Have a Good Day Out of Spite
It’s hard to believe that it’s Spring already. These first few months of 2026 have been a whirlwind of emotions for me. And that’s not even taking into account the political state of the world. I finished my bachelor’s degree in February and my commencement is next month. I learned some things that were very depressing and hard to swallow. I came out as genderqueer and bisexual, and then my partner came out as transgender — which was all good news. And I always get seasonal depression during the cold months, so all this emotional whiplash has been interesting.
Good is good. Bad is bad. And that will always be true.
And I find myself agreeing with the Pope on a nearly daily basis. I don’t know that I’ve ever found myself agreeing with popes or just generally nodding and yelling “thank you for saying it!”
How has the start to your year been? What have been your ups and downs? Share what you are willing to via the comments or email — if you’d prefer to keep it quiet.
Persist and have a good day out of spite.
Let’s talk mental health for a few moments. I haven’t done that in a bit. In case you didn’t know or forgot, I have Bipolar 2 and suffer with that and all the joy that brings as well as anxiety. It can be easy to fall prey to the algorithms and constant flow of negative chatter when you are prone to depressive episodes and anxiety. I often try to turn to things that bring me joy. A lot of that involves writing or performing. Sometimes both. Dancing, as you know, is also something that brings me joy and I need to make another silly dance video.
What do you turn to when you need to lift your spirits?
If you’ve had some bad days lately because of others, or the world around you, make a choice to have a good day out of spite. Existence, good existence, can be rebellion.
As someone who was raised in an abusive home, I am a firm believer in the fact that I exist in spite of her efforts. An abused child that “turns out ok” does so of their own accord. That despite all of their abusive parent’s efforts, that child persisted and marched head held high into adulthood.
It’s the highest form of rebellion.
Maybe you’ve never experienced abuse, but know that you can still learn from this message. You can choose to persist in spite of that shit job that is trying to keep you down or your government that is trying to legislate you out of existence. You can take this message and tuck it in your sleeve like a cigarette pack for later when you need it — for a moment when you need to persist in spite of your situation.
Speaking of writing and performing.
I’m working on a Nancy Drew horror mystery story for the Halloween serialized story this year. Nancy Drew entered the public domain at the start of the year. I’m having a field day with this story, reading the first Nancy Drew novel, and just generally having a hard time not developing a whole Nancy Drew series. I currently have a trilogy of story ideas that I may pursue that I may call Nancy Drew Decades — the first (which I’m writing) takes place in the 1950s when she’s a teen, the second would take place in the 1970s when she’s in her thirties, and the third would take place in the 1990s when she’s an older and wiser woman (think Murder, She Wrote).
And here’s a fun announcement…
I’m writing a song for the Nancy Drew story. I often have multimedia ideas when I’m writing a story, but I don’t typically pursue them. For example, I have a whole animated opening credits sequence concept for Jonah of Olympic that I haven’t pursued. Well, this Nancy Drew story, which I’m calling The Secret of Rowdy Ruby, has a rock ’n’ roll song that is written by a teenage boy in the story. He performs it to bully and utterly ruin the reputation of his girlfriend when they’re in high school. So it’s fun but also very mean spirited. I’ve written the lyrics and Chris Spirit Brown, a friend and semi-frequent indie filmmaking collaborator of mine here in St. Louis, is composing the music and we’re going to record it for the release of the story in October. I’m super excited to bring this together and can’t wait to hear the finished product.
To tease you, here is the opening spoken stanza from the song:
Hello, fellas, and ladies too.
Let me tell ya about a girl I thought I knew.
She came on strong and her love was grand.
But it turned out she’s not into a man.
Wish us luck on the recording!
And one more tease… the first two Halloween specials for the newsletter had historical figures, so now I kind of feel like I have to deliver on that. It’s now a thing. There will be not one but two historical figures making an appearance in The Secret of Rowdy Ruby. I’m super excited about one in particular and I hope you’ll be as hyped as I am when her entrance takes place in the story. It’s gonna be fun. And I can’t wait to start writing her part of the story.
MUSIC: “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” by Stevie Wonder.
I wanted to close out on a nice, upbeat piece of music today, so turn it up and let the music groove you. Groove is in the heart, they say.
