Phetasy News - Renewed Wonder
Louise Perry and Triggernometry, Dumpster Fire - Defund the IRS, new podcast Factory Settings, and Slut Regrets
Greetings from the Phetaverse!
It’s a strange sensation to stumble out of the newborn bubble and back into the world with its harsh lights and loud noises and mean people online. I vaguely recognize the person I was before I became a mom. So many things have changed—and not just my body and my inability to sleep. I’ll be writing from my new mommy brain here on my Substack under Geriatric Mommy, along with other projects. But the most significant shift is that I’m looking at the world with a new sense of wonder. Or maybe it’s a renewed sense of wonder.
Newborns just coming online have a way of doing that, giving you the gift of looking at the world through their eyes. Eyes that are tripped out by contrast and shadow and light. Senses and motor skills that are just developing, learning how to manipulate their hands and move their bodies. It’s all so fresh and miraculous.
My daughter Matilda’s infectious joy and curiosity is contagious. In many ways she came at the perfect time — when it felt like cynicism was clouding my vision, and pessimism about the future was leaving me feeling “blackpilled.” In the early days of her birth, I wanted to pivot out of the culture wars forever, leaving the madness behind. But I’d be abdicating the space, leaving it to the craziest, loudest voices. Matilda makes me want to put out content that’s thoughtful and silly and optimistic.
So that’s what we will do our best to focus on here at Phetasy, Inc. We can’t escape the culture wars — we will have conversations about them and reflect on (and mock) what’s happening — but we aren’t invested in the news cycle. We are invested in perspective. We are invested in humanity with all our flaws and fears and foibles. We are invested in creating, laughing, self-reflecting and taking the temperature down on the hyper-polarization. We are invested in family, friendship and making things.
New life brings with it the energy of limitless potential. Yet the birth of Matilda has also made me acutely aware of how fragile we are. Life is delicate and absurd. Our hope is that we inspire you to renew your own sense of wonder and silliness and appreciation for the miracle unfolding in your body every single second of every single day.
Bridget, there are few things in life as jarring as the sudden rush of awareness you’re about to get. It will hit one day when you lay that precious child on a blanket on the carpet, step away to grab a bottle, and turn around to find she’s gone.
In that instant, you will be hyperaware of every sharp corner, rough surface or precariously-balanced object within 24 inches of the floor. Similar mental injections occur when you tour their route to the bus stop, and/or when they begin driving.
But you got this. 😇
Babies are awesome. (Except for the fact that you have to change their diapers. That stinks.) More people should have them. It makes the world a brighter place.