Hello there,
Sorry it’s been awhile, and that this isn’t coming in the morning. I’ve been busy and have had this post in draft mode for weeks, and it seems a little inopportune to dust it off just as we’re heading into a new, daunting phase of the pandemic. But here we are.
While it can be fun to use entertainment as a way to escape and shut off your brain, sometimes a dose of reality can give you that jolt you didn’t know you needed of anger, or action. And if you’ve already fully confronted all the trauma you’ve endured during the pandemic, good for you! Most people haven’t though, and trying to sit with uncomfortable emotions may actually help.
Watch
A pairing of two TV shows that watching back to back will leave you incandescent with rage is Narcos (Netflix) and Dopesick (Hulu). While I suspect a lot of people have already seen the first, most popular season of Narcos that takes place in Colombia, the final season about Mexico incorporates important storylines about what was happening in the country at the time involving violence against women and journalists. And Dopesick manages to give a sweeping, comprehensive overview of the opioid crisis in a way that you’ve probably never experienced before. I learned a lot, mostly a cornucopia of deeply dismaying facts. The acting is excellent and I loved all of the main characters, especially Rosario Dawson’s.
Though I’m only two episodes in, I’m enjoying Station Eleven (HBO). It’s directed by Hiro Murai, which is a guarantee it’s going to be a) great and b) have gorgeous cinematography. The first episode is a good litmus test to see how the past two years have affected you (one scene made me unexpectedly burst into tears). The show poses questions about rebuilding after a much more catastrophic pandemic than the one we’re enduring, but ones that are still relevant. After the worst happens, who do you want to be and what is worth keeping from the before times? And what’s not?
Read
Taken at face value, Once There Were Wolves is a pretty bleak book that demonstrates the cruelty of man to humans, animals, and the environment. But the main storyline about reintroducing wolves in Scotland (which, sadly, is fictional) offers hope about how to get humans on board with radical solutions to save the planet. I didn’t love some of the more human-focused parts of the plot, but some of the real environmental facts were really fascinating.
Civilizations imagines what would have happened if the Vikings had introduced germs to the Americas earlier than Columbus, and if as a result (at least in part), Columbus and his expedition failed. What if, the author imagined, the Incas and Aztecs went to Europe instead? Alternate histories can be painful to read, but this one was really worth reading.
See the full list of recommendations of things to watch and read.
Follow
Seltzer Flavors is an excellent Instagram account run by Kate, a Philly-based artist whose work really reflects the ethos of the moment.
Do
Look up your city and county health departments, and find out if they have free COVID testing, or if they’re giving out free at-home tests anywhere. The latest variant is incredibly contagious and even if you don’t have symptoms or what seem to be cold-like symptoms, you might still have COVID and could spread it.
At this point the federal government and state governments should have distributed at-home tests widely for free upfront (not through reimbursements, which is the least effective way to go about this). Somehow we are nearly two years into this pandemic and our leaders haven’t learned from extremely recent history.
And if you haven’t received your booster yet, now is the time to get it.
Until next time,
Rachel