On January first, 2021, I found myself spontaneously cleaning every clock face in the house. Windex and shine! For those where moisture was not possible, I used compressed air. Begone dust!
It was satisfying. Cleansing. Inviting.
Now for the miracle. A few weeks ago I took part in a book-gifting chain letter. I mailed off a book to someone, sent the rules to a couple people, and forgot about it.
On my walk with Finny yesterday, I listened to more of Brene Brown’s interview with Tim Ferriss. So much food for thought! On return, I swooped up onto the stoop to grab a package and came back into the house rattling about this thing Brown said and that thing. Let’s try “batching” and “marriage isn’t 50/50, sometimes it’s 80/20 or 10/25.”
As I was enthusing about Brown’s work, I opened the package to find one of her books. I was stunned. I was stunned particularly because I’d forgotten all about the book-gift thing. I had to text Ginny to track down the origin (it was from her nephew on her husband’s side) before it all made sense.
How do you like that?
On a more sober note (more sober than reorienting oneself to Time or being the recipient of a minor but nevertheless eye-opening miracle?) : I’ve started Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. HOLY CHRIST.
More to come. But just a teaser: when the Nazis were seeking to codify their racial caste system in the early days of Hitler coming to power, they studied American law AND THEY FOUND IT TOO EXTREME.
I’ve had Caste sitting on my pile for a bit but have been hesitant to start it .. working to hard lately to keep myself upbeat. Reading American Dirt isn’t helping. Also watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix last night. Talk about Holy Christ .. I might have to bake a batch of cookies just to sweeten my mood.
Cookies make everything better! I SHOULD be finishing books on my shelf that I’ve started. It took me almost two years to finish The New Jim Crow (!). I’ve been reading TheCooking Gene by Michael W Twitty for ages (but following him on Instagram keeps me aware of him and his cooking and genealogy investigations in a really good way). But Caste I’m determined to read start to finish without interruption.
Dee, wow! This river torrent takes me from the depths to the surface, from the ridiculous to the sublime. And some of the eddies feel over my head. I’m glad of that, because there are always things I don’t “get”, that I wonder about, that I want to look into and more I need to recognize in order to keep learning and stay human. I’ll be coming back to this post, and veering away from it, for a long time. So far, mostly, it makes me cry. My tears are either from laughter or from a deep place of sadness that I visit too rarely. The biggest laugh out loud: Finn with his dog-buddies in the back of that truck. Biggest surprise: seeing myself 🙂 Biggest dig into buried sadness or sadness denied or sadness put aside: well, there are several. I have yet to even travel it all let alone look further. Thanks again for being here and being you – xo
I adore that photo of you!
(((Dee))) love your topographic clock!
me, too!
Me too!
my kind of miracle;-)