Chaotic Greetings & Sordid Secrets
A Sign Of Things To Come
Greetings Friends,
I’m excited to share the first edition of The Lightfoot Letter with you. I’m so grateful you had the courage to join yet another subscription list.
For those of you who know me already ‘Hiiiiiiiiii’. For those of you I’m not yet acquainted with, also ‘Hiiiiiiiiii’. ‘Who am I?’ You ask. Well. Let me tell you..
I’m Joe, a creamy skinned 34 year old cis gendered male. Though please try not to hold that against me, at least until you see my privilege hanging out. I must admit I feel rather drawn towards the idea of being genderqueer, it almost seems like a natural Omega point for humanity to me, but let’s just say I don’t quite have the balls (ovaries?) to make that move just yet.
My favourite Pokemon is Squirtle, and my favourite Spice Girl is Scary Spice. I don’t have a favourite a Backstreet Boy, I don’t even know their names. The more I come to know myself, the more I realise how deeply riddled I am with guilt, shame and remorse, though I do a fairly good job of finding joyous meaning in my predicament and Light-Footing along all the same. I’m fascinated with community and consider myself an aspiring Metamodern Solarpunk.
It’s also becoming more and more apparent to me that I seem to be caught in perpetual loops of algorithmic action and reaction that are wholly informed by the peculiar blend of my own personal history of developmental trauma. I find the clarity with which I’m starting to see all this in myself to be both extremely liberating and endlessly terrifying. I’m really coming to understand the layers of meaning and many fascinating ramifications of the term ‘ignorance is bliss’. So yes, in other words, I’m human, just like you.
Now that you know my most sordid secrets, let's get down to business!
I plan to send out the Lightfoot Letter every couple of months or so in order to share:
A. A tiny slice of what I’m thinking and feeling deeply about.
B. A brief update of all the Goodies I’ve been conjuring up.
C. A short list of all the tidbits I’ve found to be particularly meaningful, enjoyable and psychoactive.
Fresh Out The Kiln
The Book 📖 - A couple of months ago I published my first book called A Collective Blooming: The Rise Of The Mutual Aid Community. It’s an attempt to sum up 5 years of community weaving experience in less than 20,000 words. If you’re low on funds you’re welcome to reach out here and I’ll most happily send you a free copy.
The Podcast 🎙️ - I’m just five episodes into recording The Lightfoot Podcast, and I’m already humming with hope after conversing with such a potent mix of Community Cultivators and Collective Gardeners. So far I’m enjoying the experience of talking into a microphone with such interesting people, but it’s definitely more work than I anticipated.
The Manifesto 📜 - A few co-conspirators and I penned A Metamodern Solarpunk Manifesto as a means of coalescing the constellation of ideas that we’ve been orbiting around. We’re hoping it will act as gateway drug into the sociological bardo realms of emergent Neotribal bliss.
The Salon 🗣️ - The Metamodern Solarpunk Salon is ever so close to leaving the womb and yodelling its first notes of visceral delight into the vast and starry night. It’s a place where we’ll host intimate conversations around all the most interesting ideas that presently occupy our heart and minds. We’re hoping to release these sessions into the wild, but we’re still feeling into whether we’ll be able to reach the desired levels of rawness and authenticity we aspire to while that recording button flashes red.
What’s Been Lighting Me Up
Recently Tim Ferriss released a podcast with Debbie Millman detailing his ongoing journey of recovery from childhood abuse. It’s deep, it’s real and it shines a light on just how much trauma we’re carrying collectively and individually. I feel this podcast represents an important moment in our culture when it appears safe enough for an apparent Uber Human and all round symbol of success to openly admit on their podcast that they face deep internal struggles on a day to day basis.
In this podcast one of my heroes Grant Morrison joins Douglas Rushkoff for an epic romp through the world of archetypal story telling and Chaos Magick. If you haven’t read Morrisons seminal comic The Invisibles then I envy you, as I wish I could soak it all up again for the very first time. It takes most people a couple of episodes to get into it, but once you do, it’s one heck of a ride. I listened to Fourtet’s Morning Side on repeat when I first read it and would heartily recommend such a combination.
The Invisibles Cover Art by Brian Bolland I’m a little late to the party on this one but I just recently discovered The Eric Andre Show. It’s definitely not everyones cup of tea, but for me his blend of ‘Take No Prisoners Chaotic Neutral Surrealism’ hits the spot every time. I think he’s a genius that points to the vapid nihilism so prevalent throughout the modern world. Other’s think he’s just gross. Warning this clip contains nudity and unsupervised Urotherapy.
Well that’s it for now my friends. I hope your upcoming Solstice is filled with raucous laughter and fathomless delight. Until next time, sharing all the warmth 🔥
Joe