Hey world! 🍃

Part 1 = August 📰

I know, we know, it is dÉÉp September, October is looming in the near distance, but our last report was about July, so we technically 'owe' you an August newsletter. It feels too late to write about August. August was summer. Summer is over. August is a memory. And I worry that as soon as you saw the word ‘August’ in the title of this e-mail, your brain labeled it ‘irrelevant’. People don't want to read about the paaast.. whispers my brain. People only want the futuuureeee

This comes up when I google relevance:

Last sentence makes me giggle, but to be honest, it also feels a little bit true. I finished a big project in June but haven't starting anything 'big' since and I can hear the brain-whispers starting already: you're becoming irrelevaaaannntttt

(Ok but wait, what is the matter at hand?)

As I ponder over the concept of irrelevance, one of my favourite salsa songs (oh yes, you guessed it, this is Emma writing) by Héctor Lavoe pops into my head. If you like, you can 🔊 play it too, in the background, maybe? In the song, Lavoe sings, melancholically:

🎵
Tu amor es un periodico de ayer
 (your love is a newspaper from yesterday) 

And the coro* sings:

¿Y para qué leer; un periódico de ayer? 
(and why would you read yesterday's newspaper?)

*RELEVANT INFO: the framework in this old salsa song is called Coro-Pregón; 
a call and response section between the lead singer and the coro (chorus).
In this case, the coro keeps singing the same question ("And why read a newspaper from yesterday?")
and singer Héctor keeps confirming that he doesn't want anything to do with this old newspaper/lover anymore
("Why should I read the story of a love I can't even believe?")

Listen, I deeply love this song, but – still thinking about relevance – I must question its message. Why wouldn't you read a slightly older newspaper?! Just because something happened a while ago doesn't mean it automatically loses its importance or meaning, does it? Time is such a boring way to 'measure' relevance - which isn't some universally agreed upon quality anyways – relevance indeed completely depends on the matter at hand. And the matter at hand is whatever we want it to be, babes! Anything can be relevant, as long as you🫵 declare🤌 the matter🤲 at hand🫱

Relevance is up to you: