1. Alisha Sommer, in particular her Instagram account and her “Ten” posts — I usually read these when she posts them to her Instagram stories, but have fallen so in love with them, the simplicity and the depth, that I dove into the full set on her website. To date, she’s published over 400 of them. I found the very first one, thinking she might introduce them, explain where the idea came from, because as a writer they fascinate me, but there is just the first, Ten.One. However, not too long before that, in her first post to her journal, she says, “This space, SOMMERSALT, is meant to be a space to house the simple, storied beauty that is life. It’s for the small and bright ways in which I find pleasure,” and goes on to say, “I believe in simplicity and beauty. I believe in the holiness of dark and the illuminating fullness of light.”
2. You’re doing a great job from Alexandra Franzen.
3. No One Is Safer. No One Is Served. from Dave Eggers on The New Yorker. “Most important, how is the United States made better or more secure by throwing away this family’s eighteen years of law-abiding life in Connecticut? The answer is that we will be no better and no more secure. We will only be more callous, less compassionate, less fair, and we will continue to spin so far from the moral center that we may never find our way back.”
4. Louis C.K. Performs First Stand-Up Set at Club Since Admitting to #MeToo Cases on The New York Times. In related news, Louis C.K. and Men Who Think Justice Takes as Long as They Want It To from Roxane Gay, also on The New York Times and Thank god my rapist wasn’t famous and Against the Stream Closes Doors as Investigation Finds Misconduct by Founder Noah Levine. In better news, Here are 51 comedians who never forced women to watch them masturbate.
5. Do You Know Your True Face? “Lama Rod Owens says we all need to look honestly at who we are, in all our complexity — and that includes those who teach the dharma.”
6. Fearlessness: How to Stop Running from Space from Zen Habits.
7. Meditation, a 60 Second Doc in which a Mindful Moments instructor, Ramon Dwayne Brown Jr., explains how he’s helping kids process anger and trauma through meditation and yoga. (video)
8. The Forgotten Black Woman Inventor Who Revolutionized Menstrual Pads. “Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was a self-taught inventor who created the sanitary belt and filed five patents in her lifetime.”
9. Prison labor is modern slavery. I’ve been sent to solitary for speaking out.
10. Bank Of America Is Apparently Freezing Accounts Of Non-U.S. Citizens.
11. Why Is It Hard For Introverts To Share A Home With Others?
12. Colin Kaepernick – 1, NFL – 0. In related news, 4 Out of 5 Kennesaw State University Cheerleaders Who Protested During National Anthem Cut From 2018 Squad.
13. 160 people arrested by immigration agents in Texas workplace raid.
14. Am I a Racist? (video) “Judge of Characters has been calling out racists for a year. And now, host Danielle Young is calling out the racists who think she’s racist.”
15. Why Trump Supporters Believe He Is Not Corrupt. “What the president’s supporters fear most isn’t the corruption of American law, but the corruption of America’s traditional identity.”
16. Detroit is shutting off water to its public schools due to concerns about unsafe lead and copper levels. (video) In related news, The Water’s Been Turned Off In All Of Detroit’s Public Schools After Tests Found High Levels Of Lead And Copper Contamination.
17. Step Up 46: Fighting Extremism through Contemporary Dance. (video) I love this, so much.
18. Texas School Officials Tell Teen Fighting Brain Cancer: Take Off Your Wig.
20. This journalist was taking photographs on a public sidewalk. (video) “Then police handcuffed her and told her to ‘act like a lady.'”
21. Hurricane Maria death toll was just raised to 2,975 in Puerto Rico. (video)
22. A Toddler’s Death Adds To Concerns About Migrant Detention.
23. Details of horrific first voyages in transatlantic slave trade revealed. “As the world ignores the ignominious 500th anniversary of the buying and selling of slaves between Africa and the Americas, historians uncover its first horrific voyages.”
24. This Republican gubernatorial candidate used the term ‘monkey around’ about his Black opponent. (video) In related news, Andrew Gillum just fired back at Ron DeSantis, who just warned Floridians not to “monkey this up” by voting for a black guy. (video)
25. Former Texas police officer sentenced to 15 years for 2017 shooting of Jordan Edwards.
26. 9-Year-Old Takes His Life After Being Bullied For Coming Out As Gay At School. Nine. Years. Old.
27. Kelly Marie Tran: I Won’t Be Marginalized by Online Harassment on The New York Times.
28. Ashley Akunna on Lynching, Police Brutality, and Anti-Black Terrorism. (video) “Lynching and police brutality have striking similarities—both have driven terror into Black communities, and both deny victims the justice they deserve.”
29. She fatally shot an unarmed black man. Now she’s teaching other police officers how to ‘survive’ such incidents. Tone deaf.
30. Serena Williams Hits Tennis Court In Tutu Amid Catsuit Ban And People Love It.
31. Doxxing White Supremacists Is Making Them Terrified.
32. Things I’ve always wanted to say, but was too afraid to from Melissa Toler.
33. I just discovered The Wailin’ Jennys. So good.
34. 37 seconds of otters spooning in a hammock. (video)
35. She just discovered echoes. (video)
36. Best highlights from the snoot challenge. (video)
37. Woman drives more than 100 miles away to feed children in need every week. (video) “When a program that fed hungry school children didn’t service an area where many lived in poverty, this woman was committed to feeding them herself, regardless of the fact that it was 100 miles away.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 