Drew Aiken
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read

Hi Cory — so I read this after reading your intro piece from 2015. In those short reads I’m sorry to hear but glad to read that someone else occupies the middle-ground of quasi-desperation I thought I’d annexed all by myself.

I’ve not read a novel in some time, so I’m sure I’m missing well known public chestnuts of inner-middle-aged guy-ness from the latest works of Jonathan Franzen and Tom Perrota — but I felt pretty well connected to what you wrote here:

I’ve found myself peering into lots of minor abysses over the years, often feeling like I’m merely window shopping for something transformative and never quite making the purchase. I’d get upset with myself for fighting trivial battles and coming out no more enriched than I started. The process can be, well, abysmal.”

So thanks for that. I’m looking 50 in the face (but not in the eye) and have felt the weight and urgency you hint at here (I presume you’re maybe late 30’s)…only, I suspect, much moreso as debt, unfulfilled potential and my constant reneging on promises to write more than half-thoughts and quarter-pieces in OneNote pages. Whoa. I’ll stop now. Good luck to you. Keep writing.

    Drew Aiken

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