Friends,
Hey there and happy Friday.
First, a big thanks to all the readers who responded last week; we’re so excited to collaborate with you all more. As a reminder, if you’re interested in Unpacking a subject with us (either as a co-author or as an interviewee) please reply to this email. Unpacking is intended to be an experiment, so come experiment with us!
Emily here. In many ways, the past few months have felt like a return to normalcy. Many of us have slipped back into pre-pandemic habits, packed calendars, social joys and social exhaustion. How should we feel grateful for these newly appreciated moments and mark this new time, while remaining grounded in reality?
Yesterday, I was talking to a colleague who said she recently had a staycation at a local hotel. This trip had significance. Throughout the lowest parts of her year, while juggling a full-time job with no childcare, she promised herself this experience once she felt like she was on the other side. Finally going to this hotel created a commemorative memory to mark this transition.
Experiences like this are important because they give us a memory to act as an event boundary, or an event that separates episodes of activity in our minds. This happens to us day to day, like when we transition from one room to another room and then suddenly forget why we’re in the kitchen. I think my colleague’s trip to this hotel was a macro-level experience of an event boundary -- a sort of transitional moment that will now mark her as being in a different place -- mentally and physically.
So, reader, what event boundaries are you creating for yourself?
Our takes:
Emily: For me, I’m trying to create event boundaries by pinching myself and trying to be more present when I’m spending time with fellow vaccinated friends and family indoors. I’m trying to tell myself: we are in a different phase now! Time is moving!
Carrie: Maybe using these markers can help us pace ourselves, like mile markers in a marathon. It feels like a way of answering the question: What does it look like to acknowledge that this isn’t over and yet also ask ourselves what we need to continue the work? For me, this is inspiring me to return to our earlier Unpacking poll about activities post-inoculation.
Water Cooler Conversation
Carrie: News of this biopic about Célene Dion has led me to discover that a) I value the sentimentality of her music and b) this write-up about taste-making is thought-provoking. Has anyone read Let’s Talk about Love by Carl Wilson?
Emily: I felt like I was being hypnotized while reading the first graph of that taste-making New Yorker link.
Emily: Carrie, I feel like our newsletter has taken on a climate change lens in our recent editions. So I have to ask: have you seen this NASA study that projects repeated coastal flooding in the mid-2030s? I feel like it made the Twitter rounds briefly, but this feels big??!
Carrie: That reminds me, this “climate solutions 101” course may make into my weekend plans.
Emily: Here’s a significant marker for you, Carrie. I think I officially eat more biscuits than bagels in a given week now. Am I officially a Virginian?!
Carrie: I guess you are what you eat :)
Your pals,
Carrie & Emily