9/22 in the belly of the fish
Here comes fall, a quick trip to Chicago, celebrations of love, and the last stretch of 2022
September felt so long and full and maybe one of the best Septembers of my life. Things are falling into place in my house, I did a quick but lovely trip to Chicago, and love is in the air as cuffing season approaches…
I also can’t believe we are almost done with 2022, and soon enough, I’ll have done two full years of these digests. I am hoping to write more substantial stuff of my own, but there’s just been a lot of work I have been catching up to. inshAllah soon. Until then, here are the articles, poems, and videos I loved this past month.
🍁 🍁 🍁
Women’s Work by Becca Rothfeld — A brief but strong case against the trad agenda that’s dressed up in progressive clothes.
Imitatio Machina by Luke Burgis — A sobering reminder about our desired being shaped by tech, and the object of our wonder. It should never be man made things, but that which is part of nature.
How to Build a Home that Lasts a Thousand Years by WrathOfGnon — Increasingly becoming the kind of person who wants to do everything by hand, even build her own house gdi. Ugliness is a disease for the soul, and the modern cityscape is unnecessarily and exorbitantly ugly. We need to change it.
Gabrielle Blair’s Twitter thread on how to prevent abortions. (Hint: it’s men.)
#114: Not at fashion week by Haley Nahman — I really really loved this piece. Nahman says, “There is no mere existence on the internet. There is no being known for who you idly or incidentally are. You have to show up and beg to be loved, then beg to be loved again, but for newer reasons.” WOW. What a depiction. It rings so true though. And I think it’s what’s made me so indecisive about my own online presence for so long.
Life After Death by Laura Gilpin.
The things I know:
how the living go on living
and how the dead go on living with them
So that in a forest
even a dead tree casts a shadow
and the leaves fall one by one
and the branches break in the wind
and the bark peels off slowly
and the trunk cracks
and the rain seeps in through the cracks
and the trunk falls to the ground
and the moss covers it
and in the spring the rabbits find it
and build their nest inside
and have their young
and their young will live safely
inside the dead tree
So that nothing is wasted in nature
or in love.
Can’t Get No Satisfaction by Anastasia Berg — A good response to the Rothfeld piece in the Point Mag on what sort of life counts as one that is “flourishing” for a woman.
I Regret Being A Slut by Bridget Phetasy — Sex negativity, the questioning of current sexual norms, and the pushback against the liberal feminist sex revolution… all happening right now. It’s a good time as any to bring back my all-time favorite article on this by Meghan Murphy — “Playboy Feminism™: how the gentleman’s porn rag co-opted the women’s movement”
Mary Oliver on the On Being podcast. I recently started reading Devotions by her so here’s another poem:
I Wake Close to Morning by Mary Oliver
Why do people keep asking to see
God’s identity papers
when the darkness opening into morning
is more than enough?
Certainly any god might turn away in disgust.
Think of Sheba approaching
the kingdom of Solomon.
Do you think she had to ask,
“Is this the place?”