Falling Through the Ice
On not going under.
The river keeps freezing over and thawing out and freezing again. A couple of times this winter, passing on my bike or looking out the window of the bus, I’ve seen someone standing on the ice. It makes my palms sweaty, seeing them out there, thinking of how fucked you’d be if you fell through.
But that’s kind of how living these days has felt lately, right? Precarious. Every time you think that’s the worst it can be, well. Each step sends more cracks scattering beneath your feet, and you’re not sure—should I stand here and wait or try and run?
Ah. Here are a few things that have made me feel (relatively) sane and on solid ground again:
30 Days of Drawing from Wendy MacNaughton’s DrawTogether newsletter. I haven’t done all 30 days in a row, but the good news is it doesn’t matter!
My husband, C., reading me the fan theories from r/severance
Turning off news alerts and listening to the news on French-Canadian radio. It’s the same bad news, but somehow better to hear a non-American journalist ask, les Américains, qu'est qu'ils vont faire? Je ne sais pas, Marcel!!!
Making dinner. You need to eat; it’s good if it’s fun.
Getting a stupid gadget that solves a problem I didn’t really have.
Riffing on extremely dumb bits with good people. If I explained Punxatawney Carol here, it wouldn’t be funny, but we were in literal tears.
Reading my kid Goodnight Moon. All of Goodnight Moon slaps, no skips. No matter his mood, he’ll pay attention so hard that you can see the little gears in his head turning. It’s just the sweetest thing. Nothing can hurt us in the great green room with the telephone and the red balloon.
The people doing good coverage of everything. WIRED especially.
See you next week. Stay safe out there.💖