simplifying

If you been here recently, you might remember that I’ve been wondering whether this little space of the internet is helping us to reach toward each other in any meaningful way. 

Quietly, I’ve also been wondering whether I’ve compromised any part of myself in a quest for affirmation — I share, you respond, therefore I exist. Instead of trying to further explore that rabbit warren of thoughts, I’m going to trust what I know for sure: I like having this space.

We go through our years busy-ing ourselves with work and pleasure and community, yet despite it all, we still often feel so darn alone. We must reach for one another, constantly.  We have to try and crouch together, we have to try to laugh, to listen, to cry, to bear witness to each other’s lives… they are affirmations to our humanity and our deep and fundamental longing to know and be known ... this is what I believe: we were put here to hold on and hang in there, together. We’re here to seek each other and support and try our merry best to humble ourselves to the madness that is being alive together at the same time, rolling the dice, getting creative with hands outstretched to make the best of the whole thing.
- Kelsey Brown

I’ve been using Wordpress for decades and I’ve seen it grow and morph into a more and more complicated machine. I have also recently had to move my newsletter from the simplicity of TinyLetter to Mailchimp, which is bloated with features I don’t need or want or will ever use. Wordpress also now offers a newsletter in the product but it’s clunky and complicated and makes my head hurt as much as Mailchimp does.

Enter my quest for simplicity.

I considered a few options, like Squarespace and Format and Substack. None of them were viable for me (for reasons I won’t go into). Then I looked at Ghost. My husband already uses it and could help me move my site over. It’s got everything I need and has a beautiful, intuitive interface that is a pleasure to use.

So, here we are. Same site, with a new look and ghost mechanics under the hood instead of Wordpress.

If you were previously subscribed to receive new blog posts by email, you’ll get them from here too. If you were also subscribed to my newsletter, that will be sent from here as well. As they're now both triggered from here, the content might change, but the shape of things to come isn't clear to me yet. You’ll still have options to unsubscribe from either new blog posts, or the newsletter (or both) whenever you choose.

The main thing that’s different here is commenting. Ghost doesn’t support comments in the same way as Wordpress, so all the thousands of comments people left me on my old blog have gone. Now, if you’d like to comment, you need to be a member. It won’t cost you anything, it's simply a way to prevent spam (which was a huge issue for me using Wordpress).

Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.
- Andy Warhol

And so it goes. This is my little corner of the internet, and I’m happy to be in it. So, for now, I’ll keep being my own weird self over here. I’m glad of your company however long you visit.