For the last 6 weeks or so, I’ve been escaping the world’s drama with French TV. French sensibility has always appealed to me and it feels genuinely appropriate right now. It doesn’t encourage sugarcoating or burying your head in the sand. It promotes a ruthlessly cynical approach to relationships. Which ones are serving you? Which aren’t?
Stereotypically, French parents abstain from overly-sentimental parenting as an extension of being hopelessly pragmatic about human nature. The only parenting book I read when I was pregnant was Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting. I finished it in one sitting, partly because I was very pregnant and partly because it read like a memoir, and I came away deeply connected to the concept of French motherhood. I loved the author’s observations on things like attachment, socialization and nutrition, and how things are done differently in France than in the US. I shaped a lot of my parenting style from that book, but there was also just an innate alignment in how I saw myself becoming a mother.
Anyway, if you’re in need of a French escape right now, I highly recommend these three series.
What does French entertainment have to do with civics? Nothing! Like you, I’m still just trying to find my way back into the conversation. As promised, I’m revisiting the archives and pulling out the gems. And I feel like this post on Civic Self-Care couldn’t be a more perfect place to start… especially the part about finding your civic village. Because I don’t know about you, but the news is a real trigger for me these days and if I’m going to stay reasonably informed, I want to hear from voices I trust who embrace an under-appreciated style called nuance.
Civic Glimmer of the Week
Gus has been really into ripping paper lately. I like to think it’s sensory over destructive… but whatever’s behind it, I’ve been using it to find ways to talk about the environment and start planting little seeds that maybe (maybe!) will lead to more awareness as he gets older. I happened upon a new climate newsletter a few weeks ago that has been helping with this a lot.
Anything I can read in under 2 minutes that somehow infuses optimism with here’s-what-you-can-do-as-one-little-person is my sweet spot these days.
, the founder of one5c, describes the newsletter as “an optimistic, action-focused climate publication” that “serves up deeply reported pieces that focus on achievable, realistic changes you can make to your life that will lower your impact on the planet.” The reads are short, the calls to action are doable, and it’s a helpful reminder that small changes really do add up.More soon,
Sarah