Here's Some Recommended Reading...
Getting through these socially isolated times—and looking beyond them.
One of the main themes I return to, over and over, in this newsletter is that a writing practice helps us realize what’s most important to us, what drives our passions and concerns—and helps us think about reorganizing our lives around those newly discovered priorities. That’s something I’ve been considering a lot in this last week, as the COVID-19 pandemic has gotten steadily worse and our daily routines have become increasingly disrupted.
I don’t have any shining insights of my own to share with you, but I’ve read a lot of informative and inspiring things over the last few days, and I’d like to share some of them with you.
• “Act Accordingly,” from Anne Helen Petersen’s The Collected AHP newsletter:
“Some people who are still working out in the world are keeping the roads fixed and hospitals running and the world in order—we should be so grateful to them, and the way we can show our gratitude is staying home. Some people are still going to work, even if they’re not feeling great, because they have no other choice… If this is not your situation, you should acknowledge how fucked up it is by staying home.”
• “Isolation,” from Heather Havrilesky’s Ask Polly newsletter:
“So this is what I want right now: To watch the clouds pass over the grass and take the moment in. To take everything that’s here and feel it as much as possible. To forgive myself when I can’t feel a thing, when all I can do is just breathe and exist. And to forgive the people around me when they can’t manage much, either.”
• “Primrose and Pandemic,” from Christopher Brown’s Field Notes newsletter:
“Spring arrived in earnest this week. We had some good rain, and the wildflowers started to pop. And by the end of the week, as the world started to feel uncomfortably similar to the dystopian novels I write, I found myself wondering which of the wild plants growing in and around our yard are edible.”
• This interview with “trend forecaster” Li Edelkoort paints a grim picture in some ways, but it also enables us to look ahead and begin to imagine what kind of world we’ll create when we come out of isolation:
“It seems we are massively entering a quarantine of consumption where we will learn how to be happy just with a simple dress, rediscovering old favourites we own, reading a forgotten book and cooking up a storm to make life beautiful. The impact of the virus will be cultural and crucial to building an alternative and profoundly different world.”
• This Sojourners essay by my friend Nancy Hightower reminds us that, for many people, social isolation represents a genuine risk to their emotional well-being. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to reach out to your friends or loved ones for help. If it’s not you, you probably know someone who would benefit from you reaching out to help.
• Finally, Megan Westra, a pastor in Milwaukee, has been writing a series of short Lenten messages aimed at adding to our lives over the course of those forty days, rather than subtracting from them. In one recent newsletter, she tackled the social distancing question:
“May we enter these long, challenging days ahead seeking how we might be transformed on the other side. Perhaps these days of distance could be a wilderness that teaches us more about how to live together as people who are free.”
We’re always moving forward into uncharted territory, but these days might seem even more uncharted than usual. If you can find the time, and the clarity, to apply yourself to your writing practice, I encourage you to keep it up. But I know it’s hard! I’ve been fortunate enough to have some freelance projects over the last two weeks, and when I’m not working on those, I haven’t been able to do much more with my two creative writing projects beyond taking notes and doing some rough outlining. At the same time, though, my own idiosyncratic approach to Lent has involved twenty minutes of prayer journaling, and I have been pretty consistent with that—and I can tell you it’s actually been helpful in keeping me focused on where my mind needs to be right now.
More soon! In the meantime, be safe, and remember: We’re in this together.