 Uuuhhh... God, good morning Hank, it's Tuesday. You know how like every email right now begins, I hope you're holding up okay? I am not holding up okay, but actually there's no but to that sentence. Like a lot of people I know with chronic mental health problems, I am having a hard time. We do, however, have to get through this. Like, we literally have to, so today I'd like to share some things that are helping me get through right now and I'm hoping in comments you'll let me know about some things that are helping you get through and then we can learn from each other and together we can get through better and be encouraged. Okay, let's start with wind. Lately I find it very helpful to go outside, I mean in line with local restrictions and just like feel the wind on my skin. This works when it's a barely perceptible breeze or when it's like gale force. Wind is just so weird and wondrous and feeling it makes me aware of my aliveness. Also wind just reminds me that the earth contains like a lot of air and at a time when sharing air in the narrowest sense is very dangerous. Sharing air in the largest sense remains absolutely essential. Then there's TV slash movies slash YouTube slash whatever we're gonna call visual media in the future. I've been watching a lot of documentaries lately. I really enjoyed Foozballers, a movie about high-level Foozball playing and also Su Kim short filmed The Speedcubers, both of which I guess are about people obsessed with niche sports, which is kind of my genre. I think I just love stories about humans making meaning where none inherently exists, like at a Foozball table. By the way, I am not a Speedcuber, but I can now reliably solve a Rubik's Cube in under three minutes. I love this thing. I've found it very helpful to pick up an activity that occupies some of my mind without requiring all of it. And Rubik's Cubes are kind of like Tetris or trail running in that they put me into a calm flow state that I really need at the moment. Also I really love the Netflix show Connections hosted by Latif Nasser from Radiolab. Whether he's talking about sewage or dust, the show gives me a feeling of wonder and it also models how intellectual inquiry happens for me. Like making and finding connections is when learning becomes exciting for me. While we're on the subject of Latif Nasser, I cannot recommend his Radiolab series the other Latif enough. It is brilliant. Also I've been listening to Invisibilia and Heavyweight when I need to cry, which is often, and I've found Planet Money really helpful for understanding the knock-on effects of the pandemic. And then there are books. Oh, thank God for books. In hard times, I like to return to books I've loved in the past, like I recently reread the bell jar and our copy is Sarah's copy from high school, so I got to see all her underlinings and notes in the margins, which was just so lovely. I also reread some young adult novels I love, including Jacqueline Woodson's Behind You, which made me cry so hard I couldn't see the words on the page, and E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks, which is maybe my favorite boarding school novel ever. Also, while I always love the Lifes Library Book Club, where Nerdfighteria reads books together while raising money to fight maternal mortality, I really love it right now. We just read Bernardine Everisto's brilliant novel, Blonde Roots, and now we're reading Paige Lewis's Space Struck, which, among many other things, is an exploration of anxiety and dread, and it really makes me feel less alone. I mean, I've quoted this before in a vlog of this video, because it just so perfectly describes how I feel. I feel as if I'm on the moon listening to the air hiss out of my spacesuit, and I can't find the hole. I'm the vice president of panic, and the president is missing. That's it. I'm the vice president of panic, and the president is definitely missing. Anyway, if you want to join us, you can find out more about the Book Club at lifeslibrarybookclub.com. Now that I've made this list, one, I feel better. Two, it occurs to me that watching documentaries and reading in community and even practicing the Rubik's Cube are all ways of learning and listening. And these days, that really is where I'm finding meaning and comfort in learning from others and listening to others, even if from afar. Hank, I'll see you on Friday.