Hey y’all,

Well, here we are: The last newsletter of 2021. My resolution is to make this newsletter much more community-based in 2022. I love the discussions we’re already having in the comments, and I want to build the Tuesday letters around your interests and not just my own. So if you haven’t become a paid subscriber yet, now would be an excellent time:

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:

1. It was harder than ever, but I made my annual list of 100 things that made my year.
   
   

2. On Tuesday, I posted a collage of my favorite 101 quotes from my commonplace diary. I keep finding good quotes I had to leave out and y’all shared a bunch of good ones with me in the comments, so I might make another list soon.
   
   

3. We usually watch The Thin Man on New Year’s Eve, but Stephanie Zacharek makes a strong case for watching Holiday.
   
   

4. While driving around yesterday, I caught this sweet little interview with Rick Astley on his role as an internet meme.
   
   

5. RIP painter Wayne Theibaud, who was working right up until the end, and died at 101. Here are some of my favorite paintings of his. “It has never ceased to thrill and amaze me,” he said, “the magic of what happens when you put one bit of paint next to another.” (I was delighted to discover his name is pronounced Wayne T-Bow, which makes him sound like a rapper.)
   
   

6. RIP archbishop Desmond Tutu. I love this video of him laughing with the Dalai Lama, and I’ve been dipping into the book they wrote together, The Book of Joy. Their co-author, Douglas Abrams, wrote of the week he spent with them, “Having worked with many spiritual leaders, I’m tempted to see laughter and a sense of humor as a universal index of spiritual development.” (See: The comedy of survival.)
   
   

7. RIP biologist E.O. Wilson, who said: “Modern humanity is distinguished by paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions… and god-like technology.”
   
   

8. One of the highlights of my week was getting a fancy deluxe edition of Scrabble and playing poolside with my mom, which made me think of David Hockney’s The Scrabble Game.
   
   

9. If you are ambitious and making a New Year’s Resolution other than “try to stay alive,” feel free to download a 31-day or 100-day Practice and Suck Less Challenge poster to help you keep track of your progress! (If you need an easy challenge, try going for a daily walk or filling one page of The Steal Like An Artist Journal every day.) Remember: all it takes to get better at something is first a willingness to be bad.
   
   

10. I can also get down with no resolutions this year and remaining dormant until conditions improve.

Thank you, as always, for reading and sharing. Wishing a happy and safe new year to you and yours.

xoxo,

Austin

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