There’s More to Meditation than Not Taking Your Phone to the Bathroom

Big if true!

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Hi all — I’m filling in again today, but A.J. will be back next week with his check-in. If you’re interested in more of my work, it’s here, and thanks for the kind reception last Sunday. Here’s another newsletter about sandwiches.
—Ben Gaffaney

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I went to rehab in Texas in 2019. Every evening around 8:30, they’d bring a platter of ham-and-cheese sandwiches on white bread to the lounge, using the cheapest ingredients you can imagine. Those of us still up playing pool and ping pong would snarf them up immediately, because congealed Oscar Meyer ham with individually wrapped American cheese slices was common ground for us addicts, regardless of geography or upbringing.

I remember a tweet a couple years back from a tech bro suggesting his cohort should check into rehab as a way to rise and grind in a drug-free environment. Whether it was sincere or a joke, it clearly stuck in my head, a reminder that I don’t want to be a bro of any type. The grind mentality, the preening, the self-absorption, the celebration of emotional distance, it’s all repellent to me.

But I clearly respond to it because the social media algorithms keep serving it up. Perhaps I’m fascinated by the masculinity of these brohams, since I’ve always felt short of testosterone? But I spent time examining this, and came to the conclusion that grind culture has something I want: regimentation.