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Hey fam: You may have heard that I won the Webby award for best newsletter on the planet.¹ As promised, I’m going to get a WWE-style championship belt and attempt to drive Sarah crazy with it.
The bits I’ll be able to pull off with this thing will be amazing.
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But it is just a bit. The Webby “award” is a joke. It’s like getting included in those old Who’s Who compilations: High-class marketing dressed up as prestige, preying on the vanity of suckers. I am not under any illusions about this.
Yet it . . . kind of means something to me? I’m Ron Burgundy?
And it kind of means something to me because of you.
I’m going through some not-awesome family stuff at home right now. No need to get into details. It’s enough to say that your prayers are very much welcome. (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
The country is also going through some not-awesome stuff, obviously. What with the war and the inflation and the unemployment.
Which means that the two big things in my world—family and work—are . . . not awesome?
And yet, life has to go on. You have to get the kids to school, do the laundry, make dinner. You have to do the job. And you have to find joy, even if it’s the silly sort.
For reasons I cannot explain, being nominated for this ludicrous, fake award brought me a measure of joy. And when I asked you guys to take a minute out of your day and vote for me, people did it by the tens of thousands. Even though it meant clicking a bunch of buttons, giving up your email address, and getting more spam.
I understand this wasn’t like asking you to donate a kidney. But it was something. You gave a couple minutes of your time for me—a guy you barely know—in a quest for this stupid non-prize. And you did it because you understood that for some inexplicable reason, it was important to me.
You gave me a gift of your time.
Which is what the Webby means to me. It means that there’s a group of real people, in the real world, who showed up for me when I asked for help. A posse, if you will.
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That’s the extraordinary thing about The Bulwark and it’s what I talk about most when I tell people they should join us. This community is special. We show up for each other. Not just in the comments, but at the live shows. Or when we band together to raise money for people in need. Or when we take care of people who want to join The Bulwark, but can’t swing it financially.
In a weird way—a silly way—the Webby is why I want everyone who touches The Bulwark to go deeper with us. To be a part of this thing of ours. Not because you’ll get the best newsletter on the planet, but because everyone deserves to have a community like this around them. Even—especially—when things are not-awesome.
Join Bulwark+ today and get your first year at 20 percent off the usual price. You’ll have access to all our locked content, you’ll be able to join the comments section, and you’ll be part of this amazing, growing community.
And as always: If you want to join but can’t afford it, just reply to this email and we’ll figure something out. Here, we show up for each other.
Thanks, fam. You’re the best.
—JVL
Not the actual title of the award.