Hi there friends,
I had the good fortune of participating in a writing workshop at Berkeley’s Left Margin Lit taught by the incredible
, author of Lucky Boy.My favorite exercise involved a basket of lemons, collected from a tree in Sekaran’s yard. For about five minutes, we were to imagine one of the lemons as a character within a story. I selected a light-colored lemon, with a sizable section of stem still attached to the fruit.
Here’s what I wrote:
She was pale. Lighter than the others, which she was self-conscious about because in her world color—the tint in which light bounced off the peel—was a marker of one’s goodness. And no matter whether that light came from the rays of the sun or the sterile halogens of a supermarket, what mattered was that canary hue, that citrine judgment, that golden first impression.
What she couldn’t see, or perhaps was not ready to see, was that her lighter color heightened contrast. As she hung from the tree branch, the leaves rested over her rind and their green popped in ways that other lemons, with their richer, deeper yellows could never achieve.
She was a creature that served to heighten and brighten those around her—a quality that she did not yet value and a strength that would take her a long time to recognize.
It was a fun day and I learned a lot. If you’re interested, you can explore Left Margin Lit’s online and in-person classes here.
What I’m reading:
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
I have a goal this year to read every Kurt Vonnegut novel and I’m so behind! This is partly because my work-life balance has been capsized by a company project to build a cool, whiz-bang AI feature (like every other tech company that prefers to follow market trends instead of thinking up new ideas).
How timely then to be reading Vonnegut’s first novel about a future society in which machines have replaced human labor, creating a managerial elite and a displaced working class. A little too on the nose, tbh.
Stories I’m thinking about
1) First women’s finisher at Barkley
The U.K.’s Jasmin Paris became the first woman finisher of the Barkley Marathons this weekend and she did it with a mere 99 seconds to spare. 🤯 If you’ve never heard of Barkley, watch this documentary. Prior to Paris’s finish, no woman had even gotten past the three-loop “fun run.”
Read more on iRunFar | Video of the finish
2) East Bay Greenway
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the Alameda County Transportation Commission $30 million to begin construction of the East Bay Greenway Multimodal Project in 2025. The first phase covers over ten miles of protected path through East Oakland and San Leandro, including a stretch that goes right by our apartment. (Woohoo!) The county plans to extend the path all the way to Fremont.
Read more on Oaklandside
3) Regarding Mom Water
“Mom Water is a drink for moms, which means it is alcohol, because we ALL KNOW that in order to cope with the difficulties of our lives, we shouldn’t protest the systemic injustices making our lives so impossible, but numb ourselves with whatever mother’s little helper we can get our hands on instead.” Read more
4) On De-Hustling
, dropping some wisdom on untangling productivity from our self worth:“I like working hard. I identify with working hard. I have a good “work ethic.” It’s a narrative that I’ve told myself and has followed me around since grade school. If I couldn’t be the smartest, most talented, most athletic, or most popular, I would work the hardest. But along the way, I lost sight of the purpose of all the hard work. Why was I doing this? Why was I killing myself just to fill my day with productivity?”
What I’m watching:
Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Season 5 (Netflix). I love all racing, whether by foot or horse or sailboat or car or potato sack. So Netflix’s slickly produced docu-reality-show hits me in the dopamine sweet spot. That said, I’m not interested enough to get in the weeds of automotive racing. So I enjoyed this accessible conversation with Nicole Washington on
’s podcast about Formula 1, fandom, and whether sport is just Real Housewives for men.Physical: 100, Season 2 (Netflix). My 2023 round-up of favs included the first season of this reality competition that pits 100 very fit, very athletic, mostly Korean people against each other in a series of physical challenges. The goal is, ostensibly, to determine who has the best “physique,” whatever that means. I just like how polite everyone is. Watch the trailer
Dune 2. While the rest of the fam was away visiting family, I got a chance to return to the theater to watch Dune 2. It’s an epic affair. The black and white scenes on Geidi Prime, filmed using an infrared camera, were fantastically alien and my favorite part of the film. But I thought the second half was rushed, so much so that with about 30 minutes to go, I wondered if I had dozed off and missed some crucial plot development. Still, I’d come back for a third installment.
Tweets of the week
That’s it for this week. Thanks so much for supporting the club.
One of my goals this year is to grow the newsletter. So if you know someone that might enjoy the Breakfast Club, I’d be grateful if you shared it with them. As always, thank you for being here.
I LOVE your description of the lemon! And thank you for sharing my post too.