“If we don’t express our emotions, they pile up like a debt that will eventually come due.”
-Marc Brackett, PhD, from Permission to Feel
Greetings on this second Monday of 2024. I hope you are off to a good start.
I want to acknowledge my friend and colleague Bob Ferguson for his many years of support, and for, most recently, becoming a paid subscriber of The Manifest. And, thanks to all of you who support me here. Whether you come for the free content, you subscribe monthly or annually, you forward the occasional link, or you like or comment on a post, every little bit helps. Know that I am always looking for ways to add value here.
That said, in this week’s installment of the Monday Memo, I’m introducing something new - a glossary of feelings. Given the subject matter of this publication, and how I harp on the idea that we pay too little attention to, and undervalue, our emotional experience, it seems fitting. Afterall, how can we talk about our feelings without the appropriate vocabulary?
Hopefully, you noticed that I began including a journaling prompt to close each Monday Memo a couple months back. In the near future, I’ll begin gathering all of these on a separate page so they can be accessed easily. I will do the these glossary definitions.
So, going forward, in addition to a compelling quote, the personal things I share, a bit of history, and a writing prompt, you can look for a definition like the one that follows.
Glossary of Feelings entry I
Joy (noun)
a: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : DELIGHT
b: the expression or exhibition of such emotion : GAIETY
a state of happiness or felicity : BLISS
a source or cause of delight
This Week in History
January 7, 1608 - Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.
January 8, 1835 - US national debt is $0 for the first and only time in history.
January 9, 1903 - Baseball's National & American Leagues make peace. Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchase the American League's Baltimore baseball franchise for $18,000 and move it to New York city, to later become the New York Yankees.
January 10, 49 BCE - Julius Caesar defies the Roman Senate and crosses the Rubicon, uttering "alea iacta est" (the die is cast), signaling the start of civil war which would lead to his appointment as Roman dictator for life.
January 11, 1838 - First public demonstration of telegraph messages sent using dots and dashes at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail.
January 12, 1836 - HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin reaches Sydney, Australia.
January 13, 1099 - Christian “crusaders” set fire to Mara, Syria.
What I’m Reading
The Crossing, by Cormac McCarthy
The Johnstown Flood, by Davis McCullough
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, by David Sedaris
How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
What I’m Watching
Barry on HBO
What I’m Listening To
20 Golden Greats, The Hollies
Howlin’ Wolf, Howlin’ Wolf
Journaling Prompt for the Week #2 of 2024
Who are the people with whom you are comfortable discussing your feelings, and why?
If you have a chance, please give a listen to my conversation with Eric Bricker in the most recent episode of The Path to Authenticity.
Have a great week. Thanks for reading.