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Quoted
People think you have to know what you want to do with your life by the time you’re 19. Wrong! Or that you have to be in a significant relationship in your twenties. Wrong! It’s all just nonsense. — Tilda Swinton
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. I shared his piece in Stanford Medicine, “Before I go,” several months ago. I suggest you read it now if you haven’t already. When Breath Becomes Air is just as moving as I expected it to be, but I was surprised by the genuine lyricism of his writing. I’m only about halfway through, and I’ve already been brought to tears multiple times. It’s the kind of book that I struggle to put down. It’s the kind of book I know I will read over and over, returning to it for guidance and challenge. Watching… Hawaii Five-0. The remake. It’s gooooood. Listening… I’ve…
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Read This
Required Reading. I really mean that. Jennifer Aniston’s essay on Huffington Post blew up on the internet last week for good reason. She confronts the rampant body shaming of females in the press, the problems with “bump watch” tabloids, the utter ridiculousness of focusing on celebrity gossip given all of the other things that have been going on in the world lately, and what the hell it means to be a woman, famous or not, in a world that passively accepts what are often toxic views of womanhood. I want to scream this part from the rooftops: “Here’s where I come out on this topic: we are complete with or…
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Quoted
If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? – Albert Einstein
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It has been many many years since I first read this novel. It keeps popping up in my online readings and real life discussions, though, so I thought perhaps it was time to break it back out. In my opinion, it has one of the all-time greatest opening sentences: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” Watching… Chicago Med. I caved. I’m watching it. I don’t know if I am as invested as I am in Fire and PD, but give me a couple more episodes and I may just…
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Read This
Required Reading. After the last week, after the last weeks, and months, and years, this poem strikes at my soul. Plum Jam Alisa Gordaneer Everything is different this year but jam still needs to be made because red plums are thudding onto grass. We celebrate, marking summers. The year we added lemon. The year it didn’t jell and we poured it over ice cream until we couldn’t eat. You send the children out with pails, and their arms strain against ripeness. Last year they were too small, pushed plums into their own mouths. This year, everything too much to contain: garden overgrown, trees weighed down, wasps drunk. Bees drowsy with…
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Quoted
I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. — Joan Didion
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace by A.A. Milne. While I was in London a couple months ago, I picked up a beautiful copy of this book to send my favourite tiny human for his birthday this month. It’s not totally age appropriate, but his parents can read it to him until he can read it himself. That’s how it works, right? (I’m child inept.) I definitely sat down and read through it before sending it off though. Watching… The live broadcast of the Branagh Theatre Company’s Romeo and Juliet. I have complicated feelings about this particular adaptation. Actually, no, that’s wrong. The adaptation is brilliant. Richard Madden played…
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Read This
I occasionally peruse the missed connections page on Craigslist. Sometimes it’s hilarious, sometimes it’s touching, sometimes it makes me mourn for the state of humanity. It is always inspirational for character creation. And there is something endearing to even my jaded heart about the fact that people think something — anything at all — can come from these kinds of posts. Ethan Kuperberg’s “Missed Connections for A-Holes” is honestly more up my personal alley. Like I would post one of these. That probably tells you a lot about me. Stop judging me, and read the piece. I promise it is funny. I was at a coffee shop in Park Slope.…
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In the Moment
Once upon a time I was the type of person who carried a dslr with her almost all of the time. Once upon a time I was also the type of person who intentionally went on walks just to take photos. Then two things happened. First, I moved to Ontario. I don’t know what exactly it was about this move that made me put my camera away more and more often, but whatever the reason, Ontario doesn’t inspire me to take photo walks nearly as much as Nova Scotia. Second, I got an iPhone. My previous Android phone definitely had a camera, but it wasn’t as good as the one on…