WV16 On the asteroid heading towards Earth in 2032; the need for one journal or many; and the human stories behind the opioid crisis in West Virginia.
2025 Reading Log, Edition 05, Feb. 22-28
Didn’t get to read much this week. Was traveling for a conference at work and for a family wedding. Did finish ‘Small Things Like These’ on the flight back home, you can read about it in the previous instalment of this newsletter.
01
What's up with the asteroid that is headed towards Earth? Neil DeGrasse Tyson breaks down 2024-YR4, its likelihood of impact, where it would hit, and whether we can deflect it. Plus, astronomer Rick Binzel helps us break down the Torino scale and how worried people should be. Is this going to be like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs?
Will an asteroid hit Earth in 2032?
https://youtu.be/_-ZB2Z7VtmE?si=z0vttqAsPJ8jSjYC
02
I have multiple notebooks for different subject areas that interest me…not exactly different journals as described here. Maintaining one journal is difficult enough :) but I do like the practice of naming different journals ‘the book of…’ something.
“Something that I’ve learned to appreciate, too, is that you don’t have to be journaling long pages and pages and pages every single day. It can be as simple as a sentence sometimes—today I had an incredible bolognese at the restaurant down the street. It also doesn’t even have to be words. It can be a little drawing. It can be a little painting. You can document the way that you want, whenever you want. And if you just want one journal, that’s okay too. The beauty of journaling is you can always change things up.”
Sandy Sanchez writes in her Substack ‘Small Pleasures’
Why we all need little journals
https://open.substack.com/pub/sandysanchez/p/the-joy-of-little-journals?r=ga5th&utm_medium=ios
03
When Padraig O’ Tuama recommends you read something, you do. And you are not disappointed. Excellent piece of reportage by Adlai Coleman on the opioid crisis in West Virginia.
“I came to West Virginia looking for harm. After months of interviewing healthcare professionals and government officials, filing Freedom of Information Requests, and investigating arcane government spending practices, I wanted to put a human face to the damage of the addiction crisis. So, I sought out those who work to keep the damage at bay, those who resist the crisis’ overwhelming destruction.”
The Heroines Who Take On The Harm
And for the times we need hope in life, a summer to save us from the winter of existence, here’s the poem of the week:
“I will not tell myself Maybe a meteor
or Maybe a phone call or Maybe a sudden shift
in atmosphere, I will remind myself of mouths
moving in ways that are summer and of my skin
casual next to someone else's skin…”
—Catherine Pierce
Read the full poem here:
https://www.aloksaini.in/dhai-aakhar/probably-it-will-be-summer-again
Thanks for taking the time. Hope you like to go through these links as much as I enjoyed sharing them.
-Alok