Things that have been helping?
Comforts, crutches, consolations.
While we’re not in a pandemic1 right now, I’m still struck by the eerie resonances between early 2020 and the present. The disorienting unpredictability, the denial, the discombobulation, the ham-fisted reactions, the gut-punches of dread. It’s all terribly familiar2.
How are you keeping on an even keel? What are the things offering you solace and succour?
Here are a few of mine:
Oolong tea3
Swimming! Always!4
like — yesterday’s dusky, bracing plunge in the Pacific
and today’s shimmering lap swim at The Sea Ranch’s Ohlson pool
Voicenotes from farflung friends
The San Francisco Public Library system
Two rambunctious kitties
Reading the London Review of Books
In the bath5
At the hot springs
Baking granola6. Eating it. Making tagliatelle by hand. Braaing. Sparks from the mesquite charcoal dancing (safely, above wet earth). Charred asaparagus
Stargazing. Staring at clouds. Admiring trees
Journalling with my new stainless steel Kaweco fountain pen
The Freedom internet and app blocker. Silencing notifications. Time blocking
Revising poems. Editing a novel
Meditations for Mortals7 by Oliver Burkeman. Jenny Offill’s “Tips for Trying Times8”
Gratitude lists. Hangs with other (recovering) alcoholics. Therapy. Teas with old friends. Kelly’s baby shower. Pics of my niece my sister sends me
Dr Kristin Neff’s self-compassion meditations, especially “Soften, soothe, allow”
A few things I’ve been paying attention to lately:
Margaret Sullivan’s American Crisis and ’s on the media and democracy. With , the indefatigble muckracker (who coined the term “broligarchy”) covers similar territory, with a particular emphasis on how politics and tech intersect. and Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s . ’s on economics, history and much else besides. Fearless, investigative war-focused . +972 Magazine on Israel-Palestine. It might be a tad too insidery for most folks tastes, but Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter (about media, politics, Hollywood) is a must-open for me, too — not least for his clear-eyed, fearless takes and gossipy intel. Polymath ’s newsletter — a trove of reflections, notes and links on artist publishing, creativity, travel and so much more. Another trove: on writing and the creative life. Novelist Robin Sloan’s newsletter. My writing buddy ’s new, quietly wondrous . Ed Zitron9 on technology, the “rot economy”, AI etc. on AI.
Loved ’s Commonweal essay on art and attention (and enjoy his newsletter, ). Through him, I was introduced to this fabulous piece on Aeon, “The Power of Prayer”10.
Hoedspruit-based movement teacher and yogi (and fellow bush-lover) Renata Harper on why “rest shouldn’t be an afterthought, but a habit that sustains us”. Amen!
The media journalist Laura Hazard Owen on changing the way she consumes news. Inspiring, especially for those of us feeling a little overwhelmed/doomscrolling while on dates/etc. etc. right now
Podcasts: They Killed Dulcie on the remarkable ANC activist who was assasinated in Paris in 1988. Master Plan — from an ex-Bernie staffer-turned-investigative journalist on how money and corporate power corrupted American politics.
Send me your recs, please! And — look after yourself. 🫶
Though, eek, I don’t think it’s impossible for avian bird flu to spiral into one? ↩
Turns out, I’m not the only one, as this post by the epidemiologist makes clear.) ↩
Shocking that it took me 36 years to try it, but better late than never, I guess. ↩
Though I’m not doing laps nearly as often as I ought to. ↩
Per the above photo. It must be said that soaking is pretty phenomenal even without an LRB to hand. ↩
I work from the recipe in Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat. A couple key modifications: I use honey instead of maple syrup, and I don’t add any sugar. The mix of nuts and seeds and dried fruit varies. ↩
There is so much in this book that resonated with me. Two quotes in particular that struck a chord were:
From Derrick Jensen: “The good thing about everything being so fucked up is that no matter where you look, there is great work to be done.”
From Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations: “Often think of the rapidity with which things pass by and disappear ... For substance is like a river in continual flow, and the activities of things are in constant change, and the causes work in infinite varieties; and there is hardly anything which stands still. And consider this which is near to thee, this boundless abyss of the past and of the future in which all things disappear. How then is he not a fool who is puffed up with such things or plagued about them and makes himself miserable? For they vex him only for a time, and a short time.” ↩
Hat-tip to my friend and wonderful former boss, the novelist Lisa Locascio Nighthawk, who shared the Tips in her newsletter. Offill has compiled a virtual “commonplace book” featuring 45 excerpts from a wide range of sources that collectively offer a guide to “surviving dark moments of history.” ↩
Thanks for reccing Ed! ↩
Worth a read, even if you’re atheist. ↩
