1.) Y'all. It's Friday. I'm feeling like this so let's goooooo. Some of these are old but not any less relevant.
2) This was USAID's biggest failure. Maybe it's my belief in storytelling but I'm realizing the importance of scientists and social scientists to speak up more often. The solution to false information is correct information. It's not throwing our hands up in the air, and I've often noticed that too many progressives are defeatist in nature.
3.) How Yewande Komolafe, New York Times Food Columnist, woke up from a coma to lose her limbs. A tragically beautiful and amazing story of resilience and grit.
4.) Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Ph.D. student at Princeton, was conducting her field research in Iraq when she got kidnapped by idiots.
5.) People on quotes that permanently changed their lives.
6.) What a marriage needs.
7.) When Charlie Kirk first passed away, there was a desperate attempt to whitewash him, to gaslight us, to convince us that he was a saint. I wrote a little about it here. But Ta-Nehisi Coates does a better job with this article on the Atlantic. Why are they so hellbent on ignoring Kirk's own words? While we can and should denounce his violent murder, we cannot ignore the "malignancy" of his public life.
"Kirk’s bigotry was not personal, but extended to the institution he founded, Turning Point USA. Crystal Clanton, the group’s former national field director, once texted a fellow Turning Point employee, 'I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like fuck them all … I hate blacks. End of story.' One of the group’s advisers, Rip McIntosh, once published a newsletter featuring an essay from a pseudonymous writer that said Blacks had 'become socially incompatible with other races' and that Black culture was an 'un-fixable and crime-ridden mess.' In 2022, after three Black football players were killed at another college, Meg Miller, president of Turning Point’s chapter at the University of Missouri, joked ('joked') in a social media message, 'If they would have killed 4 more n-ggers we would have had the whole week off.'"
8.) I've been quiet here this year but I did write something new last month so please don't miss it. And I am always writing. And I always want to share it. But sometimes, I'm just not sure how. There is a whole new frontier to sharing things, and competing with the million and one things vying for people's attention just feels...exhausting, vapid even sometimes. But I'm so grateful for you all that always read this blog (even in a world where long form writing doesn't thrive, the numbers here tell me people are reading!) and tell me things like you love my writing, you miss my writing. What a gift!
9.) My birthday was last month (yayy me). Ok, that was needless information. The point is I have been talking a lot about this year being one of rebirth. It's really stretched me in ways I could not have planned, in forms I didn't know exist. Sometimes, I don't know what to do with it. But other times, I guzzle all the lessons this season has brought me (and continues to bring me). Most of all, I'm leaning on God a lot...as my source of hope, love, joy, and satisfaction. If you read to this point, say a quick prayer for me!
10.) That's it, folks. See you next time. And gahhh, hope next time isn't in six months lol.
Love,
I
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