Global elections, how to make new friends, and our first CSA box

The Week That Was

Jun 16, 2024

*Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning* by Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (1853). American. Sourced via The Met.

Good morning! I’m off to the Art Institute today with a friend to see the new Georgia O'Keeffe: “My New Yorks” exhibit and I am so looking forward to it. Like many people, Georgia O’Keeffe is one of my favourite artists, and her museum in Santa Fe is one I think about often and would love to return to one day. I even have a photo print of her on the back of a motorcycle as part of my office gallery wall. I will recap the exhibit in next week’s post, so until then…

Here are some other things and thoughts from the week that was:

CSA Box: This week, we picked up our first Community-supported agriculture (CSA) box!!! And the excitement is very high and very real. I met the two owners of the local business at an event a couple of weeks ago, and as soon as they mentioned this venture, I immediately knew we would sign up. We had been looking for a CSA in our area, and this one is particularly amazing because they wash, prep, and pack all the veggies for you! What a luxury! A CSA box is basically a local farm subscription and is an important and effective way to support local farmers. During the season, you receive a box full of recently harvested fruits/vegetables, which not only means you are eating in-season produce but also enables farmers to be in a better position to plan out their season and reduce the risk of seasonal ups and downs. If one is available in your area, I highly recommend looking into it. We are already loving cooking and eating vegetables that we may not have bought ourselves at the grocery store.
The Vegetarian: You know those books that you have been meaning to read FOR YEARS and have never got around to because you are often reading the latest releases…yes, those ones. Well, I finally read The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith, and I am rather angry at myself for waiting so long to read it. What a fantastic novel about the objectification of women, their lack of agency, mental health, and Korean culture. More than that, it was a reminder to pay more attention to those books that have been on my TBR for more than a month. Have any of you read The Vegetarian? Would love to hear your thoughts!
Elections: We already knew that this year would be a significant year for elections—around 49% of the world's population, or about 4 billion people, are eligible to vote in 2024. There have already been some big elections, but this past week showed some of the most significant changes. In South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since it swept to power in 1994 at the end of apartheid. This week, the ANC agreed to a coalition deal with the Democratic Alliance (DA), who have historically been their rivals and are criticized for favouring the interests of South Africa’s white minority. In France, the European parliamentary elections saw a significant win for the coalition that includes Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN), which prompted current president Macron to call a snap election that will be held within the next 30 days. In Germany, right-leaning parties took more than 45% of the vote. However, it was the European People’s Party that emerged as the largest single party in the European elections, a coalition made up of members who are part of ideologically similar centre-right parties from across Europe. They nominated European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as their candidate for leader of the next European Parliament.

"It often makes most sense to understand the European Parliament elections as 27 national referendums on government policy in the EU member states," said Andrew Caruana Galizia, Head of Europe and Eurasia at the World Economic Forum. "This time was no different, with the real shocks emerging at the national level in Europe’s two largest economies."
- World Economic Forum

Making New Friends: When people say it is hard to make friends as an adult, I find myself (at least internally) vehemently disagreeing. In my experience, opportunities to meet new people and make new friends are everywhere - no matter your age. Does it take some effort and putting yourself out there? Absolutely, but the opportunities exist. I think I will write a longer dedicated post on this topic in the future, but, for example, this week, I went to an alumni event and made five new friends who I have plans to see in a couple of weeks. For this event, I opted to go on my own (instead of with my bf) because, in some instances, it is a lot easier to connect with people when you are flying solo. Then, at a wedding this weekend, my bf and I met another couple at our table who we really enjoyed speaking with so I proposed exchanging numbers to get together soon. If you want to expand your social circle (which not everyone does, and that is fine), you absolutely can. Just some food for thought as you enter this week!
Rewearing Occasion Dresses: Speaking of the wedding, I wore a silk Ralph Lauren dress that I have been wearing since high school! The beauty of re-wearing dresses for occasions is that they carry the memories of those former occasions with them. I’ve worn this dress to weddings, summer parties, and my US citizenship ceremony - and each time I wear it I remember these events and am genuinely excited to create new memories in the clothes. I have zero interest in wearing clothes once or twice, instead I want them to weave into the fabric of my life. Come to think of it, today I am wearing another dress I have had for more than a decade!
World Refugee Day: June 20th is World Refugee Day, an international day organised every year by the United Nations to celebrate and honour refugees from around the world. It was first established in 2001, in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. By the end of 2024, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expects around 130.8 million people to be forcibly displaced or stateless, a staggering number driven upwards by conflict and climate change.
Not one more refugee death
By Emmy Pérez
A river killed a man I loved,
And I love that river still
—María Meléndez
1.
Thousands of fish killed after Pemex
spill in el Río Salado and everyone
runs out to buy more bottled water.
Here, our river kills more crossers
than the sun, than the singular
heat of Arizona, than the ranchlands
near the Falfurrias checkpoint.
It's hard to imagine an endangered
river with that much water, especially
in summer and with the Falcon Reservoir
in drought, though it only takes inches
to drown. Sometimes, further
west, there's too little river
to paddle in Boquillas Canyon
where there are no steel-column walls
except the limestone canyon's drop
and where a puma might push-wade across,
or in El Paso, where double-fenced muros
sparkle and blind with bullfight ring lights,
the ring the concrete river mold, and above
a Juárez mountain urges
La Biblia es La Verdad—Leela.
2.
Today at the vigil, the native singer
said we are all connected
by water, la sangre de vida.
Today, our vigil signs proclaimed
McAllen is not Murrieta.
#iamborderless. Derechos
Inmigrantes=Derechos
Humanos. Bienvenidos niños.
We stand with refugee children.
We are all human. Bienvenidos
a los Estados Unidos.
And the songs we sang
the copal that burned
and the rose petals spread
en los cuatro puntos were
for the children and women
and men. Songs
for the Guatemalan
boy with an Elvis belt buckle
and Angry Birds jeans with zippers
on back pockets who was found
shirtless in La Joya, one mile
from the river. The worn jeans
that helped identify his body
in the news more times
than a photo of him while alive.
(I never knew why the birds
are angry. My mother said
someone stole their eggs.)
The Tejas sun took a boy
I do not know, a young man
who wanted to reach Chicago,
his brother's number etched in
his belt, his mother's pleas not
to leave in white rosary beads
he carried. The sun in Tejas
stopped a boy the river held.
Detention centers filled, churches
offer showers and fresh clothes.
Water and a covered porch may
have waited at a stranger's house
or in a patrol truck had his body
not collapsed. Half of our bodies
are made of water, and we can't
sponge rivers through skin
and release them again
like rain clouds. Today
at the vigil the native singer
sang we are all connected
by water, la sangre de vida.
via the Poetry Foundation
What is interesting in your world? Would love to hear from you!

Global elections, how to make new friends, and our first CSA box

The Week That Was

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