the power of food
and eating together
this week’s Thought (singular)
fully enamoured with tiny online communities of women in our early 20s, talking about our lives and our troubles and growing together by discovering ourselves
hi
this week’s niche and hyper-specific ramble is about the shared experience of food.
grocery shopping together, cooking together, eating together, clearing up together, ‘anything i can do to help, aunty?’s, and ‘dude, i think we burnt the custard’s. my grandfather waking me up by loudly and violently chopping apples for the family every morning at the dining table, and the awful duration of figuring out where to eat. even the splitting the bill bit, which is so stupidly clumsy and awkwardly adorable from a distance.
food is a tricky subject. the eat-to-live v/s live-to-eat debate is constantly alive. body dysmorphia is inextricably entwined with eating, to a point where ‘food mention’ is a perfectly valid and understandable trigger warning. it might be challenging to see the consumption of food through a particularly rosy lens for some, but i propose an alternative angle - the experience of food through community. whether that’s offering to help somebody with their grocery bags, moringa sticking out the top of the handles, scraping your knuckles with every step; or the impossibility of fending off your grandmother’s attempts at giving you enough rice to feed an army; or having your friend’s address saved on a food delivery app because you ordered cake for them on their birthday.
i genuinely believe that with all the cynicism and negativity floating around, romanticising things is the only way to keep me afloat. something as simple as eating can be a production - a lovely show, with a cast of people you love.
virtually giving you a bowl of cut fruit.
English Recitation Competition
—I think he judges poetry with his dick. And poets, too. —What’s the scoop on her? Is that her husband, or is he just hanging out in her hotel room for the duration? —Personally I prefer not to think about his dick. —His latest work, especially the poems about his dead father, begin to sound human. —Think of it as a conductor’s baton. —Granted, she wins all the prizes, but talk about grandiose. —The latest inductee into the goddess cult. Like back in the sixties when sex and war were the metaphors for consciousness-raising. —I bet they’re really confessional, and she’s a total pervert too. —He knows how to network, who to climb, and when. Timing is everything.
I believed that how I got my name would mean something. I am still finding the names for some things: the youth my parents brought to parenting, the attention I didn’t know I was waiting for, the word for wanting, feeling its deep hole. Such naming I have been slow to do. I am waiting until I have it right. I know that once named there is a road down which that named thing runs, and I am not the one who built the road.
Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall, Margaret Fishback
Sometimes I wish that I were dead As dead can be, but then again At times when I've been nicely fed On caviar or guinea hen And I am wearing something new And reassuring, I decide It might be better to eschew My tendency to cyanide.
Middle School Book Review
New American Best Friend by Olivia Gatwood
a poetry collection that describes growing pains, specifically as a woman, so beautifully. very moving in parts, very irreverent in others. the topics are as varied as the lengths of the poems, and if you get the right edition, the cover art is adorable.
The Good Side of the Internet
What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?
They did or said something awful, and made something great. The awful thing disrupts the great work; we can’t watch or listen to or read the great work without remembering the awful thing. Flooded with knowledge of the maker’s monstrousness, we turn away, overcome by disgust. Or … we don’t. We continue watching, separating or trying to separate the artist from the art. Either way: disruption. They are monster geniuses, and I don’t know what to do about them.
Hard Data: The Erotics of Infographics
What is it about charts and graphs that get us hot around the collar?
Bands like L7 and Heavens to Betsy were instrumental to the birth of the grunge scene, but for decades were treated like novelties and sex objects. Thirty years later, it’s time to reassess their legacy.
this week’s Song
(i’ve been absolutely obsessed with her music recently)
thank you for reading, and see you next week <3