Dear friends!
Can we all just take a big ol Sunday exhale together? (Can you tell I’m in yoga teacher training? All I do is breathe with people now – it’s the best.) We’ve made it to a day of rest and, gosh I hope you’re resting at least partly.
This week I volunteered in the kitchen with my friend and amazing pastry chef Lisa Marie White at Children’s Harbor, a summer camp for kids with serious illnesses. It was wonderful, and raucous, and kids love friend chicken, and cupcakes, and popping balloons in cavernous rooms. The bonus was that I got to do yoga on this floating dock on Lake Martin. Test out my balance, tamp down my ego.
On my drive back to New Orleans from Lake Martin I stopped at the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial dedicated to the victim’s of lynching in America. It’s deeply important and I hope you get the chance to visit.
It’s Father’s Day and I’m headed to Los Angeles to say hey to my pops and hope that he’ll cook for me at least once during my visit because he’s the best.
I hope this day finds you easy and resting. Here’s my offering for the week:
• I LOVE MY DAD’s pancakes. (Joy the Baker)
• Just so we’re clear, there is no law that determines that migrant children must be taken away from their parents at the border crossing. Inside The Former Walmart That Is Now a Shelter for More Than 1,500 Migrant Children. (New York Times)
• In what will be news to no woman: Pregnancy Discrimination Is Rampant Inside America’s Biggest Companies. (New York Times)
• The eternal question: Why Does Hungry Become Hangry. And trust me when I say that you don’t want to be the person to tell me to CALM DOWN unless you also have a bagel in your hand. (The Conversation)
• Just Write 500 Words. Ok… but after I do the dishes and have a sudden burst of energy to deep clean the bathroom. Just Write 500 Words. And then do it again and again, and once more again. (The Cut)
• I wrote last week about podcasts we’re listening to this summer and there’s a comment section full of fantastic suggestions! Let’s add In The Dark Season 2 to the list (see synopsis directly below)! (Joy the Baker and APMReports)
“Curtis Flowers has been tried six times for the same crime. For 21 years, Flowers has maintained his innocence. He’s won appeal after appeal, but every time, the prosecutor just tries the case again. What does the evidence reveal? And how can the justice system ignore the prosecutor’s record and keep Flowers on death row?”
• The latest Call Your Girlfriend episode is here to help us digest some of the madness of the week. (Call Your Girlfriend)
• File under: No Chill / No Grace. Instagram’s Wannabe-Stars Are Driving Luxury Hotels Crazy. (The Atlantic)
• Heads up! There are some really cute kitchen things at Olivia Kim’s Pop In for Nordstrom including this croissant lamp. Croissant Lamp! (Nordstrom)
• Non-car-based non-comedies: Between Two Ferns with Jerry Seinfeld and (inexplicably) Cardi B. (YouTube)
• Whole30 Changed My Entire Relationship With Food Because I’m Dead Now. Mmmmhhhmm (McSweeney’s)
• Related – We have an important update to fried chicken: Pickle-Brined Fried Chicken, y’all!! (Tasting Table)
• I’m Fine. (Shrill Society)
• I mean… you never regret banana bread, right? (Joy the Baker)
Call your dad – you’re in a cult, (that’s a My Favorite Murder joke in case you’re concerned and sincerely think I’m accusing you of being in a cult. I mostly not.)
xo Joy
Tracy
You are my podcast soulmate.
Kathy Dumont
The reality of the Migrant children: Their parents should stay put in their country and not put their children at risk. We as a government is trying to help and assist the families and children as best we can. I am a Mexican American and I understand the trouble they have with their country and their leadership, but for the sake of their children PLEASE enter America the right and legal way. This is how they will remain safe and secure with their parents.
Nancy
Kathy, I truly wish they could – I am the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants.. The problem now, though, is that it appears this administration has also been turning away true asylum seekers trying to enter lawfully – they are stopped at the border entry points, blocked, and told that they cannot even apply. My America welcomes those who need asylum, in accordance with international law. But the current administration has openly expressed a desire to drastically lower quotas for legal immigration, ad this appears to be one of the ways they’re doing it. Of course, hotel workers who are European can still get papers. I do not know what we are becoming, but I wish I knew how to make a real difference and stop some of the hate and fear.
Kara
What if staying put in their country is the thing that puts their children at risk? No parent in their right might is going to pack up their children and with little more than the clothes on their backs travel thousands of miles in hope that they might be given asylum unless they felt they had no other choice.
Saying, in effect, “just stay home” betrays a complete lack of understanding of what is happening to these people as well as a lack of empathy for their plight.
Andrea
Hi Nancy. I think you have hit on one of the motivating factors with the current administration -hate and fear of all who are none-white/none European combined with contempt and indifference. So yes, they are turning away true asylum seekers and treating human beings as if they are not flesh and blood and created equal in God’s eyes. Silence is consent so it is vital to speak out, write, blog, march and above all stay aware and tuned in. We stop hate and fear when we stay human in our compassion and empathy demonstrated by how we treat each other. Respect is so important and those standards that we use to measure our humanity, especially regarding immigrants now is showing us up if we stay silent.
Fi
I absolutely understand where you’re coming from but after a lot of reading and researching on this, here are some pieces of data I think are important to keep in mind. 1) the children being taken from their parents on the border are those who are coming here seeking Asylum (meaning they arrive at the border legally and present themselves to the border agents, stating the fact they are requesting protection from something). The separation of these families is the result of them coming to the US the “right and legal way”. The status of people who cross illegally is very different, but it is important to note that the outrage being expressed right now is not the result of that dynamic. 2) extensive research has determined that most people don’t attempt to seek asylum unless it is literally the very last possible way to keep their children safe, even these detention actions offer more safety than staying where they are. If you would like links to resources I would be so happy to share them so you can look through the info and decide for yourself, but it is really important to understand the difference between asylum seekers and people who cross the border illegally.
matthew
Thanks for playing Kathy, but these families were entering America under asylum, which is totes legal.
Andrea
Kathy-they were at serious risk in their country. They do not have the time that the right and legal way gives them…years of waiting. Death and mayhem are happening now. Please read up on why people flee their countries, willing to risk life and limb and untold dangers. People do not flee from harmony and light. America has always been a refuge for those fleeing: e.g Europe to avoid religious persecution and then it was communism and now violence/war and poverty. Walk in their shoes a bit then share your reflections… please. The deeper issue is that yes they are immigrants but so we have to treat them so badly? So inhumanely? So like they are not human beings?
Blu
It’s 10 am and here I am craving that pickled brined beaut! I have some pepperoncini in my fridge, I wonder how that would turn out! Also, I needed that 500 words a day encouragement. I got out of my flow working on my novel, and now I’m trying to edit before I’ve even finished. lol. Enjoy time with your dad! :)
Blu
http://www.liveloveblu.com | wellness & healthy living
Kelly Griffith
That Whole 30 article! I really needed that laugh; thanks for sharing
Kirsty
I have been listening to In The Dark, it’s brilliant and painfully frustrating at the same time. Along with the most recent Oprah Soul Session podcast I’m having real problems with America’s justice system right now and just…urgh, this whole world sometimes!
Also, hope you’re enjoying YTT, I’m hoping to start a course in September.
Amy
The tiny things I life like a croissant lamp, I am very partial to the Baguette one myself ????
Michelle
Thank you for pointing out there is no law that children should be separated from their parents. I am so sick of hearing Trump say that. He could stop it right now. That picture of the little girl in the red shirt is heartbreaking. This is America for god’s sake not a dictatorship.
Andrea
Thank you for the great read!!
Andrea
Hi Joy the Baker.
Thanks for the great information. This has been such an informative and very interesting read especially with the links to the other sources. It is fascinating to read about Tennessee’s response with the monument built due to death by lynching. Then the commentaries about the immigration fallout and the reminders that immigrants are real people just like those who came to Ellis Island. What a difference in the response!!
.
Maggie
That Whole30 article cracked me up. Also, I need both the croissant lamp and the baguette lamp. Thanks, Joy!
Frannie
Could you please share your recipe for “friend” chicken? What a difference a letter makes. Tee-hee! Have a great week.
Dale coleman
Thank you for bringing joy, good words and luscious food.
Be engaged friends and keep showing up. The world needs you!
Brenda
Thank you for bringing the National Memorial for Peace and Justice to my attention. Sounds like a worthy road trip. Have you been to the Whitney Plantation about an hour drive west of NO? It’s the only plantation in LA to focus on slavery. I have never been to a Jewish concentration camp, but I suspect touring the Whitney would give one a similar experience.
Enjoy your time with your dad.
Rena
A Sunday without rest is not a Sunday :)
xx from Bavaria/Germany, Rena
http://www.dressedwithsoul.com