MIRACLES, MVPS, AND STRAIGHT HAIR JUMP SCARE

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that’s me!!

Delayed follow-through: About 8 years ago, my Vedic astrologer recommended that I read A Course in Miracles a long time ago, but for whatever reason I picked it up again on Sunday. Let me tell you, this is some new-agey, woo-woo text from the last century. But regardless of it being the ‘spiritual download’ of Jesus’s teachings to a woman named Dr. Helen Schucman, it’s a curious read. This quote stopped me in my tracks:

“The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.”

And this one (it’s a mental pretzel):

“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.”

What I’ve been writing: I spent so many hours finalizing the text for my Christmas Zine. I SO badly want to tell you all the segments because they’re random, funny, and anti-curated. But you’ll get to see it / read it eventually – once I mail them out, I’ll likely pop the digital version on here for all to enjoy!

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history.

I see storytellers. I wrote about this sixth sense that will juice your connections after a week in NYC. If you remember the movie sixth sense, little Haley Joel Osment is seeing dead people, but when he starts talking to them about their stories, everything stops being so gnarly. Storytelling has that power: we want to hear stories and share stories, and my essay gives insight into how that works, and importantly, how to make that work for you. Also I just really loved writing it. Why when I sat down to write about storytelling did a scene from Sixth Sense come to mind? And why did I go ahead and follow that visual? And why did it, in fact, work, from an essay perspective? I don’t know how creativity works, but it’s fun!!!

Life After Death? If you’ve been here a while, you know I’m a big fan of Pudding the visual essays. And this quarter’s batch did not disappoint. This piece on afterlife takes you on a visual walkthrough of who believes what about life after death, and what the data shows about how religion, age, and life experience impacts our beliefs. It’s a little bit like going through a video game. I’m spiritual and not religious, and I definitely believe in our soul’s existence after this human, meat-suit form. But I appreciate religion in all its forms as, in the words of James Talarico, religions are merely different languages for love.

How Gabby Williams’ (WNBA MVP) Winding Road Eventually Led to Her Destination. Go Valkyries!!!!! I have a habit of being out of town any time San Francisco teams win a big championship. And I was SO sad to be gone when our WNBA pulled out a game 7 victory against the Atlanta Dream. I went to Game 1 of the finals and let me tell you – there is nothing more emotional than an entire stadium of people, the same stadium that fills up for the NBA team, in a roar for two hours straight. I couldn’t have imagined the popularity of women’s sports when I was playing. And it makes me cry every time I’m there, that so many young women will grow up not knowing any other world than where a women’s basketball team sells out a stadium every night. And anyways, this piece on the Valkyrie's MVP and star, Gabby Williams, was an awesome look at being underestimated, staying patient, and staying at it.

Keisha Lance Bottoms Wins Georgia Governors Race in Historic Election. First woman to be governor in GA! First Black person to be governor in GA! First black woman to be governor in GA! And I got to cast a ballot for her Tuesday in Savannah. I woke up this morning, the day after election day, (currently typing this from my Savannah porch), to the Blue Tsunami. And I was far more emotional going through all of the results than I expected to be. I’m moved not because “my party won” (though, that’s great). I’m moved because so many different groups of people moved left, and in so many regions of the country, that the only story any political expert is telling right now is simple: it’s a pushback, a rebuke of Trump. I believe a few things: that hate cannot sustain us. That hateful rhetoric cannot elevate us. That love and hope and progress is a more powerful force than anger and bigotry will ever be. And that’s the lens I see these election results through, people choosing and asking to feel different, to feel their humanity. And that made me cry.

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here’s one of mine:

For Halloween, I went to a leather-forward Drag and Go-Go party. My galpal Lisa provided the vision: Britney Spears 2002 VMA’s. And I was left to execute. Part of that execution involved straightening my hair for the first time since 2019. It’s been almost 8 years since I’ve touched a straightener (shout out to Alaina for dropping hers off!!), after decades spent straightening my hair like my confidence depended on it (it did).

As my hands rotated the burning hot iron plates around my blown out curls, it all came right back like riding a bike. When I was done, and my hair was straight, it looked both SO long and SUCH a different color. I didn’t think it made me “look prettier” or “look better”. This time, I thought it “looked like halloween”. I have arrived to a place that my 21-year old self avoiding humidity and rain drops like the literal plague didn’t know she could get to: fully in love with my natural hair. Fully obsessed with my curls (though they might be mad at me right now!!).

I’m a woman who can confidently say, my straight hair is a jump scare, and I only straighten it on Halloween.

woman on xx