we laugh so that we do not cry but we end up crying anyway

a recap + recording of BATWRITE #001

yo man..that was great

Seriously man... I mean, a roller coaster. Fart games, suicide, and back again. Whew.

Your intro stuff was SO great, too.

Like.. really made the space ALIVE and not just "oh here we are, a Zoom call."

HECK YES.

— the king of alt-social-media , Seth Werkheiser, after BATWRITE #001

Well, that was pretty wild. Here’s the BATWRITE #001 recap + recording + the writing prompts + a lil reflection share from me.

1. There was a PowerPoint presentation that rocked everybody’s world.

2. We did two free writes with some cool sharing in between.

3. I read a poem based on somebody’s question on why it’s so hard to write about the good. Here’s that poem in case anyone’s curious:

One prompt in particular, number one, got a lot of love. So check that one out - it’s below the fold with the recording.

the good word

Here are some kind things that people said:

It was like a nice little gentle pressure, feeling like I wasn’t writing by myself. Like there was a little bit like, come on, get this done. It would be so great to get this done in this time. Like it was a little book end of a project. It was nice.

This is this is really good. Alex, you, you set the tone. Not just at the beginning of the call, but by being you this whole time…I probably had the most productive, good feeling writing bit that I’ve had in a long time.”

I was feeling like I was avoiding writing this essay for Sunday and kind of like, as soon as I told you all that I wasn’t going to work on that, I then realized that I was kind of like, it is like it’s, it’s never easy to start. So I was just like, just I’m going to just start. And, writing by hand is sometimes like a very loosening experience for me. So I did that. It went all right. I’m halfway done. Oh, yeah. Nice. Cool.

I finished up and hit publish on my blog.

I finally got to writing this thing. And what I’ve been wanting to write, and it went really well.

I finished a children’s story. To tell you the honest truth, with those two 30 minute sessions, and that’s pretty intense. That was awesome.

We came in after the break and all were talking about this paradox, this range, this like we can have funny, playful, good, happy things and we can have like really dark, heavy, hard grief type shit all at the same time because that’s called life.

UPCOMING BATCAVE EVENTS

• Wednesday, May 14: BATCAVE LIVE #002 (4-5pm EST)

• Saturday, May 17: BATWRITE (12-2p EST)

• Wednesday, May 21: BATWRITE (12-2p EST)

• Wednesday, May 28: BATCAVE LIVE #003 (4-5pm EST)

• Saturday, May 31: BATWRITE (12-2p EST)

Note: I made a google calendar that you should be able to subscribe to also by clicking here.

Also: If these dates don’t feel like they’re ideal for you, let me know. I can create other dates for people.

Quick share about my ‘experience’

For the first hour I felt like a gorilla was squeezing my heart and also he moved my heart so it was like near my right shoulder. It’s like dude, if you’re gonna squeeze and hurt my heart, fine, but relocation? Feels like a bit much.

Really it felt like I was like edging a panic attack.

But I kind of realized that that is the place I’m always in or always afraid to be in.

And there I was, just in it. and the center of it, frodo at mt. doom, hot as shit but I was still alive.

I didn’t know that at the time, but now I do. I made it. I was making it there. There’s something powerful about that.

Do I want a vacation there? Timeshare?

No.

But maybe just knowing that I can is powerful. So thanks to everybody for giving me that.

Mostly it tells me that there’s something there for me beyond just hanging out with cool people. Something important. Standing in that fire and going, ‘I’m still frodo,’

Afterwards, in the second hour and after and even now, there was a release. A lightness.

Love you all and cya soon.

Recording + prompts

You can find all of that good stuff here.