Substack: Creativity Central

What are you looking for? Mary Foy will help you find it.

Imagine walking into a sprawling, many-roomed library with no idea what you’re looking for or even where to look for it if you knew what it was. Before you can even wonder where to start, a librarian with smiling eyes walks up to you with a cup of tea and a tiny scone with a pat of butter on a blue-pansy plate. 

She looks at you closely, nods her head, and says,

“Come with me, Dear, your file is ready.” 

This is the legendary Mary Foy and she leads you to a cozy chair where sun streams over your shoulder, puts your tea and scone on the end table, and says,”Sit here, put your feet up … relax.” 

Handing you a folder labeled Substack, she says, “Here’s just what you need. Read these, and I’ll have three more ready for you next week.”

Inside are three articles, each marked with a note signed: Mary.

*** Go ahead and start that new project … John did it, so can you … Mary

“When he was around 12 years old, Lennon started his own mock-newspaper called the “Daily Howl.” He kept it going for five years —from 1952-1957.” Read more at John Lennon's Childhood Notebooks by Jillian Hess

*** What do you really need? …Will it make you happy? … Mary

“And really, perhaps that’s all any writer needs—to be read, to connect with readers and writers who understand.” Read more at From the Roots by Freya Rohn

*** Sometimes it takes a long time to see things the way they really are. … Mary

“I tell you it has taken me all my life to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels, … Read more at Monet Refuses the Operation by M.E. Rothwell

Just a little background about Substack and Mary Foy. There’s a rumor going round that Substack was born in a cigar-smoke-filled backroom in downtown Bakersfield, where dreams spiraled into a vision of a great river of newsletters. (Owens River, I think they called it. )

And, as they dreamed of Wall Street ticker-tape parades and cover photos on Harvard Business Review, one of the note takers asked in a small delicate voice, “Who’s going to organize all those newsletters?”

Conversation stopped, cigars halted in mid puff, Apple watches silently advanced the seconds. 

“W-e-l-l,” drawled the chief dreamer, “my granny always used to tell me about Mary Foy, who did a bang-up job of organizing the L.A. public library. Let’s get her.”

From the back of the room: “Uh … Sir … uh … ,” the note taker began. “… Mary Foy died sixty years ago,”

The chief dreamer raised his cigar toward the ceiling, circling it slowly as he pondered for a long moment. Suddenly, he stopped and said, “Then get her spirit!” 

And so they did.

To this day, Mary greets visitors to Substack with her smile, her tea, and her tiny scones and presents each reader with the words they need to read, the stories that will touch their hearts, and the doings of the world around them they need to understand.

Thank you, Mary! Every day, my gratitude for Substack grows as thousands of writers, young and old, newbies and celebrities, offer millions of readers their thoughts and stories, wisdom and conjectures, words and images. A sweet cacophony of voices pours into the world.

I have come to think of Substack as Creativity Central and am delighted to hang out in these halls populated by living wisdom holders as well as the spirits of those who’ve gone before us. You’re invited to come explore with us at substack.com. Just look around, explore, and know that Mary will guide you to something you didn’t know you were looking for … until you find it.

In the meantime ...