Yesterday my husband Dan and I celebrated our 36th anniversary. We met in 1981 but took a little while to get married. I have no idea where all the time has gone, but I’m very grateful to be going through life with him. Dan had one of the first, if not the first, full time global warming jobs in the country. On days like today, when much of Canada and both coasts have unbreathable air due to wildfires, it’s easy to despair. We’ve known about this threat for decades and are still fighting fights that make no sense.
I took a little time while inside today to make vegetarian quiches. And, I
appreciate my daughter’s recommendation of THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING: A NEW HISTORY OF HUMANITY by David Graeber and David Wengrow. In this big baggy book, the authors delve into civilizations and settlements from around the world beyond anyone or anything I’d ever heard of. Their message: when we re-examine what we know about the history of humanity, we learn that people have made intelligent decisions to govern themselves and provide for their futures from earliest known archaeological records. The point being, it is not too late, nothing is inevitable or unchangeable, especially not inequality, and, I infer, global warming. Tribes and communities and bands of humans have made life sustaining decisions since the beginning of recorded time.
I had a few things published this week, giving me an opportunity to shout out three wonderful books. Here is a piece called “My Evening at the Czech Embassy,” describing Czech writer and publisher Martin Vopěnka and his searing novel, THE BACK OF BEYOND (translated by Anna Bryson).
The Los Angeles Review of Books published my review of New Yorker dance critic Jennifer Homans’s MR. B. Homans leaves no stone unturned in this capacious and insightful biography of George Balanchine. The book is long and a page turner and worth every word.
I was so happy to interview my friend and mentor, Michelle Brafman, about her third novel, SWIMMING WITH GHOSTS. Brafman takes the unlikely venue of a summer swim club to consider serious issues about addiction and family.
I hope you are breathing easily.
Much love,
Martha
Happy Anniversary! And thanks for recommending The Dawn of Everything - I sorely need an optimistic take (with receipts!) on the past, present, and future of humanity and our home on planet earth.
We had a day here in northeastern Nebraska where the smoke from the Canada wildfires hazed our sky. And when we lived in Spokane some years ago it was common during the summer to have at least a week of foggy haze from forest fires on the West Coast.
Mostly though, we have drought in my part of the country. That never used to be an issue. Climate is definitely changing, and it’s hard to cope with how quickly it seems to be occurring.