TheListServe Blog

April 30th, 2010: Dear God, I’ve had it with you. Let’s just say that the rules you’ve set down for me are too much to handle. Whether it’s your ten commandments or your path to enlightenment or some other method of guilt-trippy divinely-induced obedience, I’m done. I have tried to ascend, to climb the ladder, to be the best version of myself. I’ve tried to be selfless and sacrificial, to love everyone, to do unto them as I would do to myself. But let’s face it. I can’t. I can’t climb your fucking ladder. So as long as you keep asking me to be something I’m not and to do something I can’t do—to be perfect, for godsakes?—I’m going to go on disappointing you. And honestly, my rebellion will be a great addition to the new self that I’m building without you. You know, come to think of it, maybe people think you’re dead because they just wish that you were. Maybe we’re all tired of you keeping an eye on us. So until you can get your act together and meet me where I’m at, this is over. You a...

I already won? I wish I had prepared something, but now I must humbly jumble something together before heading out the door. I’m visiting family in Italy and wish I lived here, and that my Italian was better. I have to get around to those things one of these days. Read the Greeks, the Russians, the Germans and the difficult. Travel, do what no one does, get in serious trouble and stay out of debt. Stay fit and strong, drink coffee and never pass when offered a drink. Do good without anyone noticing. Never lie. Keep seeking and keep learning. Cancel your TV. Love. Finally, some Bolaño which describes me pretty well. EN LA SALA DE LECTURAS DEL INFIERNO En la sala de lecturas del Infierno En el club de aficionados a la ciencia-ficción En los patios escarchados En los dormitorios de tránsito En los caminos de hielo Cuando ya todo parece más claro y cada instante es mejor y menos importante Con un cigarrillo en la boca y con miedo A veces los ojos verdes Y 26 años Un ser...

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” -Eleanor Roosevelt Many of you are probably familiar with the concept of a "bucket list," a tally of all the things that you want to do and be and see before you die. In the hope that my dance with the bucket is a long way off, I've more optimistically dubbed mine a "life list." I've been keeping it since I was 15, with the goal of mesmerizing my future grandchildren with crazy tales of my bizarre and eventful life. Every time the road seems too narrow or my life feels circumscribed, I push all my energy towards achieving one of the items on the list. This year, I checked off "hug a panda," "learn to saber open a bottle of Champagne," and "eat ramen in Tokyo," not to mention some unintentional additions, like "get paid to write 50 trivia questions about Gilmore Girls" and "...

Welcome to The Monologue, the only late-night talk show that takes place via email. I’m your host Brian Agler, and we’ve got a fantastic show for you today. What’s happening... President Obama recently announced that he would begin normalizing relations with Cuba. Analysts say the move will strengthen the airline and hotel industry, but cripple the rickety, old raft industry. What else, what else… North Korea has proposed a joint investigation with the United States over the recent Sony hack. The investigation is off to a slow start, as every North Korean lead consists of investigators saying, “Hey, look over there!” and then promptly running in the other direction. Speaking of cyber attacks… Staples recently announced that personal data from over 1.2 million shoppers has been stolen. Staples responded saying, “We never saw this coming...mainly because we couldn’t believe 1.2 million people did their last minute Christmas shopping at an office supply store. Oh, this is great… Former Fl...

For the last seven years, I've been a member of a traveling comedy troupe called Commedia del Arte. Yes, it's spelled that way on purpose, and no, we don't use the character masks anymore. The troupe has existed for over twenty years, located in Mobile, Alabama, though we'll travel just about anywhere there's a venue. We perform in an extemporaneous style that starts with a basic script, but each actor adds his or her own touches to the character and story as it develops. No two performances are the same. We don't make any money. Our proceeds go to charities. Our previous show (Here Wolf, There Wolf, Everywhere a Werewolf) benefitted the Animal Rescue Foundation of Mobile. We do make everything else. We take great pride in building our own costumes, finding or fashioning our own props, reusing or reimagining whatever is available. We've made beards out of tea leaves, a sarcophagus out of wrapping paper, and a crocodile out of soda bottles. Almost all of...

Hello Listservers everywhere! Firstly, thanks to Listserve HQ friends for the chance to say something to the global community. Even if it's random choice, it's still an honour to be given the opportunity to write, as well as to read. For my moment of your time, I'd like to remind you of the first-ever photo, taken from the Moon in 1969, of planet Earth. What an extraordinary thing that was to see - the view of the home of Earthlings that our neighbours would have, if there were such creatures. Suddenly the whole, huge, complex, busy and taken-for-granted thing you and I live on and rarely think about, probably, was seen hanging unsupported in dark empty space, looking delicate, fragile even - just a small blue-green empty-looking ball, where in fact all life as we know it started, and still exists. Being an Earthling is an interesting idea, I believe. You and I are members of a single human race, and seeing Earth as one entity in that photo - a single atom in a vast, en...

Timing, they say, is all. The Listserve ‘winners’ email awaited my arrival home from a visit to my younger brother in hospital (a double heart bypass, complicated by diabetes). My older brother has Alzheimer’s, and has just been sent home to die. I’m trying to complete the sale of my house but the buyers, a Christian church organisation, are anything but compassionate in their dealings and turning the dream into a nightmare. So, I was feeling rather despondent. Then I’m chosen to write to thousands of strangers. What a gift, what an opportunity, what a spirit raiser! Your time’s precious, so I’ll introduce myself and then ask a question. I was born in a neighbour’s bed, following my father’s death and my mother’s eviction from our home connected to his job. The attending midwife, convinced I’d be born dead, abandoned my mother for ‘a woman up the road whose kid has a chance of being alive, love.’ Later, after a remarriage, our new family ended up living in an old railway carriage, perc...

Hello everyone on The Listserve! I want to talk about something that I started in my life that is really helping me out to go through a bad moment. That is meditation. Meditation is a simple activity that you can make almost anywhere and it doesn't cost you a penny. All you have to do is to spare some time for meditating. I am really a beginner but I could feel the benefits of meditating already. Turn off your phone and start doing that when you will have no interruption, if needed warn people around so they don't disturb. All you have to to is to sit down, comfortably. Keep your spine aligned and focus on your breathe. A few mantras could help you to calm down. Three long Oooooooooooommmmms would do the job. The thing is focus on your breathe or in the gaps between the thoughts. Meditation is all about trying not to think about anything, but when we are starting, lots of thoughts will surely come. All you have to do is observe those thoughs. Try not to judge and avoid to ...

I've been in London a couple of years now. I finished university in 2012 and migrated to the big smoke, following every other graduate, or so it seemed. I've been lucky enough to surround myself with brilliant and inspiring people at a marketing agency in central London, only now am I getting slightly itchy feet thinking I need to go and make something of myself, in a place outside of here. London is mad, fast paced and full of incredible little places but I often feel like the adventurous side of me gets sucked up whilst living here. It's so easy to stick in a job I'm so comfortable with, but not doing something I truly love and am passionate about. I'm desperate to travel the world working for an NGO, and completely take me out of my comfort zone. Going to Kenya as a volunteer in 2009, has undoubtedly been the best decision I've ever made - I urge you, implore you even, to jump at any opportunity to go there. The people are just wonderful, and it will get unde...

Hello, strangers! My name is Yasmim and I’m passionate about traveling. I'm 21 years old and I am proud to say that I already visited 11 countries. My last trip was in august/2013, when I traveled across Europe all by myself. My next stop will be: California and Vegas! yay! One of the most important things that travelling has taught me is: there are much more good people than bad people in the world. My experience as a lonely traveler shown me that there are much more people willing to help a stranger than you could imagine. Strangers in train stations helped me to carry my luggages; strangers gave me all kind of information that I needed and made my traveling a lot more easier; among several others things. Those strangers helped me without asking for anything in return (except for some beggars in Rome, but that's another story). In 2012 I was in Lousiana on a job exchange program (I worked in a Wendy's but that's also another story, haha). My friends and I were dying t...

When I saw the email for this I was so excited. I asked around on Facebook about what I should write on as I was lost for words. Many things where suggested to me; how to create a magickal life, my experiences as an apprentice to various people, life experiences, my passion for my spirituality and many others. Then it hit me, appreciation and courage. My mom and I will always be at odds, we will never truly see eye-to-eye but I appreciate her more then I could ever explain. She went to bat for me many times as a teen, she has pushed my buttons more then she knows, she is there for me and my children pretty much every time I need her and she has complete trust that she can take whatever life gives her. As a teen I was always angry with her and now I admire her strength and courage. So mom, thank you. Dad, I haven't forgotten about you. You're generosity is as deep as the stories I've heard. You're advice always appreciated even though I may not use it, I still keep i...

I have a simple request. My friend Chloe was in a serious car accident last week and is currently battling the limits of modern medicine. She is one of the most courageous and strong people I've ever encountered, so I know she is going to put up a fight. All I ask is your love and hope and strength and prayers be sent to Cho Rombach (I know she's listening). I've been part of the Listserve for the past four years. I never considered the possibility of winning, but its makes a world of sense for this to happen now. I know I'm still young (21) and have many more lives to live, but this has been a hard fucking year. I have no advice for you, no words of hollow encouragement. Everyone just has to keep moving. Practice mindfulness. Find the people you love and never ever let them go a day without knowing it. Love, Charlotte Rogg cantcatchrogger[AT]gmail.com Amherst, MA

About 10 years ago a bunch of people who worked on the Internet team of John Kerry’s US presidential campaign got together after the election. It was the first time digital technology played a major role in a campaign and they knew it was the future of politics. They also knew there was a long road ahead. They founded a scrappy organization, the New Organizing Institute, to define, train and recruit new organizers who could continue to expand and innovate. In 2006, NOI held a small unconference, Rootscamp, to spread the word. This weekend in Washington, DC that conference is happening again. It’s grown from a gathering that filled a couple of classrooms at a community college in Brooklyn to a weekend that brings together more than a thousand progressive organizers from across the US and the world. But it’s more than the size of the event that has changed. I’ve worked in this space all that time. When I began, just after the 2004 elections, it was in its infancy. Few people understood w...

Hello Listervians! My name is Apar Singh and I am a 25 year old turbaned Sikh living in California. The other day I met a patient in the morning that I had been assigned to take care of and after introducing myself she looked at me strangely and asked, “Where are you from?!” I told her I was born in Flint, Michigan but raised in Yuba City, CA in the Central Valley. She smiled and exclaimed, “I was ready to welcome you to the United States of America!” I literally LOL-ed! She was the most pleasant soul I’ve ever met...she just had never seen nor met a person with a turban before. Not racist…but maybe a little ignorant. But that’s OK, I am willing to educate and people are willing to learn. That’s what it’s all about. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am medical student in California currently enjoying living in Monterey Bay while learning medicine at a community hospital in a nearby city that serves mostly migrant workers. I am at a juncture in my life where I have to decide wha...

I want to slide down the dunes of Lençóis, explore the ruins of Petra, bike the streets of Utrecht, shop the Maasai Market of Nairobi, swim the waters of Vettica, climb the tower of Porto, and soak in the sun of Koh Lipe. I want to meet beautiful people with beautiful stories and dance on the beach with strangers to loud music and see things with my own eyes. I want to spend my last five months of college drinking champagne with my friends on random Wednesday nights and sitting on docks in the moonlight not sure if I'm trembling from the cold or from excitement. I want to find a way to end wars so that my family has peace. I want to make my parents proud and love unconditionally and learn how to let go of someone without completely falling apart and eat ice cream with extra fudge but most of all I want to be happy. I came to the striking realization the other day that we can do it. I haven't quite figured out how, maybe I never fully will, but there has to be a way. If you have...

I'm missing the funeral of a dear friend's daughter's father today because I couldn't get away from work. Picture me, dressed in black and gray, solemn. Ready to mourn in community-- but held captive by duty. Nonetheless, present. Every day is a gift, wrapped in the most intricate of details. Here's to you all, I'm grateful to have you in my immediate and extended community. 1 Cor 15:8-10 #1716 #teamjournal #Scribegameproper Scribe info[AT]vincenthunter.com Washington, DC

Dear Reader, Black lives matter. These three little words, which are so obviously true, echo the great pain of too many. Parents that lost their beautiful children, brothers and sisters that never get too play together, loved ones brutally ripped apart, little children that will grow up without one of their parents, and so many more. I can imagine the pain. And I hand my head in shame. Because justice is denied to too many families. The least we could do is stop those responsible and hold them accountable. Yet even this seems to be too much. With the great majority of cases ignored and the whispers for justice unheard. What do we tell the family of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Mike Brown ? The callous disrespect for human life does not end there. Blackwater's Youngest Victim is one of the most heartbreaking documentaries that I ever saw. It tells the story of Ali Kinani's death. Ali was a nine-year old boy. He was killed by Blackwater forces in the infamous Nisour Square mass...

One of my goals in life is to be open-minded and accepting, which can be incredibly hard, but I always try to hear people out. Even if I don’t end up agreeing with them, I usually learn something. Please hear me out. Remember a time when you were really for or really against something, and someone you heard, or something you read managed to change your mind. An issue about which you had made up your mind, knew how you felt, could argue about forever. If this has never happened to you, I hope it will at some point. It’s a pretty cool experience. For now, try to imagine how or why it could happen. …got it? OK, now I’m going to bring up something that many of you probably feel strongly about, and I want to bring up one part of the issue that isn’t often discussed. Enter: genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) organisms. What you get when you take a gene from one organism and put it into another organism. Sometimes these two organisms are distantly related, and sometimes ...

With a cake. This is very easy, just follow this recipe: The lava cake recipe: (for 15-20 cupcake sized lava cakes) 200g butter 200g dark cooking chocolate 200g white sugar 5 eggs 1 tbs flour Nutella Preheat the oven at 375 F (190 C). (This is IMPORTANT! Never neglect to preheat the oven.) Melt the chocolate with the butter, and then add the sugar. Add the eggs one by one, and beat the mixture very strongly after each egg addition. The resulting mixture must be perfectly homogeneous. Add the flour last. (Taste it: it should already taste amaaaaazing!) Pour the mixture in the cupcake cups; fill them up to 3/4. Now it's time to add the Nutella, to transform this great recipe in an AMAZING Nutella melting heart cake! I usually take two table spoons; I fill one with roughly 1/3 of Nutella and use the second to drop the Nutella in the center of the cake. Once the Nutella drop is in the cake I use one spoon to collect some dough on the side to lightly cover the Nutella drop with some dou...

When my mom called back instead of texting, I knew the news couldn’t be good. I was in my first year of college, and I saw people flooding my younger cousin’s Facebook page with their sympathies and promises of prayer. I couldn’t figure out what happened, so I texted my mom. She called back because my 16-year-old cousin Anna had been diagnosed with cancer, and you don’t simply text that to someone. My faith became wrapped up in my cousin’s battle with cancer. It sounds selfish now to think about how much her battle and her pain became entwined with my own faith journey, but it did. When my mom called back six months later to say that Anna was cancer free, I knew God was present in that miracle. When Mom called back three months after that to say the cancer had returned, I felt myself starting to doubt a little more. But God had done it before, so he would do it again. And by now, 1,000,000 people had pledged to pray for Anna, so if God was out there he had surely received the mess...

Hello fellows! We all have that one night/day in our lives which makes us think we learnt something new about ourselves. This is one of those nights which made me more acceptable towards life and how it's up to you to make it or break it. I was studying communication design in Australia and used to work as a waitress at a small Indian restaurant in Melbourne. After some 3 months of waitressing, I was pretty settled at the place. Used to look forward to meeting new people and have our last meal together with that chilled beer and a late night drive to home. Sometimes our manager would get orders for catering and he was always short staffed and only hired girls. A lot of times he had to refuse as he didn't want the girls carrying all the heavy stuff and he couldn't leave the restaurant to go do it himself. Once he got an order for an Indian engagement party where we had to make biryani for some 150 people. It was a big order for someone as small as us. Client wanted someone f...

I miss Montana. In 2009, I was just about to finish my dissertation and I had accepted my first job – a tenure-track position at a small liberal arts college in Montana. I was moving to Montana from Chicago, and I was excited – but also apprehensive. My anxiety came from a few places. First, just the idea of starting the job itself – being the one in charge, and standing in front of a room of students who wanted me to have the answers – was fairly terrifying. Then, there was the more immediate anxiety of leaving my wife behind in Chicago. She had one year left in her grad program, so I was headed out West on my own. And then, there was concern about Montana itself. I had visited the campus for my interview, and I fell in love with the college and the town. But, a visit was one thing, living there another. While I was not a Chicago native, I knew I loved the city tremendously and just didn’t know how I would function anywhere else – especially someplace so much less urban. When...

Hello All, I am a 28 year-old guy from the Dominican Republic, (a nice place in the Caribbean) and I want to talk to you about a hobby I started last year. Have you ever heard about Postcrossing? When was the last time you received a postcard? When was the last time you sent a postcard? Well, Postcrossing is a nice Project that allows you to “send a postcard and received a postcard back from a random person in the world”. More than a hobby I found this project as a way to learn about other cultures; every postcard I received has its own story, its own mystic. How it works? The first step is to register on the Postcrossing site (You can google it: Postcrossing). Then you would be able to request to send a postcard. The website will display (and send you an email) with the address of another member and a Postcard ID (e.g.: US-786). You then mail a postcard to that member. The member receives the postcard and registers it using the Postcard ID that is on the postcard. At this point, you...

Have you heard of “anomy”? The Encyclopedia Britannica defines it this way: “in societies or individuals, a condition of instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or from a lack of purpose or ideals.” In “The Abolition of Man” and elsewhere, C.S. Lewis predicted that this would be the trajectory of a society that repudiates objective values. Here are some quotes, what do you think? "Human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and can't really get rid of it." "A great many of those who 'debunk' traditional...values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process." “You cannot go on 'explaining away' for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on 'seeing through' things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. To “see throug...

In short, Sisyphus, in Greek mythology, was punished for his deceitfulness by being forced to roll a gigantic boulder up a hill, watch it roll back down, and repeat this action forever and ever and ever. Albert Camus writes about our beloved Sisyphus in his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, but turns Sisyphus' monotonous and rather tragic punishment into something beautiful. He says that the struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. He concludes the essay with: "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." This is, by far, one of my favorite quotes. You can read more about The Myth of Sisyphus on Wikipedia. However, The Myth of Sisyphus is not my favorite Wikipedia page. My favorite Wikipedia page is called "List of potato dishes" and I plan on making every single dish on that list eventually before I die. What is your favorite Wikipedia page? And what is your favorite potato dish? Wendy Wen whirlwendyw[AT]gmail.com New Jersey, USA

Growing up, my parents fought and argued a lot. This fighting extended to families on both sides. I rarely saw any expression of love amongst the grownups. The funny thing is though, I remember not feeling anything. I wasn’t necessarily upset; I was just so good at shutting off that part of my life. However, at times it would get extreme. This one time, my mother decided that she can't take life with my Dad anymore and she simply wanted to die. She said that she would do this by starving herself as any other means would be sinful. I remember begging her to eat after watching her starve for a day or two. I didn't get why in the world she would do something like that back then. I understand now though. She didn't want to die, she loved us too much. She loved me even more. She really needed her husband to care. She was getting sick and frail. The new business they had opened was consuming her health and she was turning into skin and bone working day and night. Her already frag...

There are many stories about being in a rock band that you don’t hear. Not the stories of groupies in the green room, or creative differences that lead to brawls in the studio, or snorting cocaine off the mixing desk - those stories are well recorded, and are becoming a tired cliché. Here are a couple of my thoughts on playing in a band. I live in Australia, on the Sunshine Coast. I've been making music since I was 12. This year my band released our first three music videos. The last one to be released is my favourite, and I shot it all in one day in the city. I was working in a restaurant (yes, we’re all still working part-time, paying the bills) with a French girl, Camille, and she had one of those faces that just begs to be on film. We took a day off and drove down to the closest city, Brisbane, with my brother, who sings on the track. The problem was, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to shoot. Somehow, by the end of the day, I had a drive full of footage, most of it sh...

On November 25th, Robbie Shade posted about effective altruism. He explained what it is. I would like to continue the discussion. Why am I not replying to Robbie directly, rather than posting to the list? I thought it would be fun to introduce a little public conversation over the list itself. I have a background (Ph. D.) in moral philosophy. Coincidentally, the day I won TheListServe lottery was also my last day at work before retiring. I retired early, in part so I could devote more time and energy to "doing good". I read Peter Singer in the early 1980s and have been a supporter of Oxfam America or similar organizations for over 30 years. However, while I am an effective altruist veteran, I have my doubts. About three years ago, I decided to pick an issue and a location to see if I could gain a more local and better informed perspective about a particular problem. I picked malaria and western Kenya. Back then I thought malaria was the do-gooder's low hanging fruit. Mal...

At the time of this writing, there are 24,389 of us. Assuming (rather optimistically) that every Listservian will spend two minutes reading this, that's 813 hours of collective human time, or about twenty 40-hour work weeks. What would you devote yourself to if you had almost half a year of working time? I wish that people - e.g. the creators of silly apps, or people at work who schedule meetings for way more people than necessary - thought more about the opportunity costs of time. With this in mind, thank you for your sacred time. Without further ado, let me serve you with a list (so sorry, I just had to) that I hope will make this time worth it for you: One word: "Sonder" - look up its definition on the website "Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows." One quotation: from Kurt Vonnegut, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” One poem: "The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. Language is a strange thing. One book: "The...

EAT HEALTHY, DO SPORTS AND SEIZE THE DAY!! I'm just kidding ;) I don't want to give any advice for your life. Everyone should do what they want as long as it doesn't harm others. I am a 24 year-old Math and Economics student at University of Dortmund, Germany and I really don't know what to write. So I just wanted to say „Thank you“. First of all thank you to The Listserve and its members for this interesting project. I love to read about other peoples lifes and stories in such an authentic way. I am also very thankful for my life. I don't believe in God but I think you can be thankful anyway. I am lucky to have loving family and friends that are healthy and love me for who I am. For me, the most important thing ist to know that you're being loved by someone. After an unhealthy relationship and one year of being single I found the perfect girl last summer. We met at a party and made out quite quickly (there was alcohol). Two days later we met again and discovere...

A lawyer dies and goes to heaven. “There must be some mistake. I’m only 55.” Saint Peter checks his book. “Actually, you’re late – we added up your billable hours and you’re 110 years old”. Lawyers, eh? I used to be a lawyer. For nearly 6 years, first in Amsterdam, then in London. On a holiday I was reading the 4 Hour Work Week when I jumped up and yelled at my (by then frightened) girlfriend: I’ve made a mistake, being a lawyer is not SCALABLE, aaargh! I made a bold plan to come into work the next week, quit, get my hands on an Aston Martin, start a better version of Facebook and execute various other killer plans. I was going to live the dream. But as you may have guessed, a couple of years later, I was still at the law firm. A seed had been planted though and I made a decision to actually quit, for real this time! Looking back, the hardest part was walking into my boss’ office to tell him. We got along really well and I was afraid it would disappoint him somehow. It actually took t...