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Ash’s Year of Living Plurally

In 2024, I’m trying to be deliberately curious about how multiplicity, diversity, and community show up in our lives and the culture around us. I’m sharing what I learn in this free community newsletter, and you’re invited.

My father’s prayer beads, photographed in my garden on August 11, 2024.

Two weird tricks for getting by in overwhelming times

Well hello again! 👋 It is lovely to be back in your inbox after all these absurdly eventful months. Since unprecedented times seem likely to continue for the foreseeable future, I’d like to offer two practical ideas about how living more plurally can help us stay sane as history whirls us along.

The Joys of Being Yourselves

The Joys of Being Yourselves

My inner family and I spent last Saturday afternoon hanging out with hundreds of diverse conceptual people and their human-bodied spokesbeings. The joy I felt in that community inspired today’s newsletter: fun with grammar, including 3 easy ways you can give plural pronouns a try.

Some belated valentine ideas 💌 for our dear departed 🪦

Some belated valentine ideas 💌 for our dear departed 🪦

Imagine the late Toby Keith in heaven, singing a Bollywood song to the tune of his guitar, while my late father (grinning from ear to ear) accompanies him on the tabla. Adorable! 🥰 The week after Valentine’s Day, here are some plural ways to stay in love with our dear departed.

Two pictures from picture books in which clothing has been applied to a naked boy and goblin using clear tape.

Who’s afraid of a goblin’s butt?

If you can believe it, a tiny part of a tiny part of me actually admires Moms for Liberty for censoring naked pictures, which it finds truly terrifying. This week, some plural reflections on the grown-up effects of childhood fears.

Some new bodies to try this week

Some new bodies to try this week

I’d been feeling crappy for weeks — not sick enough to take off work, but just sick enough to work slowly and badly. Thursday I finally decided to do something about it, and what happened was a remarkable development in this Year of Living Plurally: I ended up in a new and better body.

That tinkling you hear is the sound of breaking streaks

That tinkling you hear is the sound of breaking streaks

Last week I broke a long streak of daily meditation, a small bummer that got me thinking about how and why we track our own evolution over time. This week’s theme is streaks: how they work, how to choose them, and how to diversify your timescales to understand how you are growing in more ways.

New year, same you! 🎉 Some plural anti-resolutions for a mellower start to so-called 2024

New year, same you! 🎉 Some plural anti-resolutions for a mellower start to so-called 2024

The beginning of a new year can be an exhausting period of anxious urgency that ends, predictably, in failure and remorse. How unpleasant! Here are some ways that living more plurally can help you feel more comfy at the beginning of the arbitrary slice of time we call “2024.”