.

I love pointing at things. It is why I created this thing you are reading now. It is why I have strayed from it, in an attempt to point at a selection of other things. But in my straying I have found myself wanting, and found myself connecting less, with what it is I spend my days looking at. I’m in a period of splashing-through rather than soaking-in. Periods come and go.

But pointing sometimes can’t be stopped, as when wyt shared an Instagram post, or when I read it and was reminded of its power, and then re-discovered a depth in my reading of things.

So I return here to process my thoughts, to shape them into something I can remember, and to point you in the direction of something you may have not seen before, the returns of which are not the point. I must simply point. But I do hope you find something to drink.

Author Celine Nguyen talks about, and around, 21st century culture, its decline, a book on its decline, on writing, on being a poor artist in the age of limitless and free information, and much more. It helped remind me how I create things, and why I create things.

This is a funny one, and potentially specific to millennial men like myself, who were subsumed with hyper-specific styles of music and comedy and performance, several of which are chiseled into this record that will never be paralleled in its craftsmanship, its scope, its strangeness, its crudeness, and its razor sharp, infantilizing wordplay. There is a very sad boy in the pages of these lyrics, and I identify/identified with him strongly. I still do. I highly recommend revisiting art you loved in your strangest and most confusing years.

On Spotify, on Apple Music, on YouTube

I found this video a couple days ago, probably because I have a new bike that I am google search shopping for accessories for, and because I picked up a coloring book to try a fun, minimalist kind of arts and crafts practice (which I’m also google searching about). Mike Dutton is an artist, a painter, and a cyclist who travels and paints what he sees, and makes very soothing videos documenting it. I cannot travel as frequently, I cannot paint as acutely, and I cannot create such videos, but I can sorta pretend I can do all of these things by tossing on one of his videos while I do my own coloring.

More pointing, coming soon.