1.) ...on a Monday. It's been a while we did this. Let's go!
2.) There is the elephant in the room: the elections. I've processed personally and of course, I have thoughts but for now, let's all pretend. Let's collectively be in denial. Let's pretend like this country did not vote in a convicted felon to lead this country. Shall we? We shall. Below are things that will cause you to think, maybe scare you a bit, and teach you how to be better.
I voted today (It's a Sunday as I begin to write this) and I joked on Instagram that there is a wild part to this.
We voted for who could be the FIRST (Black, Indian) FEMALE PRESIDENT of this democratic experiment called America. In which case, history will be made. OR this may very well be the last "elections" of this democratic experiment, which renders it over. So, history. Either way, history.
I don't know who specifically this post is targeted towards but listen/read up, please. I can't make a pitch to a Trump voter. I'm good but I'm not THAT good. I will attempt to make a pitch (I made an earlier one here) to so-called undecided voters or to those who have decided to abstain or who have chosen apathy or worse, those who want to vote for the fraud called Jill Stein. I know you are angry and frustrated and maybe change is not moving fast enough for you. But progress is SLOW. Real progress is not speedy...it builds incrementally. So of course, there is more work to do. This is not a perfect union, and it will never be. This is a simple reminder that needs to be said.
There will also never be a perfect candidate. But to the extent that one can be qualified, Kamala Harris is. She was the Attorney General of California, a Senator, and is now the sitting Vice President. With all these qualifications, they still call her a DEI hire. It's the lines misogynoir colors. It's the way it flattens you into your identity while decrying you for embracing that same identity. Throughout this entire campaign I have not heard Kamala Harris ONCE say, "vote for me because I'm Black or because I'm Indian or because I'm a woman or because I'm all of those things". She has instead touted her experience, qualifications, and skills. She has promised to be president for ALL. So here is what I will say to anyone calling her a DEI hire: I dare you to take the California bar exam and pass. DARE.
Let's talk Olympics!
To be honest, I didn't watch much of it. The games just always happened around work time (time difference between here and Paris, and all) but of course, there were moments that you'd have to be under a rock to not have heard about. I've jokingly written about the benefits of sports before but Olympics is all of that on steroids. There is something about the EXCELLENCE on display; the fortitude; the resilience that just have you plugged in, whether because you catch up on all the games or, like me, you read about them after. So, let's take a minute to talk about the Olympics, shall we?
NIGHT NIGHT!!!
Hi folks and welcome to the Book of the Month. It's Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. OMG this book is amazing. Okay let me be a bit honest/upfront before going on: after reading this book, I read a bit more about the author's life that robbed me somehow and made me think maybe it should not be her telling this story. Bias is an extraordinary thing. I had read this book and was on such a high after reading, and it was a little deflated when I found out more about her. None of what I read is awful or cruel; just some bit about her choices that helps me understand how she chose to paint some characters (ahem the straight white men character(s)). It's a writer's job to create nuance to characters and give them depth but....alright, imma leave that for now. The most important thing is that this is an EXTRAORDINARY book. I cannot say that enough. Oops I'm way ahead of myself.
Yellowface tells the story of a failing author who steals an unpublished manuscript of her late friend. Here is how it really went down. A white author and an Asian author were frenemies; the Asian author, Athena Liu, was a literary darling, while the white one, Juniper Hayward (June, Junie, June Song etc) was mediocre at best, or at least that's how her debut novel was received. Athena was THE star and had everything going for her--heck she just inked a Netflix deal--so much that June started to get envious. So when June witnesses Athena's death in a weird accident, she does what anyone would do in the face of such tragedy (if you are a weirdo white basic babe) and steals Athena's unpublished manuscript. Athena was notoriously tight lipped about her projects and she was no different with this experimental novel on the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. June steals it, polishes it (who really knows how much work she put into it except what she tells us), sends it to her agent, gets rebranded as Juniper Song (with an ambiguously ethnic author photo to boot), and makes it big. End of story, right? WRONG. June can't get away from Athena's shadow. Plus newly brought to light evidence threatens to expose her. This story uncovers that, June's desperation to get past this, and so much more.
Ah Jeez. I wrote this elaborate post the other day about the two candidates before you.
Y'all.
Here we are. The last 48 hours. Here we are.
Sunday (the day before yesterday) afternoon feels like one of those days where you will always remember where you were when you heard the "news".
And so it happened that Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. There is a LOT to unpack about everything that's happened. I know that no one needs my analysis. I have nothing new to say apart from what everyone and their mamas already said. Yet, I feel a gnawing to just say something here; perhaps because I made this whole case for Joe Biden just two posts ago. I think the main reason why it always feels so odd to be quiet in monumental times like this is akin to what Toni Morrison once said:
This is precisely the time when artists go to work
There is no time for despair
No place for self-pity
No need for silence
No room for fear
We speak
We write
We do language
This is how civilizations heal
There was a time bloggers just posted about trips and vacations. I tried that a couple of times and it was almost physically painful. That said, I want to try that for this vacation I'm currently on (Current me popping in parenthesis through this. Note to say this was THREE whole months ago haha but I'll leave the tenses as they are, as usual, for better flow. Something else you should know about this trip is that it's three countries/cities but London is the first stop. The others to come). So I'm writing in real time. If I get bored of having to transcribe the events of the day every evening, then that's where this stops. There also won't be that many pictures. Sorry. (That sounded curt but I really do mean the apology; sorry for not adding as many photos. Getting the pictures from that long ago is a lot of work). I still feel a type of way about my photos just being out there in the ether. Plus, organizing pictures is a whole other chaos.
Anyway, we arrived in London from America at about 10AM local time. The six hours and change flight was pretty uneventful. Praise God. From the airport, we headed down to our hotel—about an hour's drive. Our hotel was smack dab in Trafalgar Square. I was particularly exhausted (from literally working till the very minute we left) so I just jumped into bed and slept. I woke up, took a shower, and we headed to our hotel's rooftop for complimentary drinks. Yay, for a nice view of London.
It feels really weird to be quiet about an election with so much stakes for our lives and for our country. There is a cloud of noise out there so I'm going to put this as simply as possible. So here goes. There are two candidates — whatever hangups you have about there being only two choices, you have to get over. Sorry. So, yes, there are two candidates.
I have accepted that life comes with a good deal of the good and the bad. It’s very healthy to wade through life with that mindset. Yet some...