Seventh best e-mail newsletter according to me at the bonfire
It’s Saturday, I’m writing this with every unscented candle in the house burning, season three of The Sopranos on pause, watching KU slowly lose their lead over OU. Grateful it’s Fall.
Earlier today I ran into three friends at Trader Joe’s. Running into people I know is absolutely my favorite thing. It’s just a little gift to remind me that I’m known.
Last weekend I went to Nashville with my sisters to celebrate Emily’s birthday. It was just a total blast. I need to go to Nashville more often.
Thursday, I went to Trey Kennedy’s show at the Uptown and my main takeaway is that I want to know whose job it is to create the pre-show powerpoint. Not in a cheeky way, but in a “my new obsession is wondering whose job it is to ______” way. I know people who know people who could tell me.
If I find out, I’ll tell you in next week’s subscribers only.
This sentence now has links to the my instagram, and old issues of the newsletter. If you have a body lotion that is like Necessaire, but 1/8 of the cost, get in touch.
Number One: The Supper of the Lamb, chapter two
In keeping with the Five Things policy that I only recommend books that I’ve read at least two thirds of, I am not yet recommending The Supper of the Lamb.
Instead, right now, I am recommending the second chapter, an essay on cutting an onion. The Supper of the Lamb demands to be read with pen in hand. It’s a book about cooking and God. But the kind of God-book that I think even if I wasn’t a God-person I would really enjoy (which I don’t think can be said about a lot God-books). The flip side of that coin is that it’s a God-book that makes me grateful that I’m a God-person, because there is wonder to behold.
Sidebar: something that, this year especially, I have come to enjoy, is the mystery that accompanies my Christian faith. Does communion work? I’m quite ok with not knowing how, but have an abiding sense that it does. Prayer is kind of bonkers if you think about it too long, but it’s the most wonderful thing. There’s richness in the unknown. Grateful.
If there is someone else in the room with me while I am reading, I am compelled to read out loud the lines I love. Even sometimes when I am alone. Which I will do for you now:
But look at what your onion has done for you: It has given you back the possibility of heaven as place without encumbering you with the irrelevancy of location.
Man’s real work is to look at the things of this world and love them for what they are.
This part is from chapter three, but I think you can handle it, it’s magic:
O Lord, refresh our sensibilities. Give us this day our daily taste. Restore to us soups that spoons will not sink in, and and sauces which are never the same twice. Raise up among us stews with more gravy than we have bread to blot it with, and casseroles that put starch and substance in our limp modernity. Take away our fear of fat, and make us glad of the oil which ran upon Aaron’s beard. Give us pasta with a hundred fillings, and rice in a thousand variations. Above all, give us grace to live as true men - to fast till we come to a refreshed sense of what we have and then to dine gratefully on all that comes to hand. Drive far from us, O Most Bountiful, all creatures of air and darkness; cast out the demons that possess us; deliver us from the fear of calories and the bondage of nutrition; and set us free once more in our own land, where we shall serve thee as thou hast blessed us - with the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Amen.
Number Two: Bring a deck of cards
This isn’t a groundbreaking suggestion, but having a deck on cards on hand last weekend in Nashville was such a value add. We played Ten and Two and Three-Thirteen, our families loves a game with numbers in the name. It was nice to have a little something other than staring at our phones to do in the down time. We really do enjoy each other’s company, even more so with cards in hand.
Number Three: I rediscovered my Soundcloud playlist from 2017
And I really love this Stranger Things theme remix.
I want to be the Indigo playlist embodied, but I’m basic enough to admit that I love a remix, I really do. Stuntin Like Mufasa ? No choice but to get hype. This remix of Barefoot Blue Jean Night? Dumb song, but this fun if you can have a sense of humor about it.
Number Four: Invest in Olaplex
This is not financial advice or opinion: but on Monday I bought ten shares of Olaplex, and it has performed quite well over the the last five days. I’m not doing anything with my retirement account - but with my little money-I’m-not-paying-off-my-student-loans-with-until-January-supposedly account. It’s added zest.
Speaking of, Kamala, my friend. This is not political advice or opinion: but I spent some energy defending you and your bus last year, what’s the plan, what are we doing, are you planning a surprise party or something? I would rather keep buying shampoo company stock, better for the economy imo.
Number Five: Target/Madewell shoes
Last Fall I bought these shoes from Madewell and wear them all the time, and get compliments all the time. An excellent Fall shoe. When I got an Instagram ad from Target featuring these shoes, I was, for lack of a better term, shook. Again, I’m not an intellectual property expert, but… ok Target, going for Madewell’s pocket.
Another suggestion from Libby via me:
In her newsletter a few weeks ago, Libby talked about how much she loved stopping at Little Free Libraries. I used to ignore LFL’s because I felt like they rarely had the specific kind of book I was looking for. But after her suggestion, if I pass one on a walk; I stop, I pause, I take a look. I have yet to take a book. But it’s been a delightful little moment of presence and wonder. Would recommend.