My family in Texas has had a rough week. My mom went to stay with my sister since the power at her senior apartments was out for four days. Not sure who was getting rolling blackouts, but my sister has had power all week, and my mom's place had no power from Monday until last night. But even with power it was a bad week because nobody had water. I'm not sure exactly why that was (the power was out at the city water plant?) but they were all relieved to have water again last night and be able to take showers etc. It's easy to snark about Texas's lack of preparation unless your loved ones are involved.
We also had a bad weather week, but we're much better prepared. I've been able to hear the snowplows going up and down the highway several times a day all week, and the guy we contract to plow our neighborhood road has been by most days, too. Last Friday we woke up to -16 degrees, which is way too cold. There's winter, and then there's below zero, and I do not like below zero temps. For one thing, it's usually accompanied by barometric pressure swings, which means migraines. It was not a good week for me, but at least we had heat and electricity and running water. And even if our heat had gone out, we have a wood stove and good insulation and a closet full of down blankets.
In other news, I told you last fall that I would finish reading the books about racism that were still in my stack and let you know which one you should read, if you're only going to read one. It's an easy choice-- read Isabel Wilkerson's Caste. From my goodreads review: A few of the books [on racism] I read were heartbreaking but didn’t really change my understanding of race in our country. A few of them really did completely re-orient my thinking but were on the academic side and not something that a casual reader would push through. Then I read this one, and this is it. It’s mind-blowing—as other readers have said, there’s before you read it, and there’s after you read it— but it is readable and accessible. I would never say that it is an easy read— it’s too uncomfortable for that— but it’s not difficult to follow, and she manages to avoid the guilt/shame dump we've discussed before. Everyone should read this book.
I'm going to try pre-writing a series of posts, so I will be hit and miss for awhile. Since I already missed last week just because of weather and headaches, it's pretty clear I won't be able write two different sets of posts at a time!
Have a great weekend. Stay warm.
2 comments:
The only snark I've indulged in with Texas is directed at its politicians. The people living with no heat and no water? Nope, not going there. I've been in that situation and it sucks.
I'm curious what books on racism you did read. And I'll have to go look up Caste as that one hasn't come up in much of what I've been looking at. Stay safe! Stay warm!
Hi, Karen! I think you'd enjoy Caste. It starts to meander a bit in the middle, but other than that it is a really compelling read. At one point I was going to do an entire post on the books I've read on racism, so I already had the list pulled together. The last two are memoirs so not specifically about race. My second favorite was the Dyson book, a must-read if you're at all interested in the Kennedy era. I highly recommend all of them except the Saad book that I wrote an entire post about last fall (linked to above). There are many more, I still have a couple on my Kindle that I may get to when I'm not feeling so dark.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Iluo
What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson
How to Be Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
Black is the Body: Stories from my Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union
Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas
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