You’d think that with a global pandemic shutting most things down, one would have more time to slow down and go after other pursuits.
And yet.
My brain continues to be a window with a million tabs open and no time to read them, but here are a few things that I’ve been able to make time for:
I’ve been trying to get into the habit if asking people “What’s bringing you joy lately?” instead of the usual “how are you?” I thought it would be met with a lot of eye rolling, but everyone I’ve asked seemed delighted by the question. Seeing their faces brighten and want to answer the question has made me happy.
My black lab, Scotty, has allergies affecting his nails and paws so he’s been wearing a cone a lot. Watching him wear it and carrying on like normal while bashing into walls, furniture, and people has been so entertaining.
This kernel of truth which leads me to believe that the meaning of life is finding enough time to read all the books you want. And sandwiches. Sandwiches have to work their way in there somehow.
Interview’s Ask a Sane Person with Jia Tolentino is one of my favorite things that’s come out of (waves hand wildly in the air) everything:
INTERVIEW: What has this pandemic confirmed or reinforced about your view of society?
TOLENTINO: That capitalist individualism has turned into a death cult; that the internet is a weak substitute of physical presence; that this country criminally undervalues its most important people and its most important forms of labor; that we’re incentivized through online mechanisms to value the representation of something (like justice) over the thing itself; that most of us hold more unknown potential, more negative capability, than we’re accustomed to accessing; that the material conditions of life in America are constructed and maintained by those best set up to exploit them; and that the way we live is not inevitable at all.
I find short stories eerily satisfying and genius. It’s designed to capture a fleeting moment and yet it gets its hooks in you and you can’t shake it. Leyna Krow’s “Sinkhole” is deceptively simple and left me thinking about it for days and it’s not just because Issa Rae and Jordan Peel acquired the film rights for more than $630/word. Ok, maybe a little.
Ever since I was a kid, I always found the messaging in Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree problematic. I’m glad someone’s given it a healthy update.
I was 100% ready to cancel my Apple+ subscription after my trial ends, but with shows like Ted Lasso and Trying (two of the most heartwarming and funny shows I’ve seen this year) and Sofia Coppola’s upcoming film On the Rocks, I might have to stick with it. As one tweet put it perfectly, “Eat the rich, but spare Sofia Coppola.”
I would love to be in one of Peter Hessler’s nonfiction writing classes. The way he wrote about post-pandemic China was intimate and deftly captured local life while acknowledging realities the CCP may not want their citizens to know.
This meth-house-turned-modernist-home in Salt Lake City.
Take care,
G