In Which Mary Bennet Makes An Appearance

The Other Bennet Sister has me in my feelings.

Mary Bennet is not the pretty one or the witty one or the one anyone expects anything from. She is awkward and overlooked and doing her best in a world that made up its mind before she finished a sentence. I may have identified with her more than intended.

It also raises a genuine question: at what point is a Jane Austen adaptation just fanfiction? Clueless, Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Other Bennet Sister. All extremely successful. All built on a foundation someone else laid 250 years ago. We have collectively decided that Mr. Darcy is the original book boyfriend and we are not finished with him.

I am not judging. I am also part of the problem.

We’ve been home from the beach for two weeks and have already started planning another trip. Our summer philosophy is more vacation, more often. I am committed to this position.

There is a thing I do that I’ve been thinking about.

When I get an idea, I tend to finish it in my head before anyone else hears about it. People find out about it at the moment it already feels finished to me. What feels like brainstorming to me can look a lot like a decision to everyone else.

Planning a podcast with friends is a little like a dance. You want to stay friends. You also want to shout every idea into the universe the second it arrives. Those two things are sometimes in conflict.

The gap between my brain releasing something and the people I love actually hearing about it causes friction I have to actively manage. I am aware of this. I am still doing it.

I’m writing this in the dark during a storm and I keep thinking there’s nothing here for a newsletter. There might not be. But here we are.

As I get older, I’m more aware of which people and places make me feel like I belong somewhere. Not everywhere. Not with everyone. But somewhere, with some people.

I’m a lucky person for that.

The plan for another vacation is already made.

See you next Sunday.