Cruel compendium #20 š”
Saying goodbye, moving back home, and doomscrolling through it all
Before we beginā¦
ICYMI: On Tuesday I wrote about the brightest moments in a dark year.
I am on the hunt for freelance work! Please get in touch with any opportunities, and signal boost the below if you can. Iād also love to connect with other newsletter writers and help share each otherās work. Thank you!
Iām reading
New York magazineās 500 reasons weāve loved New York. Goodbyes to 500 (!) places that closed in 2020.
Dear Fuck-Up: How Do I Move On When the World Is Stuck? by Brandy Jensen
Ask Polly: Everything I do fails, so I donāt even try by Heather Havrilesky
People who dare to believe in crazily ambitious goals without feeling ashamed of them are in touch with one of the purest joys in life: knowing what you crave, knowing what you love, and taking the risk of owning those drives. The thing no one tells you is that hunger itself is divine. Wanting things is good for you. Itās only the shame around wanting that creates trouble.
How Black people learned not to trust by Charles M. Blow. Recounting the governmentās past racist medical experiments
āPoem Beginning With a Retweetā by Maggie Smith (h/t Laura Olinās newsletter)
If you drive past horses and don't say horses
you're a psychopath. If you see an airplane
but don't point it out. A rainbow,
a cardinal, a butterfly. If you don't
whisper-shout albino squirrel! Deer!
Red fox! If you hear a woodpecker
and don't shush everyone around you
into silence. If you find an unbroken
sand dollar in a tide pool. If you see
a dorsal fin breaking the water.
If you see the moon and don't say
oh my god look at the moon. If you smell
smoke and don't search for fire.
If you feel yourself receding, receding,Ā
and don't tell anyone until you're gone.Ā
Iām listening to
The Cut: Would you move back home? Could you?
Stella Bugbee reveals sheās been living with her parents for 16 years, since she was 28 years old and pregnant with twins. She speaks to women about moving back home at a time when so many of us (including me) are.
Questionable self-care advice
Support I got that you might need to hear
Vision board
You shouldĀ know about
Manual Cinemaās Christmas Carol. Manual Cinema is a group that performs the most incredible shadow puppetry (check it out). I made sure to see them every time they came to New York. You can buy tickets to their holiday showāIāve got mine for Sunday.
2020 is a song. Share a song and a memory that got you through this year.
Nearly halfĀ of all Covid infections are transmitted by people who are not showing any symptoms. (!!!)
Did you know that alcohol is a carcinogen? Half of Americans donāt, and booze companies want to keep it that way.
The Society of Professional Journalistsā Race & Gender Hotline. Sensitivity information for journalists on a deadline
Minerva moment
Anthem
āKnow Your Worthā by Khalid and Disclosure
Check out the full CSBC playlist
Mood
Cruel Summer Book Club is doomscrolling. Itās okay if you are too. We can do it together if you subscribe to this newsletter and share it with friends. And go ahead and smash that heart button.
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You are not alone!