Summertime sadness
I don’t really have too much to say about the bushfires except what is obvious, so I’ll refrain from saying it. You already know the places to donate, so please do if you haven’t already.
What I do have something to say about is hope. The lovely hiking blogger Caro Ryan at Lotsafreshair surprised me back in December by Instagramming photos of happier times in the Blue Mountains, where she lives and works, and writing captions about how these places would soon be green again. It felt too soon for hope when I first read those captions – I wanted her to echo my anger and fear. But now I think she’s absolutely right. We can’t live in grief and rage – we only numb out after a while, which leads to apathy, which leads to more of the same. Same government, same vested interests, same inaction.
But we CAN live in hope, which leads to action. I’ve been reading Rob Hopkins’s book From What Is to What If (will review next week when I’ve finished reading it) and he writes a lot about how important it is to imagine a better future rather than simply railing about the terrible present. Imagination leads to hope, which, again, leads to action. That’s a great lesson for me personally and I offer it in case it’s useful to others.
News
ELLE Australia’s summer issue has been out for a few weeks – it goes off sale on Monday so grab it while you can. I loved putting the features together for this issue, and when I tell you what they are, you’ll understand why: we ran a portfolio on “How to Simplify Your Life” (I am already following the steps from author Nir Eyal on ditching distractions, taken from his book Indistractable). There’s an extract from Rachel DeLoache Williams’s book My Friend Anna: The True Story of Anna Delvey, the Fake Heiress of New York City, and three summer seaside stories, one by writer Jamie Marina Lau, author of Pink Mountain on Locust Island. We also ran a short story by Zadie Smith (I KNOW!), one by beautiful short-story writer Josephine Rowe, and an extract from Claire G. Coleman’s new book The Old Lie. Honestly, it’s a great issue and I’m very happy with all the long reads I was allowed to shoehorn in!
What I’m reading
Second Nature by Michael Pollan. I read this super-fast and without taking notes, because it was due back at the library. But I loved it, so I may have to borrow it again or buy it. Well, considering my new bookshelves are already full, maybe the library?! It is a lovely series of essays about how gardening is the perfect confluence between nature and culture, and how he is always working out where to draw the line between the two. So it’s right up my alley! It’s beautiful and funny and wry.
What I’m listening to
As always, the Longform podcast. I just relistened to the Michael Pollan episode from June 2019, in fact – lots of wisdom in that one. It’s a US podcast that interviews longform journalists, so I appreciate it may have limited appeal, but it’s fascinating to those of us in the biz.
Safe travels, all. See you next week.