The Joy Menu
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75–On the Rue de Rome.
His letters pull me from the sea like a line from a fishing pole: there’s a wrenching, a pulling back, a removal from the comfortable, from home, from an unthinking way of just being.
Feb 26
74–It feels as if you are a time traveler.
But the writer is also him, a him he did know, later; when you were 17, heading into the world, leaving for college, he had this writer inside of him. It just never occurred to you.
Feb 12
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What comes from grief?
Introducing The Joy Menu, a narrative newsletter exploring death, loss, grief, art, and creativity.
Aug 30, 2020
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73–From a futon in France.
But it also eats away at a more core belief around who I am, and how this project negates or reaffirms my identity: if I truly were a writer, then I would drop everything and follow his lead...
Jan 29
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The Joy Menu #46: Permission
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The Joy Menu #51: Drop
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The Joy Menu #66: Lack
5
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The Joy Menu #69: Unknowability
5
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71–This project, recalibrated.
5
The Joy Menu #61: Tale
5
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72–A preface, in the middle of things.
What matters is, I tucked them away; aware of their power but not of what they were. Honored, confused, horrified, excited.
Jan 15
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71–This project, recalibrated.
#71. And in writing about this grief – grief for him, and grief for myself as an artist – I renovated my relationship to art.
Jan 1
5
The Joy Menu #70: Pain
And at every juncture, each time I saw a doctor or a specialist or a nurse or a phlebotomist, they’d ask “And the pain?”
Sep 11, 2022
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The Joy Menu #69: Unknowability
“It is forgetfulness that is the fundamental problem, not memory.” — Patrick Modiano
Jul 5, 2022
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The Joy Menu #68: Cello
In a way, while the sale was open, while the cello remained unsold, part of my father remained alive. Far from view, over the crest of the horizon, but…
Jun 20, 2022
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The Joy Menu #67: Home
“Hey boychik,” the refined voice on the other side of the world says. “How’s school? How’s soccer? How’s the cello?”
May 15, 2022
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The Joy Menu #66: Lack
Perhaps there was comfort in the constriction, a perverse safety in the pressure. Perhaps the door served as a weighted blanket – protection from…
May 1, 2022
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The Joy Menu #65: Movies
That was the drug, I think. That liminality, that escape, that floating, etherial disconnection — or re-connection. I wonder: how many lives did he live…
Apr 24, 2022
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See all
Most popular
The Joy Menu #46: Permission
4
3
The Joy Menu #51: Drop
6
The Joy Menu #66: Lack
5
1
The Joy Menu #69: Unknowability
5
2
71–This project, recalibrated.
5
The Joy Menu #61: Tale
5
1
See all popular
The Joy Menu
writing grief, grieving writing; or, a life in 100 emails.
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The Joy Menu
writing grief, grieving writing; or, a life in 100 emails.
By Joey Rubin
· Launched 3 years ago
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