Yearly Archives: 2020

Something Good

It’s hard to see, but the ripple in the water on the right is a beaver

1. A situation vs a slog from Seth Godin.

2. Good stuff from Dances with Fat: International No Diet Day And The Life I Could Have Had and When Celebrities Lose Weight, because this:

…while people – including celebrities – can do whatever they want with their bodies, their choices have meaning and consequences. And choosing to participate in intentional weight loss, or to celebrate weight loss of any kind, supports weight stigma and perpetuates eating disorders by promoting the idea that a thin(ner) body is a better/more attractive/healthier body, which is at the root of fatphobia.

3. Judith Butler: Mourning Is a Political Act Amid the Pandemic and Its Disparities.

4. ‘Heads we win, tails you lose’: how America’s rich have turned pandemic into profit. The things that are “wrong” now, “happening” now, were actually already wrong and happening, it’s just that this crisis is highlighting it. It’s so simple: we have to do better or none of us will survive what’s coming, not even those sitting on a pile of money.

5. After the deaths, holiness from Rabbi Rachel Barenblat.

6. 10 Life Lessons Learned From a Decade of Blogging from Be More With Less.

7. ‘Double-Rainbow Guy’, Paul L. Vasquez, Dead at 57, most likely from COVID-19. “Yosemite, California, man became an early 2010s internet sensation with his ecstatic nature video.”

8. Castle Rock restaurant reopens to Mother’s Day crowds in defiance of statewide public health order. This is TERRIFYING. You hear how “we are all in this together” or “this virus is the great equalizer,” when clearly that’s not the case. There are both economic disparities and racial divides that mean some people are suffering more, have lost more, and are at more risk. This restaurant opening against orders, the people flooding in, smushed in there together with no one wearing masks, makes me realize we are experiencing this in very different ways, and there’s a large number of people who don’t take it seriously at all, some who even think it’s a hoax or that we are overreacting, that it is “just like the flu” and that the risk to them is small. This is what willful ignorance looks like, and sadly these people aren’t just harming themselves. The choices we all make have consequences, and some outcomes cause harm to others, even as those others are doing everything they can to manage their risk. Either you are helping or harming, and it’s clear the choice these people made. I suppose they most likely watched and believed this: Seen ‘Plandemic’? We Take A Close Look At The Viral Conspiracy Video’s Claims. They should have read this instead: The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them.

9. An 11-Year-Old Girl Writes To Thank Her Mailman. Postal Workers Write Back.

10. Not everything will be okay (but some things will) from Austin Kleon.

11. Write = right? from Paul Jarvis.

12. How ‘Anticipatory Grief’ May Show Up During the COVID-19 Outbreak. “There’s a lot to be grieving right now with the recent COVID-19 outbreak. There’s a collective loss of normalcy, and for many of us, we’ve lost a sense of connection, routine, and certainty about the future. Some of us have already lost jobs and even loved ones. And most, if not all of us, have a lingering sense that more loss is still to come. That sense of fearful anticipation is called ‘anticipatory grief,’ and it can be a doozy.”

13. Here are the top 10 coronavirus safety tips for groceries. (video) Most of these tips are related to actually going in the store to pick and pay for your own groceries.

14. hi.this.is.tatum, a hilarious video compilation, a dog talking in the funniest voice.

15. Workers Are No Longer Heroes, Kroger Concludes. This is so disappointing.

16. Mom Shares 30 Times Her 6-Year-Old Boy Cleverly Stalled Her With Questions Before Bedtime.

17. 10 Books Recommended by Pulitzer Prize Winners.

18. Meet Magnolia, Gerber’s New Spokesbaby.

19. Comedy Clubs Are Closed, So To Reach Audiences, Comics Have To Improvise.

20. Two penguins at the Oregon Zoo, Nacho and Goat, went for a hike earlier this week. (video)

21. Fuck the Bread. The Bread Is Over.

22. Mom forgot to give her adorable son a kiss before she left for work. (video)

23. They are the most popular mariachi on TikTok. (video)

24. Nikole Hannah-Jones, Creator of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, Awarded 2020 Pulitzer Prize. In related news, ‘This American Life,’ Now a Pulitzer Winner, Is Once More a Pioneer on The New York Times. “This week, the venerable radio show and podcast received the first Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting.”

25. Susan Piver: Buddhist Wisdom to Meet the Challenge of the Pandemic on Economics & Beyond with Rob Johnson podcast. “Susan Piver—a writer on meditation and Buddhist teachings and founder of the Open Heart Project—talks to Rob about how Buddhist ideas of being grounded in the present can help us get through the uncertain times of this pandemic.”

26. Grocery Worker [of 32 years] Has Never Seen Shelves Being Emptied Like This.

27. The morgue worker who buys a daffodil for each body bag. May she continue to be safe and well.

28. 13 Ways To Stop Your Glasses From Fogging Up While Wearing A Face Mask.

29. Yoga alone, together. “The rise of at-home fitness made Yoga With Adriene a YouTube sensation. Then the pandemic hit.”

30. Humorist Lightens Depression’s Darkness By Talking (And Laughing) About It.

31. More interviews with poets by Laurie Wagner: Marie Howe and Lauren Fleshman.

Gratitude Friday

1. Morning walks. It’s reached the time of year when we no longer need a headlamp, but not quite yet when we need to wear our sunglasses first thing. I sure wish my dumb foot would feel better so I could go more often.

2. Wild Writing, both with Laurie’s 27 Wildest Days (which is free and available for sign up until May 11th) and once again with Mikalina and Chloe’ in Laurie’s Friday morning class. Just like meditation and yoga, this practice is essential, both magic and medicine. I’m so glad to be practicing it regularly again. If this is the end of the world, this is one of the ways I want to spend it.

3. Lilac season, which also means flowers in the bathroom after a really really long time. Every year when I was working at CSU, I’d pretty much miss lilac season because it was also the two weeks of the year that were the busiest for me. It’s one of the things I was most looking forward to upon retiring, being able to really enjoy the lilacs with ease, to truly inhabit the moment. That is exactly what’s happening this year, although with the additional element of a global pandemic.

4. Practice. The routine of it each morning has always been a good thing, sacred, but now it’s also necessary, essential in a whole other way, an act of survival.

5. The comfort of cooking and eating good food. Eric and I can’t stop eating these pretzels. Last week I ordered two zucchini with our groceries because glazed lemon zucchini cake and ultimate zucchini bread with toasted walnuts. I also accidentally ordered THREE dozen eggs so there was also breakfast bake.

6. Yard time, sitting in the sun with the dogs.

7. My tiny family. There’s no one I’d rather be with right now.

Bonus joy: weeding the flowerbeds (I know, I’ve completely lost my mind), hanging out with Chloe’ and Mikalina on Zoom, texting with my mom and brother, how green everything is right now, naps, good TV and movies, good podcasts, good books, good music, people risking their lives to provide food and healthcare for the rest of us, the buds on my irises and peonies that will open into flowers, the worms working in my dirt, the honeybees, the hummingbirds, HIIT workouts with Eric, watching Antiques Roadshow with Eric, laughing so hard with Eric that I accidentally farted which only made us laugh even harder, cuddling with Sam, playing with Ringo, reading in bed at night while Eric and the dogs sleep, chewable vitamins.