9.10.2020

The 33 Project

Woah, what a day. But, hey, still Thursday. Still ok to post! Who cares if it’s 10pm?

I have three recommendations today that, in my humble opinion, pack a punch. It’s been the kind of week where I need a punch. I’m not sure how to articulate everything, honestly. So, I’m just going to post the recos with some light commentary and hopefully come back next week a bit stronger.

1/ This piece is profoundly moving. Jesamyn Ward beautifully and heartbreakingly shares a personal reflection on losing her husband to Covid-19 early in 2020 and her experience in the months that followed. There have been many tragic reflections on death, grief, sorrow and all that the realities Covid-19 has brought to bear, but this one felt especially powerful. Ward’s book Sing Unburied Sing was one of my favorite reads last year.

2/ I really enjoyed reading this piece about disconnecting from social media during the pandemic. It’s actually a book review. But the reflections and insight are well worth your time and do, in fact, make you want to read the book. Well, if you have the stomach for it.

Here’s an excerpt that really stuck with me:

What if the urge lurking behind our compulsive participation in the Twittering Machine is not the behavioralist pursuit of maximized pleasure, but the Freudian death drive—our latent instinct toward inorganic oblivion, destruction, self-obliteration, “the ratio”? What if we post self-sabotaging things because we want to sabotage ourselves? What if the reason we tweet is because we wish we were dead?

It’s so interesting to think about a world without the stupid algorithms, the self-promotion and branding, the unreality that is our reality. It’s even more interesting to peel away the standard considerations and to try to grasp the whys. Why we do it. Why we need it. Why is it natural or unnatural to us. A lot of food for thought in there.

3/ Finally, this incredible video served up some much needed delight. Equal parts science and foolishness, it’s a fun ride.

That’s all for this week. Ok, bye.