Grounded

Dear Friends,

Do you have as much trouble adjusting to daylight savings as I do? I don’t know why it affects me as much as it does. I always need a few days to recover. It gets dark now at, like, 4:00 pm! By 8:00 pm I am ready for bed. I know that is the point, but still. Modern life is hard enough.

During the “adult ed” session at the Secular Jewish Community School this past Sunday, we heard from community activists who have been helping the Venezuelan asylum-seekers sleeping in the Austin police station or encampments nearby. There are around 12,000 migrants in Chicago now. Busloads and planeloads of migrants arrive unannounced at all hours; usually at night. I won’t go into further details here—it doesn’t seem like an appropriate venue, and I’m hardly an expert—but it is truly overwhelming. It is also inspiring to see the community rally and come together in order to help these people, many of whom are children, who traveled over 3000 miles to get here.

I heard an interview with author Naomi Alderman on NPR the other day and she quoted a Jewish saying: “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” Just start where you are, she said, do one small thing each day, and it will make a difference. Some final state of perfection is not the point, she said.

By the way, speaking of birds, did you hear that the American Ornithological Society will start phasing out bird names that are based on people? And using bird names based on the things that make that particular bird unique? I can’t wait to learn the new names honoring the inherent birdness of birds. Apparently junco comes from the Latin for “rush,” perhaps because juncos like to stay low to the ground; i.e., in the rushes.

Sorry this letter is so disjointed. I finally got my Covid booster this afternoon and I think the shot is kicking in and making me woozy. I promise to be sharper next week. Or to try. After all, perfection is not the point.

Love,

Claire

ps: Happy Pub Day to Ed Park! I just received Same Bed Different Dreams in the mail. I love the initials: SBDD. Since the novel’s protagonist specializes in coming up with acronyms for marketing purposes, I wonder if SBDD has some other significance. If nothing else, it sounds like a designer drug . . .

pps: Mushroom Head is open to paid subscriptions now! I am so grateful to those of you who have pledged support. At the moment I have no desire for Mushroom Head to ever not be free to everyone, but please know that whatever you contribute really helps. Perhaps there will be paid subscription perks at some point in the future. I welcome any suggestions to that end!

And since this is Mushroom Head’s tenth installment, here is a special subscription offer: 23% off all subscriptions through the end of the year!

One last thing: I can’t tell if everyone can post comments or only paid subscribers. It is one of the quirks of this platform that this isn’t easily resolved. If indeed only paid subscribers can comment, that would be a real bummer. I will work on fixing that.