1. Some thoughts on black history month from Karen Walrond on Chookooloonks.
2. Leaning Into Uncomfortable Conversations: How avoiding conflict can cause more conflict from Andrea Gibson. “It’s also difficult to become a genuinely empathetic person while having no interest in what is at the emotional root of another person’s values and opinions.”
3. Is Everything an MLM? on Culture Study from Anne Helen Petersen. The discussion here of both yoga teacher training (“CorePower’s business model is contingent upon enrolling thousands in expensive ‘teacher training’ courses, even though there’s already a surfeit of teachers out there. The company makes money from the teacher training, and teachers’ own labor becomes devalued, as they’re encouraged to teach for less or teach for donations (appealing to yogic principles of service and selflessness as a means of excusing it)”) and academia (“The Humanities…have massive numbers of undergraduate courses that need teaching. In English programs, it’s some version of ‘comp,’ or composition…Many of these courses are mandated ‘core’ in some capacity, ensuring an unwavering stream of students, and an unwavering demand for graduate student labor to serve them”) rings so true to me, having experienced both myself.
4. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler from 28 Days of Black History.
5. How to help earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria: Earthquakes Struck the Heart of the World’s Largest Refugee Population. Here’s How to Help, and How to make sure your donation will do the most good for earthquake survivors, and Here’s how to help victims of the earthquake on The New York Times.
6. Amid DeSantis attacks, AP African American studies course is updated.
7. The Lion’s Roar Podcast: The Practice of Writing with Natalie Goldberg. “Zen practitioner, painter, and author of fifteen books, Natalie Goldberg, talks to Lion’s Roar editor Andrea Miller about how writing can be a practice of studying your mind.”
8. Miranda Rights? Wrong! — Dharma Teaching and the Degradation of Tyre Nichols on Lion’s Roar. “In response to the police killing of Tyre Nichols, an unarmed Black man arrested in Memphis, TN on January 7, Pamela Ayo Yetunde looks at how the tenets of Buddhism might be applied to understand the suffering of police brutality. This article is presented as part of Lion’s Roar’s collaboration with Buddhist Justice Reporter, — founded by BIPOC Buddhist practitioners in response to the police torture and murder of George Floyd. BJR publishes articles on issues related to environmental, racial, and social justice and its intersections, from an anti-racist Buddhist lens.”
9. Most people (and the people you choose) from Seth Godin.
10. 52 Things To Declutter From Your Life Today from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.
11. Staying in the Canyon, a poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. This poem describes me: I am the tree.
12. You Don’t Have to Be Complicit in Our Culture of Destruction an interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer on The New York Times.
13. Hear Me Out: Walking Is a Way To Get To Know Ourselves Better.
14. 5 Self-Care Resolutions For A More Grounded Year. This article is pre-COVID, which makes it seem ancient, but I can’t disagree with these suggestions, even now.
15. Recipes I want to try: Broccoli Cheese and Potato Soup and Blackberry Turnovers.
16. We Can’t Be Productive Every Day—So Why Do We Continue to Glorify It?
17. Good stuff from Austin Kleon: Going through the motions and A library of words.
18. The life and the work are equally important. “Let’s face it—artists are always working, though they may not seem as if they are. They are like plants growing in winter. You can’t see the fruit, but it is taking root below the earth.”
19. Are there places you should still mask in, forever? Three experts weigh in.
20. It’s Time To Stop Using Dryer Sheets In Your Laundry. Here’s Why.
21. Please, God, Help Me Stop Missing Her, part of the Modern Love series on The New York Times. “As an ultra-Orthodox Jew, I tried to ‘pray my gay away.’ It didn’t work.”
22. Encountering the Shadow in Buddhist America. “Following the recent allegations at Shambhala International, we take a look back at a 1990 article that investigated the troubling legacy of its first two heads and established a precedent for Buddhist journalism.” In related news, Survivors of an International Buddhist Cult Share Their Stories. “An investigation into decades of abuse at Shambhala International.” These are both older articles but I was thinking recently of my ten years with Shambhala — raging and grieving mostly.
23. Doctors Aren’t Burned Out From Overwork. We’re Demoralized by Our Health System. on The New York Times. “The United States is the only large high-income nation that doesn’t provide universal health care to its citizens. Instead, it maintains a lucrative system of for-profit medicine. For decades, at least tens of thousands of preventable deaths have occurred each year because health care here is so expensive…During the Covid-19 pandemic, the consequences of this policy choice have intensified. One study estimates at least 338,000 Covid deaths in the United States could have been prevented by universal health care. In the wake of this generational catastrophe, many health care workers have been left shaken.”
24. Hand-Dyed Paper Seeds Flow Through Sculptural Landscapes and Portraits by Ilhwa Kim.
25. Anthony Theakston’s Elegant Sculptures Imbue Ceramics and Bronze with Avian Spirit.
26. Japanese Chef Has Filled Notebooks with Delectable Illustrations of All of His Meals for 32 Years.
27. On Being with Krista Tippett: Dacher Keltner | The Thrilling New Science of Awe. (podcast)
28. 44 Body Liberation Books by Black Authors for Black History Month.
29. The Benefits of Journaling from Tammy Strobel on Be More With Less.
30. The village destroyed to build central park: Seneca Village. (Instagram reel)
31. Marjorie Taylor Greene Got An Earful About Chris Stapleton’s ‘Wokeness’ After She Slammed The Black National Anthem. Watch both: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Performed by Sheryl Lee Ralph and Chris Stapleton Sings the National Anthem. In related news, Super Bowl LVII Commercials 2023 Compilation.
