Notes
Maybe I don’t need notes for this one. But here are a few.
Normal: Sometimes it feels to me like nothing is normal and everything is normal at the same time. Have you felt this disjunction? To me it comes from realities colliding – for example, holding the grief of losing someone you love while you are continuing to wake up to birdsong, go to work, make dinner, brush your teeth. I think this feeling is part of the emotion of global protest, from the Extinction Rebellion to Black Lives Matter to the recent pro-Palestine encampments on college campuses. Then a few days after I wrote this title, I saw a conversation between Mehdi Hasan and Naomi Klein in which they discussed the idea of normalization – connecting climate and Gaza. I’m still digesting what they said. If you watch it I would love to know your thoughts too.
How much can a mind hold?: I’m indebted to the Tender Photo newsletter’s issue “The Space Between Us” here – for including this quote from artist and critic Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa’s book Dark Mirrors: “‘(Photographs) trigger more in our minds than they can in fact hold in themselves,” and also for turning me on to the book itself. Photography is part of image-making for me, and Tender Photo is amazing.
A new interview podcast: The show is Wild Card with Rachel Martin, which is from NPR. This is what I listened to, in a car with my husband and son.
Order: This episode of the Ezra Klein show features a conversation with Yale Law professor Aslı Ü. Bâli, who explains international law as it applies to the war in Gaza thoroughly and cogently. An important listen.
Chaos: Here is a cherry tree fractal thingie you can play with, on OpenProcessing, by Jason Labbe. I was thinking about fractals, chaos theory, unpredictability; and also about deep time, geological shifts, the patterns that go on without reference to human time or concerns. And also about the real chaos and horror happening to real humans, right now.
The woman I met: The show was Grit: One Woman’s Evolution from Chaos to Courage, written and performed by Lisa Natale. If you get a chance to see it, definitely do. I saw it with the friend of my friend, who I would say is now, a friend of my own.
Thank you for being here with me.
Jen, This piece is so wonderful…Your thoughts so beautifully and powerfully conceptualized in words and drawings.