Miscellany I want to share with y'all: In the Darkroom; Two Wolves parable; Nutmeg cat; March for Science
/In no particular order of import:
Nutmeg, aka the most delightful cat in the world
Despite the apparent rotundity, we have been SO diligent with Nut's diet, and he has lost 1.5 pounds. I believe fur, loose skin, and positionality are to blame here. Plus, that damn camera adding pounds...
Two Wolves - a Cherokee parable
An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life...
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
"Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied,
"The one you feed."
In the Darkroom
Friends, you MUST read this book. Written by Susan Faludi, it is ostensibly about after her estranged, then 76-year-old father undergoing sex reassignment surgery to fully transition to a woman. And while it is an incredibly powerful discussion about self and gender identity and the recovery of a parent-child relationship that had long stood on shaky ground, it is also broader than that, taking us through considerations of national and religious identities through the lens of Hungary, historically, during World War II and the Holocaust, and more presently, since the turn of the century on. It's like a riveting history text + a mesmerizing personal tale.
I rationed my reading of it and was truly crushed when I finished it Monday. Tom and I spent some time in Budapest in 2004, just weeks after Hungary had joined the European Union. (Because I am forever talking to everyone) we found that many Hungarians felt deeply vexed about what impact(s) EU membership might have on their national identity. In light of those conversations (which led me to imagine that Hungarians had a long-standing, deeply-rooted, unified sense of what their identity was), I found Faludi's explication of Hungary's fraught history with its sense of self particularly fascinating.
And for anyone worried about just how bad hyper-nationalistic, pro-Christian, anti-Semitic (and Muslim and Roma and...), anti-LGBTQ administrations can be for a country, just how far down a scary hole those can go, look to Hungary today where an uber-rightist, intolerant government aided and abetted by a far-right propaganda-based internet presence, has, in many ways, driven the country into the ground. Sound familiar? It's alarming to say the least.
Food
Thank god spring is (nearly) here. Grilled bread with ricotta, lemon zest, olive oil, salt and sauteed pea shoots, snow peas, and English peas is fab.
So is grilled focaccia with sauteed mushrooms (oyster, shitake, lion), creme fraiche, and thyme.
Also fab? A homemade birthday cake- chocolate and chocolate-from my mother-in-law. 41 in binary (lit/unlit candles) courtesy of my nerdtastic husband and J.
Science (and knowledge and facts) is great!
Who's marching in the March for Science on Saturday? Jack and I are marching in DC, and last I checked there were 571 satellite marches in the US and abroad. Find one and make your voices heard!
