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Patreon Subscriber Drive

—WEEK TWO—

Patreon is a crowdfunding platform designed to help fund episodic creative content like this humble newsletter. We're calling this month a subscriber drive and we're going to give you (1) more Three Things and (2) some 3T swag to everyone who supports us on Patreon (hint: its a mug!).

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Patreon helps us keep the lights on and defrays the costs of producing this newsletter. If you like Three Things, consider becoming a patron. You can support the newsletter for $1, $5, or more per month.

Subscriber Survey

We would like to pick your brain about a few things, so we made a short survey (only five questions).

We'd like to know what you want to see from Three Things in 2020. More Feature articles? Curated guides for the best resources on a given topic? A reader feedback section on each issue? Check out the survey and let us know your thoughts.

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Misc. Things Feature

Mr. Rogers's Enduring Wisdom by Tom Junod

Tom Junod, a journalist known for exposing hard truths, was assigned to profile Mr. Rogers in 1998. His Esquire editors thought he might make magazine-selling waves with a cynical take on a man known above all – in television and in life – for his kindness.

Instead, Junod walked away deeply changed by the experience of following Fred Rogers around for a period of weeks. It's a beautiful work of nonfiction, and a powerful example of how transformative it is to simply be cherished by someone. Read "Can You Say... Hero?" over at Esquire.

Rogers, who died in 2003, has reappeared in the recent documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? and feature film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, where he is played by Tom Hanks. (Matthew Rhys stands in for Tom Junod.)

Twenty-one years later, Junod again took up the subject of his friend Fred Rogers to reflect on the film and the relevance of one man's deep goodness to his own life and ours. Read "Mr. Rogers's Enduring Wisdom" at The Atlantic.

Bonus: To complete the circle, another journalist found herself in tears when interviewing another cultural figure celebrated for his kindness, Tom Hanks. Read "This Tom Hanks Story Will Help You Feel Less Bad" over at The New York Times.

Shortly before writing this paragraph, Andy realized that when he said he was going to make an issue of 3T every week instead of every month, it meant he was going to have to think of something to put in the Miscellany each week also. So, it is poetry this week.

Occasionally, Andy dabbles in poetry (that English degree has got to be good for something, after all) and he thought he'd share of few of his own pieces. Here is one about the experience of being a student at L'Abri, one inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest, one about grace modeled after George Herbert's poem Prayer I, and two about death using the metaphor of crossing ice.

Phillip returned to one of his favorite podcasts on the drive back from Michigan this weekend: Heavyweight, in which humorist Jonathan Goldstein helps old friends and complete strangers deal with their unfinished business.

Goldstein’s dry delivery keeps Phillip chuckling, but he also ends up strangely moved by the end of each episode, particularly the ones where Jonathan lends his services to close friends. He’s a tenacious encourager with a disarming sense of humor and the willingness to creatively walk alongside his friends as they face up to their fears, failures, and missed opportunities.

Heavyweight is redemptive in the truest sense and always makes Phillip want to be a better friend. Check out the episodes about Gregor or Marie Claude to find out why.

Thanks for reading!

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