Old dogs, bad clothes, real bodies
Plus fairy shrimp!
Half of the kids in my oldest son’s class are out with covid (including the teacher) so we’re all having so much fun waiting for what feels like the inevitable. Feeling nostalgic for the good ol’ days of winter 2021 when surges wreaked havoc on our schedules and mental wellbeing!
Reading
I loved this short story about marriage, moms, and the “frivolity of the artichoke” by Emily Adrian.
If you invite me to your party, I will arrive early enough that you won’t panic about no one showing up. My clothes will be ugly, allowing you to shine. I will be wearing some sort of shapeless Grim Reaper-style garment that will easily fade into the background of every picture. “Who is that fat ghost?” your friends will ask as they swipe through the photos you posted to prove that you know people and like to have a good time. Then they’ll swipe to you in your sequinned dress and sigh in contentment, immediately forgetting about me.
This is such a hard read on postpartum psychosis, but Jessica Winter treated the topic with depth and sensitivity. Never not horrified by how little we know or care about maternal health, and how quick we are to shame and vilify mothers. Content warning for suicide, suicidal ideation, and filicide.
There was something that I did not tell my friends, that I never told anyone until I was researching this piece, and that I never even attempted to Google, because what if someone found it in my search history?