MOAR freudenfreude, please

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Whatup Reader!

The Olympics got me over here developing anxiety while simultaneously falling into a depression, immediately followed by incredible frustration at the sheer number of gotdamn commercials that Peacock insists upon airing. Do they not realize how much happens in 15 seconds of a beach volleyball match, never-mind 2 whole minutes?!

Emotional rollercoasters aside, I honestly just want to use this email to brag on my friend Lauren, who I wrote about a few week ago.

This past Sunday, Lauren and 1,499 other people with questionable sanity but incredible lung capacity, completed the 1.5-mile Dwight Crum pier-to-pier swim. A physical feat like this is honestly beyond my comprehension (like, wut?!), which makes it that much cooler, and a total no-brainer for today’s email topic.

If you zoom in and squint, I think you can see Lauren ;-)

Circling back to the Olympics, I think one of the reasons we all love them so much is that it gives us an opportunity to cheer on dope people doing super dope things…and we don’t even know those people!

Yes, I will always be partial to athletic pursuits and achievements (which is why the homie, Lauren, got not one but two dedicated emails), but I believe that cheering for people, irrespective of the pursuit, can bring with it so much happiness (have ya’ll be on Threads?!), and joy, and inspiration, and motivation, that I want to offer it up as an action item for those of you who may need a little positivity uplift in your life. Bonus points if it’s cheering for someone who you actually know.

When it comes to pursuits and achievements, my absolute least favorite questions to be asked is, “What has been your biggest failure?”

I hate this question because I believe that it ultimately plays into a form of what the Germans call ‘schadenfreude’, which is defined as the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, pain, suffering, or humiliation of another.

Yes, perhaps the question askers are hoping that the question will generate a response that people find helpful because they can learn from it, but I do believe that there are far better questions to choose from if that’s the goal.

My suggestion is that we pull a Missy Elliot, put that thing down flip it and reverse it, and we lean into is what the Germans call ‘freudenfreude’, which describes being happy for someone else’s joy or success.

MOAR of this please.

I realize that living in a time of social media rage-baiting, insane inflation, and general world-wide horrendousness can make this ask feel incredibly difficult, but, as evidenced by the general sentiment surrounding the Olympics, I think it’s exactly what the world needs.

So, my soft suggestion and two pennies for today, go cheer for someone.

Happy Tuesday, Reader.

Maestro out.

PS - If you're new here, MOAR is just a bigger, badder, better way to spell more.

Do the thing.