Dear friends,
We are coming to the end of the hottest week on earth, so far. It’s challenging to feel a sense of achievement, not to mention actually achieving anything.
Be kind to yourself if the to-do list didn’t get done.
I’ve been ruminating on existential dread. As it happens, I am also rehearsing for an opera based on Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
I confess that I could not get through the book; perhaps this one-sentence description will tell you why:
In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.
Around the time I quit reading Butler’s 1993 book, I passed a person in the park wearing a shirt that said:
Octavia Butler tried to warn us.
The promise of the story excited me AND I couldn’t bear to read hundreds of pages about the world’s collapse into chaos. My springling told me the whole story — with an emphasis on the ending — during a long walk through the woods.
Whenever I sit down to write, I want to write something hopeful and useful. Today is apparently not that day. Instead, I am going to drink my iced tea and perch near the fan to practice my singing.
Here’s a fun fact: Laughter, singing, and diaphragmatic breathing stimulate the vagus nerve — the longest cranial nerve in the human body — which can improve feelings of well-being.
I learned about vagus nerve stimulation from the doctor who is treating me for the cognitive symptoms of Long Covid. You can read a little about it here.
My homework this weekend is to make up a funny song to sing myself before I tackle taxing cognitive tasks. Back on Monday.
with love,
L