Letter #5 To My Best Friend

Unfortunately (fortunately?) not a madwoman!

THIS is incredible. “I’m quite alright with the idea that life is just a long compilation of getting back on track.” So good I had to pull this up mid-conversation with someone so I could quote you. We can’t be aiming for the ends of things because they never come!!

Consistency is a bit scary sometimes. If everything takes consistency, you need to do everything every day, which you obviously can’t do. But consistency teaches us that you can’t do everything, and I think I require that reminder. I think I’m more consistent in life right now than I have ever been, partly because I have a routine 9–5 job and partly because I have more control over how to spend my time now. I still get surprised when consistency works — I’m trying to improve my Hindi, and although I’m doing the bare minimum (like sometimes just watching a few min of a Bollywood movie before bed), I’m definitely getting better, and it’s got to be because I’m doing that bare minimum often. I was not a child or student of self-disciplined consistency so I don’t know if I ever truly understood how helpful consistency is in learning things, but hopefully I’m learning it now. (This is not genetic, because consistency would then very much be in my blood). Also you’re so right about John and Hank doing everything. They’re literally the blueprint, HOW do they do that.

LOVE the research that went into the question about dialogue. I agree that books that rely heavily on dialogue tend not to be favorites, I think…