i like folding the clothes
and going grocery shopping
this week’s Thought (singular)
i love airports
hi
the last few months have been a weird period of self-awareness, growth, and change. one of the realisations i’ve come to is how nice it is to chore and errand alone.
chores are a particular brand of calmness and schedule, of having something to do with your hands, of playing a secret, too-time-consuming game of ‘if i get two smaller packs of this, will it be cheaper than getting one bigger pack?’ inside my head. it’s deciding what fast food to eat for lunch, it’s debating splurging on an auto versus walking, it’s having the power to hoard all the towels in my shelf.
i love how in the middle of the big-picture responsibilities like vegetables for dinner, and batteries for the living room clock, there’s a tremendously freeing smaller responsibility while erranding alone - me. with my own schedules and cart-filling orders (pulses → fruits → bread), my own snacking preferences, my own estimates of how much i can carry in the sun.
tying it all together, of course, is the act of being alone. i say act, because i mean the very present, conscious undertaking of being with myself.
i think about that scene from Everything Everywhere All At Once all the time.
it’s become such a poster child for the beauty of the mundane, for the sheer joy of spending time doing something as traditionally banal as chores together. what if i looked at my reflection in the mirror and expressed the same sentiment?
English Recitation Competition
An Invite to Eternity, John Clare
The land of shadows wilt thou trace And look—nor know each other’s face, The present mixed with reasons gone And past, and present all as one. Say, maiden can thy life be led To join the living to the dead? Then trace thy footsteps on with me We’re wed to one eternity.
When all the witches in your town have been set on fire, their smoke will fill your mouth. It will teach you new words. It will tell you what you've done.
pleasure pleasure garden was she sorry are we ever girls was she a good lay god only knows
A Poll!
Middle School Book Review
your regularly scheduled book recommendation has been temporarily halted. watch this space over the coming weeks so you don’t miss the next one!
find all shared books here.
A Picture!
The Good Side of the Internet
Early in 2001, a few months after publishing my first novel, The Romantics, I had travelled to Afghanistan. I wrote at length, in Granta and the New York Review of Books, about the way the country had been ravaged by the Soviet Union, the ‘free world’ and Saudi-sponsored Islamic fundamentalists. I tried to describe this recent history from the point of view of the Afghans. Soon after 9/11, however, I found myself routinely invited by the American and European media to share my expertise on ‘terrorism’.
How men’s cricket still hates female fans.
The internet’s file format has been diagnosed as “cringe,” but there are other threats to its existence.
Millennials, the first generation to be online as kids, are starting to feel like we’ve aged out. Is there a way to age gracefully on the internet?
Does the internet think you have ADHD, anxiety, or autism?
How mental health became a social media minefield. Social media is now basically WebMD for mental health.
this week’s Song
find all shared songs here.
thank you for reading, and see you next week <3
yes? no? maybe? let me know!