In terms of improving my health and obtaining a more healthy lifestyle, this week was a bit of a lost week. I failed to exercise, and I again only hit my dieting goals about 13/14 out of the 21 meals, 3 of the days, and had too much snacking. That said, with everything going on, I'm giving myself some grace to know that these matters are still at the forefront of my thinking. While Maia returned to school middle of the week, Jackie and I were still in quarantine; this meant another week of working from home. I have to admit, I am impressed by people who do this regularly. I had a very busy week - an Appellate Brief, a Supreme Court Petition, trial court oral arguments, plus regular hearings - and handling all of it virtually was challenging and taxing. The one plus to come out of the week is the knowledge that I can make things work in a bind when I have to, and, somewhat unrelatedly, I slowly started to wean myself off of caffeine and drinking much more water. That's an ongoing process, as all of this is, but I am hopeful and planning for a better week ahead on all fronts.
More importantly than the above navel-gazing and the below reading summaries, our household is officially past the COVID quarantine and can resume normal life (or at least what passes as normal in 2020). To be honest, after two solid weeks of seeing no one but each other, tomorrow will feel a bit weird. But, 2020 has always been weird, if nothing else, so I guess that's to be expected at this point. Here's hoping we don't have to face this again; while we were fortunate physically, it was very draining on our mental health for at least the first week, and I'd prefer not to revisit that constant anxiety and worry.
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1. The Public-Shaming Pandemic - in last week's New Yorker magazine, a longread about how social media has permitted an instant public shaming of individuals believed to have been careless and spread the coronavirus in events earlier this year. I read this piece and cannot help but think negative things about human nature. Life is hard, but it seems the way either our nature utilizes social media or how social media harnesses our nature is so often not a good thing.
2. Next, a series of article about the Supreme Court, in light of Justice Ginsburg's passing and President Trump's now nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, less than 40 days before an election, following the McConnell's heist of a Supreme Court appointment in 2016 by refusing to hold any hearings on President Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. "Courting Trouble" from the Economist, discussing how the GOP (and perhaps all of us) will miss the norms that are being destroyed in this moment; "A Dangerous Moment for the Court" from the Atlantic, looking at how this whole process will continue a process of delegitimizing the Supreme Court among the public at large; "The Case for Ending the Supreme Court As We Know It" from the New Yorker, building on the legitimacy issues, makes the argument that Supreme Court, except for a brief period in the middle of the 20th century, has been a particularly regressive institution (I don't agree with all the points in the article, but the case becomes more compelling when the legitimacy of an institution that is supposed to be non-partisan and apolitical is seen as a mere extension of political parties); and this piece from Ezra Klein at Vox, arguing that the way to fix these issues is to abolish life appointments to the Supreme Court in favor of eighteen (18) year terms - I admit, I am fascinated by the proposal.
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On the book front, I finished Emma Donoghue's The Pull of the Stars, a historical fiction story set in Ireland during the influenza pandemic at the end of World War I; certainly timely and a very poignant read. I just started Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, and the first few chapters confirm my excitement to start reading this book; I also picked up Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey by Kathleen Rooney, which started slow but has grown on me, and appears to be one of the more unique constructions to tell as story.
Looking forward to a week not spent in quarantine (and enjoying some of the fall weather that appears to have finally come).
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