MMM Substack Post #1 - Nonsense Mostly

This episode is the audio version of my first Substack post, where I'm officially launching my newsletter. I'll share why I'm pairing my podcast with Substack to more fully convey the spirit of Memes, Metaphors and Magic. 

If you prefer to read and view the accompanying visuals, you can find the full written post linked below: 
https://memesmetaphorsmagic.substack.com/p/nonsense-mostly?r=73sijf

There's also a Spotify playlist that goes with this post.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3JWmgOyeNMCDoPwjEgaeuz?si=cd469cbfdabb4782 

Transcript

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0:01

Hey, this is the Memes, metaphors, and Magic podcast, and I'm your host, Taryn. This podcast is about re-seeing the magic in everyday life. Memes are so much a part of our culture. We trade them like they're playing cards often with the people we care about most. I wanted to recreate that feeling, but instead of in a DM with one or two people with a larger community. Each episode, a guest will bring a meme that matters to them, and then together we'll slow down and re-look at memes and life in unexpected and creative ways. Get cozy and curious, and let's get started. Hey, memers, if you're here, uh, that probably means one of two things. Either you were already following the podcast and you saw there was a new episode, welcome back, or you received my substack email newsletter, which had a link to go and listen on the podcast. So either way, welcome, glad that you're here. I am really excited. This is the first episode where I'm going to read a post from my new Substack, which is also entitled Memes, metaphors of Magic, and you can reach it at memes metaphors magic.substack.com. I will include a link in the show notes in case you went to the podcast. First, the Substack will have the full visuals, all of the. Different layers to get the full message. If you wanna go check that out. And the title of the first post is Nonsense Mostly, and the caption says Tarn weaves memes, metaphors, and magic into a tapestry of meaning when life is nonsense mostly. So I start out with a conversation between, or an exchange really between me and somebody else. Where they say, what do you write about? And I respond nonsense mostly. And I start off with that. And, uh, with that, I'll read you the post. So another year, another attempt to put myself out there as 2023, faded to 2024, I launched my podcast, memes, metaphors of magic, introducing myself and my premise, all shiny and new. Before my usual Venus and Virgo inner critic reared her ugly well-meaning head. Those of you following astrology know that we are finishing a collective story where the perfectionistic energy of Virgo will not have the last word. Instead of editing ourselves into oblivion, we are being called to reconnect to our original mission. The one that makes our being in the all that is make sense. And so here I am showing up again. My name's Taryn, by the way. I'm just a girl standing in front of a Substack asking her to make it make sense. I know you're thinking isn't the title of this post nonsense mostly, and you're not wrong. And I will explain. But first, for those of you who haven't been on this wild goose chase, my mission with memes, metaphors of magic is to re-see the magic in everyday life, starting with memes that matter on my podcast, which, hey, you're listening to, each guest shares a meme that stuck with them and invites us to look at life in unexpected and creative ways. The conversations so far have been beautiful. Poignant deep. But in the last two and a half years that Saturn, the planet of hard work and discipline made me work my ass off. In my Pisces Fourth House of Family and Foundation, I realized a few things. What was missing from my original go at this conversation was me, my family. And the eclectic characters that animate my worldview. The sight, smells, tastes and touch of experience were muted by the audio only format that could not adequately capture the meanings I was trying to convey. It turns out that talking about memes, metaphors, and magic is like dancing about architecture. Allah, Angelina Jolie's, monologue in playing by heart. It wasn't until one of my all time favorite astrologers, Lori Ian of lunatic astrology, told me to quote, get your ass over to Substack. Start your newsletter, end quote, and then it all clicked. Your girl is back, and this time with text visuals and music playlist on the show notes or on the substack, it's at the bottom of the post. At this point, I share a meme with, with two old guys in some kind of earlier historical period. I'm not like my Fred Matt, who knows all the historical periods. So I'll just say there's one old guy who says, how would you describe yourself? And then the older old guy who responds verbally. But I've also prepared a dance. And that's the vibe we're going for here. And there's the fact that life is full of paradox, which this blog or substack, or podcast, whatever, all the things is really about. This idea of both ends. And so at this point I have a meme in the Substack that says I have good news and I have bad news. And then there's a headstone and then Waldo's name is on it. AKA Wheres Waldo. So basically, you know, we clinging to any sense of meaning of what goes on in life. What is it? Why are we here? Why did I come to this time space reality. But as we're living life, it's nonsense. Mostly we clinging to traces of truth, but they are footholds of utility. If we stop kidding ourselves, any Stanford University commencement address, Steve Jobs advised you can't connect the dots. Looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. As I look back on my own dots and how they've led to this venture, I remember back to my elder millennial internet origin story. I was writing email zines when I was 12 A OL America online for you whipper snappers. They red flagged my parents' account for the bulk emails I was sending to a sizable email list. Considering that I was 12 and it was 1998, fastened together with Wingdings Dividers and X-Files trivia, I channeled my son and Moon and Leo creativity into newsletters that expressed whatever my quirky Uranus in the first house of Identity wanted to say on the internet before most considered. Email a creative form of expression. Those early communications were in part inspired by my grandpa and his popular email chains full of off-color jokes and memes. We didn't call them memes then, or if we did, I don't remember. I have some of these relics saved a reminder of where my fascination for sharing memes started. And memes of course, migrated from email to social media. I remember my roommate sitting me down on December 3rd, 2004, insisting that I sign up for Facebook. I had held out for at least six months Facebook me links, which was like the original friend me kind of idea just for the people in case you didn't know that the Facebook me links in my peers, A OL Instant Messenger or A MOA messages were both ominous and amusing. I'm sorry. You want me to do what now? What are you selling with Saturn in the first house? It was su to adopt something new that I didn't see the utility in. Well that, and I saw my class was in the first social experiment of its kind as the first group of Facebook users when it was college students only. And now as I connect the dots backward and forward. I've carved out my corner of the universe on social media, sharing my weird spiritual memes, and playing my oddball part, and contributing to humanity on my one life path of creativity and confidence. Facebook has become my pensive. For those of you who know that reference from Harry Potter recalling my memories, and I almost can't remember life without it at this point in the Substack. It says Exhibit A. Then I have a screenshot of a post that I posted six years ago, back in 2019, where I asked myself, what do you wanna do for the rest of your life? And my response was, I want to use words to create magic. As I was contemplating the substack, Facebook reminded me of the above memory. Or the, the memory basically. I remember 2019 in Technicolor, my mentor passed in His absence made me reflect on our shared passion for writing. I was unmoored grasping for what was true and write and real and as much as it heard to write. By years end, it seems I had recalled my true purpose to use words to create magic. This spark originally ignited when my mom read a high school essay where I personified a pair of shoes. I pulled out all the stops, alliteration, allegory, all of the literary devices. She giggled through her first read and with conviction said, this is what you should be doing. This is your calling. I looked at her half pleased and half like, ya. Dumb dumb. How am I supposed to make money? Writing nonsense. Well, here I am, because let's face it, she's always right. And even though I can't find that essay, I have found my way back to writing and creating magic with words and that I'll strive to do in this blog and accompanying podcast. But like any creative adventure, my Sagittarius rising self is too gun shy to say exactly where this will go. The plan is that once a week I'll share a mind melt of some kind. I'll test and refine as I go. Certainly open to feedback. If you wanna leave a comment. In terms of ai, I don't plan to use AI in crafting my substack posts or these episodes except for asking myself questions about a topic to help me flesh out my own thinking and linking to previous and future posts to enhance the reader experience. Outside of that, you're getting my very human brain full of plot twists and pop culture references. I promise that despite the M dashes, which existed before cha pt, these are my words and my stories. Cue the law and order SVU opening sound effect. If you read this far and you're still wondering, what does she write about, aside from sensing the nonsense, it's simple life and death, joy and grief. Humanity and pets shenanigans and seriousness, prisons and prims, academia, and woo and above all memes, metaphors, and magic. There's also an accompanying playlist for this episode, and that's in the show notes. A note about playlists, as Jean Michel Basquiat said, art is how we decorate space. Music is how we decorate time. My playlists are a combination of songs that either remind me of the topic at hand or inspire me when writing that specific post. I curate each playlist intentionally with attention to lyrics, musicality, and of course metaphor. If you've listened this far or read this far, if you're reading the Substack and listening along, thank you so much. It means the absolute world to me, and I'm just excited for us to be on this journey together in this life that is nonsense mostly. Until we connect next time, take good care and I'm wishing you memes, metaphors, and magic. Bye now. Thank you for joining us. What makes this podcast is us holding space for each other. I wish you memes, metaphors, and magic before our next visit. In the meantime, please subscribe to get new episodes and rate us so future Memers can find us.