It's a gorgeous day in Pittsburgh. On the docket this weekend: a middle school dance (my first slow dance was to Mariah Carey's Hero. Yours?), helping friends move, LIZZO!!!!!!!, and a chill Mother's Day.
Table inspiration
A call to contemplation from "godfather of the Civil Rights Movement" Howard Thurman (from his 1980 baccalaureate address at Spelman College):
So the burden of what I have to say to you is, “What is your name— who are you—and can you find a way to hear the sound of the genuine in yourself?” There are so many noises going on inside of you, so many echoes of all sorts, so many internalizings of the rumble and the traffic, the confusions, the disorders by which your environment is peopled that I wonder if you can get still enough—not quiet enough—still enough to hear rumbling up from your unique and essential idiom the sound of the genuine in you. I don’t know if you can. But this is your assignment.
This is our assignment.
Comment highlight
Rosie zeroes in on the problem with our efforts to integrate new information: "my go-to ways of sorting things out (and trying to have some control) like list making and scheduling and organizing may not really deal with the root issues. Making space for something deeper (soul organization, maybe?) Seems really helpful." Probably this hypothesis is now just going to be called "soul organization." Marie Kondo, check your rearview!
If you haven't yet jumped into the contemplation conversation, we'd love to hear from you!
Ridiculously beautiful
LOOK at these artistic meditations on books by artist (and co-founder of Pittsburgh's City of Asylum) Diane Samuels. I CANNOT EVEN. She hand-transcribes entire literary works in micro-script and then incorporates that script into absolutely gorgeous works of art. Scroll through images of her piece on Richard Powers's The Overstory: mind-blowing. Her Romeo and Juliet piece (read the description!) is also unbelievable. Humans, man.
Have a beautiful weekend! Next week: Money! Ack!
Member discussion: