I hope you were inspired by last weekend’s Stargazing essay.
And even more, I hope we’ll build on it.
This week’s “In the Sandbox” (our Friday community confab around each aspect of Daytalking, Nightwalking, and Stargazing, where we workshop and share ideas with each other) takes another look at Stargazing—so we can flex some curiosity muscles and have some fun, too.
Furthermore, interacting with the rest of our Substack community brings in possibly new and untried ideas and encourages further reflection, support, and action.
So don’t be afraid to dive in and join the conversation!
Now, the creativity prompt this week is pretty straightforward.
I’m going to put out an ask so, everyone (and I mean everyone) please chime in and I’ll ask you to do the same with the rest of our community’s asks. In the Comments section we’re looking for:
1. A bit about yourself and something you’d like ask the rest of us (a question, or query, or bit of wonderment, whatever turns your fancy) and then…
2. Respond to another subscriber’s ask/question/query.
Easy peasy, right?
I’ll start us off:
I’m Mike Maupin and hosting a blog/newsletter exactly like this is definitely scratching an itch. Daytalking, Nightwalking, Stargazing was originally outlined as a non-fiction book, but I felt it would be more awesome to workshop it first on Substack, in just this form. But to bring in new subscribers, I’ll need to add more features (psssst…here’s where you come in): What would you like to see? Maybe: “office hours/Q&As,” guest interviews, a podcast or other audio snippets, video clips, sharing images that inspire us or books we’re reading—you name it. For example, I’d like to introduce a feature called “Shades of Meaning,” cribbing from one of my favorite reference books (pictured above). How “SofM” would work is when the post goes up, y’all chime in with a word (first come, first served, and Merriam-Webster’s online Word of the Day is a great place to start) and I’ll post the shades of meaning for that word. If the Word Nerds among us are interested in something like that, please let me know.
Once others put up their asks, everyone kick in a response to someone else’s ask. Let’s get to know each other better and stay curious.
See you in the Comments section!
This is Chris Hahn, and I love the idea of exploring language with something like Shades of Meaning. Word of the Day is good place to start. Another thought is the expressions we say and use. Just last week a non-English speaker asked me what “Kick the bucket” means. I explained, but then was asked why we say that. I had know idea! I later looked it up and was quite surprised to discover the origin of the expression. (Look it up: you will be, too!) I also learned that in Spanish they say "estirar la pata” (stretch one’s leg). Why? Who knows, but there is certainly a story behind it. So anyways, this got me thinking about the words and the colloquial expressions we use, and how little of them we understand!
I'm Jo, I've been into homes all my life. What does "homely" mean and how do I go about recreating it as an architect? So, what does a home mean to you? What does yours look like? It can be your real home or an imaginary ideal one.