JFK, aloneness, public domain advent calendar, and more
Seven thin(g/k)s I explored this week
Hello dear reader,
December has been a good reading month so far, and I’m excited for the prospect of further deep dives into ‘reading time’ as we cozily get closer to the holidays and the new year. This time of year for me is always tender and meditative, and it’s such sweetness to couple those feelings with the warmth that books bring.
Here are seven links to bits of the world I explored this week, shared with the hope that you will find them to be an inspiring springboard for deeper thinking.
The Rest Is History podcast has a great seven-part series on JFK. I listened to it during my gym sessions, and I then coupled it with the film Jackie starring Natalie Portman. I though it would be a good pairing, but I was left thinking her performance was stilted, and the storyline was made to be dull, repetitive, and awkwardly stuck, moving neither backward nor forward. The podcast series was fascinating, though, and it fueled my constant curiosity re the Kennedy family. On a similar note, for those interested in RFK, I highly recommend this book by Larry Tye.
Loved this essay by Craig Mod on aloneness, in which he notes,
“For many people in the world — and especially in big cities (and I imagine cities like New York and Tokyo exacerbate this maximally) — if they don’t initiate contact, don’t set up a dinner, don’t reach out to someone, don’t actively invest the energy to put something on the schedule, they go days or weeks with no inbound calls, no invitations, no sense of someone buoying them up in the turbulent seas of life. For folks with teeming families, children screaming in every room, this might sound like heaven, but for folks entering their fourth decade in life, still in this configuration, it can feel like death itself.”
and reflects beautifully on the following:
“During the walk, there was something about simply knowing that someone was there for me (though they were physically distant!) that allowed me to double-down on the solitude of the walk. That’s the real joy of subverting aloneness — luxuriating in solitude. A wholly different, generative beast, apart from aloneness. Solitude is where you cash in on your non-aloneness savings. Retreating into solitude for the day in your backyard shed with no internet connection and a nice keyboard and laptop is one of the greatest feelings in the world, but only because you know you’re emerging at the end of it into a hug, a goofy animal bounding with nincompoop love, a curious kid, cooking dinner — something, anything, that will passively envelop you in non-aloneness, that will make you feel valuable.”
Eight factors of happiness, an infographic.
From Hemingway: “Here’s a list of books any writer should have read as a part of his education… If you haven’t read these, you just aren’t educated. They represent different types of writing. Some may bore you, others might inspire you and others are so beautifully written they’ll make you feel it’s hopeless for you to try to write.” (It makes me giddy that Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights [my current read!] made it onto his list).
Works that will be entering the public domain in 2024, showcased here in a cute advent calendar style.
Holiday shopping is super stressful and anxiety-inducing for me. These two things give me some calm and help weather the mental storm as my go-to items I gift myself for every new year: my very favorite notebook for jotting down book notes, thoughts on studies, reflections at home, and my yearly agenda book that doubles as a notebook filled with random musings when I’m on-the-go.
Warmly,
Ani
P.S. — Sunday subs, see ya tomorrow
Quick updates:
Ninja Creami ice cream maker machine — 10/10 purchase
Baked and promptly ate citrus tart cherry muffins, and I’d be happy to share the recipe — 10/10 bake, 10/10 eat
G and I found our Christmas tree, a beautiful silver-tip fir (Abies magnifica) that is native to higher-elevation western North America, and it is whimsical and majestic and I am in love.
affiliate links: sometimes, I include links to my Amazon storefront (often for books or other recommendations around the home/self I’ve found useful and hope you will, too). This means I make a few kopeks whenever someone makes a purchase using the link. It doesn’t detract from my recommendations coming from a place of a genuine desire to share with you. It just helps provide a few tangible tokens for my effort.
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