Yum & Yuk

Really made me think: You Are Not Defined Exclusively By Your Relationships With Other People

This food blog is gorgeous, I look forward to trying out some of recipes: The First Mess.

What a woman, what a life: Once Alienated, and Now a Force in Her Husband’s Bid for Mayor, a profile of Chirlane McCray.

Image: frost at Walden Pond. Source.

Wonderful, there's so much to here love - office supplies, a 70 year long marriage, the wonderful routine of dining out: 103 year old man dines out alone, every night. I remember some of the first times I ever went out to eat on my own, as a teenager, and how incredible it felt to just read, watch people, and feel like I was treating myself. It always felt like a little bit of a challenge - to not feel awkward or uncomfortable - and also like a wonderful indulgence.

I just finished "Dear Life" by Alice Munro. Well, I can't lie - I didn't actually finish it. I'm not sure quite what to say about the book. The stories in this collection (the first I've read of the much-lauded Munro) are timeless in a way I don't know that I've experienced before. Timeless not in the sense of enduring classics that will outlast the ages (although perhaps they are) but timeless in the sense of seeming to exist outside of specific locations or eras (with few exceptions). It's a bit disconcerting - as I occasionally realized I had no idea what decade, country, etc I was in - but ultimately, in it's best moments, forces you to trust the author and simply be present in whatever moment you're dropped into, trusting the universe of the story to flesh itself out. In the end, however, I just couldn't seem to get my bearings. Maybe I just wasn't in the right place for this book. There was at least one story that I think will stick with me for a long time, but many of these others I just couldn't get my baring, they felt SO internal that they seemed unrooted. I will definitely try other Munro, and maybe even return to "Dear Life." As much as I am a fan of dropping books when they aren't quite working for you, I think there are some worth trying again.

“Nobody can save you but / Yourself / And you’re worth saving. / It’s a war not easily won / But if anything is worth winning then / This is it.” - Charles Bukowski, “Nobody But You”