Time to Recharge

It’s been a week. An alleged assassination attempt (and the proposed solution of a $400 million ballroom). More vindictive, frivolous prosecutions. Stalemate in a war that was started to wag the dog. FCC boot licking. Demolition of the Voting Rights Act. Grifts too numerous to keep track of. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stave off the apathy that is hovering in the wings.

Which is why my “vacation” couldn’t come at a better time. Next week, my travel companion arrives for our annual Florida extravaganza. In addition to enjoying my little village by the sea, we’ll be making a couple of exploratory road trips. Filling the well.

This means I won’t be posting for the next two weeks; I’ll resume posting on May 21^st.

Stay well.

Ways I Found Joy This Week

Hosting a girls’ movie night

Treating myself to a deluxe facial

Spending the better part of Saturday listening to (and studying the lyrics of) Noah Kahan’s new album, The Great Divide

Greeting the sunset on a friend’s new screened porch with pizza, wine, and music on a gorgeous evening

Assisting the CWP in the quarterly (give or take) bathing of the menace

Spontaneously stopping for fabulous tapas at a new place on a gorgeous evening

Soaking in black elderberry Epsom salts

Things I Learned This Week

About the skeleton panda sea squirt, also known as clavelina ossipandae, and how it filters seawater and helps keep coral ecosystems healthy in Southeast Asia

That the deadliest fireworks accident in history was at Marie Antoinette’s wedding (up to 3,000 people died)

A bit about internet clipping and how it is changing social media

Quotes That Resonated This Week

Self-awareness means recognizing our first impulses as calling cards to our deepest pain and insecurity.

Rebecca Woolf

I thought getting older meant knowing it’s too late to try.

Noah Kahan, End of August

One day, we will all be Palestinians.

Chris Hedges

What I Watched This Week

Minari (rental). Missed this acclaimed award winner when it came out several years ago. Melancholy, quietly beautiful, definitely worth watching.

Will Trent (Hulu).

High Potential (Hulu).

Spent Saturday night getting a true crime fix:

Untold: The Shooting at Hawthorne Hill (Netflix). Never met a more unsympathetic “victim”. Interesting look at the world of Olympic dressage.

Untold: Chess Mates (Netflix). Another thoroughly unlikeable subject, who denies cheating at chess with a method you’ll just have to hear about yourself.

Abbot Elementary (Hulu). Late to the 5^th season, but this show always cheers me up.

Trust Me: The False Prophet (Netflix). Yikes. As if the whole Warren Jeffs thing weren’t bad enough, another predator (who was convinced that Queen Elizabeth would be one of his wives) slithered in to fill the void. Taken down by a couple who went undercover to help.

What I Read This Week

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy. After reading her recent memoir, I had to pick up this book written almost thirty years ago (when I had a two-year-old and wasn’t reading much). Her writing is so singular: whimsical, almost hallucinatory, dense, culturally and personally specific. Rapid transport to another world.

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride, by Daniel James Brown. Finally finished this incredible work. Brown did a fabulous job of unfolding the tale and its aftermath. His retracing of some of the steps of the Donner party (including attempting to walk across the salt flats) speaks to his level of investment and attention to detail.

A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine, by Chris Hedges. An absolutely chilling combination of reporting, historical background, and personal stories by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Eye-opening, required reading. Learning (in detail) about the atrocities being committed by Israel, their death grip on the narrative, and the complicity of our government, our colleges, and most of our media left me reeling. Infuriated. And certain: opposing a government’s illegal and immoral actions is not antisemitism. Opposing genocide is not antisemitism.

Her Last Breath, by Taylor Adams. A detective is debriefing one of two best friends who survived an attack while exploring a cave. Gripping, terrifying, and full of unexpected twists. I put my morning on hold as I ripped through the last hundred pages or so.

More Than Enough, by Anna Quindlen. A “joke” ancestry test kit leads a woman dealing with infertility to investigate a perplexing connection.

And still hanging in there with Wuthering Heights.

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Thanks for reading!