Skip to content

How 'bout Yours?

2020-09-29 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, on location, heavy topic, civic or action cta, community lore

After thanking pre-orderers of The Anthropocene Reviewed book, John walks in the woods and, through a Wallace Stevens poem and a memory of Esther Earl noticing his fear on a bridge, argues that we can only say 'my bridge is terrifying, how about yours?' and must truly listen to and believe in others' experience; a repeated walk reminds him that how he is now is not how he will always be.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Thanks for Anthropocene Reviewed book pre-orders; 150,000 sheets to sign

  • ★★ John thanks pre-orderers and says he will sign the just over 150,000 sheets behind him so every US and Canadian pre-order and every first-printing copy of the book is autographed. — 00:00:00 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)
  • ★ John says this is a little more than he expected, but he is delighted and only a smidge intimidated. — 00:00:00
  • ★ John has really enjoyed walking lately, letting his thoughts wander as he wanders. — 00:00:00
  • ★ In a channel comment John says the clues are designed to be almost impossible to solve alone, to encourage community, and this week's (week of 28 September 2020) is especially hard. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ In a channel comment John says he finds poems as one book leads to another (the Norton Anthology led him to the Wallace Stevens book), and recommends Ours Poetica. — 00:00:00
  • ★ In a channel comment John says he doesn't really remember quotes: he remembers snippets, googles them and recites from a script; information comes and goes from his brain like breath. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ In a channel comment John says the poem acknowledges collective effort, which made the bridge and village; maybe collective effort must work around the essential unshareability of each consciousness. (speculative) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Wallace Stevens' twenty bridges; Esther notices John's fear on a bridge; 'my bridge is terrifying, how about yours?'

  • ★★ John recalls a Wallace Stevens poem: twenty men crossing a bridge into a village are twenty men crossing twenty bridges into twenty villages; the bridge is different for each of us. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ John remembers a walk ten years ago (2010) with his friend Esther: for her Make-A-Wish she gathered Nerdfighter friends and invited him, and on the way to gelato they had to cross a bridge. — 00:00:29 · Esther Earl, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ The bridge had a see-through floor and John dislikes heights and bridges; Esther noticed, said they were almost across and offered him her wheelchair to push and hold on to. — 00:01:05 · Esther Earl

  • ★★★ John says the true observation is never 'this bridge is terrifying'; all you can say with certainty is 'my bridge is terrifying. How about yours?' — 00:01:32

    “My bridge is terrifying. How 'bout yours?”

  • ★★★ John says the real trick of living among other souls as valuable and multitudinous as your own is to really listen to another's answer and believe in their experience as fully as our own. — 00:01:32 · perspective-taking

00:02:01 — Same woods, different walk: the world and John have changed; how he is now is not how he will always be

  • ★★ John is walking in exactly the same woods as last week (week of 21 September 2020), but it is a completely different walk: the leaves are falling and it is cold. — 00:02:01
  • ★★ The walk also differs because John has changed: last week (week of 21 September 2020) he felt dread encroaching, winter not just a fact but a threat. — 00:02:01
  • ★★ John says this week (week of 28 September 2020) the weather is worse and he is better, but he doesn't know why; these days he barely knows how he is, let alone why. (unsure) — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ John likes repeatable outdoor experiences because they aren't really repeatable: the same path reminds him it is never the same woods, and how he is now is not how he will always be. — 00:02:31

00:03:04 — Esther's kindness still holds John together; almost across the bridge; sign-off

  • ★★ John says tomorrow a different John will take a different walk in different woods, even if the GPS says the route was identical. — 00:03:04
  • ★★★ John says Esther has been gone over ten years, but her thoughtfulness and kindness still help him and hold him together. — 00:03:04 · Esther Earl
  • ★★★ Esther's kindness reminds John that your bridge may be scary even if his isn't, and he often tells himself he is almost across the bridge and can hold on to something if needed. — 00:03:29 · Esther Earl

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says The Anthropocene Reviewed book is available for pre-order and all pre-orders of the US edition will be signed; a channel comment adds the Canadian edition is the same. — video description · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)
  • ★★ The description says the video contains a clue leading to a secret livestream, best solved with others, and invites viewers to join a clue-solving team at the nerdfighters subreddit, Tuataria or other nerdfighter groups. — video description · Reddit, Nerdfighteria

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Esther Earl · perspective-taking

Also: Make-A-Wish Foundation · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book) · Wallace Stevens

Only in the description or credits: Ours Poetica · Paige Lewis · Reddit · The Norton Anthology of Poetry · Tuataria

← Previous: i said yep · Next → I ain't she was with well and I so and it's and but so and I'll and