It’s been a rough week. I’ve been glued to the news about the Maui fires and feeling so sad for everyone there. Maui is such a special place and I’ve been lucky enough to be a frequent visitor for years. The locals there rely so much on tourism for their livelihood and I worry about that. I know they will rebuild, but they need help. Read here for ways you can help. Now, on to the roundup…
Quote of the week:
“It is not possible to develop the capacity to see beauty without developing also the capacity to see ugliness, for they are the same capacity. The capacity for joy is also the capacity for pain. We soon find that any increase in our sensitiveness to what is lovely in the world increases also our capacity for being hurt. That is the dilemma in which life has placed us. We must choose between a life that is thin and narrow, uncreative and mechanical, with the assurance that even if it is not very exciting it will not be intolerably painful; and a life in which the increase in its fullness and creativeness brings a vast increase in delight, but also in pain and hurt.” –Philosopher John Macmurray
What I’m reading:
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck. It is so unique and beautiful. A real delight.
What I’m listening to:
The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts. Very interesting and heartbreaking in many ways.
What I’m watching:
I finally finished Season One of The Morning Show. Ended up thinking it was good and well-done. I just can’t do the time commitment of series. That said, I’m watching The Bear and this is a series I CAN do (short episodes are my jam). I have two episodes left of Season 2 and I’m sad to be done soon.
Writing news:
Nothing to report! I have jotted down ideas for poems and that’s about it.
Interesting things I learned this week:
- The Hawaii fire is already the second-deadliest US wildfire in the last century (and will likely become the deadliest after search and rescue efforts conclude)
- Tourism is the lifeblood of Maui’s economy: $4 of every $5 the island generates comes directly or indirectly from tourism, according to the Maui Economic Development Board. Tourism accounts for 75% of all private-sector jobs in Maui
- The Lahaina banyan tree is the oldest living banyan tree on earth at 150 years (it appears to be still standing from footage I’ve seen. It’s scorched, so survival is TBD)
- Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in May–December of 2021 show that mothers spent the hourly equivalent of a full-time job caring for children over the course of that year while working a paid position at the same time
- Mothers who spend all day with their children produce more cortisol (aka stress hormone) than 98% of the world’s paying professions
- Simon & Schuster was sold to KKR, a private equity firm, for $1.62 billion
- A Texas judge has ruled that doctors can intervene to save pregnant women’s lives and preserve their health without risking criminal penalties, exempting them from the state’s abortion ban (phew)
- The number of workers aged 75 and older is expected to grow by 96.5% in the US by 2030, and nearly half of all families in the United States have zero retirement savings
- A 2019 report published by the People’s Policy Project in collaboration with the Gravel Institute stated that over the course of one year, the average American works more hours than the average worker in any other peer nation
- 84% of voters support paid leave, according to a 2021 survey by Paid Leave for All Action
- Only 18.4% of American households follow a traditional, nuclear family structure, according to a 2021 report by the Center for American Progress
- The FDA has approved the first pill for postpartum depression (such great news–read here)
- ASICS (the shoe brand) is an acronym for the Latin phrase anima sana in corpore sano (translated as “a sound mind, in a sound body”)
- Iowa, Kentucky, and Texas had the highest graduation rates in the country in 2020, with each graduating an average of 94% of its students; Arizona was the lowest (74%)
Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“nose picking Covid.” I saw a click-bait headline about a study that found that nose picking increases risk of Covid. I had to investigate further because I really could not believe they spent research dollars on this. But they did! And it turns out your risk of Covid increases 280% if you pick your nose. So…don’t.
What I’m grateful for:
- My older dog is still kickin’! We thought we would have to say goodbye this week (second time in a couple months when I thought that), but he is back to good after some antibiotics for an infection
- The end of preschool and beginning of kindergarten! I LOVED my daughter’s preschool so it’s sad to end that chapter, but we are so excited for kindergarten (starts this coming week)!
- Wind chimes. Small touch, big effect
Snapshots:
