constellations #17: take heart
Hi again.
Today is election day in the USA, which might be bringing up a range of feelings in each of you. Certainly it is for me. I voted early, in person, last week, in one of the “supercenters” that my city set up. In terms of the virus, I felt safe. The volunteers at my polling location were friendly and helpful, all smiles, and then afterwards I went and got a fancy coffee from a coffeeshop I used to visit a lot before all this.
If I’m being honest, a feeling that has been coming up lately for me — one both connected and completely disconnected from the whole electoral situation — is one of despair. There are the things that feel too big to comprehend and things that feel so personal it would be ridiculous to name them. Maybe you have them, too.
Sometimes in these moments it feels like cheating to seek out joy, but sometimes the joy finds me anyway. I started cataloging some of it last week because I thought small moments of joy might be a nice thing to share in this newsletter. After a while I realized I had already done that a couple times before, but I figured a little more couldn’t hurt, probably. Anyway, here’s a few things I found:
This video of Perfume Genius performing one of my favorite songs from their new album live in the desert
Breakfast pastries. (If there are scones available to you and you haven’t had a scone in a minute, maybe try that)
This bootleg recording of Gnarly Rae Jepsen, the Carly Rae Jepsen cover band I was in, and the essay my friend Lars wrote about it
This tweet about dog boots which, for some reason, made me laugh until I cried
Photos from a camping trip, taken by my good friend Mel. (She took that photo, below)
Noticing one day last week that Matt had put a small ceramic bowl I made, back when it was safe for us to take pottery classes, on his desk and filled it with pistachios to eat during the day
Tracy Chapman performing on Late Night
This take on the “Dreams” TikTok trend
Having friends who say “I love you” a lot
This poem by Adrienne Rich:
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.”
That’s all for now. Take heart this week, friends.
xo,
M