sunday saves | 8.25.24
A weekly catalog of random things that brought me joy or caused me to think.
This is my last sunday saves feature for a bit. We are traveling at the end of next week until the middle of September, and I'm a little spent by my big endeavor to publish content here multiple times a week. It’s been almost one year since I started writing at Tune My Heart, and I am rethinking how I want to use this platform and how often I want to write and post.
I will be posting one more time next week before I take a step back for a bit. Look for an update on my parents, one-year post-accident, coming soon!
An ode to Chicago from Stephen Colbert!
Finalists for Ocean Photographer of the Year — they’re all SO GOOD!
While this video is over two years old, I discovered it this week and watched and re-watched a handful of times — sweet Farley!
I have never witnessed actual domestic violence and I tend to turn away or even turn off shows and movies that include it. I am very thankful that it’s not something that has befallen me or any of my close friends. But I do have a handful of people in my life who have been in relationships where violence was a regular thing. And while I know it does happen, and that the dynamics of relationships in general are pretty unknowable from the outside, there is so much about domestic violence that I just can’t fathom.
I read It Ends With Us (and the sequel, It Starts With Us). And while I enjoyed both of them, when I heard there was a movie of It Ends With Us in the works, I knew I would never watch it. For me, there is a difference between reading about domestic (or any kind of) violence and watching it. And I am not someone who can bear to watch violence of most kinds — even if it’s “just a movie”.
But the reaction to Blake Lively’s light-hearted responses to questions about the film and the drama surrounding her responses has been so ridiculous (to me) —
Continuing to focus on Lively will only drown out the film's important message even further. Obviously the director, Justin Baldoni, really cares about this issue and is doing his bit to raise awareness, but technically, Blake doesn't owe us anything.
We expect celebrities to have big opinions on the world, but they're just doing their job. If she has no lived experience, which it's evident that she doesn't, how can we expect her to take a stand. "You want her to be a character on her press tour, but she's just being herself — whether you like her or not.
— Nicole Madigan, “Blake Lively Isn’t the Problem”
Why September is the best month for traveling.
We leave for a trip to Portugal (Saõ Miguel, Azores | Porto | Lisbon) in five days, but I will be looking into all of these destinations for another round of September travel soon —
And speaking of our trip to Portugal, I’ve been drinking in the Portugal features on the Accidentally Wes Anderson site — I feel like we’re barely scratching the surface of all there is to see and do.
Michelle Obama’s skewering of Trump — coupled with her rawness and more of an edge + her call to action — rivaled her husband’s speech (see below) and that of Senator Raphael Warnock (particularly the closing remarks) at the Democratic National Convention for my favorite.
All of these people appealed to the “better angels of our nature”, which is a much-needed CHANGE from the other side.
I have been following Eugene Cho since our first trip to Seattle in 2016, when we decided we’d live there — someday.
Cho continues to be someone I look to for wisdom and leadership. Whether it’s the church he and his wife planted, his book on engaging in politics as Christians, or his ministries and outreach through One Day’s Wages and Bread for the World, I find his heart, vision, and mission coalesce into a singular desire to follow God in the calling of Micah 6:8 — to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
His recent article in Newsweek was such a necessary reminder of the heart of God —
In the Bible, Old Testament law established a structure for society with deep, divine concern for people who experience poverty and disapproval of systems that do not dignify God's people and places them in conditions of hunger and poverty. Prophets spoke out against injustice and condemned the lack of concern for people experiencing poverty, regardless of the structure of government in which they were living.
Scriptures speak to the role and responsibility of leaders that govern to care for all people, including people experiencing poverty.
This brought me to tears last week —
After years of studying the Bible, Michael has come to believe that the verses often cited to condemn homosexuality have been misinterpreted and manipulated over time to exclude and harm people. For him, this exclusion goes against the very core of Christian teachings.
Breaking biases challenge us to go beyond assumptions and labels to find deeper understanding. It’s easy to make assumptions – and be wrong.
What stood out to you this past week? Did anything make you mad? What made you think? What made you smile or caused your eyes to tear up a bit?
I’d love to know! Please share anything in the comments below —
