#28: Saving the World by Lying Down
diaper economics, cuisine as heritage, and real-life Jurassic Parks
Dear reader,
First, a note. When I started this newsletter, I pledged to keep it a place for the good things in the world, and the poetry in my everyday. Since October, that has been considerably harder to do. The fact is, we are constantly living in between incredibly beautiful experiences and indescribable horrors: neither should be ignored.
So I will be starting each newsletter henceforth with a link you can donate to, for a worthy cause each week. It’s absolutely optional, but I hope it will serve as a reminder of your agency and power on this planet. This week, help a family evacuate Gaza here.
Being able to help someone is a gift we take for granted, but we can change that with a small step. Take it when you can :)
This week I was invited to a yoga class solely for women in business. After stretching, cracking, popping and holding all our muscles in different poses, our group was allowed the privilege of shavasana: the corpse pose.
Shavasana has long been the butt of many yoga jokes, with people saying it’s their favourite pose (where they simply lie down and do nothing). In essence, it is the posture of the dead - and so it isn’t meant to serve just as rest after a workout, but also as a moment of absolute surrender. I remember hearing this in another brilliant class I used to attend in Dubai, but it came back to memory as our instructor Arpita guided us through it:
“Release. Let gravity take care of you.”
So all of us, compliant students, did. Or at least, we tried. Nothing like a bunch of Type A women being told to rest, right? But the thought stayed with me, and I wondered how much we let the planet take care of us. Beyond our communities, with its fractioned relationships. Beyond our responsibilities and work lives, which always seem to demand more than we can handle. Beyond our piles and piles of stuff.
Just sink into the ground and let gravity take care of you. Let it hold all the things you cannot.
This, for me, is the only way I can look at the details and the big picture at once.
That act, so much more than just lying down, gives you space to look at the world renewed. And there’s a lot happening out there. So without further ado, here are the links I’m diving into:
What is The Algorithm? The matrix that runs our lives can be understood through this simulation.
Ever thought about the diaper industry? Me neither. Turns out it’s shining light on how price price gouging is the real cause of the pinch you’re feeling in your wallet these days. Read about it in this article.
“I couldn’t rescue my aunt in Gaza, but I can keep her recipes alive.” Read the article here.
Your favourite dinosaur movie of all time is happening in real life. Colossal Labs is working on de-extinction, defined by them as: ‘merging the biodiversity of the past with the innovations of the present in an effort to create a more sustainable future.’
tl;dr: 2028 is about to be the year we witness a woolly mammoth calf roam the earth.
Sending you restful slumber and the vision to change the world,
Kaav.