April 18, 2018

My Garden, So To Speak…

The internet is awful, and this week I met the exciting milestone of my first report of a threat to my personal safety on Twitter. Obviously, they found the threat doesn’t violate their terms. To suggest the comment was something I actually find threatening is to give some sad little worm too much credit, but still, what a sorry thing when this is how people communicate, and somebody else decides it’s acceptable. Even sorrier that someone like that gets to define our online experience—and so he doesn’t. I also love the internet. I’ve also spent this week jumping through portals into rich and colourful stories and experiences, and I share links to these places on Twitter. Where, I find, there isn’t tremendous engagement anyway. And so in celebration of the goodness, I’m going to bring back the links round-up to my blog, that little corner of the internet that is mine. My garden, so to speak.

• “I find minimal design beautiful, but boring. Give me tchotchke, colour clashes and contradictions.”
• “I will take Kathleen Wynne’s arrogance over [Conservative leader] Doug Ford’s stupidity any day of the week.”
• “I have spent most of my adult life worrying I have inherited my father’s darkness.”
• “The aroma emerging from your oven while this baby bakes is enough to make you believe any world that smells this divine must inherently be safe.”
• “The Second Shelf Rare books, modern first editions, manuscripts, & rediscovered works by women. On mission to balance the bookshelves.”
• “…when I see her photo, I see Tina Fontaine as every high school kid who could land in my first-year university classroom, the one where I teach Marilyn Dumont’s poem, a class where she’d hand in essays and I’d write on them Good point! and I like how you’ve figured this out.”
• ‘“Worrying about its worth and value to others before it exists,” she remarks in a later section, “can keep us immobilized forever.’
• “My noticing, if I may call it that, is part of the way I remember, the way I try to keep intact the world I cherish.” 
• “I found my new favorite spring lunch salad while I was hiding from a pot of brisket…”
• “But of course I also love talking about the things a novel in particular does that, say, the 24-hour news cycle doesn’t. The slow, deep dive into a world that a novel gives you.”
• “I wish I could apologize to Tante Geneviève for questioning her wits…”
• “Sourdough made me both crave spicy soup and freshly made bread.”
• “It’s strange that my only material evidence of the Barred Owl also happens to be the worst photo I’ve ever taken.”
• “There is a reason we have foods like pickles, and it is the same reason we crave good art.” 
• “My friends, it is a long time since I’ve had a solo visit to the park, a hike, and a chance to observe the park’s abundant wildlife.  And I’ve missed it. Terribly.”
• “Another thing I find useful to remember is that all of the secrets to writing are also secrets to living.”