Dear Friend,
On the Innovation Adoption Curve, I’ve always wished I were an Innovator, or at least an Early Adopter. I’ve fantasized about becoming someone who wakes up early, plunges into the unheated pool, and, exhilarated by the icy coldness, swims twenty laps and splashes up a storm before anyone else has arrived.
But I am not that Early Adopter of my fantasies. Instead, I am someone who — once she becomes aware of the pool — considers jumping in the icy water. In fact, she stays up so late the night before, contemplating action, that she wakes late and then takes too long to get ready. In the end she arrives closer to noon, when the pool’s is already a bit too warm from an abundance of bodies and an undisclosed amount of pee. I’m a smack-in-the-middle, peak-of-the-adoption-curve girl.
Knowing this, it makes sense that it is now that I’m am launching this Substack newsletter — six months after creating a name and logo on the platform, two years after the idea first occurred — at the point that I have so many Substack subscriptions that I can no longer read the emails as they arrive, but must “save them for later” guiltily letting them pile up to the point of overwhelm — now is clearly the time to dive into the Substack pool!
In fiction workshops, someone will usually ask “why now?” requesting a writer’s logic in entering the world of a story. It often has to do with a departure from the status quo in the life of the main character, for instance: As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
My version: “Barrington Smith awoke one morning with the frightening realization that her time left on earth was short…
… and two years later, she published her first Substack newsletter.”
Last weekend, I directed my first short film, 20+ years after I first conceived of that as a goal. I have other items on my list, all destined to happen too late in the day to make a big splash, go viral or monetize.
But, not too late to be fun. Welcome to my afternoon pool party. We still have time to ignore the probable pee and find each other in the crowds. Let’s have some laughs, and hang around to watch the sun set.
I’m very glad you are here.
B