I’m grateful for.. (🚨the riot edition)

Some thoughts & recommendations to start your weekend

Image by Sasko Lazarov

I’m grateful that my partner and I decided to have dinner close to home last night, rather than venturing into the City Centre where a riot broke out following the stabbing of several young children. I’m grateful that, while the damage was extensive and the psychological toll significant, no-one was seriously physically hurt in the violence that tore through Dublin city. I’m grateful that while racism and bigotry are real and growing problems, there are many more good people than bad. I’m grateful for the dark humour we find in difficult times - my brother’s dry wit and the image of a friend and her Italian parents standing at the bus stop with a guy who’d looted armfuls of clothes from Arnotts. I’m grateful for the helpers: the people who go towards danger, the childcare worker who put her body between young children and their attacker and the Gardaí. 

I’m grateful that my partner and I decided to go ahead with date night, even though it had been a devastating week. I’m grateful that our beloved Martino is home from an emergency stay at the vet, and for the knowledge that while we could have lost him, we didn’t¹. I’m grateful for his brother, Budino, who had his own dramatic health scare but appears to be eating well and responding to the antibiotics. I’m grateful to be feeling better, though this week ground me into dust in a way I haven’t experienced in a while. I’m grateful to be able to rest and write over the weekend, though I know that won’t really solve the problem.

I’m grateful for the two baby-faced plumbers who showed up to replace our heat pump and boiler, and for the great job they did. I’m grateful for the knowledge that one can be baby-faced even while having significant hair on the face. (Baby-faced = the shape and softness of the face, more than anything else.) And I’m grateful for people who showed up, offered care and lightened the load with their gentle presence. 

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Recommendations

✍️ I recently rediscovered

Lisa Olivera

’s beautiful work. #8 in this list has been knocking around in my brain since I read it.

What do you need to remember?

🎧 The kind of podcast I want to have a transcription of so I can re-read, underline and shove all I learned from it into my brain. 

💰There’s never a bad time to support the Immigrant Council of Ireland, but this feels like an especially good one. I sent them a few quid this morning. Want to join me? 

📚 Leslie Jamison on finishing her late friend’s novel.

📺 Couldn’t manage anything more complicated than The Crown on TV this week.

1. Full essay coming soon!