Lit Lover

I was just remembering when I lived near Chicago & a different war was happening and I could hear the neighbors watching TV and becoming upset on the other side of the wall.

"Before I Was a Gazan" by Naomi Shihab Nye

https://poets.org/poem/i-was-gazan

I did not have internet or cable in the apartment. I watched news on PBS and checked my email at the library.

"For example, the University of Houston would not pay me until I signed a no-BDS form (No-Boycott Israel form) WEEKS after I read there. I refused to sign it, but not paying me is illegal, so to process my payment, an administrator *forged my signature.*"

https://x.com/Vanessid/status/1715406944251662675?t=aJc6sXNriWmk-eTaAUqf2w&s=09

"I can't properly articulate it but the idea many hold that persecuted minorities can only survive in a homogenous nation state, as if a multicultural and tolerant society is not something we should aspire to, absolutely horrifies me."

https://x.com/jackdaw_writes/status/1715383354806108191?t=2c2_aZthaCO-b-RhQYG-mA&s=09

With a better head, I can finish watching this.

"Slow Living: Creating your Inner Peace and Dream Life - The Cottage Fairy" | The Lavendaire Lifestyle

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9BYIkE3JwUE&si=vs1x9QkCAuM07bnj

Very blessed to be guided towards good health.

Intense physical suffering will quickly get your attention and make you want to know what can be done to feel better.

Amen.

i could be dying. i could be in a car passing by someone dying. i am not feeling smart. i am feeling real real real stupid & humble. sometimes i get why we need religion and help to get through life and become people who act less ridiculous. i feel like an old self has died.

Hey Humility

Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility Humility

Humans need help and training.

How do we learn how to take really care of ourselves. What do we do to help others. i feel stupid, and i got so sick, but if i can get smarter and do anything to make a cat or a human feel better than i would love to learn...

Humility again.

i wonder if my headache and illness got even worse after i saw a homeless man on a sidewalk who didn't seem to look well and i was a passenger in a car speeding by and not looking forward to traffic and really wanted to get home well the traffic was awful and by the time i got here i was moaning and i thought maybe a shower would clear my sinuses and before i could get inside i threw up three times and all the steam made sunblock sting my eyes and when i finally got under the water i was thanking Jesus but not feeling like the smartest one on Earth at the moment

Humility.

I still have a lot to learn about health. Thank god I am recovering from getting horribly ill after one last trip to the old place and a wicked headache and snarls of dreadful traffic. Taking care of these genetics is not for the faint of heart. Oh Lord. I am truly honored to feel a little better and humbled by that dreadful experience. I feel love after feeling like I was dying. I want to become so much smarter for the rest of this lifetime. I need to close my eyes now.

I wonder which one to read first. Time for a drink!

Four Tops - "Bernadette"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=h-_sDdS-7Ug&si=g0UMkjXrMDSo_LA4

"The Truth About Social Media Platforms" | Dear Hollywood ~ A. Stoner

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V81nlz0tuSg&si=occ9t9wHeQ0faZF3

"Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus" | Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58065033-lessons-in-chemistry

"Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple" | Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13526165-where-d-you-go-bernadette

I could read Semple's book alongside "Lessons in Chemistry"

"Garmus has an impressive ability to maintain a Campari-like balance of the bitter and the sugary. Elizabeth endures harrowing setbacks, not just a wall of sexism in her career but also a sexual assault and the deaths of loved ones. Trauma abounds in the sympathetic characters’ backstories. Elizabeth’s father, a charismatic religious charlatan, is in prison, and her gold-digger mother is out of the picture, run off to Latin America with her latest rich husband. Madeline’s father, an orphan, grew up in a grim Catholic boys’ school. Elizabeth’s helpful neighbor Harriet has a vile, abusive husband who expects her to tidy up his dirty magazine collection. All of Elizabeth’s bosses (with the exception of the meek producer who makes her a TV star) are insulting, domineering lechers. A more vulnerable woman would be utterly downtrodden by all this, but Elizabeth’s determined single-mindedness and indifference to what other people think of her—the same qualities that tend to alienate her colleagues—provide a kind of shield."

~ Laura Miller

https://slate.com/culture/2023/06/lessons-in-chemistry-book-bonnie-garmus-brie-larson.html

So I'll be better late than never at checking out "Where'd You Go Bernadette"

Four Tops - "Bernadette"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=h-_sDdS-7Ug&si=g0UMkjXrMDSo_LA4

I got "Bernadette" in my head. It makes me think of being 21 & getting groceries at a Shop Rite in Seattle.

"Lessons in Chemistry belongs to a genre of literary fiction that could be called the quirky tragicomedy. The novel it’s most often likened to is 2012’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple, about a daughter trying to understand her mother’s abandonment. In these books, the main character has amusingly eccentric traits or interests and suffers undeniably serious losses, but the overall tone remains light, with a touch of rueful melancholy and a whole lot of brave soldiering on. After a boom in the 2000s, this style of fiction seems to be increasingly uncommon, which explains why some of today’s readers, raised on plots that milk trauma for all it’s worth, find the novel’s tone confusing."

~ Laura Miller

https://slate.com/culture/2023/06/lessons-in-chemistry-book-bonnie-garmus-brie-larson.html