bits and bants vol.25
that's January for you, the golden age of television is over, romanticizing the family farm
Unlike most normal Januarys where the 19th feels like the 49th day of the month, this January is blazing by because we have a surgery date for my daughter on January 31st. We’ve waited over two years(!), and it will require up to five days stay in hospital afterwards and significant recovery time. It is basically a day I have put off thinking about for over two years because of pure terror, but now have to organize everything around as it rightfully disrupts all of our lives.
In other words, I feel as if I’ve spent the past few weeks since we’ve known about the date trying to push aside anxiety, worry, fear, anxiety, and worry again while trying to plan all the things needed for that week. It’s not been working great, but then again this is the first time I’ve dealt with such a serious medical issue so who knows if I’m just handling things normally! I also haven’t been able to even think about planning or imagining February to exist normally. So I’m really functioning just fine…everything’s fine…
And while we made it through the -40 and lower temperatures last weekend, it hasn’t exactly warmed up to balmy temperatures. We’ve been in the -20s most of the week, but the wind has come back and is supposed to be stronger over the weekend so it will feel like the -40s once again. And while we don’t act as if the world is ending, it does make most everything harder, like getting out of the house for instance! Stir crazy kids, high schoolers trying to write some exams and essays, and impending surgery on top of life’s normal stressors have really been the order of the day generally.
And that’s my update. Hope your week has been less January-like!
bits:
I found this article on the state of television writing to be so interesting. You know I loved Succession, but I just really love good television writing. I find the form to be such a unique form of writing because as the article mentions it has such flexibility and possibility, and I think to do it well is a real feat! And of course, let’s all once again recognize that AI will never write a terrific television show. And the golden age of tv is probably over. It’s a bummer.
I appreciated this article on answering feminism critics. It covers one aspect of the anti-feminist crowd that I just don’t think jives with reality, and that is addressing the inherent rationality of women and its consequences. I also have weird little reservations like, I think women should vote and be able to buy their own homes, and run for public office!
I obviously think banning books is bad, shouldn’t be done, do not recommend. But I think the furor over books being banned is now so overdone it’s an obvious sign of a narrative. I appreciated this piece with some actual research into the issue.
I one hundred percent aspire to bookshelf wealth and I have zero problems admitting it. I have all the books. I have so many books that I have used up every inch of extra space in my house for bookshelves and I still am overflowing and have boxes of books in storage. What I don’t have is custom built in bookshelves and I truly aspire to them. Too bad houses with built-in bookshelves DO NOT EXIST IN FRIGGIN CANADA. Same with historic homes with any character. Or homes under a million dollars. Am I still house hunting and bitter? Why would you say that?
I should have shared the link to this great post before my bitter rant, because it is much more pleasant, but do check out
’s very interesting observations on parenting and motherhood in France. Really hearing from people’s experiences in other cultures in this way is my favourite.
reading, watching, what have you:
not watching anything because football, hockey, kids draining my television watching energy!
My husband and I did try to start All The Light You Cannot See on Netflix this week and we got approximately half way through one episode! Tune in in six months to see what we thought!
I’m listening to an audiobook, so basically I’m killing it in the new year’s resolution department. I started The Farmer’s Wife by Helen Rebanks, a memoir of a farmer’s wife living in the Lake District of England and so far it is a very realistic representation of what rural life actually entails. I am in the beginning of the book where she is sharing the experiences of her family and the difficulties of family farming which is anything but romantic but I think is very true. As someone who has grown up on a family farm and have a very clear understanding of what rural and agricultural life means, I find it frustrating when people have only a romanitic, idyllic idea of it and not what it really entails.
Is that it? Is that all I have? I really feel full up with just…surgery. Like if there was a cartoon graphic of what makes up my brain right now it’s 98% “surgery”, and 2% “what the heck am I making for dinner”. Good times.
januaryily yours,
Christy
Oh, also, I meant to comment that I read the PD piece, too, and I thought it had one of the very clearest articulations of these problems that I've ever read. It was great analysis and argument.
Prayers for your daughter and all the family. The Helen Rebanks book is fabulous - do read her husband’s books if you haven’t already. I’m a London dwelling woman who has never farmed and I absolutely loved the realistic depiction and heartfelt rallying cry for family, roots, tradition and fighting for what matters in our communities and with the land.