There is a lot to be said for starting something new — and also for having the follow-through to make it happen. I’ve been talking about this day (launching my Substack) for a year, at least, but it’s been all talk and action. After months of toing-and-froing, I finally summoned up the courage and figured that imperfect action was better than no action at all, and so here we are.
One of the reasons I’ve been struggling to start something new is because I couldn’t think of a name. It’s pretty ridiculous, but you wouldn’t believe the number of times in my life this one hang-up has stopped me from going after something I really wanted. It’s a rather ludicrous Achilles Heel — especially for someone who plays with words for a living.
But anyway, today I was thinking about this Substack and this Achilles Heel while I was on a bike ride (as has been my usual daily routine for the last few months), and I passed by a lemon tree just up the road from my house and noticed that the ground around the tree was covered with all these bright yellow lemons.
It made me think about how much lemons were a commodity when I lived in Cambodia a few years ago. On the (very) rare occasion they had ridiculously overpriced imported lemons in the local market, we’d buy them and literally pass them around at parties, with everyone having a scratch and a sniff of the skin — yeah, I know, it sounds like a blast.
Yup, 8 years ago my Insta name was Casadoodledoo and I had a little artist/graphic designer/photographer biz going on a little beach in Cambodia. I always hated that name too, but luckily I had a good word-of-mouth thing going instead.
Actually, it totally was a blast, but that was only because it was a place where such simple joys were so easy to come by — and much more easily embraced by the people who lived there. If I brought a lemon to a party here in Perth — where they’re in such abundance they are literally left to rot on the ground — people would probably just look at me like I was mad.
There’s a whole saying about worth, and how the same thing can be worth millions and absolutely worthless, depending on who’s looking at it. And, in that weird liminal space, even something as simple as a lemon can be everything and nothing all at once.
To me, lemons will always remind me of that beautiful shared moment of joy and simple pleasures. But they’ll also make me think of how sour and bitter they can be, and then there’s the saying “when life throws you lemons…”, and then the fact they’re literally a human-made hybrid and some sort of genetically-modified miracle.
I guess that’s the thing about a lot of the lemons life throws us — and the ways we deal with them. Sometimes they’re miracles, sometimes they’re sour as hell, sometimes they just don’t seem to stop coming, and then sometimes you go years without having any.
And, so, I guess that’s what this Substack will be about — lemons and lemonade, and how, no matter how horrible and bitter life can be, we can always find ways to add a little sugar and make it a little more palatable.
Thanks for being here.
Cass x