Better Living Through Literature

1. I feel like I should post something patriotic for America’s 250th, so here’s Winson Hearn writing about imagining a better political future:

Cultivating political imagination is an act of hope. It reminds us that even though the institutions and centers of power in our world are currently captured by dumbass evil humans; that is not a permanent state. The future has not occurred yet. The dreams you imagine and the beliefs about how the world should be you develop based on those dreams will inform the actions you take in the future. They give you new stories to tell, new futures to paint, new invitations to extend to your neighbors.

Before January 2026, I could not imagine that thousands (millions?) of Americans would choose collective well-being over personal safety. I did not think we had it in us. That was a failure of imagination on my part, and I will never again fail to believe in that possibility, thanks to my comrades here in Minnesota. I was wrong about what was possible, and it genuinely encouraging to find out just how wrong

2. Also patriotic: Ellen Cushing writing about World Cup visitors discovering ranch dressing in The Atlantic: 

We like the recent wave of ranch stories because they are funny, but mostly because they make us feel good. They remind us that this country can serve as a source of delight for the rest of the world, that we can make things that feel worth taking back home and sharing.

3. Not patriotic at all but oddly touching? “I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like To Try Cake, By A Horse” in The Onion.

“Every day I dream about what it will be like if I get to eat cake. Here is what will happen. First, I will walk to the cake and puff my nose at it like hrrrfff to make sure it is not a snake. Then I will trot in a circle to show that I am a horse and I am large.”

1. I love this: 2000-Year-Old Roman Theater Hosts World Cup Watch Party.

2. Caity Weaver writes about garage sales, thrift stores, and estate sales in The Atlantic. You get history and pathos and sentences like this:

“For every delightful discovery of a charmingly wacky neighborhood where one resident’s garage-door mural features an alien camouflaged among the paddles of a prickly pear cactus, and another homeowner has installed a rooftop statue of an orange pig with blue angel wings, there will be a haunting encounter with a nearly silent man hoping to sell a single button-down shirt for 50 cents. If you don’t have the stomach to witness people’s lives up close, do not ever stop at a yard sale.”

3. Thinking about my orange cat. 🙁

 

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1. I’m a little late today because we have another summer Friday for Juneteenth. Now I’m plotting how to get 4-day weeks until Labor Day and might be doing this later:

2. No one was more surprised than me to learn that Provo has a (kinda) jazz kissa? They listen to more than jazz and I’m not sure there are coffee drinks but otherwise it’s the same. The Kids These Days are discovering listening to an entire album and I am trying to be supportive of them and not roll my eyes! (Review from their Instagram.)

3. Anthropeum is a game that has you guess “where in the world, and when, does this human artifact belong?” It’s incredibly difficult!