everyoneeverything

"I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’m gone which would not have happened if I had not come."
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

resonate

Being raised in an unstable household makes you understand that the world doesn’t exist to accommodate you, which is something a lot of people struggle to understand well into their adulthood. It makes you realize how quickly a situation can shift, how danger really is everywhere. But crises when they occur, do not catch you off guard; you have never believed you lived under a shelter of some essential benevolence. And an unstable childhood makes you appreciate calmness and not crave excitement.
-Curtis Sittenfeld

 The decision to be positive is not one that disregards or belittles sadness that exists. It is rather a conscious choice to focus on the good and to cultivate happiness - genuine happiness. Happiness is not a limited resource. When we devote our energy and time to trivial matters and choose to stress over things that ultimately are insignificant, from that point, we perpetuate our own sadness and lose sight of the things that really make us happy and rationalize our way out of doing amazing things.
-Christopher Aiff

Motley Monday Links

Instead of focusing on the disgusting jokes some shitsmears in Atlanta made about Steve Gleason, check out Gleason's story in Sports Illustrated about living with ALS, not dying from ALS. Quote: "We cannot measure, verify or confirm meaning. We, as humans, create and apply meaning. When something happens to us, we become the author of meaning. The best philosophy I have adopted is to apply a useful and productive meaning."

Grandma's Kitchen, all over the world.

Apparently, Dame Judi Dench is a fan of subversive cross-stich, you fucking shit.

Yvette claims that the store had accommodated employees with minor disabilities in the past. "One woman, she hurt her shoulder," she says, angry tears filling her eyes. "They gave her a job re-shelving lighter items." Yvette says she also offered to work at the cash register or in the office of a different branch, to no avail. Eventually she was given meager disability payments for a portion of her pregnancy, and she spent the remainder on unpaid leave. Last month, Yvette left her job at the grocery chain.--why working class women are better off being disabled than pregnant.

Will the Krewe of Freret stop throwing Mardi Gras beads, in favor of locally-made throws?

Motley Monday Links

From creepy crusty to celebrated photographer: the Miroslav Tichý story.

I love illicit Old Hollywood gossip. Today: Rock Hudson's gay confession, Marilyn's death, Judy Garland's secret pill stashes, and more!

"Defendants’ motion is not supported by any affidavit or other evidence providing even one example of improper interference with an execution caused by or related to the dissemination of the current or any previous Louisiana execution protocol, or which shows that the defendants’ security concerns and the asserted risk of manipulation are more than mere speculation or conjecture"--Louisiana must reveal its lethal injection practices.

More evidence that childhood poverty should be treated as a disease, with all the political outcry and social movements to stop it that such a designation justifies.

A thoughtful meditation on the meaning of work from generation to generation and the search for fulfillment.

we know what we believe

Hanging out at Z'otz, drinking some mint iced coffee, mapping out my budget and guest list for THE WEDDING, and jamming out to the above on repeat. I was thinking earlier that I felt very collegiate. I couldn't quite place the feeling...was it just coffeeshops and summer and Mirah (always a collegiate throwback, despite the fact that I didn't start listening to her until mid-2008). But I think it's just that feeling of overwhelming newness. No frame of reference, fresh, exciting, a little nerve-wracking  but, at the heart of it, calm in my ability to steadily navigate.

all the news, period.

You know how I keep hinting at big news? Most of my readers probably already know, but since more things keep happening, I'm just going to give you a blunt post and hopefully something later with details!

I got a new job. I'm now working for the Greater New Orleans Foundation and I love love love my job. I love working for a nonprofit. I love constantly learning. I love the people I work with.

I got engaged. I kind of can't believe it either. We used my great-grandmother's ring and everyone is happy and I'm currently drinking prosecco in my bed, because that's what fancy engaged ladies do, right?

Richie's going back to school. A gout flare up (yes, my fiance (AHHH) has gout and is clearly EIGHTY) convinced us that he's not going to be able to do manual labor forever, so it's time to move on up in the world. We'll see what construction management is like.

I got some sweet new sheets. Yeah!

Motley Monday Links

John Bunker is an apple detective, identifying obscure American apples and attempting to save varieties from extinction via industrialization.

Pretty sure the dolphins are going to eat these misguided hippies' baby.

A 10-15k year old mammoth was found in Siberia, with blood and muscle tissue intact.

Another reason to love living in Louisiana: Getting to put "I'm a Cajun" on your driver's license. 

Iraq's pavilion at the Biennale is sure to be fascinating. I can't even imagine how ten years of war and terrorism has manifested itself into Iraq's art.