Check the songs you only play with the door shut. They know things about you your friends don’t.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
A private playlist is an unusually honest document. Anything you only play alone was chosen with no thought for how it looks, which means it is attached to something real: a mood you do not advertise, a year of your life, a version of you your friends have not met. Embarrassment about it is a sign it is working. Public taste is partly a signal, while private taste is just taste.
Go through yours and ask what each one is actually for. Then stop treating the list as something to hide, at least from yourself. Play one for somebody who will not be clever about it.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Which songs do you play only when the door is closed?
MORE IN SOLITUDE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE
- Sit in the empty bleachers after everyone leaves. Places sound different when the noise is gone, and so do you.
- Your pet doesn’t care if you’re popular. Being around something that loves you without a performance is a good reset.
- “I’ll start Monday” is a sentence worth noticing. Count how many Mondays it has already survived.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.