Loved this! www.calm.com. Excellent, simple, effective.

The NYTimes covers the CrossFit tradition of Memorial Day Murph.

Really sad and troubling: NPR: Life Over 50 Can Include An Eating Disorder

Why Women Should Tell Everyone Their Salaries: "I'm a huge advocate of women talking about money -- and their salaries specifically -- loudly and publicly as a means of fighting the gender wage gap."

Image: source.

In Praise of Leisure: "The irony, however, is that now that we have at last achieved abundance, the habits bred into us by capitalism have left us incapable of enjoying it properly."

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.” - Anne Lamott

A wonderful friend of mine is raising money & awareness in response to the devastation in West Africa: "Today is the Sahel Day of Action and we are trying to raise awareness about the food crisis in this region of West Africa as we watch injustice play out silently on a grand scale. Over 18 million people in the Sahel, which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal, are facing choices we will never have to make. Do they plant seeds for the next harvest, or eat them for dinner? Do they sell essential farming tools to pay for food, or do they go hungry? Oxfam is on the ground in some of the worst-affected areas--supplying seeds and tools, rehabilitating wells and helping farmers and herders provide food and veterinary care to their livestock. You can help! This can take many forms -- a tweet, a Facebook post, a donation, or a conversation with your neighbor, co-worker, or mail carrier."

Image: source.

I'm into public transportation, I'm into books & public acts of reading, I'm into this: "The Underground New York Public Library is a visual library featuring the Reading-Riders of the NYC subways."

How Psychiatry Mistreats People of Color: "There’s a deep mistrust between communities of color and the mental health field."

Gay Marriage’s Jewish Pioneer: The activist called Faygele ben Miriam started Washington state’s battle over marriage more than 40 years ago.

Wonderful. "Now I think about you and me and our troubles . . . and I see that in the larger scale of things, our own personal difficulties and hurts do not matter, not in and of themselves. They matter only to the degree that they help us connect with others. " (full text here, in response to the second letter writer)

An op-ed in the NYTimes urges Obama to push harder for the DREAM Act: A Start on the Dream: "President Obama has been an overachiever on immigration enforcement, far outpacing his predecessor, George W. Bush, in swiftly racking up a million deportations. But on the other crucial part of reform — getting undocumented immigrants right with the law — Mr. Obama talks a lot but has done far too little."

Some cool looking new pamphlets from Haymarket Press: Be Realistic: Demand the Impossible by Mike Davis, Detroit Woolworth's Strike of 1937: The Story Behind the First Successful All Women Sit-Down Strike by Dana Frank, and Lessons for Our Struggle by Frances Fox Piven

Image: source.

PHOTOS: The Stunning Geography of Incarceration

Ugh, yes, this headline has been all over and was driving me crazy. So glad Fit & Feminist has a response: Endurance sports are risky and other sensationalist health headlines.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” - Frederick Douglass

Love this! Tired of Mowing Your Lawn? Try Foodscaping It Instead: "Interest in food gardening increased during the economic downturn and has stayed pretty steady. Now some people are even turning to landscaping professionals to swap their lawns for something green and edible."

Income inequality, as seen from space

Image: source.

NPR's Summer Books 2012 page is up!

From NY Magazine: S/He: "Parents of transgender children are faced with a difficult decision, and it’s one they have to make sooner than they ever imagined."

Slathering on Sunscreen, Early and Often: "This is a plea to all children and teenagers, their parents and teachers, and the doctors who treat them: Please take sun exposure more seriously." Someone close to me is currently battling skin cancer. I admit that prior to her diagnosis, I was one of the many people who didn't take skin cancer as seriously as I should've. I have fairly tan skin and rarely get burned so I didn't think I was at risk. And I thought that if I did get some irregular mark, I would, I don't know, just have it removed? Folks, the reality of skin cancer, melanoma especially, is much more serious. It can mean multiple, invasive, inpatient surgeries that can take weeks or months to fully recovery from (and cost thousands of dollars). It can mean daily visits to the hospital to get biological treatment, during which time you may be too tired to work or care for your kids. Please wear SPF, keep an eye on your skin, and take any chances or concerns seriously.

"In November of 1958, John Steinbeck — the renowned author of, most notably, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men — received a letter from his eldest son, Thom, who was attending boarding school. In it, the teenager spoke of Susan, a young girl with whom he believed he had fallen in love. Steinbeck replied the same day."

Great idea: Melanoma Research Foundation Partners with Ironman to Raise Melanoma Awareness among Athletes: "It’s the ultimate irony. Athletes at the top of the physical conditioning can also be setting themselves up for a health crisis they never saw coming. That’s why the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF) today announced a new partnership with Ironman® to promote awareness about melanoma prevention and fund new research to help generate the next treatment breakthrough."

A recap video of the 2012 CrossFit Regionals, awesome stuff, can't wait for the Games (someday I will see them in person!).

From Yes & Yes, Let's Stop Pretending It's Always Easy

Image: source.

Thought this was interesting: Home Invasion! How Old Is Too Old for Roommates? "With apartments scarce, even settled, married couples are opening up their homes to strange bedfellows." I actually currently live with a married couple (we are all in our early 30's), in a house they own, and it's been great. All roommate situations have their complications, but living with a couple hasn't proven any more challenging than other arrangements. Sometimes I wonder if I will still be renting and having roommates when I'm in my 40's, and feel shame about that, but then I wonder, why? If it works for everyone, and creates makeshift communities/families while being financially responsible - what's the problem (other than, perhaps, an American fixation on everyone owning their own home)?

"Ordinary happiness depends on happenstance. Joy is that extraordinary happiness that is independent of what happens to us. Good luck can make us happy, but it cannot give us lasting joy. The root of joy is gratefulness. We tend to misunderstand the link between joy and gratefulness. We notice that joyful people are grateful and suppose that they are grateful for their joy. But the reverse is true: their joy springs from gratefulness. If one has all the good luck in the world, but takes it for granted, it will not give one joy. Yet even bad luck will give joy to those who manage to be grateful for it. We hold the key to lasting happiness in our own hands. For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful." - from Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer by Brother David Steindl-Rast