Hello, One item on my “23 for ‘23” list is “30 Days of Culture”—i.e., thirty cultural events, for thirty straight days. It was challenging to figure out exactly when the thirty days should start, but I landed on September 5. (To me, the day after Labor Day always feels like the other January 1.) I created a few rules for myself: - Engaging with a group for a discussion counts as culture, so a networking dinner “counted”; also, a book club meeting (I’m in three book clubs)—but I don’t count something like a lunch date or dinner with friends
- Engaging with people trumps watching a performance, so when I was invited to a book party that conflicted with a stand-up show for which I’d bought a ticket, I went to the book party
- When I travel, the count pauses, and I’m traveling a lot in September, so my thirty days will extend well into October
I’m still in the midst of this exercise, but spoiler alert: I LOVE IT. One reason that I love it is that it gives me a nudge to do things that I wouldn’t ordinarily do, exposes me to culture that I might miss, and takes me places that I love. For instance, I love a great indie bookstore, and the McNally-Jackson indies are among my very favorites. Such great curation of titles, presented in such enticing ways. So when I was looking for things to do for “30 Days of Culture,” I looked for interesting book events (book-related culture is my favorite culture), and I checked the McNally-Jackson calendar. I knew my daughter Eliza had many thoughts about the brand Glossier, so I got tickets for us to go to the event for Marisa Meltzer’s new book Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier. I had an adventure with Eliza, I learned something about a subject that I knew nothing about, I engaged in book culture, I visited one of my favorite parts of New York City. | | 5 Things Making Me Happy 
Speaking of book culture, I was interested to learn that a statue of superstar detective novelist Agatha Christie was unveiled in Wallingford, the town where she lived for more than forty years. Christie is the best-selling fiction author of all time, with more than two billion books sold, in more than 100 languages. I rarely read mysteries, so I’ve read only a few Christie novels myself, but I loved her Autobiography. My favorite part was when she talked about her childhood game with “The Kittens” and how it led to her writing. If you’d like to read or hear me tell the two-minute story, “Agatha Christie shows how the games of a child can become the work of the adult,” it’s here. | |
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of that legendary beverage, the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. The drink was a huge hit from the moment that it was introduced, and it’s now Starbucks’s best-selling seasonal beverage. Even for someone like me, who never orders one, the return of the PSL is one of the markers of the changing seasons. For my book Life in Five Senses, I went to “Flavor University” to learn about how flavors are created and marketed, and we were told that every company’s dream is to create the next Pumpkin Spice. In fact…as I’m writing this, I’m realizing that I’ve never even tasted Pumpkin Spice Latte! How is that possible? Now I want to taste one, just to know what the fuss is about. It’s this kind of gap that reminds me that my most neglected sense is taste. I just don’t have much urge to explore when it comes to taste, and I’m trying to do a better job of it. (Want to know your neglected sense? Take the quiz here.) | |
A few days ago, a Happier listener asked me to point her to a particular episode from years ago, and I was reminded of one of my very favorite moments. In episode 78, we’d read a question from a listener who felt terrible about losing her ring and was struggling to deal with her bad feelings, and in episode 82, a listener gave a response that I still think about often, as an example of a beautiful, mystical re-framing: My friend, who is a foreign correspondent, used to have a solitary diamond ring she bought herself. She always wore the ring wherever her assignments took her, for several years. One day, she realized that she was missing her ring when she was reporting abroad. She was very sad because it had sentimental value. She felt as if she had lost a war buddy. (Her assignments included many war-torn countries and disaster areas in the world.) Then she thought maybe the ring sacrificed itself in order to protect her from something bad. In the Japanese culture, we sometimes believe things can take your place in the event of a bad happening, such as an accident. It’s totally a myth, but it is not too difficult to think about losing things that way for us. Maybe the listener who lost her wedding ring can think that her precious ring protected her from bad things. As Gretchen said you can’t change what happened but we can change how we regard that event. | |
I love miniatures, I love New York City, so I was fascinated to read about the story and work of Danny Cortes. When Covid hit, he was on parole and without a job, so with time on his hands, he constructed a tiny bodega icebox from materials from a 99-cent store. Now his miniatures are collected by hip-hop stars and professional athletes. The tiny mailbox, newspaper dispenser, icebox…he captures iconic, ubiquitous NYC sights. (But it was a good thing I didn’t get my hopes up to buy something myself: his work is both pricey and sold out.) | | Updates Constant clashes with certain colleagues? Can’t understand why some resist reasonable deadlines or requests? The solution may be as simple as answering: “How do you respond to expectations?” Read my latest edition of “Work Happier” on LinkedIn to learn how to harness the Four Tendencies at work. | | This week on Happier with Gretchen Rubin PODCAST EPISODE: 447 Give a Meaningful Compliment, Protect Your Privacy, and What’s the Least-You Thing You Do? Listen now > | | | | ARTICLE Surprising Insights from the Five-Senses Quiz | | ARTICLE Know Yourself Better: What Kind of Procrastinator Are You? | | | | |
