Sunday Salon: Too Much

Hazy summer days, SCOTUS, nostalgia, and a novel starring Prince.

It has been another tough week, in a difficult month, in a halfway finished and relentlessly challenging year. Everything is just too much, you know? (I know you know.) Too much stifling haze from Canadian wildfire smoke every day this week, especially on Thursday when our air quality index was 244 and I snapped this photo of the bleak and disappearing skyline while sitting in traffic en route home from work. Pittsburgh has its throwback jersey on, quipped some commenter on some site, referring back to the 1930s and 1940s when air like this was the norm, the Steel City darkened all hours of the day, deserving of the description Hell with the Lid Off. This isn’t an anomaly, we’re told. Expect more of the same throughout the summer and beyond because the world is on fire, literally and figuratively.

Also wearing their throwback jerseys are six corrupt Supreme Court justices zealots hell-bent on throwing the country back into the Dark Ages. Affirmative action—gone. Student loan forgiveness—dead. LGBTQ+ rights—hanging by a thread. (And that case, in particular, is total bullshit because IT IS A COMPLETE AND UTTER FABRICATION. This is where we’re at, my friends. Legislation based on hypotheticals.) When Roe was overturned a year ago, The Husband said to brace yourself for 10-20 years of eradication of all the progress we’ve seen in our lifetimes, and here we are.

Another eradication: last week brought the announcement that Cabrini, our college alma mater (mine and The Husband’s), will be closing next year. It’s a place that holds deep meaning for us. It’s the last physical place we can point to as home. Apparently, it’s also a casualty of changing enrollment demographics, the pandemic, and too much debt incurred by previous administrations’ reckless decisions. The emotions are almost too much to bear. The heartbreak, anger, and sadness. The overwhelming nostalgia. The friends made, kept, and lost. I’m working on a separate piece about this but processing my feelings is tough.

At least for now we still have books, the ones that people aren’t trying to ban. I’m currently reading this delightful, fun novel with the best (and most apropos) title.

I mean, in these times, you really can’t get a better title than None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive. I’m only 1/3 into this so-called “mom-com” by debut author Carolyn Prusa, and very much enjoying it. Hurricane Matthew is bearing down on Savannah, Georgia just as Ramona’s life is in its own cone of uncertainty. She’s a 38-year-old stressed out mom of two young kids and is still mourning the singer Prince months after his death. To prepare for the storm, Ramona leaves work early to pick up her potty-training daughter only to discover her husband is having an affair. That’s as far as I’ve gotten, but Ramona is an entertaining character, and Carolyn Prusa’s writing is engaging and funny. Admittedly, this novel is a bit of a departure from my usual reading choices but my mood these days demands something light.

Hopefully this bodes well for July being a good reading month. I only finished 4 books in June, and I’ll try and get you a wrap-up soon. Grateful, as always, to you for reading, subscribing (hit the button below if you haven’t already!), and just being here.