Thursday Links To Love

*From yesterday’s chilly walk along Stony Run. Hope in the weeds and the art of graffiti.*

Dispatch: still not quite certain what day it is. Each seems to flow like water into the next. Here are some links to keep you afloat.

First, something to watch that is not the human depravity that is Tiger King (AVOID). The Barkley Marathons is available through Amazon Prime and is an example of the kind of value you can get for $1.60 in Tennessee. Essentially, a race with fewer than a dozen winners in its 25-year history. 11/10 would recommend.

Back-up viewing if you don’t have Amazon Prime but have someone’s Hulu password: the documentary on Margaret Atwood. She is a badass from way back. Turns out, a word after a word after a word is power.

Next, something that is incredible to look at, and even better to participate in: the Getty Museum’s call for people to recreate famous artworks from things readily available at home. Locally, the American Visionary Art Museum is leading the charge.

For those “working” at home and looking to bone up on some skillz that are business-related, Moz wants to give you some free classes for SEO, backlinks, and other interwebs-optimizing topics.

It’s challenging to find links these days, it seems, that aren’t filthy with news of COVID-19, and we don’t need more of that, but here’s one for my freelance/self-employed/contractor friends anyway: yes, you are now eligible for unemployment. Here’s a direct link to Maryland’s online unemployment form, and another link to find instructions for your state.

In books, KWeeks and I are nearly done reading Michael Pollan’s book A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams. One of the things that struck us both today was the following quote from JD Steddings:

“There is hope in honest error, none in the icy perfections of the mere stylist.”

Pollan adds, “Small mistakes in the finished product revealed the hand of the worker; perfection was opaque.”

Also, from Ruskin: “No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.”

May your work, whatever it is, be scarred with the beauty of imperfection, and may all of your errors be honest.

Planning For Days To Come

I have forgotten what day and week of social isolation/distancing we are in. I am reminded it is April 1st, only because Instagram tells me so, but my normal markers of time are all thrown off. I rely on KWeeks and his schedule to let me know when the weekend is, but in the words of Morrissey, every day feels like Sunday.

But, shockingly, I believe in dreams. In my very best moments, when I am not beset by the constant thrum of anxiety, I like to imagine and plan and design and create.

Side note: all of the posts talking about how you should stay busy and MAKE THE BEST WORK OF YOUR LIFE can fuck right off, though. Right now I am just trying to find my ass with both hands, and that’s the best I can do most days when so many uncertainties are afloat.

But I digress.

If I can, for just a few moments, put aside the facts of the day, the very horror that is not only this lurking virus but also the dawning realization that no one in our government gives a rat’s ass, so long as we KEEP SPENDING MONEY, then I can magically transport myself to sunnier times.

Like this.

grey concrete floor with masking tape outlining the floorplan of a small house — *And so it begins*.

This is the basic floor plan of the house that we will build in Canada. We taped it out at Khristian’s studio this morning, against official orders to stay at home. This was not a strictly essential trip, as the state defines it, but we saw no one and properly sanitized ourselves before, during, and after our foray.

The cabin will be hand-built and 144 square feet. To the right, between the two unconnected taped lines, there will be a large glass window overlooking the Bay of Fundy. All of the other necessaries are there, too (bed, kitchen area, wood stove), and we will eventually build a walkway to another platform so we can watch the seals and pilot whales as they rest in the Bay.

For now, it was enough to get the outline of the place and to imagine drinking coffee, overlooking our foggy spot, or falling asleep to the glow of the stove and the light of the moon.

One day, Canada will open back up to filthy Americans such as ourselves, and we will travel gratefully north to start construction.

The state of Maryland may not feel that today’s trip was essential, but for me it was. It was essential to remind myself that there is work to be done, things to create, and lands to see.

Why Not Just Let That Shit Go? Or, How Not To Be A Total Dick During A Pandemic

*A bit blurry. I know. But hilarious nonetheless and a good image for today’s writing,* *#HeresMyButt*

Stay-at-home/shelter-in-place, day one, and I have already gone out to go feed my cat.

This is the week that KWeeks and I are together; on alternating weeks, he is with his daughter. I have abandoned my kitty to stay with Khristian but go home daily to feed him wet food, love on him, remind him I will be home soon.

There were still cars on the road, but not many. There were still people walking around, but not many, and usually alone or in groups of two, close together so you can know that they live in the same household.

What there was a lot of, unusually for Hampden, was police cars. I passed five in the mile-and-a-half drive to my house. It’s not tanks down the streets, but it feels close to that.

This seems fitting, this sense of lowering doom, as this will be the last week that Khristian and I spend together for who knows how long. The perils of joint custody, I suppose, with me as the casualty.

Woe is me, right? I wonder how many other people are struggling with this and not saying anything. Divorced people who share custody of children but cannot bring themselves to be kind enough to fully disclose what happens in their houses, placing the kids, the custodial parents, and their partners at risk.

It’s situations like this that make me believe that we will not, in fact, come out any better on the other side of this. Even when it comes to endangering another person’s life -whether you like them or not – there are still people so wrapped up in their own bullshit and power struggle that they cannot see what is best. They cannot rise above their ego to consider other people.

Here’s a thought: if you are normally a total selfish dick, maybe now is the time to step back and take a look at that behavior. Maybe now is a good time to let go of your vitriolic hatred. Maybe you could stop doing things that intentionally hurt others. Maybe you could soften just a little and recognize that things could be so much easier if you just let that shit go.

So. What are you learning to let go of? What are you still clinging to? And how is that working out for you?

Walking

So Maryland is now under a “stay-at-home” order, which doesn’t do much extra except to restrict travel in and out of the state and to make it a crime to linger, loiter, or otherwise hang outside of your house in groups larger than ten, closer than six feet. You can still go get food, and you can still walk around outside. You can be arrested and fined for breaking these rules, and you have to be quarantined when you come into Maryland (and you are urged not to leave).