Oooh boy.
My friend Emma is housesitting for her pal who left town for a device-free silent retreat a week ago. The friend got back on the grid, looked at the internet, and was in for a real shock. Her first texts to Emma after reading the news were "I do not feel calm. I hear Tom Hanks has it."
I feel her whiplash! It's wild how fast things are moving and how anxiety-producing they are. The world feels surreal. There's no better example of that than these photos of the world's most crowded places now suddenly empty. So for this week's email, I'm going to try and not make it about coronavirus and instead focus on some things that I've found grounding and stable this week. Maybe you're in need of that too.
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This week’s list
GREAT:
Wendell Berry is a poet, novelist, and environmentalist. He lives in Port Royal, Kentucky, near where he was born, and he's been working the land there for more than 40 years. NPR once called him "America's foremost farmer-philosopher." This week, I've been reading his poem "The Peace of Wild Things" and relying on his advice for what to do when the state of the world makes you despair. It's a short little poem (and you can even hear him read it himself at that link) but it's been exactly what I needed to calm down these past few days.
I also loved reading an interview with Berry where he talks about the importance of connecting with his neighbors and community and the power of understanding that you're not always in control. I've specifically thought a lot about how his Amish friends cared for one of their non-Amish neighbors when he got sick. (Also the rule that you should never milk more than 25 cows in a day. Good to know!) Going Home with Wendell Berry
FUNNY:
Maeve Dunigan's piece in McSweeney's this week really got me. Any fan of true crime podcasts or police procedurals on TV will immediately recognize what she's doing so brilliantly here. A Smoothie Recipe Written by a Cop in a Small Town That Just Had Its First Murder in 50 Years.
INTERESTING:
The Bronx Freedom Fund was founded in 2007 with the simple but radical idea that no one should be in jail simply because they were poor. Thousands of New Yorkers were ending up in pre-trial detention because they couldn't come up with the money for bail. To be clear, these were folks who had been convicted of no crime and posed no risk. They were simply being held behind bars because they didn't have enough money to pay. Which, of course, cost New York City taxpayers millions of dollars.
The Bronx Freedom Fund raised money and posted bail for thousands of low-income New Yorkers over 13 years. And they also provided a crystal clear moral argument for why the cash bail system was so unjust. Such a clear argument, in fact, that after a decade of advocacy, New York State passed a historic bail reform that ended the practice for the vast majority of cases. This week, the Bronx Freedom Fund closed up shop. It's one of the rare cases of a non-profit shutting their doors because of success. I strongly encourage you to read the letter they wrote about the organization and their fight and to be inspired that good people really can make positive change in the world! The Bronx Freedom Fund
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Hoping you stay safe, healthy, and have the appropriate amount of toilet paper,
Chris