opening a window in a sweltering room
love for a tree, love for a town, and love for myself by way of fixing my dishwasher
Greetings, earthlings.
It’s Valentine’s Day!
This week I’m sharing three things friends have texted me recently along with some variation of, “This reminded me of you,” which is a top-tier expression of love, in my opinion.
1. An essay about loving a tree: Requiem for a Tree
A tree gets cut down and an artist documents its removal and absence for herself and her neighbors.
Thanks for sharing this, Joe!
2. An essay that reminded me to fix things is to love myself: Fix Three Broken Things
“There’s no limit to how much broken things cost you. They’ll levy their tax fifty times, five hundred times, as many times as you’ll tolerate. Even if you’re so accustomed to a janky table leg or dead refrigerator light that you no longer think about it, it still detracts from your life, as evidenced by the tremendous relief you feel when it’s finally fixed. Fixing a broken thing feels like somebody opening a window in a sweltering room.”
My friend Jamie sent this to me last week when my car’s battery had been dead for three weeks and my dishwasher had been broken for six months. I’d been avoiding doing anything about either issue for just as long. I’m happy to report I’ve made progress on both since reading this.
3. An article about a town’s love for itself: The Motley Vermont Town Trying to Tell Its Own Story
Hardwick, a town of around three thousand people, lies in the austerely beautiful corner of Vermont known as the Northeast Kingdom. Things there are named for what they are. The laundromat in the village is called the Hardwick Village Laundromat; Dave’s Sawmill, on Sawmill Lane, is owned by a guy named Dave. In recent years, the town has faced the pandemic, catastrophic floods, and the increasingly urgent question of how to thrive on its own terms. Meanwhile, the rest of the world seems to have no shortage of ideas about what a small, rural town should be. At the edge of Hardwick, an eight-million-dollar visitors’ center and agribusiness incubator recently opened, to mixed reception. When I asked a resident what the building contained, they told me, “Cheese and shit.”
TLDR: “Listening circles” might build community, but a bunch of baked ziti and doing weird ass shit together will get you a lot farther, probably.
So many things! I’m excited to share soon, but in the meantime here’s a valentine I drew this morning in a fit of procrastination:
I’m traveling next week and may not have the wherewithal to fire off my newsletter, in which case I’ll see you in your inbox on the 28th!
Thank you for being here!
Christine Tyler Hill
Website: tenderwarriorco.com
Email: tenderwarriorco@gmail.com