Pink Typewriters, a Charm of Goldfinches, and Why Ina Garten is Helpful in a Pandemic

Sylvia looking into middle distance with pink typewriter

Pink Typewriters, Reading and Other Consolations During a Pandemic

For my birthday, my husband got me a vintage pink Royal typewriter, a working version I can actually type on. I love it and have already really found relief from pandemic stress in arranging photographs of it, as well as typing on it (as, the satisfying bounce of keys – so long forgotten.) Plus I pretty much love anything pink.

I thought of the things that bring us comfort during this pandemic. I talked last week about the pleasures of birdwatching, that being still and having time have made so much more important, somehow. Writing is a consolation, and reading books (in short bursts – anxiety has broken my attention span to about fifteen minutes) and magazines is a definite pleasure, and though I’ve been watching less television, I really enjoyed the Belgravia series, and the Netflix movie The Half of It, a truly intelligent and moving romantic teen comedy written by Alice Wu, who I’m already a fan of. Are these things important? Worthy? Productive? Enough?  Arguably, they are frivolous. On the other hand, to stay sane in the middle on intense stress and uncertainty, perhaps we must embrace some things that are frivolous.

A charm of goldfinches

A Charm of Goldfinches, and Luck in Quarantine

Doesn’t a charm of goldfinches seem magical, like a sign of luck or good fortune? I took this picture one rainy morning this week, I think I’d just had a virtual doctor appointment and gotten a poetry rejection, neither very auspicious. I had a dream last night about Prince, who in my dream, was about to give a concert on my birthday, and came over and introduced himself and told me my work meant a lot to him. I don’t know what that means, but it also seems auspicious.

I keep hoping to wake up and read good news on the news feed instead of more and more terrible news, more death counts, more tragedy. I read the covid research papers every day, hoping one of them will uncover something that will change how we deal with this virus.

Early orange striped rose

Do you believe in luck? Is it bad luck that I’m in a generation that remembers 9/11 clearly, who was in high school when AIDS came onto the scene, and who is now in middle age facing a once-in-a-hundred years sort of pandemic? I had friends in NYC and in DC when the planes hit the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, but they were, for the most part, safe. My brother, father, and nephew all served in the armed forces, but never had to fight in a war. I’ve been sick enough to die several times, but I didn’t, sometimes out of sheer stubborness, I think. We do not choose our life path as much as we like to think, but we can control some small and large things – decisions on who to spend time with, who to love, to be kind to a stranger, to take a job that pays the bills and makes us somewhat happy. We can decide, for the most part, where we want to live – although most people never venture that far from where they were born. We don’t get to decide who were are born to or how much money we are born with, or what opportunities we get, always. We don’t get to make choices about our physical body – if we are born healthy, or born with deformities and mutations. We don’t get to decide tragedies, or when and how they happen. Control is mostly an illusion. Which is why I like to believe in luck, and good dreams, and charms. And I like to turn my attention to things that are beautiful and things that I can control – like, I can decide to buy some groceries from a local business, or flowers, or give to a local charity, or call a friend who’s stressed. I can decide how to spend my time in quarantine, worried, angry and anxious (my dark side) or focusing on flowers, birds, and books.

Jar of pink peonies

Ina Garten is Helpful in a Pandemic – a Few Thoughts

Ina Garten is a figure I’ve loved since I first started watching her after a random mention of her in a 30 Rock episode made me wonder about her appeal. She has a motherly, intelligent energy, and lives this wonderful, abundant life – she is fabulously wealthy, and makes food for her fabulous friends and her long-time husband who used to be a Dean at Yale, where I was born.

This Atlantic article talks about the bizarre usefulness of Ina’s Instagram in these times of pandemic – people flock there for advice on stocking their freezers, and their pantries, and she responds by showing pictures of her freezer and pantry, and what she is cooking (how to use lentils? Instagram comments ask?), and the cocktails she makes just for herself, whatever time of day.

I’ve always thought Ina would be very helpful during an apocalypse – and I wrote a poem about it you can find in my book, Field Guide to the End of the World. Here it is: “Post-Apocalypse Postcard with Food Network Hostess.” And I’ve got a YouTube video of me reading the poem, in case that would be fun. I hope you find peace and comfort this stressful week. Stay well.