Hello readers! Some truths take a long time to land, not because they are complicated, but because they are inconvenient. Black History Month invites us to sit with those truths without rushing to soften them. It asks us to remember that history is not a story we tell about the
Black History Fact: In 1619, enslaved Africans were brought to what would become the United States—before the country existed, before democracy, before the Constitution. Black history does not enter America as a footnote. It enters at the beginning. Before there was a United States, there was forced labor. Before
I don’t know about you, but January felt both fast and endless. Like we were holding our breath while still being asked to keep moving. That’s a strange way to begin a year. So I want to pause for a moment and ask a real question, not a
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” That line has been floating around for decades now, often quoted, often shared, often reduced to a pretty little Instagram square. But it is not a pretty thought. It is a
There’s a phrase people like to throw around when they’re uncomfortable: “Just move on.” Move on from what, exactly? From the things that shaped us? From the wounds that taught our bodies to flinch before our minds could think? From the decisions—personal and political—that still echo
There is a sentence we offer each other the way we offer a tissue at a funeral: Time heals all wounds. It sounds kind. It sounds wise. It sounds like something carved into a soft-focus Hallmark plaque with a bird and a branch and a reassuring serif font. It is
There is a peculiar ritual in American politics that repeats itself with the reliability of a bad flu season. A demagogue reveals exactly who he is. He says it out loud. He does it in public. He builds a movement around it. And then—when the consequences become too ugly
Let’s just start there. Clear the table. Confess early. Yes. I am a hypocrite. A card-carrying member of the human race who has strong opinions about how people should behave in a crisis and then, under enough stress, occasionally does the exact opposite. There are two things that absolutely
All right. Fangs out. No anesthesia. No polite language. No comforting metaphors. This is scorched-earth! Let’s stop lying to ourselves. Let’s stop using therapy words and civility words and “both sides” words to describe something that is, at its core, very old and very ugly. What is happening
Dear friends, I wrote this (below) before ICE killed another citizen exercising their Constitutional rights. Times are bad, really BAD. I’m trying to manage my mental health..it feels like doomsday, perhaps you share those feelings. Every so often, a year starts to glow in the collective imagination. People
This weekend, I am slowing down on purpose. Not in the dramatic, Instagram-worthy way with linen robes and artisanal cucumbers flown in from a mountaintop. Just in the radical, slightly rebellious way of deciding that my nervous system deserves a break and my house can become a sanctuary instead of
I have made a very important, very luxurious, very responsible decision. This weekend, I am going to the spa. I am not going anywhere. (bad weather predicted, stay safe!) No reservations. No driving. No overpriced cucumber water. No trying to whisper while other people very clearly are not. Instead, I
During the holidays, a neighbor stopped by to exchange some food. You know the ritual: she brings something in a disposable container, we give her something in a disposable container, and thus the ancient suburban treaty is renewed for another year. She had never been in my house before. We
One Year In: The Damage Report It has been one year since America reinstalled Donald J. Trump like a corrupted operating system nobody bothered to patch. One year since we decided, as a nation, to click “Remind me later” on the warning that said: This update may permanently damage your
By mid-January, the shouting has started again. Everywhere you look, something is telling you to fix yourself. Optimize yourself. Push harder. Do more. Be better. Be faster. Be less… whatever you apparently were last year. It’s presented as motivation. But much of it feels like something else: pressure disguised
My newsletter today is a potpourri of scrolling on Instagram: Mood - scary stuff in our country, NFL and tomorrow‘s college football playoff. #iykuk GO IU! FUCK ICE! Humor to keep me from mental health meds..but who knows what the future brings. No judgement! Be safe! FIND some
Saw this story on Facebook and it fascinated me...sharing: For four years, a woman sat at a desk while Nazis stole 20,000 works of art. They thought she was furniture. Paris, October 1940. The Nazis had just taken over the Jeu de Paume museum and turned it into
I have recently decided that if I’m going to be a criminal, I’m going to be a very specific kind of criminal. Not the glamorous kind. Not the Ocean’s Eleven kind. Not even the “I accidentally walked out of Costco with a rotisserie chicken under my arm”
The Five Personality Types (According to Science) And the Five Personality Types (According to a 73-Year-Old Woman Who Has Receipts) Every few years, psychology reinvents the horoscope and calls it something serious. This time, it’s called The Big Five Personality Traits, and unlike astrology, it comes with charts, peer-reviewed
You know the old Republican trope: “They get paid to protest.” I’ve always rolled my eyes at that — because I’ve never been paid to stand up for what I believe in, march in the cold, post uncomfortable truths at 7 a.m., or argue with strangers online until
There are days when I wake up absolutely certain of my purpose. And then there are days when I stand in the kitchen holding a cup of coffee, staring into the middle distance, thinking, Surely this is not the full arc of my heroic journey. If you’ve ever had
There comes a point in life when you realize you are not, in fact, a person — you are a collection of emotional carry-on luggage. Some of it is vintage. Some of it is monogrammed. Some of it is clearly broken but you keep hauling it anyway because, at some point
Dear Greenland, Hello. It’s me. America. Or at least the part of America that still feels a deep and abiding need to apologize for that one relative who keeps showing up to weddings drunk, knocking over the cake, and trying to buy the venue. You may remember him. The
We have been sold a very American lie: “If you are not changing the entire world, you are failing.” This is the same culture that thinks: * Hustle is a personality * Burnout is a badge of honor * And rest is something you earn after capitalism is finished with you Let me