Here’s just a few things I’m worried about: democracy, universities, economic collapse, nuclear war, trans rights, world health, future pandemics, starvation and disease in countries that relied on US aid, Canadian sovreignty.
We’re adding those to my existing base-level worry about ongoing environmental devastation due to climate change. Whenever I start to write the list, I get a prompt from whatever writing tool this app uses to alert me to the danger of run-on, very long sentences.
WELL, IT’S NOT MY FAULT THERE’S SO MUCH ON THE LIST.
What a nightmare.
Here’s a simpler list, a happier list. It’s six things I’m going to do more of this summer, the summer I’m 60 years old.
☀️SWIM
☀️LONG WALKS
☀️SAIL
☀️BIKE
☀️CANOE CAMPING
☀️CONNECT WITH FRIENDS
I love this list!
It’s hard to balance the anger, frustration, and sadness with the joy and love that’s in the world. It’s hard to balance awareness of one’s own privilege with the current state of affairs.
No wants to be the person fiddling while Rome burns. Or to fit it to our context, the person canoe camping while democracy dies in the country next door.
But I do want to be the person who notices beautiful things and makes room for joy in her life.
Also, I’m excited about summer and about eating ice cream! You?
I confess I’ve been thinking a lot about travel to the United States these days.
I’ve turned down one invitation to keynote a conference south of the border and also declined one conference acceptance.
I think, as long as Trump is in office, I’m just not going to do it.
I’ve also been thinking about about American academic colleagues in Canada, the border, and their need to visit family. It feels like the situation at the border is going to get worse, not better, in coming months.
Lately I’ve also been thinking about friends and colleagues in the US who can’t leave because they’re worried about re-entry. Trans friends and colleagues, are obviously worried but so too are friends and colleagues with student visas and green cards etc. It’s not just that I’m cut off from the US. Lots of people in the US may also feel trapped inside the country.
I follow these conversations in my academic circles but they’re also affecting music and sports. They’re both global activities that bring people together, across borders, in normal times.
“Eves of Destruction charter team manager Sloane Chomeakwich said they knew things would deteriorate when Donald Trump was re-elected as U.S. president in November, but didn’t anticipate it would happen as fast as it did.
“We could not have imagined that things would get this bad, this quickly,” Chomeakwich said. “It’s honestly very wild to watch and witness.”
Chomeakwich said the league made the “preemptive safety call” not to travel to the U.S. last month, though they had been discussing it since November.
Sonja Pinto, the representative for the Hard Core derby league team, said the decision was made in reaction to Trump signing an executive order that called for the federal government to limit gender options to male or female and for that to be reflected on official documents such as passports and policies such as federal prison assignments.
“So many of our skaters identify under the trans umbrella,” said Pinto, who is non-binary and uses she/they pronouns. “They’re worried they might run into issues crossing the border … it’s causing skaters to feel really nervous, to feel really uncertain.”
Roller derby has historically been a sport that has been more inclusive of trans people, Pinto said.
Chomeakwich, who changed their passport gender designation to X three years ago, said the league in general is “so gender diverse.”
“That’s really important as a value to our league [and] something that we’re not willing to give up just so that we can have a bit more competitive play.”
Pinto said reducing travel to the U.S. is one way that the league can support its trans skaters.
“We can choose solidarity and prioritize games in Canada.”
The league is now playing primarily at the Archie Browning Sports Centre in Esquimalt, where it is based.
In June, the Eves of Destruction are hosting the Capital City Chaos tournament and inviting teams from Washington, Alaska, California, and Oregon to come to the capital region instead.”
Early spring flowers are among my favorite things. Daffodills, fortsythia, crocuses– they are all happy harbingers of spring, even when the rest of nature is not budging (yet). Yesterday I enjoyed another early spring floral display– an orchid show at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, about an hour from my house.
This botanical garden is set on “200 acres of conservatories, formal and naturalistic gardens, a café, Garden Shop, walking trails, accessible pathways, and expansive views of the Wachusett Reservoir”, says their website. I’ve been at all times of the year, and there’s always something interesting to learn about local nature and art.
Some friends and I motored out there together and used passes from our local library to get reduced admission— two more fine features of the day.
We spent time both inside and outside, but the main attraction yesterday was the orchids. I love orchids. I grow them in my house, which has bright indirect light that orchids enjoy. And they have flourished for years. Really, it’s not me, it’s them– they seems to like it at my house.
But the orchid display in these conservatories was positively outlandish, in the best possible way. Take a look.
Here are some more.
And these.
And finally, these:
We walked around outside to a newly landscaped garden/children’s play area. My friend Rachel’s daughter Teagan enjoyed the flowers, but she really got into running around with all the kids in the area. We got into watching them.
I bought an orchid to take home with me, and it’s now settling into its new home. On my way back into the house, I stopped to talk with a neighbor about gardening– we are planning a trip a a local nursery together.
Moments of pleasure and respite. Reminders of the promise of a new season, come what may. Connections with friends and neighbors. The glory of nature. These are simple and necessary joys, open to all of us.
I have written many times about Outsourcing motivation Lately though I’ve been the one pushing us to do strength training. I enjoy it and find it easy to bring into my day.
Michel , on the other hand, is great at getting his cycling in but struggles to stick with strength training.
I was asking him if it was ok to write about his dislike. He said “I know it’s important but it’s not dislike, I really fucking hate it.”
Wow. That surprised me. So we have made the strength workouts some together time.
Adrian from Peloton is showing us a lung with some weights.
We are at 45 minute full body classes plus a warm up and stretch. We modify as needed. It feels good to have company and the time flies.
It’s nice to be able to support Michel’s goals. A bit of reciprocity on motivation feels good.
We pick classes where the instructor is a bit silly. Laughing helps.
I’ve also snuck in a few dance cardio warm ups to mess with his Strava feed. Hehehehe
Cate’s great post from a couple of weeks ago, combined with the latest over-the-top reaction to a trans athlete who hasn’t even competed since 2022 (aren’t all reactions over the top when people are complying with the rules?) led me down a rabbit hole of the harms gendered sports do more generally.
University of Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas competing in 2022. On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump suspended about $175 million US in funding for the university over the participation of Thomas in its swimming program back in 2022. (John Bazemore/The Associated Press)
I have written about it before, here, and about Lia Thomas and other trans athletes. As a good analyst should, I am putting my biases on the table: I have trans friends, both men and women, who have gone from being suicidal and afraid to use a public washroom or change-room, to being happy and physically active. But as Cate said, and the “punishment” of the University of Pennsylvania shows, the whole trans athlete garbage isn’t really about trans athletes, especially at the elite level.
So what if we were to fight back by refusing to play along? What if we developed more all-gender sports, like we have already done for ultimate frisbee, mixed curling and many other new team sports, and which has been the standard in equestrian sport for decades? What if we changed the rules so that sports valued artistic merit, endurance and flexibility as much as they do upper body strength? What if women could do throws in figure skating, or compete in pommel horse? What if we then changed uniform rules so that men could wear sequins and women could wear pants (or at least shorts that covered more than most of the crotch)?
China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong competing during the Winter Olympics at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing. Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images
What if we simply stopped having men’s and women’s categories for things like shooting or fencing, where gender seems completely irrelevant? What if people like Katie Ledecky could compete against male swimmers? It is entirely possible she doesn’t know for sure just how much she is capable of because she races at different distances than men, and so outstrips many of her competitors that she may never have pushed herself to her absolute limits.
What if these rule changes led to much more equitable funding for sports traditionally segregated to women, or seen as too feminine (gymnastics, figure skating)?
There will undoubtedly be pushback, just like what we are seeing now against the LGBTQ+ community, from men who think they are losing something when women gain something. We will need to keep up the fight for fairness in sport. It’s a fight worth having for men, women, everyone.
Welcome to the first day of spring 2025. It was light enough this morning that I think I can start riding my bike to work. And it was warm enough that I won’t even mind riding home when I’m wet.
I did drag my hybrid off the trainer and rode to dance class. It was a bit of a disaster because I I didn’t have time to pump up my back tire, and I forgot my lock. Thank goodness I could tuck it inside the front entrance of the school.
It’s very grey out with rain predicted by the time I finish class but at least I’ll be ready for that because I remembered my rain hood (if not my bike lights).
Diane in her bright red rain hood and blue and white bike helmet. She hasn’t had time to remove the light that she never even used all winter.
I’ll get more organized before my next ride. It’s all a work in progress, and it will get better as I get back into the cycling habit.
I don’t think there’s a soothsayer around who can predict what sorts of horrific and damaging things the US executive branch and Donald Trump will do next. As a US citizen, I’m heartsick, angry and flummoxed about how to proceed (beyond calling, donating, doing good where I can).
But there’s one recent event, courtesy of Trump’s newly appointed head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr. (RFK), that I can speak to with confidence. It has to do with beef tallow.
What on earth are you talking about?
Apparently RFK is taking some time off from misleading Americans about the efficacy of the measles vaccine to hawk the virtues of french fries cooked in beef tallow.
Now, that seems random.
Yes, this is one of the random things in RFK’s brain right now.
So, what’s the story? Let’s let the Guardian take over from here.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, appeared with a cheeseburger and fries in a nationally televised interview on Fox News – a highly unusual move for a federal health official.
The appearance, in which he endorsed the decision of the burger chain Steak ‘n Shake to cook its fries in beef tallow, comes as Kennedy has attacked seed oils and made claims about the measles vaccine that lack context.
“We are poisoning ourselves and it’s coming principally from these ultra-processed foods,” said Kennedy, while seated at a table with the Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“President Trump wants us to have radical transparency and incentivize companies like this one to switch traditional ingredients for beef tallow,” Kennedy added, before he was delivered a double cheeseburger and french fries at a restaurant location in Florida.
Hmmm… That doesn’t sound right.
Good response, yellow smiley. It’s totally not right.
Kennedy is attacking the use of seed oils (e.g. canola, sunflower, safflower oils) in fast food products. He claims that beef tallow is healthier than these oils for frying foods.
In case you’ve forgotten/never known: beef tallow is the rendered fat of animals, made from the hard fat around the organs of ruminants (cows, sheep, etc.) If you’d like to know how to make it, here’s a helpful how-to site. But pictures are worth a thousand words:
Beef kidney fat for making tallow.Tallow, ready for frying things.Nutritional info. You should know.
Now, to give beef tallow its due, various folks swear by it as a facial moisturizer (Eeeew! but you know, different strokes…) And, as a substrate for frying, it has a very high smoke point (400 degrees F/204C). But is it good for you, or even more implausibly, better for you than, say, sunflower oil?
No, of course not! Trust Jackie Chan and me on this.
But in case you’d like to hear from actual experts, here’s one, from this NPR article:
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and head of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, told NPR he’s glad Kennedy is concerned about ultra processed foods and the diet-related disease epidemic, which he calls an urgent national crisis.
But, “concern around seed oils is really a distraction, and we need to be focusing on the real problems,” he says.
The real villains, says Mozaffarian, are excessive amounts of refined grains, starches, and sugars, as well as salt and other preservatives, chemical additives, and contaminants from packaging.
“Seed oils are actually the bright spot,” he says. “Seed oils are healthy fats, healthy monounsaturated, polyunsaturated fats that are really good for our bodies.”
He notes that seed oils are well researched and have “incredible evidence” of health benefits, including studies showing they’re linked with lower cholesterol levels and heart disease; randomized trials have shown that consuming seed oil does not cause inflammation.
I might add that, for any of us interested in reducing our intake of animal products, beef tallow is pretty much at the top of the “really, stop eating this” list. Promoting it is perverse, non-health-directed, based on serious falsehoods, and designed to promote particular fast-food chain businesses.
I’m not saying that eating fat is bad. Fat is an important part of any diet. But why go to all the trouble, ickiness, health risk, and moral hazard of consuming beef tallow when an avocado would do nicely instead? I mean:
Who doesn’t want some nice guacamole? Thanks Y Virmani for Unsplash.
Have I written about this before? Almost certainly.
Am I going to write about it anyway? Definitely.
Will I write about it again in the future? Extremely likely.
Sometimes I worry about repeating myself in these posts but then I remember that I always appreciate a gentle reminder to be kind to myself – even if I have heard it before – AND I am probably adding some new ideas (or at least some nuance) with each iteration.
ANYWAY!
On to today’s topic…
Please, please, please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you always need to do huge things to make a difference in your life, your fitness, or your well-being.
(I find myself in this trap a lot. I do not recommend it. It is no fun.)
In fact, very tiny changes can make a huge difference.
Things like adjusting the height of your chair or wearing gloves while you use an exercise band, or leaving one water bottle in the kitchen and one in your office, or stretching for two minutes, or putting a cold cloth on your eyes for a little while, or writing three sentences in a journal, or fixing the cuff of your favourite sweatshirt, or turning the lights lower while you do yoga, or wearing a shawl while you meditate.
All of those things can make the difference between doing the thing and not doing the thing.
Sure, dramatic changes and huge effort both have their place but small adjustments and incremental efforts are just as important.
And those little tweaks, those tiny changes can have a great impact on how you think about your plans, your activities, and yourself.
Those small, deliberate actions are a wonderful message to send to your future self, a great reminder that you care about your own needs and your own comfort and that you are willing to take care of yourself.
In case I have been too subtle here (HA!)…
SMALL ADJUSTMENTS = GOOD IDEA
So, Team, today and everyday, I invite you to take good care of yourself in little ways, one thing at a time.
In fact, I DARE you to choose a time to make a small change this week.
It will be totally worth it.
And, as always, here’s your gold star for your efforts:
image description: a drawing of a smiley-faced gold star on white paper with small black circles drawn in the background.
I have never really thought of myself as a potential surfer. I have trouble standing up on a paddleboard! But after spending a couple of weeks watching the beautiful surf and dozens of surfers, boogie boarders, and others frolicking in the waves off St. Clair beach in Dunedin, NZ, I knew I wanted to give it a try.
The surf school in St. Clair is delightful. It’s run by local surfers out of a van crammed with board and wetsuits, named for the Esplanade overlooking the beach. Their overall vibe was approachable and low key : while they have a fancy lesson-booking website, it turned out that the best way to track them down was to drop by the van when it was open. An open van was also a sure sign that the conditions were right for novice surfers – their whole team were also reassuringly safety-conscious. I joined a novice group lesson – myself, and two other women who had completed one or two previous lessons.
The lesson itself was surprisingly simple, as was the concept of surfing : slide down the wave on your board, then stand up. Apparently the forward motion of the board, and the fins underneath, help to make it more stable than balancing on a stationary paddle board – but on the other hand, you’re doing it in some pretty dynamic water!
After putting on a wetsuit and being assigned a giant “beginner board” that was surprisingly light, we received some initial instruction on the beach about safety and etiquette from our instructor Fin (I’ll spell it that way in honour of his claim to have be named after the fins on the bottom of the surfboard)! He then took us right out into what he called the “white water” – the area that’s about waist-deep and well inside where the big waves were breaking (and they were big! the swell was forecast to be 1.5-2m high that day).
Heading out to the beach with our boards
We’d then practice turning and flopping onto our surfboards in the gap between swells, and Fin would guide our boards and launch us down the front of a wave. Our job was to first lift our upper bodies (“like a seal!”), then kneel, and then try to stand, before we either reached shore or (more likely) tipped over and fell off. Retrieve board, wade back out, repeat. The surfboard itself is attached to your ankle by a long stretchy lanyard, so it can move away from you when you fall, but doesn’t go very far.
Thanks to Fin’s guidance I got pretty good at looking for suitable waves, and the feeling of catching one – balancing while shifting weight to stay on the front of the wave. I definitely never managed to get beyond kneeling on my board, but I did keep trying. I was definitely inspired by my more talented and experienced classmate, who was actually standing up on her board and riding it in to shore. She made the impossible idea of standing up seem … possible! But mostly I was just really enjoying play in the waves and doing that on a big surfboard was super fun. It was also much less scary than I expected – even if I tumbled off my board in a wave, all I had to do was stand up on the bottom to have my head above water.
The 90 minute lesson time flew past, but I was also exhausted by the end. It turns out that guiding a large surfboard through breaking waves, flopping on it, paddling with your arms to get up to speed and then hauling yourself up onto your knees and balancing is a pretty good workout! I’m very grateful to Sam who was watching my efforts from the Esplanade, and managed to catch a short video of one of my efforts. You can even see an encouraging cheer from Fin at the end :
So while I’m not sure I’ll ever reach the level of skill required to actually stand up on a surfboard, I am sure that I’ll keep trying and practicing on the rare occasions I come across a surf beach. Maybe I’ll give paddleboarding another whirl in the meantime!
Sarah Pie is more desk jockey than surfer dude these days, but really enjoyed getting out on her bike in the beautiful NZ summer weather.
This week I’ve been visiting my family in South Carolina, and the signs of spring are definitely here. It’s not full-blown spring yet– no azaleas blooming yet– but the time change brought with it a shift of light I always welcome, as a non-early-riser.
One of my favorite low-key activities we did was a visit to Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC. Their big draw is a significant collection of bronze and other sculptures, but I go for the nature.
Nature, the tiny flower version. Bright pink magnolia blossoms.Forsythia, the major harbinger of spring for me.
The other big draw of the gardens is their low-country path by the water. We walked all over and enjoyed the vistas and the gorgeous old and thriving trees.
Huge moss-covered oaks, providing shade and awe.The path we walked down, the trees showing us the way.Yes, that’s a real alligator.
When it’s warmer, they offer boat tours.
The water, a dock off to the right, and blue sky in abundance.
Taking a break by wandering though and sampling nature big and small has been heartening. I’m back home now, so it’s time to go back to work, in more ways than one. I may not exactly feel refreshed, but I do feel reminded– of the importance of beauty, connection, well-being. Also of the goodness in people– the people who care for this (and other lovely) places, and those who visit and support and enjoy and value them. I think they value other important things in our world, too.
Enjoying nature and gardens and walks and sunshine helps. It helps fortify us to get to the very big job we have at hand. I wish you all a good week.
