Brittle Nails? Join the Club!

plus, something contagious is going around

Welcome readers, old and new!

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Can a country’s people become brittle? I’m thinking about this, because of the us/them culture we’ve been living with for almost a decade. In a situation in which two (or more) factions come up against each other, there’s always the possibility one will snap. But when there’s unity, snapping is less likely; there are fewer stress points. My recent post suggesting there’s a change in the air? I’m almost reluctant to tell you what I’m about to, because it’s anecdotal—but it’s happened to me twice now in short order and I’m choosing to believe it’s significant.

Riding the New York City subway last week—never a pleasant experience—I was standing in a typically crowded car. (I always choose to stand, for a quick exit.) As the train lurched out of the station, I was tapped lightly on the shoulder by a young guy who, it appeared, was the last in a longish chain of riders who’d tapped each other to get to me. This guy, having got my attention, pointed to a tall teenager with a mop of dark curls standing at the far end of the car. When I looked at him, he pointed to his seat: Did I want it? My first reaction, completely without thought, was to shake my head and blow him a kiss. He smiled and pounded his fist twice above his heart before he sat down.

Okay, once. But it happened again, at the end of the day, with a slightly older man in a construction helmet and boots. Same response from him (fist pounded over heart) when I thanked him and declined his offer. This unexpected kindness feels, to me, like the whisper of something bigger, more profound. (In addition to the probability that they were raised by good people.) It is what it is, I guess. It’s also generative. And I can tell you from experience: There is power in that.

These anecdotes aren’t to say All Will Be Well. Walking the streets of New York, my heart is broken a hundred times a day: the young, unhoused immigrant families, the pleading mentally ill and the hostile, the bundles of dirty cloth hiding someone sleeping on a sidewalk grate. We need to be fixed, and how. That is both a declaration and a question. Be sure you’re registered to vote.

Okay, back to brittle! A reader wonders about constantly breaking nails.

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