Can we be honest with each other?

Right now, this doesn’t feel like the happiest hour. With every news alert and email from that yoga studio you went to once saying they’re cancelling classes, it feels like we’re sitting inside a countdown clock, waiting for it to hit zero. Last week, The Drinking Club was conversing about embarrassing bodily functions while demolishing several bottles of red. Today, my relative calm was eaten away as I scrolled through my news app while working from home. The isolation stoked whatever anxiety I had–until I went out to the grocery store for WFH supplies. The sun was shining, the air was warm. There was a bird chirping somewhere (it was probably lost).

This is to say: we all need to take a breath. We need to be smart and cautious, and we need to take care of ourselves and our communities. I’m toasting tonight to all of us getting through these next weeks and doing what we need to stay healthy and calm. In these challenging times, remember: there’s nothing a good book can’t fix.

There’s also not enough wine to make you forget the sight of your coworker in his pajamas on the conference call.

Here’s what you missed this week:

• For those who cope by leaning all the way in to their anxieties, there’s this and this. (Vanity Fair and The Guardian)
• For those now working at home and needing a break: might we suggest vibrational shelving? (Apartment Therapy)
• While you’re vibrationally shelving, you might wonder: why are some books published first in hardcover, and others in paperback? (Mental Floss)
• And finally: MM was imagining everything we could stress bake while practicing social distancing, and Roxane Gay is here to say YES. (Wirecutter).

Cheers,

EV