The June Mental Note

Airing a grievance, and then getting into this month's journal work.

You know what really grinds my gears lately? Appointment confirmation culture. It has gone WAY too far. It has its place (doctor’s appointments, for instance, get a green light from me for a confirmation call), but our society is obsessed with the confirmation. Forget dinner reservations and plans with friends, I’m now getting confirmations from the AMC Theaters mobile app to confirm my upcoming showing in two hours. Listen, I said I’m gonna be there, so I’m gonna be there! I bought a damn ticket! I have skin in the game!

This isn’t even prompted. Just something I’m thinking about as I try to figure out how to start today’s update.

Anyway.

Happy June.

A reminder for those of you who are not Mentals: the following email is only for paid subscribers to Asking the Question (you can switch to a paid subscription here). So enjoy the bit of this you can, but then consider joining as a Mental to receive the rest of the Monthly Mental Note, my journaling playlist, and access to our forthcoming journaling Zoom sessions. They’re going to be….mental.

The Monthly Mental Note

One of the things I enjoy most about running this platform is when I hear that you’re finding these questions useful. Revelations notwithstanding, I’m just so glad to know these questions make people interrogate themselves in a new way. What I also enjoy is the curiosity about how I develop these prompts. “Where did that prompt come from,” or “Was there a reason you picked that subject this week?”

The truth is that there is very rarely a rhyme or reason here. Each prompt is driven by something that happened to me that day, or week, and/or represents a question I’ve been asking myself that I thought might have resonance with others as well. There’s no master plan. Honestly, do I seem like a guy with a plan?

Exactly.

Thus, June’s Mental Note. Completely unplanned and totally unhinged. This month brought to you by food poisoning.