Recommended Reading / 09.

Every Monday, words to start the week.

This week, via Kottke: On Kindness, a piece by writer Cord Jefferson about lessons learned from his mother, a woman who has kept her kind spirit even in the face of cruelty, and callousness, and cancer. It's easily the best thing I've read in weeks — I told myself I'd spend five minutes of my busy morning reading it; instead, I spent the better part of an hour and couldn't be happier that I did. 

Cord writes: I am hopeful that my mother will be around to share many more years with us. But I’m now attempting to find some comfort in the idea that I can keep her close to me for as long as I live by struggling to remain decent, the pursuit that I’ve seen conjure up incredible power during the course of her life. This world takes so much from us. It takes our friends and first loves. It takes our parents. It takes our faith. It takes our dignity. It takes our passion. It takes our health. It takes our honesty, and it takes our credulity. To lose so much and still hold onto yourself is perhaps the most complicated task human beings are asked to perform, which is why seeing it done with aplomb is as thrilling as looking at dinosaur bones or seeing a herd of elephants. It’s an honor to exist on Earth with these things.

Find On Kindness in its entirety, here. 

Three more links, just because:
-The Literary US: a book for every state.
-Take a peek into your subconscious via the act of coloring.
-On the regional accents and idiosyncrasies of sign language speakers: "New Yorkers are notorious fast-talkers, while Ohioans are calm and relaxed. New Yorkers also curse more."

More recommended reading, here. Photo by Liza Lubell.