Hey, Sorry I Disappeared for a While

In which I apologize and make excuses and beg for mercy

It’s a bold move to launch a paid option for your newsletter, promise a bunch of exclusive new features in the new year, and then almost immediately fail to deliver.

What can I say? I’m a bold writer. A risk-taker. A vanguard.

Or, you know, an idiot.

It all began with the most promising start. By the time I left for my eight-week visit to the United States, I had scheduled out nearly six weeks of posts, planned my paid newsletter launch to perfection, and congratulated myself for my foresight and fortitude and fornicati… wait, not that.

Then, near the end of the trip — well, all hell broke loose.

My five-year old developed a knee infection which needed emergency surgery and a three-week recovery. (More on this in an upcoming essay.)

My nine-month-old picked up a stomach bug just before our trip home.

Everyone I know or have ever met got COVID.

This is not a sympathy post! Everyone is fine now (except for the hospital nurse my five-year-old almost accidentally hit with a remote control helicopter which his irresponsible father let him fly around a small hospital room. I can’t speak to her psychological recovery.)

But when I arrived back in the United States, I found myself not hyped-up and raring to get back to Substacking, but instead beaten down, jet lagged, and a little overwhelmed with the admin of putting my family’s lives back in order with a three-day turnaround before the school year began.

All this to say that I haven’t “petered out” on Substack, nor have I pulled the world’s lamest heist by getting a dozen or so people to pay me $5 for a newsletter and then vanishing into the night to buy, I don’t know, a tub of ice cream or something.

I’m still here. And beginning next week I’ll be back to my regular publishing schedule and offering all of those special features I promised — audio versions of each essay, discussion threads, and even (very soon) some new music to be released exclusively on this newsletter.

Stick with me. I’m still here and Still Human.