This week at Cog #20
Baby chickens, parenting through addiction, this year’s Patriots and mutual aid as community activism.
Last fall I did a book event with four other novelists, and our moderator ended the session with a “rapid fire” round, quick questions we’d answer on the spot. She asked something like, what’s one book you can read over and over again, and I said, “A Wrinkle in Time,” by Madeleine L’Engle. I’ve been known to say I had a third kid just so I’d have one more child to read this book to, and it’s only kind of a joke. I remember my mom reading it to me, how mesmerized I was by the image of the children in the neighborhood block all bouncing a ball at the same time. It was so creepy! And IT, the pulsing brain? I remember thinking, “A book can do this?”
My 9 year-old and I started “A Wrinkle in Time” this week, and I can’t wait to see what he thinks of Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace, about the thoughtful and nuanced way the characters grapple with growing up, standing together (and standing alone), being scared and being brave. I’m thinking about all this, too, with the news about the gutting of the Washington Post this week, including its entire books section. Books that trust in their readers’ intelligence and heart, whatever their age, are such a gift. I hope we keep finding ways to gather and talk about them. — SS
This week’s stories
Let’s stop shipping baby chickens in the mail
“The practice of shipping chicks through the mail began in 1918 with the promise that chicks would only be shipped if they could reach their destination within 72 hours,” writes Tove Danovich . “That is a promise the USPS can no longer keep.”
Loving my daughter through her battle with addiction
Annemarie Whilton's daughter has struggled with substance use disorder for more than a decade. “Even I get tired of the never-ending narrative,” Whilton (HeroinHeroine) writes. “There is so much heartache. But, unbelievably, there is also unexpected love.”
‘We all we got’: We’ve never seen anything like these Patriots
Patriots haters are mad that New England has already re-established itself as one of the NFL’s best teams, just six years after Tom Brady left, writes Khari Thompson. “It’s a shame. Because this Patriots team might actually be one of the greatest underdog stories this league has ever seen.”
Mutual aid is everyday resistance
When formal systems become unreliable or morally compromised, people do not wait for consensus about how to change them, writes James Lomastro . They adapt by building informal networks of mutual aid that deliver essential items and services to people in need.
Bonus Content
Bad Bunny makes history at the Grammys. Up next, the Super BBowl
On NPR’s Alt.Latino podcast this week, Anamaria Sayre and Isabella Gomez Sarmiento chat about Bad Bunny’s rise to prominence and what it means for him to win a Grammy and headline the Superbowl in the same week. (Related: A new-to-me fun fact is that Bad Bunny’s stage name comes from a costume he wore for an Easter party as a kid.)
With ‘love and troublesome heart,’ Kendrick Lamar’s got us all watching
As you anticipate this year’s Superbowl half-time, maybe you’re also thinking about Kendrick Lamar’s show last year. Khari Thompson, who wrote for Cog this week about the Patriots and how they break the mold from the team that came before them, wrote about Lamar after seeing him at Gillette Stadium last summer. It’s a great read as we think about the nuances of performance and how an artist’s choices are almost always about more than stadium-sized entertainment.