Circling back to the "why" of all this

Again. I guess the poets got to me.

I know I just posted last night, but I’m in my feelings today.

I’m still on the train to New Orleans. There’s not much to report on that front. I slept poorly, which is to be expected since I didn’t shell out for a roomette. Actually, this leg of the trip is taking a toll on my body in several ways. It’s been hard to get exercise or fresh food. I look haggard, and I just feel… meh. I got out for a walk during the hourlong stop in Houston, which made a big difference in my mood. Even walking around highways and underpasses can feel nice when you’ve been cooped up.

So, I don’t want to talk about the train. Instead, I thought now would be a great time to slip in a quick meta-post, about what this blog has meant to me and what it might mean to you, going forward.

I’ll start with what this blog might mean to you. Dear readers, I am so thankful to everyone who has encouraged my writing by engaging with me on this platform. Three of you have even communicated that you would like to continue hearing from me after this particular trip wraps up, by pledging to pay me a yearly subscription fee through Substack. I was and am flabbergasted by this gesture of support. While I don’t think I’ll turn on paid subscriptions anytime soon, please know that your pledge of future financial support puts a fire in my belly.

By extrapolation from the aforementioned superfans, I am going to assume that there’s a chunk of you who like what’s been happening around here. But we’re at an inflection point: I’m rapidly approaching the end of this train trip, and once I’m back in New England, back in my typical routines, my headspace is going to change. I can’t promise I’ll be the same writer once I’m outside the reality-distortion field of a long-haul Amtrak trip. I think I’d like to keep writing, but I’m not sure how often, and I’m not sure what I’ll want to write about.

That’s where you can help me out. If you plan to keep reading, it would be super helpful for me to know: What type of content do you want more of? Please fill out the poll below. (I’m sorry that you can only choose one answer; if you feel constrained, feel free to express your outrage in the comments section.)

Thanks for taking the time to fill out the poll.

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Next, I want to say a few words about what this blog has meant to me.

Maybe you think I’m being too sentimental about this — so I went for some expensive bike rides, caught some trains, and wrote about it. Big whoop! But it has felt like a big deal to me, and I want to say that out loud. Writing this blog has meant a lot of practice thinking out loud, which is scary. Sure, I can edit my thoughts before posting — but what if I think something fundamentally stupid or boring or cheesy? There’s an insatiable critic inside of me, which is the definition of a double-edged sword. Knowing that you readers are getting something out of my writing makes all the self-doubt worth it.

Also, this may be news to you, but writing this blog has been a way for me to practice grieving out loud. Some of you know that my dad died from leukemia about 10 years ago. Somehow, he managed to write a very moving blog during his illness, which my mom has since turned into a beautiful book. I thought that inhabiting a medium that my dad had used to such powerful effect would be a way of reconnecting with him. It totally has. I’d certainly encourage you to check out his blog, although the subject is much heavier, and you’ll probably cry more reading it. (I hope my blog hasn’t made anyone cry yet.) Most of what is good about my blog, I probably learned from Dad.

So, it turns out there are a lot of answers to the “why” question. In the early stages of this adventure, after I had concluded two blog posts in a row by promising to write a future post that would explain the “why”, a friend asked me if I was putting it off because I didn’t actually know the answer yet myself. It was a joke, but it was also right on the money. To a large extent, I set out in this direction because I just had a gut feeling that good things would come from it. It wasn’t rational, exactly, but there was an energetic pull that was undeniable.

Following that gut feeling has paid off — in many small ways that I have written about previously, and one big way that I would like to tell you about now. For some time I’ve been feeling very passionate about building community around climate issues, and I had a hunch that a great way to meet like-minded folks would be to do something a little wacky — to fully invest in an exaggerated embodiment of some climate-related interests of mine, to really commit to the bit. That has absolutely panned out: on my academic visits and in everyday encounters throughout this trip, people with a passion for climate have seemed to just come out of the woodwork, perhaps responding to the same spirit that had moved me.

In the course of my adventure, I met one particularly important kindred spirit. His name is Charlie, and shortly after meeting, he and I realized we had been dreaming the same dreams about building a new type of climate community: a solar-powered research institute and retreat in the woods of Vermont.

So, we’ve decided to team up for a really big adventure that will make this solar-powered e-bike shenanigan look like child’s play. We’re calling this community-building project Infinite Woods.

I’m incredibly excited to keep working on Infinite Woods with Charlie, and I’ll definitely be writing about our progress. I hope you’ll stay tuned.

—Jake