Ampersand Gazette #97
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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World Ampersand Day
September 8th is World Ampersand Day, and whilst it has passed, I find it a valuable exercise to revisit its antecedents.
The ampersand is a Latin character, and a logogram, which represents the conjunction And. It has been part of common usage since the 1st century CE. An early example has been discovered as a graffito on a wall in Pompeii,
The origin of ampersand can be traced to the Latin word et, which means and. The letters ‘E’ and ‘T’ in this word were occasionally put together to form a ligature (a character consisting of two or more joined letters). The writer saved time by writing the word in this manner, with one letter flowing seamlessly into the next—a type of cursive or joined-up writing.
Jan Tschichold, a typographer born in Leipzig in 1902, dedicated an entire study to the evolution of the ampersand in his 1953 monograph ‘The Ampersand: its genesis and development,’ in which he collected hundreds of examples of the sign throughout history, charting its evolution from ancient graffiti to the familiar symbol used today.
The word itself, ampersand, is shockingly modern for such an ancient symbol. It is derived from an alteration of ‘and per se and,’ meaning ‘and (i.e. ‘&’) by itself creates the word and,’ which was once repeated by schoolchildren to aid in learning the sign.
In 2015, Chaz DeSimone, an author, designer, and typographer, established National Ampersand Day.
You may recall from an earlier issue that Ezra Klein interviewed Kathryn Schulz about her new book, Lost & Found …
I’m here to try to figure out: What’s the feeling of “and”? What does this idea, this word do for us? And what’s the role that it plays in language? Which is a different way of saying: What’s the role that it plays in how we think?
Did you feel like you came to an answer to that? What is the feel of “and”? A little bit. In distinction from every other conjunction that the English language has—“but,” “if,” “or”—all of those actually describe a necessary relationship. “If,” “this,” “then,” “that”—that’s a causal relationship. It actually tells us something about the two halves of the sentence we’re creating.
The beautiful thing about “and” is you can stick any two things together with it. They can have absolutely no relationship to each other—I give you “apples and oranges.” Or they can have every relationship to each other—“Romeo and Juliet.” Or none on Earth—“crab apples and tuxedos.”
So part of this feeling of “and” is the sense that everything is connected to everything else. Which, I want to say, can be a really beautiful thing.
The sense that everything is connected to everything else is also the sense that we can make a difference. If indeed we are all connected, then our actions matter: They matter to each other, they matter to people far away, they matter to people we will never meet because they’re not even born yet. It’s overwhelming, but also kind of hopeful. Kind of exciting.
But there’s this other feeling that “and” has: the feeling that something is about to happen. If you’re telling me a story and you stop talking, what I’m going to say to you is: And? Meaning: What happens next? It’s almost a feeling of suspense.
“And” is this little word that propels us into the future. In that sense, it gestures toward temporal abundance, too. So I think it is a feeling of connection, it’s a feeling of continuation, it is a feeling of abundance. All of those, to me, are fundamentally and ultimately quite hopeful feelings.
Well, then let’s end on a point of word nerdery. I learned something in your book that I didn’t know, which is that the English alphabet used to end with the symbol for “and.” I was really surprised to learn that.
I was really surprised to learn that, too. I mean, talk about scale and space and time. This was true until quite recently, all the way up to the end of the 19th century: When children learned the alphabet, the procession started with A, B, C and ended X, Y, Z, &. That’s literally how they were taught the alphabet.
But why was it part of the alphabet? We don’t spell words with the “and” sign.
The only answer I can reasonably provide is it actually did feel that crucial. We learned to write the alphabet so we could learn to write words, and we learn to write words so we can learn to write sentences. And actually the word “and” is the third most common word in the English language. The only ones we use more often are the article “the” and various conjugations of the verb “to be.”
But I agree, it’s very interesting. It suggests a kind of importance to the ability to make an “and,” to incorporate that into how we write down our experience of the world.
As a metaphor for what you worked with in your book and what a lot of us are working with in our lives, it struck me as quite moving.
What a beautiful idea that anything should end in “and.” That something that seems like an ending is actually an explicit reminder that there’s always more, that something else can be connected, that something else can happen next. I find it very beautiful.
Excerpted from “Our Lives Are A Series of ‘And’” in The New York Times,
An interview with author Kathryn Schulz on The Ezra Klein Show
May 30, 2025
My friend the late Barbara Winter was on the “Seeds” list almost from the beginning. Over the years she reprinted them in her Winning Ways newsletter. I miss her, and I want to tell you about an email I received from her now almost four years ago.
I signed Ampersand Gazette from the beginning with “Be Ampersand.” Barbara wrote and asked me what that meant, and how to do that. She’s the only one.
Here’s what I wrote to her:
“Here’s what it means: We live in a world of polarity based on a universal law called the Complementarity of Opposites. If you look, you’ll see it everywhere. Stop-Go. Day-Night. Expansion-Contraction. It’s a world based on Or.
“I’m sure you’ll agree when I say that it’s not working—not for a lot of us. And, we need a world that works for everyone. No exceptions. None. At all. Ever. For e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e. Forever.
“So when I say, “Do you ampersand?” I’m asking if you, too, want an inclusive world, one that isn’t all about you v. me, or your tribe v. mine, or your God v. my God. Nope, when I say everyone, I mean everyone.
“I created The Ampersand Society as a sort of loose order, if you will, of people who also want to live based on And rather than Or.”
Please don’t misunderstand. I’ve been behind Ampersand Living for a long, long time, and still, I screw it up. I forget that we’re all in this together. I forget that we’re more similar than different. I forget that if I withhold something from you, I also withhold it from me. I forget that if I want X blessing, I have to be okay with you having it, too.
It’s easy to flip into Or. Too easy. But an Or world is a rough one to live in happily. In an Or world, there’s not enough time, there’s not enough money, there’s not enough love. In an Or world, if I win, then you have to lose. In an Or world, no one is more important than me, myself, and I. In an Or world, I feel cheated unless I get the first, the best, the most.
An Or world is a world of scarcity, or as I have been known to say, Scare City. In an Or world, people are afraid all the time. In an Or world, life is even more capricious than it seems now. In an Or world, we’re mad all the time. In an Or world, we hate.
I don’t want to live in a world like that, and I certainly don’t want my loved ones to live in a world like that. I don’t even want strangers to live in a world like that.
In an And world, there’s more than enough of everything. In an And world, we know how to be kind to one another. In an And world, we share. In an And world, we celebrate one another. In an And world, there’s always another chance. In an And world, you, in fact, everyone, is just as important as I am. In an And world, I want you to be blest too. With all good things. Always. Forever.
G. K. Chesterton wrote, There is one thing which gives radiance to everything—it is the idea of something just around the corner. It is this sense of ‘and,’ this sense of discovery, this sense of curiosity that creates life every day on this planet.
It's no mistake that the alphabet used to end with &, no mistake at all. Because isn’t there always the potential for something extra, something more, something better? Sure. Infinite possibility is real.
It’s also how we create the future. And that’s why Ampersand Living is such a good idea.
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People Long to Believe, Both Inside and Outside Religion
I was raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I grew up and eventually left my faith, but I couldn’t shake my interest in stories about belief. Last year, I set out to report Believing, a project from The New York Times that explores how religion and spirituality shape people’s lives.
This was a particularly difficult reporting project. It was a big topic: I was attempting to capture the variety and complexity of belief. It was sensitive: I was asking people to tell me some of their most private thoughts and experiences. So, where did I start?
As journalists, we usually stay out of the story. But in this case, I decided to share my personal experiences with the people I was interviewing, to help create a sense of openness and trust. “I was raised a devout Mormon in Arkansas, but I no longer practice,” I’d say. “Still, I understand how significant religion and spirituality can be in shaping a life.”
I searched for stories everywhere: I sat in silence at Quaker meetings; marveled at the intricacy of Hindu temples; heard calls to prayer at mosques; met with evangelicals in the American South; ate a meal at a Sikh gurdwara in Britain; witnessed an Orthodox Christian feast day in Greece; stumbled into churches in France, Italy and Mexico; observed Shabbat; attended a “death cafe”; heard soccer fans sing hymns during games; and asked women what drew them to astrology.
Above all, I listened. In stories, I discovered a powerful, common theme: In a moment of division and disagreement, partisanship and polarization, people long to believe in something.
“We’re meaning-making creatures,” the journalist and professor Michael Pollan told me. “That’s never gone away.” Many people express that desire for meaning inside a faith. But many others look for it outside. I’ve seen longing in the crowds of sobbing faces at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. I’ve watched it transform President Trump’s rallies into revivals. I feel it in people’s unyielding devotion to a sports team, to environmental activism, their country or their political party.
I discern, in all of these moments, a persistent hope for some form of salvation or transcendence.
Excerpted from a Times Insider column by Lauren Jackson in The New York Times
“People Long to Believe, Both Inside and Outside Religion”
May 23, 2025
Ms. Jackson is correct in her assertion that there are as many faith stories as there are souls. Each one of us comes to a faith life via a personal path. No one is like that of another.
In the past few decades, people have learned to draw a singular difference between religion and spirituality. Religion, they say, is man-made; Spirituality is direct from God. As definitions go, that one’s okay—if it works for you.
For me, I have little use for religion as it’s practiced in our time. Too much of it is us vs. them. Too little is us and them. Is that spirituality? You tell me. It is, if you think it is.
I think that the question misses the point. Faith, and having a faith life, as I said, are unique to each soul. What I want to know is … what are you doing with your faith? How are you practicing your faith life?
So much of religion is about inheritance. Your parents are, say Episcopalians, ergo so are you. Wait, not so fast. Do you know what Episcopalians believe? Do you believe that, too?
The unexamined faith life is no faith life at all; it’s blind faith. Blind faith begs us to question it. Begs us. So I’m asking, for real, what do you believe about the eternalities of existence? Do you even know?
Because it’s more important to know what you believe, really believe, deep down, those sorts of beliefs that you’ve worked out for yourself. You know the kind I mean, the ones you have questioned and come to from within. What and why you believe as you do is far more vital than just going to church with those same Episcopal parents.
If you haven’t done this sort of theological soul-searching, Belovèd, may I highly recommend that you do, and sooner rather than later? Real faith isn’t inherited. It can’t be. That’s why, in Scripture, Divinity has no grandchildren. Only children. Relations between you and the Divine are direct.
Your faith is a vital part of the tapestry of our world, and the more you can articulate your beliefs, the better it is for you and for the rest of us. Do the work. You’re worth it.
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Here’s a universal affirmation. It works every time, for everyone, always and forever …
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So, yeah, there was this plot twist … and wow, lots of new actions, new appointments, and patience required. Not my favorite things—either appointments or patience.
Only now am I just beginning to be over the side effect that threw me so badly, so I can finally take a real deep breath. Phew.
And there are new docs and new challenges every week, it seems.
I can happily report that Tony and I have picked up where we left off reading Impending Decision, book five of The Boots & Boas Romances. At two chapters a day, I’m thinking we’ll likely be done by the end of the month. Then a cover, and it’ll go up on the major retailers, probably by mid-October.
Hopefully, both Tony and I will get caught up on the backlog of things, and he’ll get to editing the final Subversive Lovelies book, Jaq Direct.
Thanks, everyone, for your patience, which is clearly better than my own.
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Soon enough, it will be time to feature the complete series of The Subversive Lovelies. Here are the first three-and-a-half books.
As always, whichever book of mine you enjoy, would you please leave a stellar review, if you loved it? Those reviews are how others find indie authors like me. I really appreciate it!
Reviews really are the engine that powers the career of an indie author.
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Is the truth of your author voice in need of a guardian? All authors need such a thing. If you’re pulled to writing a book, then it’s yours to write, and not mine or anyone else’s. Tony Amato holds that position for me, and for many other authors in the LGBTQ+ community.
Tony Amato is my favorite editor for lots of reasons, but mostly because he has an uncanny ability to seek, find, recognize, and polish the truth of a writer’s voice. There’s a good reason he calls what he does book-husbanding.
The coolest thing is, the genre doesn’t matter. His skills apply. I write mysteries, romances, speculative fiction, essays, and nonfiction. Others of his roster write for academic journals, radio plays, micro-fiction, erotica, memoir, poetry, screenplays, essays, workbooks, teleplays—you name it. His talents help with any kind of writing.
Seriously, this is the guy. He’s edited my books for more than 20 years, so I ought to know. Find him here. Oh, and here’s his substack Subscribe here.
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As you can imagine, being mid-plot twist,
I did very little reading,
so no book review in this issue, but …
I’d very much like to recommend a website to you:
color-meanings.com
Jacob Olesen is its proprietor, and he’s as color-fascinated as I am. I thoroughly enjoy his writing, and his information is of excellent vintage.
Jacob is on a mission to amass 100,000 color fans.
Sign up for his charming weekly newsletter
HERE.
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Are you waiting for a sign?
How about this one?
Could this be your kitchen table?
It’s mine.
There is a rainbow
of one sort or another
in every room of my house.
Why?
The short answer is
ENERGY LEAKS.
The longer explanation is:
Energy shifts within each one of us
all the time.
Mostly, we’re unaware of it,
but when doing conscious chakra work,
we become aware.
When I feel a dip in my level of energy,
I naturally seek a rainbow
to make the adjustment to my system.
LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE.
Have a look through your own space,
Belovèd, and pick a good spot for a
rainbow.
Now you can resolve your energy leaks
right where you are, too.
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