How to Throw a Pity Party

the art of feeling good and sorry for yourself

Throwing a proper pity party is an important life skill, and one that will come in handy these next few years. Let’s take a few moments to learn how to do it right.

In this video I explain:

• Who NOT to invite to your pity party

• In a partner pity party, how to be a puppy

• Why one is the loneliest number and best for a pity fest

• Why you should ignore the advice of the blind youth leader of the French resistance, Jacques Lusseyran, who you should definitely not invite

• Vandana Shiva’s solid advice on leisure wear for sulking

• How ‘give it to God’ and ‘give it to the belly’

• What to eat and how to be your own BFF who calls you ‘honey’

• What to do when you’ve had your fill of wallowing

• The pity party playlist, roller skates optional

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I can’t send you to more like this because I don’t have any. But here’s What’s the Best that can Happen?:

My daughter Cassandra has a new question, "what's the best that can happen?" I apply this to global events and the coup to take over our bodies, minds and world. I share some of the things that give me joy: Rob Brezsny's Love Bombs, Wendall Berry's The Power of Place, David Graeber and David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything, and Caitlin Johnstone's Confused Species in an Awkward Transition Phase.

and this includes The Epiphany Jumpstart on Gabor Mate:

Responding to four interviews between Gabor & Russell Brand, this far-ranging episode discusses religion, faith & spirituality, Palestine, politics, pandemics & parenting, aboriginal art, the three brains of the body & anthropologists from Mars. At Gabor's suggestion, I delve into The Globalization of Addiction by Bruce Alexander (of Rat Park fame) on the dislocation common to slavery, money & addiction, bringing in David Graeber's Debt: the First 5000 Years. Bruce's essay, “What Shakespeare Knew About Addiction and We've Forgotten,” looks at addiction as a "semantic palimpsest" and its connection to devotion. In his second existential crisis he calls for epochal social change as the only way to bring about psychological health. I find that Gabor and I share a go-to deadly sin and I analyze his marriage, with much admiration. I begin by talking about the second greatest force in the universe, which I think is a person who changes their mind, and I end with the most powerful force that I call the epiphany jumpstart.