The Reckoning Week 49: My Tribe of Misanthropes

This is a photo of my daughter smiling, according to her. 

When I take her picture she always makes this face. I don’t want to be some kind of overbearing pageant mom, so I just, you know, give her the option of smiling. I say, “do you want to smile?” To which she always, without fail, says, “I am smiling.”

For this picture, I also tried “Say cheese!” To which she replied, simply, “No.”

I love that my daughters are not people pleasers.

I don’t love it when I’m trying to get them out the door to school. And I don’t love it when I’m trying to get them to bed. But I love it as a concept.

My husband is also not a people pleaser. That’s where they get it from. I carry the people-pleasing load for the entire family. I hate disappointing people or ruffling feathers. I want everyone to feel good about everything, all the time, in any way I can control. 

Which is why, when I just chatted with my dad on the phone, and he told me is not going to bother to get the COVID-19 vaccine until things calm down — and told me this from the American Legion in the middle of the afternoon, where he was enjoying a few “cocktails,” which is what he calls Budweiser — I simply replied, “Oh, okay.”

I didn’t say what I was thinking, which was more along the lines of, What in the name of all things good and holy is wrong with you? Why don’t you take care of yourself? Why don’t you care? Don’t you want to see us again? Don’t you want to see your grandchildren?”

The vaccine just opened up for his age group where he lives — Massachusetts. While he was at the Legion hobnobbing with the maskless locals, I was home reloading the Massachusetts vax signup website (a pile of steaming poop) in the hopes of making an appointment for my mom.

Where my daughter gets her smile

My husband, because he works with patients in a hospital, is now fully vaccinated. 

As a commoner, I probably won’t get my vaccine until summer. Still, when I think about where we were nearly a year ago, this is exciting stuff. Yesterday, I got an email that the Green River Festival has been pushed to the end of August in the hopes that the show will finally be able to go on. 

Glimmers of hope, and unfortunately for my little tribe of misanthropes, a future of seeing other people, for real, in person, on the horizon.

Captured off guard in the wild

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What I’m reading:

How a Young Activist Is Helping Pope Francis Battle Climate Change in The New Yorker

The novel The Shame by fellow Vermonter Makenna Goodman

What I’m watching:

For movie night this week we watched The Little Prince, which I was dubious about, given that it’s such a perfect, timeless book. How could you make a movie good enough? But it turned out to be really wonderful. Highly recommend. 

What I’m eating: 

My brother spoke this basic broth recipe to me and I experimented:

• Fresh ginger

• Fresh turmeric

• Garlic

• Onion

• A carrot

• Tamari

• Miso

• Lemon rind

With the broth, I made a simple soup with leftover brown rice, scallions, chard and celery.

Another soup I just made from a Bon Appetit recipe:

Broccoli Soup With Turmeric, Peanuts, and Crispy Shallots