lagniappe / Sara Rodell
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen (the term is to be suitably applied),
Welcome to those new to Serendipity. If you are reading this for the first time, the premises of these musings can be found in the provenance email all the way back from August 2023. (In short, it's like a breaking news alert except nothing is urgent, pertinent, or even interesting.)
Thank you to all the boomers in my network who graciously reminded me after last month’s rant that I owe everything to their existence, and I should celebrate and revere the elderly. I am sorry for my pertinence. I am also thinking about making this email a PDF so you can't figure out how to open it anymore.
This month, I suppose I’ll pick on a group that we can all universally agree to discriminate against - clankers. My 15-year-old daughter, Sage, recently explained to me that, whilst her generation will fight tooth and nail for equal rights for all, it is ok to hate the clankers. I said, “Who?” She said, “You know, the machines.”
Oh my.
(This photo is from 10 years ago, when our conversations mostly consisted of why she had to learn Beatles’ songs.)
She proceeded to show me all kinds of annoying TikTok content on kids taking the mickey out of machines as if they were people. I am part of the last generation that lived before the internet and social media, and now more than ever, I yearn for those times. I would have loved to have been able to say to my kids, “Go look it up in the encyclopedia,” or “Who moved the stick I use to change the channels on the TV?”
But no, now I have to navigate prejudices against R2-D2.
God, I really hope AI and all the clankers have a positive effect on this world. We don't need another group to fight for their rights - we didn't even get women’s done yet, and they have been stuck at the front of the line for a hot minute now.
Moving on.
This month’s ‘Serendipitous moment’:
This month’s serendipitous moment comes from December’s feature, Gretchen Riemenschneider, who is once again making waves with her firm, Grit and Gather. Known for bringing calm to the chaos in startups, Grit and Gather teamed up on a project with April’s feature, Megan Burns, who is a master network builder and community hyperscaler. I love it when great people get together to collaborate!
Moving on, on.
This month, I would like to introduce you to a gift of a person. Sara Rodell is the CEO of an amazing gifting platform, Loop and Tie. That line was super cheesy, but felt so good.
Sara Rodell
Sara is on a mission to reduce corporate waste and put the intentionality back in gifting so that it fosters genuine connection. Sara and her team have created a truly remarkable way of doing this.
Sara brings warmth, awareness, and intention to everyone she connects with. It’s no wonder that the best companies in the world trust her to manage how they give gifts.
I highly recommend that you follow or connect with her here and, with the holiday season just around the corner, peruse here. I know there are some amazing gift-givers on this list who are going to bookmark this site - I will take thank you gifts from Loop & Tie - you have my address.
Finally, thank you for making it all the way to the bottom. Every kind note you send gives me just enough justification to convince Steph that this newsletter is “real work.” (She remains unconvinced.)