A love letter to the world

My gratitude for the day is for the public library system. I recently read about a book I was really interested in: Four Seasons in Rome (2007) by Anthony Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2015 for All the Light We Cannot See. It wasn't available through Libby, but they do have two copies in the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library system. I put a hold on it, and it was transferred to, and available for pickup the next day at, our local Central Library, where I exchanged it for The Book of (More) Delights by Ross Gay, which I had just finished.

 

The winter solstice

Today is the winter solstice. I bet you didn't know it's one of my favorite days of the year. Why would anyone like the day that's kicking off three months of winter? Simple. I'm almost exclusively an early-morning runner, and the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. So after today I can look forward to it getting light out just a wee bit earlier every morning until the summer solstice. It makes for seeing some good sunrises while running too.

Yet another thing that made me cry

This is Mom's new favorite anecdote, so I'm just going to get it out there myself to control the narrative. You all already know some of the things that make me cry, most reliably the concluding scenes from sappy movies. Mom and I watched "CODA" recently, which I wouldn't classify as a sappy movie and was, in fact, good enough to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2022 (along with Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay). But I also didn't just tear up at the climactic scene; I was pretty much sobbing, to the point where Mom felt like she had to comfort me even though she was crying too. I don't know why I was so wrecked.

A thousand butterflies

I just finished The Book of (More) Delights (2023), Ross Gay's endlessly entertaining second book of "essayettes," each documenting his delight of record every day for a year. Two of you at least should be able to appreciate this excerpt from his entry for July 7 about the courtesy of truckers:

Very occasionally, at night, when I'm tired but with miles to go before I sleep, I'll let myself slip into the fantasy that a truck behind my is a demon truck, like that Stephen King movie, and let it be said that Stephen King kinda ruined a lot of shit. Tell me you wouldn't be afraid to stay the winter for free in a big beautiful empty ski lodge with lots of food and these days probably Wi-Fi and a pool. Tell me you're not a little bit afraid of homecoming or prom or whatever. Tell me you're not a little bit afraid of bid cuddly slobbery dogs, or clowns, or '57 Chevys, or cornfields, or your pets, or your kids. See what I'm saying?

A day to be thankful for

Photo by Madison Oren on Unsplash

 

At the heart of celebration is a kind of mathematical paradox: the more we share joy, the more it grows. The implication of this is that we should manage joy in the exact opposite way that we manage money. We should spend it all, at every chance we get. What celebration does, with music and fireworks, giant balloons and glitter, is broadcast our joy far and wide so that others can join in. Because the more generous we are with our joy, the more we have for ourselves.

Ingrid Fetell Lee, Joyful (2018)

 

Yesterday was an awesome day, from start to finish. The hard rain overnight cleared out in the morning, just in time for me to run to the MHS track and do a virtual turkey trot. A few laps in, a magnificent hawk swooped in and perched on the fence at the south end of the track, and then watched over me as I circled the track. I felt lighter, like I was taking flight myself, every time I glimpsed the raptor upon completing another circuit. I ended up running my fastest 5K time in six years.

 

Seven marriage strategies from social science

One of my latest reads was about using social science findings to shore up your marriage. The book is For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage (2010) by Tara Parker-Pope, who has been a journalist at the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. There are lots of interesting findings cited in the book, toward the end of which Parker-Pope sums up that "[g]ood marriages require daily maintenance and positive feedback to help couples stay connected." She then provides seven strategies that studies have shown "successful couples use to stay happy and bolster the strength of their marriage," some of which I've already discussed here. The seven strategies are:

How to make Mom happy

I just read Drop Dead Healthy, which is a fun book by A.J. Jacobs, who used to write a humor column for Esquire magazine. Jacobs spent two years trying all sorts of different things to try to live healthier and ultimately achieve "bodily perfection." One thing he mentioned early in the book was filling his apartment with plants he called "mother-in-law's tongue," which he says "got their name because of the sharpness of the leaves." (JC would obviously never find this humorous.) They're better known as snake plants (Sansevieria). Jacobs mentioned a NASA study finding that snake plants effectively clean the air in indoor spaces.