The Feels This Week: Curating Comfort & Moving Moments
The title is from a show I remember watching as a little kid called ‘The World This Week’. No, this post has nothing to do with that show. But I have been seeking things that make me feel things that I like. Inspiration, amusement, revelation, affection, joy, happy nostalgia. Living is hard. But I can curate these feelings from the glut of media available to me. So here goes my list of things that gave me the feels this week:
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“Something moved me. I trust in the being moved.”
– Nate DiMeo, creator of The Memory Palace podcast.
99% Invisible is my all-time favorite podcast. Every episode is thoughtfully crafted. This episode came up on auto-play and when the guest Nate DiMeo said these words, the feels happened. It’s also what gave me the idea to curate these moments for myself. Trusting in being moved takes me to interesting places.
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‘Muskaanein Jhooti Hai’ sung by Suman Sridhar for film Talaash
I found music in 2024 in the form of karaoke events in parks. And then, bolstered by LizzyBeth’s company, I jumped into it with gusto. Then I lost my grip on the joy as people, politics and pettiness took over. Now LizzyBeth, she’s my friend – my gentle, giggly, mousy friend. Then she picks up the mic and transforms into a demonic rockstar with a voice to match. This deserves a post of its own except my words can’t do it justice.
I tried to retrieve the music from these memories by singing alone. It was fun but not the same thing. So I listened to LizzyBeth’s first rendition at these events. And since that is not available online, I’ll give you the original song, also sung by a wonderful singer who sneaks her way into you with indescribable feels.
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“If you’re forced to go around the table at thanksgiving and say what you’re grateful for, indoor plumbing is a good bet. Even if the manhole covers in your area are not painted like in Osaka.”
Roman Mars, host of 99% Invisible
A second 99PI reference! I started listening to this podcast when I was cooking, an activity fraught with a lot of anxiety. The podcast soothed my fevered brain by giving it something tangible to focus on. And so much was made easier by the calm, friendly voice of the host, Roman Mars. The whole episode is a delight of elevating the mundane and showcasing the quiet (focus on ‘quiet’) pride of those who do their job well for the satisfaction of doing it that way. Coincidentally (or maybe not as there’s no such thing according to Richard Bach), in the same week a friend has been posting pictures of her travels, with a special focus on the beautiful manhole covers.
This sentence came up in the middle of a sponsored episode for a bank. How do you organically fit in the corporate message of banking into a podcast about design? It was a valient effort. And this sentence was one of the ways that he eased in the awkwardness between the two themes. I laughed when I heard it. And that was after a moment of piqued interest in what to do at thanksgiving (a festival I don’t celebrate as I’m not American). Maybe it’s just Roman Mars. Still, the feels. He makes even toilet sanitation sound brilliant.
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Quality content that offers up the feels moments is so rare that I hoard it and dole it out to myself as little rewards. It also means that I can’t casually snack on it. It has to be earned. Thus 99PI is not for the daily soul-suck of the day. I went for a walk-for-exercise today, an activity I don’t much enjoy. It has none of the meditativeness of swimming and all the self-esteem drain of health issues. I couldn’t find anyone to accompany me or get on a call with me so I was left alone with my thoughts. Try being meditative on a Mumbai road as mosquitos, traffic and polllution take turns having a go at you!
I yanked myself out of my mood and thumbed through podcasts searching. I sampled a few before landing on this one. I liked the way she sounded. So many podcast presenters have dreary monotones or screechy hyperbole! And just too many of them take too damn long to start the episode while they drag us through the names of every minute that led to that point, Oscar-speech style. Ashley didn’t. I thought that would be good enough to keep me company through the hour long walk. It wasn’t serious enough for me to have to fret about missing something because I wasn’t alert enough in the evening. It also didn’t annoy me with irritating accents or ad-style disruptive messaging or men talktalktalktalking. And this pearl at the start of the episode gave me the feels.
“I am a recovering people-pleaser.”
Ashley Corbo, host of Trying Not To Care podcast
I ended up listening to the whole episode and rolling over into the previous one too. Nothing particularly stood out in either but that’s fine.
In the previous episode, Ashley begins with the realisation that she doesn’t have to sound perfect or like she’s teaching us, the audience something. So she says, she’ll just go back to how she began – by talking about her life. Sounds good, Ashley. The feels are where it’s at.
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The best thing about being a blogger is not having to make space for the hundreds of people I am in my head. I lay each voice into a post as often as I can. And I have 20 years worth of posts to dip back into like a magic grab-bag of things that have moved me.
When I write a new post, I usually search for certain terms to see if there’s anything in my archives I can link to. And often those searches are serendipitous as they bring me things I had forgotten saying, thinking, feeling. It’s often a feeling of “I said that? When was I ever this wise?”
It’s like having a best friend on tap. This was what that best friend gifted me when I was looking for ways to weave my last post into my blog.
“A love bite is also a bruise. Forgive yourself for needing some pain. Go easy on yourself if you associate hurt with love.”
I hope you can stay in your feelings and also feel safe and nurtured.