When was the last time you heard someone express any gratitude for the parts of our democracy that are working well? Thinking about humility, gratitude, and democracy in this week's newsletter:

RT @katie_rayford: 🏆Exciting news: Two @SlatePodcasts were nominated for @TheWebbyAwards! Congrats to:. 🎧How To! hosted by @carvellwallace,….

"Why do we–those whom the dementia activist Morris Friedell terms the ‘temporarily able-brained’--need them to vanish? And what possibilities are we precluding, what hard work of the soul are we avoiding, by imposing this distance?" @casteelharper

"Yes, there were probably a lot of copies of Between The World and Me left unread, but there were also tons of hearts and minds changed." Love how @garrettbucks calls us White folks in. This book is going to be so nutritious for so many people:

AMA (Ask Me Anything) at my newsletter today if anyone's got a thing they'd like to explore with me.

Congrats Natalie! Sounds like an amazing group of humans and ideas you've assembled.

This swollen stage of life—the daily grind and delight of caring for children alongside the deep love and fretting over aging parents alongside the satisfaction of work alongside. There are so many alongsides when you are in your mid-40s.

RT @Philanthropy: Opinion: Women leaders of color are exhausted writes @SayuBhojwani. "From unfulfilled racial justice pledges to unionizin….

"Who is the same as they were two decades ago?". That is the question that Daryl Atkinson voiced when I interviewed him for my @csmonitor cover story on the fines and fees that strip already economically marginalized people of money.

Sometimes we talk about economics as if they were inevitable—like a weather pattern or a disease process. In fact, humans shape economies, and we shape them with our values—both implicit and explicit. Had fun exploring this with Nick Romeo on his new book:

RT @SlatePodcasts: Celebrating Galentine's Day? Slate's How To! created the perfect listen for it: a three part series on friendship, launc….

Love is her handwritten notes snuck into strange places my whole life, always relating some version of you are sensitive, but you are strong, go, go, go." . An ode to the many kinds of lifelong love: Add your own in the comments at Substack!

I crave both—the bright moral lines of youth & the capacity to hold complexity and compassion of elders. I want huge billowing banners that call for ceasefire & I want absolutely everyone’s suffering honored, no exceptions.

My dad has dementia & among so many losses he has experienced—no longer able to drive, no longer able to operate an iPhone, no longer able to access his laugh at the timbre that he once did—one loss has been magnificent: anxiety. His anxiety has vanished.

"It’s so much easier to organize the world into manageable schemas when your own mercurial insides aren’t part of the assignment.". Putting out some vulnerable stuff today in an attempt to be more REAL vulnerable. Would love your thoughts.

I wrote a piece in this wonderful round-up of pieces on home for @csmonitor. There is so much beauty and diversity of thought and experience in here:

I really loved our @Slate How To! episode this week on how to process all the tragic news of the world and think about responding — online, IRL, in your own tired heart. Nadia Bolz-Weber and @RadiciStudios are such gifts:

Prayer for a new year: May we do something rather than nothing when we get all up in our heads. May we be more grounded in our bodies. May our hearts break open. May we ask: is this mine to do?

Need a last-minute holiday gift? This poster of wisdom to live by (sourced from The Wise Unknown podcast by me & turned into art by @wendymac ) is just what your momma/bestie/workwife ordered:

Honored to be asked! Interesting round up here. .