September Prompts for Your Thinking Cap

Questions of the month but make it scholastic

This month my brain feels like a junk drawer—full of messy outlines, 100 screenshots, election dread, failed password attempts, new projects I want to start, old projects I wish were over, lentil salad recipes, calls to reschedule, dinner reservations, relationships I’m neglecting, half-completed audiobooks, looming deadlines, skin serums to apply, notes to self to “not kill the plant upstairs” but also to “Read Literature” and am I pursuing the right things and there is absolutely no time to waste but don’t forget you need to buy lypo-spheric Vitamin C packs and also be a good daughter, and to have fun! And go to yoga.

This month is about dumping it all out on the table. With September’s prescriptive optimism, facing the endless pile with an academic’s rigor, a scientist’s method, an editor’s ruthlessness, a pupil’s tireless curiosity. Or maybe it’s just about showing up with backpack on and shoes tied and a new pencil and hoping for the best. 

1. BIG MIND, LITTLE MIND

In an April 2013 …