Barbie, Burning Man, And The Rest Of Your Favorite Posts Of 2023
Plus solastalgia, a new kind of winter sadness
Hello, friends.
For the last three Decembers our family of four has driven up to the Adirondacks, to spend a few nights at an extremely cozy and quaint inn. It’s close to Whiteface, the tallest ski mountain in the Northeast. I had been especially attached to this trip because it meant catching a breath of real winter. We’re in a snow drought in New York City and across the region—no more than an inch has fallen for almost two years.
Well, this year, there wasn’t any real snow even up on the mountain—only the stuff they spray out of nozzles. There had been about a foot earlier in the month, but it washed away in a huge rainstorm.
So I had a bout of solastalgia—that feeling, peculiar to these days, of missing home when you are home, or in a beloved, beautiful place where something important has changed. Have you felt that? Maybe call it a new brand of seasonal affective disorder—only, this time it’s the seasons themselves that are affected, as well as us.
And I…just let it be. I allowed that sadness to coexist alongside the cheerfulness of the blazing fires in the fireplaces, the eggnog and the cookies, ice skating with a view of the mountains, and the giggles of playing a new family game on the drive. And I looked forward to writing about it here, and was grateful that I have gathered this little community of people who get it and won’t try to brush these feelings away.
Your favorite posts of the year
Here’s your top five. They encompass the Gaza war, the Barbie movie, and many places in between. Thanks again for being here, and Happy New Year! I’ll be back next week.
What Palestinian, Muslim, Jewish and Israeli Mothers Are Telling Their Kids Right Now
Sometimes I like to think about the spiritual dimensions of my training in journalism. For 20 years, sometimes several times a week, I’ve been calling people up, including some people who I really disagree with, and just listening to them, and asking questions to find out what they believe and why they think an…
Welcome to The Golden Hour
Some times are not like other times. They hold more emotion, more meaning, more urgency, and for all these reasons, more beauty.
How To Cope
This past weekend I started crying on the 405 in Los Angeles. This was bad, because I was driving and wearing my glasses, two things I don’t do very often. I blame this song by the indie-folk band Big Thief, a new-to-me meditation on the necessity of change, and of sadness.
My Time At Burning Man, And Trying To Change
This was a teachable moment; a trial run for a climate disaster on the easiest possible setting, a learning experience I and others are likely to draw on in years to come. Maybe even before this year’s hurricane season is over.
Barbie, or The Illusion of Choice
I have never bought my two daughters any Barbies. Does that mean we don’t own any Barbies? HAHAHA. No. “When it comes to Barbies resistance is sort of futile,” the pop culture journalist Willa Paskin explained on the podcast The Daily last week. “Like, I did not buy any Barbies and that wa…