Here’s the thing, our lives are so different right now that sometimes it’s hard to even recognize them. I seem to alternate between a kind of hyper-awareness of everything terrible and how it probably will get worse in the next five minutes, and a much more rational and decidedly more spiritual view that all you can do is all you can do. That means: I wear a mask so I’m practicing smiling with my eyes. I make washing my hands part of my spiritual practice so I can do it with love. And I don’t touch my face.
I also think about the many people we know and love for whom self-isolation is a rolling series of catastrophes. Like hunger. And childcare. And rent money. So, if you can share some tangible resources, do it in whatever way works for you. Pay it forward. If you can spread some joy, do that, too. Because these days, most of us feel like Evilene in The Wiz who exclaimed to all within the sound of her voice, “Don’t nobody bring me/No bad news.”
It is in that spirit that I offer Pearl Makes A List, a weekly compilation of 5 things that I have put together for reasons unknown. The subject of the lists will vary wildly and may have no redeeming social, political or cultural value. Except to make you smile because something on my list resonates with something on yours (which you’ll be able to share with me later if you are so inclined.)
And sure, you might take a look at a play or a book or a movie because it made my list that week, but mostly this is just a way for me to keep in touch with you until we can drink opening night champagne again and hug each other as hard as we can stand. Until that perfect moment, here’s my first list of 5 Things. This one, since it’s the first, is sort of a getting to know you list. Think of me as Deborah Kerr singing it before she breaks into that amazing waltz with the equally amazing Yul Brenner, but he’s not on this week’s list. On this week’s list are:
5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me
- All I ever wanted to do was be a writer and be madly in love with someone who was madly in love with me.
- My favorite way to travel is in a Sleeper on Amtrak’s Southern Crescent. Go to bed in Atlanta. Wake Up in D.C.
- I write about Paris all the time, but I’ve never been there.
- I’m named after my father’s mother, who was mopping the kitchen floor when at age 4, he demanded she stop and listen to him preach. And she did.
- My high school was two blocks from Motown but I never saw The Temptations standing around out front talking to Smokey Robinson about how they could possibly top “My Girl.” But they did.
Share your list of 5 things with Pearl here.
