Hi all,
Apologies for tardiness here. Sunday is strictly defined as the day that is both (1) the day after Saturday and (2) the day before the day I have to return to the horrors awaiting on my government issued HP laptop. Last week there simply was no day that met those extremely rigorous criteria. Hence no newsletter. Forgive me father. Also none of you sent me stuff about nyc pandemic summer either (sad!) so I will hold out hope on that.
As discussed, the primary purpose of this newsletter is to oil up ye ol hippocampus before it gets too rusty dusty musty in the throes of life. But the secondary purpose in writing is to embrace a little something I have come to call thrust theory. I’ll pitch it to you below, would love to hear if it resonates even a smidge (although maybe do not bother telling me if it does not. delicate ego.)
So the connotations for thrust are going to go ahead and be sexual. And frankly, that’s what makes a good theory (why else would we care about Freud?) as it (a) captures the attention of our lewd lusty twenty something brains and (b) provides us with some grounding imagery.
But, to complement any imagery I’ll do the most unoriginal cutesy writer’s trick and toss in some choice definitions from Mrs. Merriam Web:
Thrust
1. to push or drive with force
2. to press, force, or impose the acceptance of upon someone
And for us woman in stem, physics likes to defines thrust as a force orthogonal1 to something.
Regardless if you are taking the dick-or-dictionary2 approach I believe we have established a murky sort of concept of thrust going around. It’s somewhat aggressive, probably conspicuous, and fundamentally intrusive. Thrusting requires attention, a summoning of energy, and a concentrated motion forward. Confidence helps, but the real secret ingredient is conviction. Hesitant or measured thrusts are less likely to succeed; they tend to fall short or miss the intended target. And thus good thrusting precludes you from having a sort of awareness of what you are thrusting into; inevitably, you will disrupt equilibrium --butterfly effect vibes. Thus the best thrusters operate with a free conscious, having previously liberated themselves from any guilt in their past actions (hard to thrust when carrying baggage), and having proactively liberated themselves from the possibility of guilt in their future ones (no one seeks baggage).
For concreteness, here are some examples of thrusting:
asking for the wifi password
deciding when to leave the club
submitting something you wrote for publication
And a classic example of failure-to-thrust:
walking a mile out of your way because you were deep in conversation with someone and simply could not bring yourself to suggest that you turn around or maybe walk in a slightly different direction.
Obviously ranging in scale, but thrusting requires some level of initiative. And exposure. And going against the grain. And potential to offend.
But it’s come to my scattered attention that I am the inverse of thruster. I tend to be a receptacle of thrust, lazing back, supine, waiting for the conveyer belt of life to pass me by, and pluck what I want off of it. And that is probably why I’ve been jiving so well with New York. New York won’t stop thrusting. I’m literally being fucked every time I bike down Prince street, every time I toss $50 to the wind for a mediocre paloma, every time I overbook my Saturday night and spend my Sunday morning composing deliriously long messages articulating my crushing guilt in leaving a function early or arriving late. Getting thrusted at, you are stuck in response mode. You have no resolution remaining to thrust for what you want. Manifesting falls to wayside.
So, I am trying to be more of a thruster. Because thrusters have it great. Plunge into a situation, take what you want, and then head out. A clean, unembellished approach that is all the rage these days. Leave-no-trace. Au natural. Minimalist. Present and in-the-moment; thrusters are all about the experience. They do not need to hoard, save, or carry. They do not scoop. Rather, they are privileged by the confidence in their own thrusting. If they ever find themselves in a position of destitution again, all they need to do is thrust. There is no scarcity mindset in thrusting.
And I wonder how it feels to be a thruster in this world. Do they walk around on sturdy hind legs, flexed hips, glutes poised and eyes peeled for things to thrust into. Are all people, all institutions, soft and penetrable? Better having received your thrust? When someone (Marcus Aurielus??3) said “seize the day” did he really mean seize? Seizing denotes acquiring more, acquiring quickly becomes a burden, a duty, an onus on the seizer. and that sucks. Perhaps Marcus really meant thrust the day.
On a macro sense, we surely are supposed to thrust into life. But how does one get there. Are you born a thruster?4 Or it is learned, muscle memory, a movement growing more natural with each thrust? More instinctual once you reap the rewards? And is each thrust as satisfying as your first?
And then I wonder, what else is a thruster. What about ocean waves? (too rhythmic?) Sun’s rays? (too lovely?) Cars revving (too performative?) Anchovies in salad (too delicious?) What causes something to advocate for itself, possibly imposing on others, invading freedom, rapacious in space?
More questions than answers here. But I hosted people myself last night which is at least thrust-adjacent. Did I black out most of day ravaged in thrust fear? Yes. Did I adore watching my friends interact and have a truly marvelous night? Also yes.
On the other hand, you know who is really thrusting right now? Putin. So maybe we should keep this theory on the DL.
Thanks for reading! Have a thrusty sunday.
I simply love this word. If you use it in my presence I will feel sexual to you.
Apologies. I am insulting my readership in plucking the low hanging rotten and surely worm-ridden fruit that is a pun.
Seize the day is not, in fact, courtesy of Marcus. As a self identified Factless Individual, I’m trying to normalize the radical act of being dead wrong. does anyone care because does anyone actually care whether it was Horace or Marcus. not I said sarah fly!
I am disclosing that there is some risk factor associated with gender. But I will leave the reader to intuit which one.
Obsessed with this post. New York has a way of taking even the thrustiest of thrusters and gaslighting them into supine receptacles of thrust culture. Manifest thrust, be thrust, create thrust culture. Now, that's hot.