OUT OF OUR ELEMENT with Dan Malossi and Lauren Roedy Vaughn

The Players:

LRV = Lauren Roedy Vaughn

DM = Dan Malossi

LRV:  I wrote to one of my nieces the other day. An actual letter. Because I enjoy being anachronistic. In the letter, I wrote that she couldn’t be anything she wanted, but she could be everything she was meant to be. 

This is not a limiting idea. It’s an expansive one. 

Striving to be everything we’re meant to be—instead of anything we want to be—sets us on a right path. 

For me, the alternative is jealousy of all those who can afford to buy homes with actual yards and no HOAs in Los Angeles. When not on my right path, I meander down a particularly treacherous shame spiral.

I can’t have anything I want (like said home), but I can still be everything I’m meant to be. Which might end up being a person who pushes back on my HOA because they claimed in an email to have fixed the rotted wood on my window box when in reality they didn’t do anything. I do not enjoy being gaslit. That’s part of my “everything.”

We all start out with the seeds of something unique within us. The nature of those seeds are not under our control. An acorn grows to become a big, beautiful, badass oak tree. It’s best if the acorn can find a way to love being that acorn— instead of, say, wanting to be the CEO of a multinational corporation. Acorns often fail in this latter role.

May our dreams align with the essence of ourselves. 

May we do all we can to grow and become within the boundaries of our fate. 

Because I think there is an elegant design inside each of us that should be valued.   

Dan, what do you think? Am I out of my element?

DM: No, you are decidedly IN your element. 

When I was nine, I was sure I’d play shortstop for the Mets. All signs pointed that way, at least from my egocentric perspective. Alas…you’ll not find me listed on Baseball Reference.

I couldn’t be anything I wanted to be, but I spend a great deal of time trying to be everything I was meant to be.

I realize I’m lucky to have the luxury of this time. Speaking of which, gotta get drafting…see you all soon!