Well, so here we are in May. How are you?
Depending on where you live, you have been practicing social distancing for almost two months now. It’s unnerving to think of how we will interact with each other when this is sorted. I have a hard time imagining what that first dinner out will be like when the server comes over with gloves and a mask to take the order.
Ah, well. Baby steps.
Below are this week’s links. Take what you need, share this post if you are so inclined, and leave everything else.
Speaking of nothing, check out this trippy five-minute film that imagines what earth would look like as it’s swallowed into a black hole. This quote from the narration by Alan Watts seems particularly important: “Someday this will pass and there will be nothing left… That’s not something to fear because we come from nothing…and from nothing comes something new.”
Looking for something to fill the black hole of your days, those endless stretches of afternoon when you have done allofthethings but still have many hours until you can legit sit in bed with your laptop propped open, watching movies? Make your own paper prawn, then share it online (#paperprawn). I dare you.
The New Yorker (watch out for the stupid paywall) just published an excellent interview with Esther Perel, a Belgian therapist who specializes in intimacy and relationships. If you are new to her work, I also suggest this excellent TEDTalk on the secret to desire in long-term relationships and the book it relates to, Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic (shop local – no more Amazon links here).
Seems like everyone has moved from bread to cookies these days, so here’s a recipe from just last year for Daim cookies. They use pantry ingredients – toffee deliciousness, with or without chocolate. Or you could try these peanut butter sandwich cookies that taste just like Nutter Butters. I made them gluten-free, of course, and I swear to god they are one of the best things I have eaten all year.
Finally, six minutes that remind me of a time when we could, in fact, have nice things. This never fails to make me a little misty-eyed, in the good way that acknowledges the beauty that humans are capable of.
That’s it. What’s up with you this week? Have you made plans to honor thy mother this weekend?
We finished the last peanut butter cookie yesterday. Sweet baby Jane, those were absurdly delicious! Thank you!
Woot-woot!! Glad you liked them; I have dreams about them a little. They are so good.