Hey Darling Ones,

Were you a fan of the show “Parks & Rec?” You know, Ron Swanson, Leslie Knope, and the gang? I am a big fan, and so is my family. “Parks & Rec” quotes make up a large portion of our family vernacular.

One of the underrated characters is Craig Middlebrooks and high-strung, dramatic, and quick-tempered employee played by Billy Eichner. In the final season Craig gets some therapy from Dr. Richard Nygard. The therapist advises Craig to “take a deep breath and say three great things about being alive” whenever he feels like yelling.

In one scene he chants, “watermelon martinis, exposed brick, Keri Russell’s hair.

Due to the fucking news, I’ve adopted this practice.

Things are bad, man. So bad.

I suppose it’s a kind of progress. Maybe I’m slowly coming out of stroke-related self-centeredness. I’m aware enough to see what’s going on in the world, be horrified, and then long for my tiny stroke-world and the horrors that only I have to deal with constantly.

The news globally, locally, in the lives pf people I care about is giving me a stomachache.

I worry all the time about protest on college campuses and the violence those in power are using to quell them. I worry about my pro-Palestine Jewish college professor sister and her husband who both teach on a college campus. I worry about the holocaust in Palestine. I worry about the ever diminishing rights of people who have uteruses are not cis or are queer in anyway. I super worry the Supreme Court is going to crown a turnip as king and give him unlimited power. I worry about a woman I know being stalked by an ex.

When it all gets too much, after about 7 minutes of reading, I close the tabs and think of Great Things About Being Alive.

A short list.

• Joy Oladokun’s song “Questions, Chaos, and Faith”. I especially love this call back to the Indigo Girls’ “Galileo” I was prostrate, as they say, to higher minds.”
• Plain old-fashioned donuts
• Top Chef
• Yarn
• Hanif Abdurraqib
• Lilac-scented hand soap
• You
• Diclofenac sodium topical gel
• Public libraries

I could type things big and small until my fingers fell off and my bones turned to dust. However, my eyes can only talk so much screen time because while there are a many great things about being alive, some things still suck.

Caustically optimistic,
Jodi