📚📺 At Electric Literature, Meera Vijayan writes about the value of seeing Alina Starkov build her strength a little at a time in the face of staggering self-doubt and how good representation doesn’t always require “strong” female characters.
I feel both seen and attacked by this Lit Hub piece that says the literary character who shares my Enneagram type (4) is Dorian Gray.
I’m available for work starting September 7. Ideal employed situation is part-time, remote, at least $1500/mo. Also open to contract work. My superpowers are research design, qualitative analysis, workflow organization, clear writing, & speaking.
Putting yourself back together
I’ve written before about how matrescence is like kintsugi: having a baby shatters you and the living you do after you have the baby puts you back together with shiny gold holding you together. But I haven’t articulated how putting yourself together is a long process.
Meg at Sew Liberated writes today about the twelve year project of making a skirt that she started when she was a new mom and only finished recently. Her oldest is 12.
Part of the kintsugi of matrescence is finding the pieces. I misplaced a lot of mine in the time after my son was born. He’ll be 5 in October. I’m gathering the pieces but a lot of them are still in a pile waiting to be stuck to the me that’s here now.
I find them in moments when I’m doing something and suddenly feel more me than I have in a very long time. When I stay up late coding. When I watched the Stephen Sondheim 90th birthday concert. When I talk through a research design with colleagues.
Putting yourself together is an ongoing project; we’re each a big Katamari ball of experiences and interests. (How’s that for a dated reference? Have I mentioned I’m 40?) In my case, at least, that ball got blown apart. It’s encouraging to find all its bits are still within reach.
Today my (medical) doctor called me and when I answered, she said, “Hello, Dr. Hirsh?”
Finished reading: Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 📚
📚 In HARROW THE NINTH Harrowhark uses the phrase “A fatal longing for the picturesque” and I’m all “AHHHHH is that a THE SECRET HISTORY reference?”
What a beautiful day! We're not scared. 🐻
Are you familiar with the poem/book/animated short film WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT?
I highly recommend it. Kids wander through all types of terrain trying to find a bear. They come across many obstacles: long, wavy grass; thick, oozy mud; and others. The refrain is this:
We can’t go over it, we can’t go over it, oh no, we have to go through it.
Katy Peplin’s recent newsletter about being in the middle and getting discouraged made me think of the bear hunt.
Everything in life is a bear hunt, isn’t it?
But of course, while the kids are in the middle of each obstacle, they’re having fun. The mud goes squelch squorch. The grass goes swishy swashy.
It’s just another variation on the journey being more important than the destination.
What are we rushing toward? Can we find joy in the hard parts?
🔖📺🍿This piece identifies what made LOKI less than ideal for me: Loki himself is constrained, not as grand or mischievous as we’re used to. Great piece overall:
Loki as Other: Why Do Queer and Female Viewers Love the Trickster? tor.comRead: www.tor.com