what I’m into [june-july 2020]

Hi friends! 

This week was my first full week back at work – you don’t realize how much you’ve been sitting during pandemic, until your feet are sore at the end of the day and you’re wondering why. 

I don’t know how things are where you are, but Montreal has been starting to open up. This weekend even felt semi-normal – I went for brunch at L’Avenue with a friend from my art coop, cocktails on this amazing terrace boat docked at the Lachine canal and watched Hamilton on Disney Plus with friends. I may or may not be listening to the entire soundtrack as I write to you now. It’s SO good – or crisp, as my sister would say. 

I’ve been thinking lately about how everyone’s transitioning back to normal life or work (unless you’re in SF where you can work remotely from a cottage with hot tubs :D) – whether the deserted buildings feel eerie, or your mask feels itchy when you have to wear it all day, or if you’ve been having existential questions about your career because of the time you spent away from it, so some of my articles/books are related to that.

I’d be interested in knowing how you guys are transitioning into a new normal of work and as always, if you have thoughts on that or on any articles/videos below, send me a message 😉 

Articles

LitHub: In praise of digression – on why digression from recipes is a good thing. I also just love the prose-poetry of this entire website.

Buzzfeed News: How millennials became the burnout generation – this is an old one from last year, but somehow I chanced upon it, and it re-resonated with me! Perhaps because in quarantine, we feel even more this endless drive to be doing and producing more, so this quote was what hit home:

What’s worse, the feeling of accomplishment that follows an exhausting task — passing the final! Finishing the massive work project! — never comes.

“The exhaustion experienced in burnout combines an intense yearning for this state of completion with the tormenting sense that it cannot be attained, that there is always some demand or anxiety or distraction which can’t be silenced,” Josh Cohen, a psychoanalyst specializing in burnout, writes.

“You feel burnout when you’ve exhausted all your internal resources, yet cannot free yourself of the nervous compulsion to go on regardless.”

The Atlantic: Cognitive dissonance and the pandemic – such a good article (the Atlantic never disappoints) that made me reflect the cognitive dissonances I harbour but never think about

Medium: What Silicon Valley loses if everyone goes remote – a recommendation from my dear friend Nahrie, reflecting on the role of serendipity in startup life and how that will change as everyone moves out of SF to the woods…

The Atlantic: Why women can’t have it all – my favorite article as of late that’s actually all the way from 2012, but one I came across as I was looking into reproductive medicine (for my research)

I saw this curve and gasped (because I had never seen it so jarringly displayed), and read journal articles surveying highly educated, ambitious career women who were surprised at how hard it was to have a kid at an older age (because we’re always told we can have it all). 

So, it was refreshing and relieving to read this article by Annie-marie Slaughter on redefining the arc of a successful career.

She states:

It’s time to embrace a national happiness project. As a daughter of Charlottesville, Virginia, the home of Thomas Jefferson and the university he founded, I grew up with the Declaration of Independence in my blood. Last I checked, he did not declare American independence in the name of life, liberty, and professional success. Let us rediscover the pursuit of happiness, and let us start at home.

But read the full article – it’s so good. 

Books

How did Christianity begin? By Michael Bird and James Crossley – 4/5

As you guys know from the Counterpoints series, I love seeing how two groups of people can come to same set of data (e.g. the Bible) and walk away with different understandings or interpretations. For some, it’s disconcerting, but I think it speaks to the complexity and mystery of reality, as well as the limitations of our human understanding (which I think is beautiful haha).

So, this book is written by a believer (Bird) and a non-believer (Crossley) as they examine the historical Jesus, the resurrection, Paul and give their perspective on which narrative best explains the growth of Christianity – but it’s up to you to decide whose narrative is most compelling and coherent 😉 

Big friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman – 3.5/5

A lot of people have been raving about this book online, so I had to read it to see what the whole hubbub was about. It traces these two friends as they navigate the various stages of friendship – strangers to besties to being strangers again as their friendship is stretched.

I haven’t read many books that dissect the anatomy of friendship, so it was interesting to hear that language (it also had parts on inter-racial friendships), but perhaps I was expecting more from it (because I think that female friendship is just that intriguing!), because it did fall short imo.

All that’s good by Hannah Anderson – 4/5

What does it mean to be discerning? Hannah goes through the various characteristics of Philippians 4:8 (true, commendable, pure etc.) and how we are to develop eyes that spot goodness in this world. I particularly enjoyed her thrifting analogy at the end! 

Science Fictions by Stuart Richie – 4.5/5

Perhaps I’m biased because I’m deep in the throes of facing all the frustrations the book outlines (fraud, bias, negligence, hype) but this book felt like a sigh of relief. It peels back the veil on science that is normally seen as the stalwart of truth and reveals its deeply problematic aspects, because after all, science was created (and continues to be run) by humans, thus it will continue to be flawed. 

It should have made me cynical, but ironically the more I read it, the more hopeful I am becoming 😄 

Here’s a comic that was made from the book (if you want a condensed summary):

Music

These are the songs that have been ministering to me in this season. The ones I play over to myself on my acoustic in the morning, or listen to on repeat when I’m on the metro to work – enjoy!

Laid down Lover by Jonathan Ogden

Psalm 90 by Shane and Shane

Alabaster Heart – by Hope Collective NYC (original: Kalley Heiligenthal)

Sovereign over us – by Aaron Keyes (original: Michael W. Smith)

Bright as the Sun – by Hillsong Worship

Other things I’ve loved this summer

I had the chance to visit my bf at his cottage in Michigan and take photos with a disposable Fujifilm while running around with a daisy falling out of my hair.

After returning from the States, I got to quarantine with my parents and spend time mowing the lawn, weeding with my Mom, watching Dad play with his drone and going through old photo albums to digitize some treasures (like those of my diva days :P)

I’ve been back in Montreal for about 2 weeks now. Getting back in the routine of lab (wearing long pants, sneakers and a mask in the heat of summer) was not easy, but I’m truly grateful for friends who spend the weekends with me watching Hamilton while sipping champagne and helping me discover that I’m a margarita/mojito kind of girl 😉

It’s been a different kind of summer for sure.

Weddings are being live-streamed online, the nature of work is being redefined and we have masks stuffed into every small handbag/backpack we own because we know we will forget it when we’re in a rush to leave the house (or at least I do :P)

But if anything, I feel like we’re finally questioning what is necessary and what is extraneous and finding that the people close to our heart matter to us more than ever before.