Normalizing the not-good-enough

This is an appreciation post for wool underwear. I mean, it isn't. But also it is.

I just got back from an international trip that I was really lucky to be able to go on, and even more lucky to have found a better carry-on bag for than the last several jaunts I've taken. Many bags are high quality, but there's something special about a bag with appropriate ergonomics for carrying 2 weeks' worth of belongings with any semblance of organization and also managing to fit the increasingly comical restrictions airlines place on peasant class travelers.

But especially for an acro-related adventure, I was appreciative every single day that I got to wear wool underwear. If you're familiar already, you'll know that shit ain't cheap. I invested in a few pairs before going to Iceland in January and was so blown away, I wanted a few more. Truly, though, their value is no more viscerally felt than on long, sweaty acro days in gyms with dubious or non-existent air conditioning.

It sounds trivial, perhaps. It's just underwear, after all. But I promise you, you can really feel a difference between air-circulating wool and swamp-smelling wet-bathing-suit-feeling garbage you purchased from Amazon circa 2017 that was either machine-pressed from landfill runoff or hand-made by children in a sweatshop who-knows-where. And there is something metaphorically resonant about allowing your most delicate parts to suffer, and deeming it not that big a deal.

The underwear are only one part of a picture, though. We had some genuinely exceptional pastries on this trip. The kind that had me wondering and remarking, do I really not like croissants that much or am I just so used to shitty ones from grab-and-go places that that is my only frame of reference? I had some sensory-laden yogurts with plain fruit purees and unsweetened müsli that also had me realizing, I forget what yogurt really tastes like because I'm so used to getting it with sugar and flavoring and anything that masks the underlying sharpness. I enjoyed seeing the twisting, winding city pathways, and their less-winding and more expansive outlying counterparts. Then I came home to the visual assault of neon lights in a thousand little strip malls and shopping plazas, huge cars and phlegmatic traffic, and the dirtiest public restrooms I've ever been in (which is saying a lot, honestly).

That's not to romanticize Europe: obviously it has its own struggles and pitfalls, and is not a monolith besides. Rather, it's to say I've been thinking about the things you let yourself get used to, and all the little things you normalize even if you know you'd want better for yourself and others. Maybe you didn't know any different and never have, or maybe you did know different (or better), but convince yourself it's not that big a deal, just a small inconvenience, just a minor difference. And maybe it is. Until those all accumulate and you're weighed down by things you never bothered to even name.

The flip side of that is the wonder about how to let yourself notice all those little things weighing you down. If you've always choked on the air you're breathing, or your cough slowly developed over time, how would you know to seek out something fresh?

Some of these aspects of life aren't under our control, fully or in part. We don't get to command where we're born or the culture we grow up in. Our budgets (or, more truthfully, the crushing economic pressures of late capitalism) might not accommodate living circumstances that are truly worthy. But continuing to persist in conditions that we know don't feel good also has consequences—namely, normalizing discomfort or suffering, learning to settle, taking for granted that this is the way everything must be.

Starting from noticing that sensation (the discomfort, dissatisfaction, amorphous grief) seems like the surest way to begin articulating a need for change. What would shift if not for normalizing circumstances that aren't good enough? What little breaths of fresh air could you seek out instead?

Links'n'Things

It's been a minute, and I have a lot of links and news items saved up. But for right now, here's just a few...

Things you might've missed

• Iran has hit more US targets that reported
• And in related news, playing fast and loose with what counts as a casualty
• Weakening the IRS has some serious consequences
• The FBI will be investigating Atlantic journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick after her scathing review of Kash Patel's work habits
• In case you've ever wondered why hardback books still exist
• Seems bad!
• Also not ideal!

The Good Things™

• Sucks to suck
• Some people still have a sense of humor, in spite of it all