Ampersand Gazette #77

Welcome to the Ampersand Gazette, a metaphysical take on some of the news of the day. If you know others like us, who want to create a world that includes and works for everyone, please feel free to share this newsletter. The sign-up is here. And now, on with the latest … 

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I Starred in ‘Cabaret.’ We Need to Heed Its Warning.

This past week marked 58 years since the opening night for the Broadway premiere of “Cabaret” in 1966. At the time, the country was in deep turmoil. The composer John Kander, the lyricist Fred Ebb, and the playwright Joe Masteroff wrote “Cabaret” in collaboration with the director Harold Prince as a response to the era. The parallels between the rise of fascism in 1930s Berlin as depicted in the show and the mounting tensions of the 1960s in America were both obvious and ominous.

I played the Emcee—the Kit Kat Club’s master of distraction, keeping Berlin mesmerized while Nazism slipped in through the back door. I witnessed audiences grappling with the raw, unsettling reflection that “Cabaret” held up to them. Some material was simply too much for the audience to handle.

In our time, the show should serve as a glaring reminder of how dangerously easy it is to accept bigotry when we are emotionally exhausted and politically overwhelmed. “Cabaret” was a warning against the seductive power of distraction, the dangers of apathy, and the perils of looking away when history demands that we look closer.

Now, in 2024, we find ourselves in a different, far more precarious moment. There’s a sense that we have seen this show before, that we know how it ends, and that we’re powerless to stop it.

The democratic election of an authoritarian figure, the normalization of bigotry, the complicity of the frightened masses—none of these are new themes. We have indeed seen this show before, and I fear we do know how it ends. It’s understandable to want to retreat, to find solace where we can, but we cannot afford to look away.

Excerpted from an Opinion Essay in The New York Times by Joel Grey
“I Starred in ‘Cabaret.’ We Need to Heed Its Warning.”
November 24, 2024 

I am not the only one who sees significance in Broadway musicals. They, like any artform of its time, are mirrors of the zeitgeist, a really good word sourced in German which comes from roots meaning time + spirit, hence, the spirit of the time. 

Mr. Grey’s warning in The New York Times is heartfelt. Nazism is certainly nothing that caring people would desire to embrace today. 

A spate of history quotes has managed to infiltrate my inbox of late. How about you? Try these on for size: 

“The sins of the fathers are visited unto the sons unto seven generations.” Variations on scripture 

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Karl Marx 

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana 

Everywhere I turn I am reminded that I am (allegedly) burned out, distracted, used up, exhausted, overwhelmed, and that half of the populace of the country I live in is enraged, outraged, raged, and not going to take it anymore. 

Manners, in a lot of venues, seem to have taken a powder. 

I am urged over and over again to continue to act, to be politically motivated in the face of discouragement, that we can’t stop now. Unsolicited text messages randomly blow up my quiet evenings. Every single one of these things may very well be a fact, but, Beloved, they are not, not a one of them, the Truth. 

The truth is that even after the election, we still live in a universe based upon the first principle of life: order. There are no mistakes. Everything happens for a reason. Everything has a meaning. Universal laws still appertain to our experience. 

On the same day that Mr. Grey’s essay ran, so did one entitled “Don’t Let Donald Trump Drive You Into Internal Exile” by Miriam Elder. She reported from Russia for eight years, and her notion of internal exile gave me the willies. 

She lived through the experience of an exhausted populace not knowing what to do next, and what she saw was chilling. People simply withdrew from life. They, perhaps as Mr. Grey suggests, in the desire for solace, had had enough, and they tuned out. She calls it “internal emigration.” It echoes Timothy Leary’s 1966 mantra, “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” And we’re right back to “Cabaret.” 

To cop a phrase from the Emcee, “Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome.” Here we are. It’s 2024. The presidential election has happened. We think we might know what the next four years could hold, and some of us are in need of solace, of rest, of inner peace, and of a plan for how to live, choose, believe, and behave—for solace—throughout this next phase of the evolution of our species. 

The best part of that news is that solace is available to everyone, everywhere, everywhen, at no cost to anyone. 

Yes, do go internal, but not in internal exile.
Yes, seek and develop the best of yourself. Yes, intend the highest good you can imagine for the whole world.
Yes, make daily choices to thrive, to be grateful, to care for and about others, to choose gentleness over violence, and to live according to your own interior integrity—another word for wholeness. Yes, live in Yes, not No. 

No one has the power to take these options from you. No one.  

It doesn’t matter, Beloved, if it’s 1930s Berlin, on Broadway, the 1960s, or the White House in 2025, or your house, we are hard-wired for healing, for growth, for learning. Welcome in the things you need every day.  

Cabaret is an old, old word. It comes from Old Picard meaning little room. That’s the real healing for us all. Let us go into the little, safe, full of love room within ourselves every day, and remember who we are, why we are here, what we are doing, and how it will benefit all of us. 

“Life is a cabaret, old chum. Come to the cabaret.” I’ll meet you there. 

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There Is No Leadership Without Risk

There has never been a more difficult time to lead anything. Indeed, many of the best would-be leaders I know are asking, why would I even want to be a leader?

As I prepare to step down from the Ford Foundation, I see a gathering crisis of leadership. Leadership is an action, not a title. Increasingly, I worry that well-intentioned boards of directors counsel caution, not conscience.Sometimes, discretion is well advised and appropriate. But courageous, moral leadership demands more. Because it challenges us to recognize that bringing light is often worth enduring the heat, especially in moments of profound challenge. We have become, simply put, anti-socialized.  

Leadership—a communal exercise by definition—is relentlessly undermined. One indispensable solution is the thing contemporary culture deters and disparages: bold, undaunted, audacious leaders. We need leaders who manifest a moral capacity to embrace the nuance and complexity. 

We cannot move forward, however unevenly, without courageous visionaries blazing new paths that illuminate the way for all of us to follow. The responsibility rests on all of our shoulders—in the ways we lead, in the ways we choose our leaders, and in the ways we allow ourselves to be led. 

Excerpted from an Opinion Essay by Darren Walker in The New York Times
“There Is No Leadership Without Risk”
October 20, 2024 

Here’s a little bit of Zen for you. If you are a leader who has no followers, are you still a leader? Conversely, if you are a follower who has no leader, are you still a follower? 

Leaders and followers need one another. Whether we know it or not, or like it or not, we all need one another. There’s a reason for this. You see, you and I are both leaders and followers at the same time. We lose sight of that at our extreme peril. 

You don’t have to have been top dog at the Ford Foundation as Darren Walker was to be a leader either.  

Believe me, when the brakes in our new little gumdrop car, Gilda, began to squeak, Dan the Mechanic was my total, completely trustworthy leader. I followed his advice. I told him I’d return the favor when he needed to know whether to take his mother off life support or not. He shook my hand and accepted my offer. 

Now, I took a risk in trusting Dan just as he will take a risk when it comes time to trust me. All of us as both leaders and followers are at risk. In fact, when it comes right down to it, life is a risk. Since when did risk-free become a criterion for a good life? A risk-free life is a dull life. 

If you, like so many of us right now, are having a rough time putting your trust in our leaders, there’s a path back into the trust that’s needed. The first step is to figure out where you’re not trusting yourself. Surprised? Most of us are. 

When people come to me and tell me they have trust issues, they usually follow that statement with a proof-text of a story. This happened to me, ergo … I have trust issues. Yeah? I don’t think so. I think trust issues come from not knowing ourselves well enough to discover that we, and our finely tuned instincts and intuitions, are trustworthy. 

Here’s one example: think of the people you know who won’t buy something, let’s say a can opener, unless they’ve read all the reviews. Are we in that much need of agreement from others to validate our own choices? I think a lot of us are. We’ve lost trust in ourselves. Over a can opener? 

So assignment one is to lead yourself. Just yourself. Get familiar with your will, your choices, how you make them, how you like or don’t like them, and get real about where you are leading yourself in your own life. When that becomes clear, and you have worked with the nuance and complexity of your own soul, only then are you qualified to lead others. 

As Darren Walker says, “… bringing light is often worth enduring the heat.” Heat is almost always a component of transformation, Beloved, the element of fire, which represents Spirit. Sure, you’ll bring some heat, you’ll take some heat, you’ll give some heat when you shine your light, but never forget that the world needs your light—and your heat—today and every day. 

Lead on, Belovèd, lead on. 

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Here’s a universal affirmation. It works every time, for everyone, always and forever …

Mike Dooley
with a little + from me …

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And in publishing news …  

Well, here is one of the most exciting things that’s ever happened to me … 

I have a feature article on Forbes.com! According to the author, it’s garnering quite a few views, more each day! All kinds of folks have commented on it wherever it’s been posted. Gilded Age is, of course, in the general population due to Bridgerton. And I’ve gotten some lovely things from writers, especially those who don’t outline like me. Here’s one: 

“Oh, this is so good! I write that same way. It was validating to see it explained like that.” 

An excerpt: When asked about her writing schedule, Corso offers a perspective that underscores her dedication to her craft. “I don’t schedule time to write. I don’t schedule time to breathe either. That’s what I do,” she states. This approach reflects her deep commitment to storytelling and her belief in the power of fiction to explore important themes. 

“More than anything, I wanted to write stories about people who try to live by their own principles,” Corso says. “One of the things that makes the world difficult right now is that very few people are taught to have their own ethos: What do you believe? What’s important to you? And why?” 

Here’s the URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/courtstroud/2024/11/29/susan-corso-crafting-spiritual-fiction-in-the-gilded-age/  

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I was very gratified to be invited to contribute to this podcast episode of The Skeptic Metaphysicians.  

 We invited some of our favorite past guests, including spiritual leaders and healers like Susan Gold, Dr Gayle Thomas and TARP, Faith Streng, Alysa Rushton, Leora Leon, Dr. Susan Corso, and more, to share their wisdom on managing these feelings.  

We discuss grounding techniques, validation of emotions, the role of trauma, and the importance of inner power. We also emphasize the significance of creating new societal structures, maintaining personal sovereignty, and fostering unity through compassion. Join us as we navigate these deep emotional times together, offering supportive insights and practical exercises for inner peace and collective healing. Remember, your feelings are valid, and we are all in this together. Insights from Spiritual Leaders: Dr. Susan Corso 23:42  

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Here’s Vikki’s final work up for the pin. See why I use a pro? My mock-up from the last Gazette looked nothing like this.  

I’ll be honest: the day I realized I didn’t have to be an expert on everything was a day of total freedom for me.  

Now I have permission to play on Canva all I like, and then turn over my paltry efforts to the professional. She cleans it up, clears it up, and sends it back. I’ve never had Vikki not get at what I wanted on the first try. That’s a downright miracle. So here’s the comedy-tragedy mask pin I wanted all along for The Mex In-Betweens because of Mex’s theatrical bona fides. Gorgeous, no? 

The Mex In-Betweens have now officially been read aloud, ergo, edited. Tony and I had a lot of fun reading them. Mex is definitely a character, and because I haven’t been actively researching or writing a new Mex recently, I forgot how fun she is. I’m just waiting for one URL to be settled with my web witch, and the paperback cover, and it’ll be good to go. Meanwhile, the research for Book Eleven, Shrew This!, is ready for the writing deities whenever they give me the Go. It’s a romp and a new take on Taming of the Shrew. 

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My review request this issue is … if you love queer romance, would you please read Attending Physician—the permafree book that starts my Boots & Boas Romances? If you love it, would you leave a stellar review? I need three more reviews of four stars and above to do one of my special series promotions … please.  

Reviews really are the engine that powers the career of an indie author. 

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Besieged has been through the first stage of the editorial process. I read it in full, then I do what I call Evil Words. I finished them a week ago, and then I reread the book again. That took me to three potential smallish-big issues that I laid at my editor’s capable feet before I sent it to him on Friday. Now we are on to stage two of the editorial process: he reads and edits the whole thing using Track Changes. That’ll probably take a week or so.   

Book Two is up next, and the research has already begun. The title is Betrayed.  

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Who knows what I’ll write next? 

I do! The leap to Impending Decision, the fifth book of The Boots & Boas Romances, from Jacqueline Retrograde is not so far—both feature debutante stories, except a century apart. Details! So that’s one decided. Oddly—I wouldn’t have thought this—but Jaq Direct, the final book of The Subversive Lovelies, is also next because of the spate of recent articles on that American moral hysteric, smut-smasher Anthony Comstock.  

So the day has definitely come when I’ll be writing two books at one time. I finished the Evil Word list for Besieged, and now I merely await the Official Go from the Author Angels. I know it’s coming when I get the urge to purge … things, you know, clean out closets, refold what I’m keeping, inventory for giveaway. I felt the first impetus Sunday morning. 

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There really is something to the day I finish a draft, reread, do Evil Words, and then read the latest book again, and then send it to my favorite editor, Tony Amato. He’s my favorite for lots of reasons, but mostly it’s because, after editing my work for so many years, I know I can completely let go and trust that he’ll treat the book with every bit of his careful and caring attention. My first experience working with a professional editor at a traditional publishing house years ago was, um, not so … comfortable. We can leave that there for now. 

Tony has a magical combination of talents that serves authors and their books in a way unlike any other editor I know of. So often editors can be people who wish they were writers, and that little bit of envy can make them treat writers with a little bit of a dig in their interactions. As an author, I can tell you that’s no fun. So to have someone who will genuinely partner with you to work on your book (instead of the one they’d have written) is manna from heaven. In all seriousness, as Leah from Upending Tradition, Book Four of The Boots & Boas Romances would say, I know a guy.  

May I encourage you to reach out if you need book-husbanding? He’s worked on fiction, micro-fiction, memoir, science fiction, metaphysical fiction, young adult fiction, erotica, poetry, singles, series, audio scripts, and nonfiction in realms from business to the spiritual, and everything in between. Oooh, also in-betweens! Really, you name it, he’s done it. Like I said, if you need anything in your writing life, Tony Amato is the person. Find him here.  

Oooh, and … he’s got a new Substack: He’s writing his more than 30 years of insights about writing.

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I don’t usually review my own books but … this is what I’ve been reading lately. I have to reread a whole series before I write the next one so for the sake of Jaq Direct … 

Jasmine Increscent

A wedding. Increasing. And it’s time to start her vicety … it’s a three-ring circus—oh, my.

Jasmine Bailey is the second eldest of the Bailey siblings, yes, those Baileys. Known for being much more in the present than the future, years earlier she’d begun a one-woman mission to serve mothers who’d been abandoned by their spouses in the worst slum ever to darken New York City: Five Points. Universally recognized by her honorific, Lady Jasmine, throughout Gilded Age society, the wealthy take their checkbooks in hand whenever they see her strawberry blonde braid and her lissome figure coming.

Now it’s time for Jasmine’s vicety—the second of four the sibs had planned upon the death of their beloved father four years earlier. Since then, Jezebel’s pair of viceties—The Obstreperous Trumpet, a saloon, and The Salacious Sundae, an ice cream parlor—were going great guns. Jasmine had originally intended to create a high-end gambling hell. Except ... her wedding is scheduled in less than a month, and she’s increasing. There’s, uh, a lot on her plate.

Jasmine’s research takes her from the lowest of the low policy shops in Mulberry Bend to an outré visit to the most elite gambling institution in town. Still, she’s struggling with what is in her heart about starting this vicety. A chance sentence, if you believe in that sort of thing, overheard whilst at breakfast one morning changes everything.

Will her struggle with gambling resolve to her satisfaction, or will Jasmine have to scrap every idea she ever had about it to start over again? Sure, no doubt she could, but does she want to, and how will that affect her siblings and their nefariously well-meant agenda in Chelsea Towers? 

I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I knew what was going to happen.  

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Are you waiting for a sign?
How about this one? 

My grandmother had a collection of 

Owls, 

that ornithological emblem for 

Wisdom, 

so I offer you this image
for contemplation
that you might entertain
the possibility
that you have wisdom
to share with the world. 

We are in deep and striving
need for more wisdom in these
final bleak days
before the light returns.
What could you share with us
out of your deepest self? 

I am, without doubt, certain that And is the secret to all we desire.
Let’s commit to practicing And ever more diligently, shall we?
Until next time,
Be Ampersand.  

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