Morning, folks. I had a bit of a rough weekend — Saturday ended up with too many things scheduled in a row, and I was reminded that at 52, I really can’t work a 14-hr day without paying for it the next day. Part of it was working a 5-hr shift at the new shop — see pics below for some of the new stock, botanical bookmarks and greeting cards.
I only had two things on Sunday, thankfully — my sister, Mir Mo Ga, was in town for work, and she managed a flying visit with us for a few hours, which also required no effort on my part; I pretty much stayed collapsed on the couch while she got herself food out of my kitchen and chatted with us.
Really nice — I wish we had an affordable bullet train from New York to Chicago, because then it would be much more feasible to just drop in and visit each other much more often. There was a point when she was living in Chicago, but Mirna was really busy with work (I think her med school residency?), and I was busy with pregnancy with Kavi (which means this was also seventeen or so years ago), and even though we only lived six or so blocks away from each other, we didn’t see each other much at all, which in retrospect, was a missed opportunity. I wish I’d reached out more back then, alas. Teleporters, that’s what we need, stat.
Still, we got to visit a little, and she gave Kavi (who had just come off her volunteer shift at Rush Hospital) some med school advice. One part was not to feel like you have to major in biology / chemistry / physics in college — you’ll need to take the appropriate classes for pre-med, but you can totally major in something else. I actually remember from talking to some med school admin officer decades ago that they love seeing people with, say, Sociology degrees, just because they bring new perspectives and approaches to the field.
If Kavi sticks with this doctor thing, hopefully she can shadow Mirna at some point in the future, see what it’s like working in a New York hospital. (My family is very medical, we have something like a dozen doctors and medical researchers just among the cousins. We basically tend to become doctors or teachers. Kevin’s family is lawyers, and I think there’s a reasonable chance Anand will follow that path, which is kind of hard to picture in some ways, but he does LOVE arguing.)
The other thing I did Sunday was hosting a Zoom event on spice mixing for Morton Grove’s public library, which was fun — I’ve done this a few times now, and I love talking spices with library patrons. I get to do a little postcolonial history as part of it, some cooking conversation, some nutrition info, a little religious history, stories about my mother (who would have been a rock star in a French kitchen, or on GBBO, if she’d had the chance — an utter perfectionist) — it’s a fun mix.
I’m always happy to do more of these (typically charge $300 for libraries, more for corporate events, ask if interested). I’ve done a few local libraries, but the magic of Zoom means that in theory, I could do these for libraries, schools, and businesses anywhere…
https://maryannemohanraj.com/book-mary-anne/
By evening yesterday, I was feeling recovered enough to do some loads of laundry (not all done yet, sigh), and keep Kavi company with her homework (she had a lot, since she was sick much of last week AND had a full day of psych testing, and the poor girl was a little weepy facing it all, but finally she got through it). And then we watched a little Gilmore Girls and went to bed.
Today I’m back to computer work — responded to student e-mails from over the weekend (these days, I try to not to work e-mail on the weekend if I can avoid it, for my own sanity), posted in a bunch of places about the SLF’s next Deep Dish Chicago reading series (we have room for a few more rapid-fire (3 min.) readers, see previous post for details), sent some messages to the teams on Slack re: publicity work for Tornado and re: the MRAH podcast.
Tomorrow, Benjamin Rosenbaum and I are planning to record a podcast discussing current events in Israel and Palestine. I am feeling very ignorant on the subject, so I’m assigning myself some homework today, if I have time, to do some reading — the GLAS program at UIC has put together some resources on Palestine in particular, presumably because there’s so much misinformation flying around about that part of the tragedy. So I’m hoping that I can at least ask Ben some reasonable questions for our conversation.
It’s tempting to compare this situation to the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, but even though there’s a religious component to that too, there are vast and significant differences between the two geopolitical situations. I’ve hesitated to say much of anything up until now, because I didn’t want to say something ignorant and hurtful. I’ve just been reading and witnessing, as best I can.
I keep wanting to write a poem about this, because sometimes poetry can capture a moment of pain better than anything else I know. But I’d want the poem to also do some good, to help in some way, and I can’t think what I could possibly write that would actually help.
I am full of such rage at the failures of government here that I can barely stand to think of it — if I start delving in deeper, I’m afraid of losing myself, sinking into obsessive grief.
Well. The world goes on, despite all of this pain.
Here is my breakfast, a bagel with whitefish spread — the last time Ben was here, I made homemade whitefish spread for him, my first try. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. At least I tried.
That’s all we can do, no? Keep feeding ourselves, keep feeding each other, have the difficult conversations, be quiet and listen and learn, keep trying.
***
Tikkun olam — repair the world. “It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it.” — Rabbi Tarfon
***
Red Brocade
The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.
Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.
No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.
I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.
– Naomi Shihab Nye
