Hello! We’ve made it through another week, and it’s time to celebrate. Here are five things to help you get your weekend party on.
1) A friend recently expressed admiration for my ability to find five joyful new things to tell you about every Friday. “I’d probably just write about pizza-flavored Pringles over and over again,” she wrote. Well, now. I normally buy Pringles only for road trips, but after that endorsement, I had to go out and get a can of the pizza chips. I can now report to you that they are, in fact, deliciously worthy of write-up. I might even like them better than the sour cream and onion flavor. See what you think.
2) Mid-fall means it’s time to plan next year’s garden! Despite the marauding raccoons in our neighborhood, who see my yard as a bespoke buffet, I’m going to try to grow a few things again this spring. I recently discovered Restoration Seeds, a social network of heirloom seed growers. You’ll find unusual varieties herbs and vegetables like basil and tomatoes—but you’ll also see cool, obscure things like lovage, mullein, and Good King Henry—along with detailed growing information. It’s so hard to choose just a few! The online catalog tempts me to buy far more than we have room to plant.
3) This week, we’ve been enthralled by the Netflix mini-series The Queen’s Gambit, based on the Walter Tevis novel of the same name. British-Argentine actress Anya Taylor-Joy had already wowed me in The Witch (one of my all-time favorite films), Thoroughbreds, and the scrumptious new Emma. She is just as fascinating as an orphaned chess prodigy from Kentucky struggling with addiction in the 1960s.
It has the feeling of a biopic: even though it’s not based on a true story, it seems like it could be. The costumes are swoonworthy, the characters are complex and surprising, and the competition scenes made me wish I was good at chess. I only wish there were more than seven episodes.
4) A couple of years ago, I read The Art of Neighboring, and it came to mind this week because it seems like the world needs it now more than ever. The authors believe that the commandment to love our neighbor is so broad as to potentially produce a kind of passivity and decision paralysis. To counteract that, they advocate caring for your literal neighbors in small but concrete and doable ways that can make a huge difference in lives and communities.
Though the authors are Christians, I think their advice and techniques would work for anyone, and they are adamantly against befriending your neighbors in order to proselytize. I led some activities from this book in my church’s women’s meeting right after I read it, and it was one of our most fruitful discussions.
5) Speaking of neighborliness, Neta Elkayam is an Moraccan-Israeli singer who’s trying to keep Arab Jewish culture alive despite much controversy and criticism. Her expressive, flexible voice is perfectly showcased in the plaintive “Muhal Nensah,” (“I Won’t Forget Him”). I love that she’s singing in a local hangout in Jerusalem, accompanied by a trumpet, string bass, Casio keyboard, and the voices and handclaps of her audience. The video is a parable of togetherness that goes beyond tolerance to radical acceptance.
There you have it, friends. Be well, and I’ll see you on Monday!