I have no idea who you are. And that’s more than fine because if you’re reading this, you’re human. That puts us in a collaboration, where I say something and ask you to respond, if only to yourself. I think that’s utterly cool. Even invisible conversations have power.
So what I’d like to know is:
During the pandemic, has staying in bed, hiding here, sometimes reading, sometimes writing here, not wanting to get up despite various calls to action-has that been happening to you like it has to me?
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The inertia is like a hard fog. The effort to move seems not just out of reach, but subtly hostile. There is a quiet rebellion in staying put.
But, at least in my life, it’s a false rebellion. The sun beckons from my apartment’s wall of windows. I admit that I haven’t planned for fun. But at least if I’m up and moving, fun might present itself for my consideration.
So that becomes the objective: get up so fun can find me.
The first fun thing is the food framework I’m in right now, which is Intermittent Fasting(IF). I’m using the most basic version, through the app Simple: Fasting and Meal Tracker https://apps.apple.com/us/app/simple-fasting-meal-tracker/id1467720176
So I got up, happy to whip up a super simple meal of eggs, tofu, avocado, veggies, spices and my favorite sesame sauce. Yummy, easy, and all the healthy food I’ll eat today.
I had ‘get ready for the work week’ on my must do list. Not fun, but necessary for a reasonably relaxed start to the work day.
In the meantime, I worked on getting more stuff outside on my balcony – wrap it up, tape it up, and get it ready for the big garbage haul at the end of April. This is decidedly not fun. The process feels never-ending. I’m in the stage where there are boxes all over the little floorspace I have. It’s easy to forget that this needs to be a one step at a time process. So yeah, not fun, but very necessary.
Back to fun, darnit! I listened, while moving through my chores, to the awesome Trymaine Lee’s podcast: ‘Into America’. His Black History Month episodes are about Black art and culture. This episode, which I’d been saving for a time I could savor it, is about one of the key places in my life growing up in NYC – The Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture. This place, and the NY Public Library, and the Cloisters and the Weusi Yuumba Ya Sanaa, were cultural touchpoints for me in those formative years.
The episode is called: Harlem On My Mind: Arturo Schomburg Part 2: How a little boy from Puerto Rico helped shape a global Black identity.
https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-america/id1499906821
Highly recommended for the deeper dive into the wonder of art from the diaspora, and Trymaine’s obvious joy as a collector, of both the art and the stories behind it.
I plan to find some more fun with my short stint on the treadmill. Very slowly and deliberately building up to 45 minutes a day. While I walk, I’ll watch some Youtube videos I set aside for the purpose:
Get Cute while Quarantined with Felicia Leatherwood, Teyonah Parris and Sandra Nakawunde https://youtu.be/SxQKKGa_Z58
Beau of the Fifth Column on Cancel Culture https://www.youtube.com/c/BeauoftheFifthColumn
茂木健一郎Ken Mogi https://www.youtube.com/c/kenmogi/videos: this is the brain scientist who wrote ‘The Little Book Of Ikigai‘: I’m forcing myself to listen to him in Japanese, as part of learning, which is decidedly not fun, but feels like an accomplishment if I get even a little bit of meaning within the incomprehensible:
I also remind myself to smile. I find my smile is missing a lot of the time these days, and even a fake smile can help lift my mood. Such a small simple thing! I recommend it.
