Death is “disturbing” and “unpleasant”
To be filed under 'Things I Don't Remember Agreeing To'
Hello. This post is about Death & Birds.
As you may have noticed, I’m fairly new to this (posting on Substack), and it’s been interesting to experience a cycle of: writing a post—feeling ok about it—publishing it—being deeply touched & delighted that anyone responds—becoming crippled by self-doubt, shame, anxiety and regret for exposing my heart to strangers—writing a post—feeling ok about it…repeat.
My most recent crippling involved an old friend, and constant companion—my Inner Critic, who kindly asked what I thought I was doing, writing about Death & Birds. My Critic pointed out that the two are entirely unrelated (“so you look stupid from the get-go”) and that no one is going to want to be consistently reminded of their mortality, so I should just stick to Birds (“and most people find Birds boring anyway, so, you should just give up”). Thanks, Critic. You’re the best.