Post-Holiday Hangover

[H]ello and happy holiday weekend, friends!  Are you still decked out in red, white, and blue?  Do you still have a sparkler in you hand?  Is that s’mores I see in the corner of your mouth?  Understandable.  We’re in the middle of summer living it up.  Actually… most of you are living it up.  I’m spending a weird amount of time alone with my cat and watercolor paints and active dry yeast.  You’ll reap the benefits of my solitude.  Not to worry.

I hope you find a good breeze and some afternoon summer sun.  Here’s what the Internet has to tell us this week:

•  In light of the three vicious terror attacks across the globe this past month… In light of the tremendously savage way he humans treat one another sometimes:  The Problem of Evil.  Let’s not be afraid to call it what it is.

•  Take some time to read the story of Clemantine Wamariya.  At the age of six, she and her sister escaped the Rwandan genocide, struggled as refugees all over Africa, found refuge and education in the states and… went on Oprah.  Actually, it’s much more storied and powerful than my trifling introduction.  Everything is Yours / Everything Is Not Yours

•  What will you do with your 106 years on earth?  Sir Nicholas Winton saved 669 children destined for Nazi concentration camps.

•  What I learned from leading tours about slavery at a plantation.  Good grief.

•  A new class of app promises digital… therapy.  We don’t need an app.  Let’s just put down our phones.  Related: the rise in popularity of coloring books for adults.  We want OUT.

•  Ex-lovers meet each other for the first time after 30 years and they make really deep eye contact.  Not going to lie, I cried.  The Artist Is Present.  Related:  I, too, take all my breakups to The Great Wall of China.

•  Frida Kahlo’s letters to Georgia O’Keefe.  

•  Women, stop saying ‘Just’ so much, you sound like children.  Just when we’re trying to work ‘Sorry’ out of our systems.  I’m guilty of many ‘just’ bombs.

•  I have dishwasher issues.  It’s mainly that I’ll load it, begrudgingly and NEVER EVER unload it.  Why is unloading the dishwasher the worst chore of all. WHY!?   You’re Loading The Dishwasher Wrong:  a chore and a power struggle.

•  Stop Buying In Bulk.  We don’t need that much stuff and we might just be wasting it.  Do we all just need smart fridges… or maybe just more time to calmly make ourselves dinner.

•  Kanye West.  I feel like maybe if we ignore him… he’ll go away.  Can that please be true?  I know that linking to him is the opposite of ignoring him.  At least Freddie Mercury is making fun of him.

•  Currently and still listening to Amos Lee:  Live at Red Rocks.  Click on ‘Jesus’.  I mean… just get this dang album.

•  I’m trying to put together a Summer Reading List for us but I’m having a hard time.  There’s last years Summer Reading List if you need inspiration.

Here’s two books that I’m genuinely reading:

•  Dark Places by Gillian Flynn  It’s dark… This title is no joke.

•  Stir:  My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor

Have a lovely day.  I’ll see you real soon.

xo Joy