Last October, I came across a wonderful, terribly moving essay that Sophie Heawood wrote for The Guardian about being a single parent. Heawood describes “that the hardest bit isn’t having nobody to share the burden, it’s having no one to share the love.” And, with equal parts humor and humility, she talks about those moments in which she’s made aware that her situation is different, unknowable, or undesirable and how she handles them:
Living outside the nuclear narrative will create so many jarring moments with others that soon you won’t speak, only nod. You will do The Nod when the nursery sends your kid home with a Happy Father’s Day card that she’s been made to copy her name on to. You will employ The Nod when other mums say they know exactly what it’s like being a single parent because their lovely husband works abroad for up to two weeks at a time.
And the realization that so many others must do the same:
Gradually, you will realise that you, too, have made other people do The Nod all your life. That you moaned about your mum to a friend whose mum was dead, that you complained about being skint to friends who’ll never earn what you do, that you phoned in sick with hangovers when a colleague who lives with a chronic pain condition wouldn’t dream of missing work. A lifetime of selfishness will open up before you like a seam. Keep Reading >
Jessica Helgeson, who has contributed a series of delicious recipes to Hither & Thither, agreed to share this sweet breakfast idea, just in time for spring. She used melon, but you can use whatever is showing up at your local markets—pomegranates, stone fruits, or berries would be delicious as well.
This breakfast recipe is so special to my heart because it was served to me in bed by my sweet Caroline and her daddy on Mother’s Day. I wanted to share it with you all with the hope that you make it to treat yourself or to show someone how much you appreciate them.
Ingredients
Numbers correlate to layers of the stack starting from the bottom up.
(1) Granola
(2) Honeydew finely diced
(3) Second layer granola
(4) Cantaloupe finely diced
Greek Yogurt
Honey
Vanilla bean
Tools
Forming ring, or tin can with ends removed and well-washed. (For example.)
Tamper
Place granola, finely diced honeydew and finely diced cantaloupe in separate bowls. Drain your diced melon if there is excess juice.
Add a small amount of honey to each of your bowls of ingredients and stir. This acts as your binder.
Start adding your first layer of granola . Be sure to firmly press down each layer with a tamper or something flat. Continue with each layer working your way up to the top. Carefully slide the ring off while pressing slightly on the top the ingredients with tamper to secure. This should come off easily.
Finish with your yogurt and scent with a vanilla bean for extra specialness.
Serve to someone you love and appreciate—which can totally be yourself!
Watch the very sweet how-to video on SEESaltTV. Thank you, Jessica!
SEE Salt is created by Jessica with her mom Terri, who has always taught her the confidence to create. Together they love to play in the kitchen and hug n’ kiss on Jessica‘s two little babes, Caroline and Benjamin. For more, visit See Salt’s website, Facebook, and Instagram. And look back at the Work We Do interview we did with Jessica about her new business.
Tonight we’re going to UC Davis’s Mondavi Center to hear Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder—the co-creators of Serial—go behind the scenes of their incredibly successful podcast, which Koenig described when receiving a Peabody Award as a “ten hour audio documentary about an old murder that I did not solve.” Like many, Aron and I were swept up in the cultural phenomenon, listening to the programs aloud together by the end. And, like many, we read the follow-up theories, the who-done-it speculations, and came up with our own as well. While of course I do wish tonight’s program could offer up some more conclusive answers, it’s been clear for a long while that those can never be had.
An article in New York Magazine, “Why ‘Serial’ Drives Some People Crazy,” ran while the show was wrapping up discussed the differing reaction people have to this and suggests that Serial can be a bit of a litmus test for one’s “Need For Closure” in general: “someone’s stance on “Serial”’s ambiguity may actually tell you a lot about who he or she is as a person. It likely reflects a deep-seated, extremely important psychological characteristic called need for cognitive closure.” The higher one’s need for closure, the more likely Koenig’s back-and-forth on the case, with no clear resolution, would be maddening! And perhaps even more interesting, it might lead that person to follow up listening to the show with an expression of total confidence on some completely separate subjects, on “subjects that would allow him or her to regain the sense of certainty absent in Koenig’s narrative.”
And that’s just one of the thought provoking tangents that came out of all of our collective listening to this podcast. Isn’t it fun?
Are you a fan of podcasts? Are you listening to any good ones lately?
Without a car commute, I find that I rarely get to enjoy them, but Aron gives me the scoop and often tells me which ones are worth setting aside some time for. Here are some favorites from the both of us… Keep Reading >
