What the hell is TLH 101 and Why Should I Care?

101 is usually the introductory class in a subject. It is the class you must take first before you can move up to the higher level courses in the subject. You are introduced to the subject matter of an area of study. You could take Philosophy, Biology, Physics, Sociology, etc. 101 and be introduced to the very basics of the subject. This is Teresa Lynn Hill 101. This sub stack is intro class about me.

The philosopher Socrates said: “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” There is then the writing advice attributed to Mark Twain: “Write What You Know.” One would think that the one thing that each one of us is an expert in is ourselves. Socrates was forced to drink the hemlock because he walked around forcing people to face the fact that they actually didn’t know nearly all of the the things they thought they did and this also applied to knowing themselves. Do you really know yourself??? Does anyone?? If we did therapy and self-help books wouldn’t be a billionaire dollar business.

Believe me I am under no illusion that there are people who would sign up for this class. Close members of my family often don't bother to read my texts, memes I send them much less my Facebook and Instagram posts so I cannot imagine that strangers that have no idea of who I am would be interested in this introduction to me. Despite the overabundance of disinterest I nevertheless shall persist in this project.

There are so many writers I love that when I read their feelings and thoughts on a book they read or a movie they saw or a concert they went to or a song they heard, I experience not only that piece of art differently but also my life more fully. William Stryon said “….there’s only person a writer should listen to, pay any attention to. It’s not any damn critic. It’s the reader.” But the best critic can expose the reader, listener, and watcher to crevices and depths of the art that might not be obvious. The critic is maybe not the artist’s friend but she is the art’s friend. By investigating and exploring their reaction to a song or a movie the critic is learning about herself but also about the world.

So….this sub stack is me exploring and investigating my experiences in the world. I hope to find out more about myself and more about the world. And, if anyone else reads this I hope that it is not about learning about me but about learning about the world and their own experiences.