Touched to be in such brilliant, friend-focused company. Thanks Rhaina. And I have SO MANY FEELS about mentors. I think because I am sort of a class/culture immigrant -- heading from Colorado Springs, where my parents both went to state schools, to New York City, and trying to become a writer (which seemed sort of preposterous) in an elite context where I had no connections -- I instinctually sought out mentors and really clung to them. I needed the anchoring in a world that I had no familial connection to or familiarity with. I also needed the social networks and people from whom I could learn the rules underneath the rules.
And then there's my deep love of old men (maybe because I never got to have a relationship with either of my grandfathers?!). My college political theory professor is now one of my most regular commenters on my substack and it melts my heart. Quaker author Parker Palmer has shaped my life and my thinking in so many beautiful ways, and my Stella's middle name is Parker, in honor of that.
Thanks for the chance to think about all this. And congrats on all the beautiful places this book is taking you--literally and otherwise.
Touched to be in such brilliant, friend-focused company. Thanks Rhaina. And I have SO MANY FEELS about mentors. I think because I am sort of a class/culture immigrant -- heading from Colorado Springs, where my parents both went to state schools, to New York City, and trying to become a writer (which seemed sort of preposterous) in an elite context where I had no connections -- I instinctually sought out mentors and really clung to them. I needed the anchoring in a world that I had no familial connection to or familiarity with. I also needed the social networks and people from whom I could learn the rules underneath the rules.
And then there's my deep love of old men (maybe because I never got to have a relationship with either of my grandfathers?!). My college political theory professor is now one of my most regular commenters on my substack and it melts my heart. Quaker author Parker Palmer has shaped my life and my thinking in so many beautiful ways, and my Stella's middle name is Parker, in honor of that.
Thanks for the chance to think about all this. And congrats on all the beautiful places this book is taking you--literally and otherwise.