What We’re Reading: What is normal?
A selection of Medium stories you may have missed this week
Hi everybody,
Family names, or surnames, mean a lot. Sometimes those names indicate where you’re from, where you’re going, to whom you belong, the family you recently joined, or the family who treated you like chattel property. But one poignant essay argues that it’s not the family name you’re born with that matters the most.
“Neither of us will take the name of our spouse, neither of us will take a name from our family history or our personal history together, and as parents our children will not take on our names” writes Chaotically Lottie. “Instead, we are taking our children’s names.”
There’s a rich backstory as to why they made this choice. They decided to question what’s so-called “normal” and flip it sideways.
Savala Nolan does the same in “The Low-Key Summer,” an essay about taking things down a notch. American parents as of late (or at least the ones with loads of followers on Instagram and TikTok) can sometimes make enormous spectacles of summer extravagance. (No shade, and — honestly — more power to everyone who summers in such a way.) Nolan, however, explores the idea of a quiet summer spent baking cakes (or not), making s’mores (with friends), and reading books out back with her kid.
Quiet summers or loud ones? Taking your spouse’s name or taking the name of your adopted children? What’s normal anyway?
If you have strong thoughts on these topics, I’d love to read them. Tag me on Medium when you post your story.
Adrienne Gibbs
Director, Creator Growth @ Medium
P.S. Did you see our post about Medium Day on August 12? Come through! Let us know what you’d like to see or pitch your own panel!
Your weekend reads
“My First Immersion in Apple Vision Pro: Heavy, Man!” by David Pogue, science and technology writer
It is, if you can believe this, a three-dimensional live computer-generated hologram of the top half of your face.
“Nature-based Solutions Are Not What You Think” by Kelly Baldwin Heid, editor of Symbiotica, in Symbiotica
Other nature-based solutions can improve physical health, provide aesthetic value and deepen sense of place, encourage interaction and connection with nature, spur active transport (like walking and cycling), and simultaneously improve air quality and regulate noise, reduce the risk of flooding, improve water quality, promote economic activity, protect and promote biodiversity and ecological resilience, cool the air, and filter air pollution.
“I Started Pole Dancing at 30” by Anangsha Alammyan, cybersecurity advocate and author, in In Fitness and in Health
Pole dancing is more about fitness, core strength, flexibility, and determination than it will ever be about sensuality.
“When the Proud Boys Came to Town” by Gwen Frisbie-Fulton, storyteller, in Reclaiming Rural
It’s about out-organizing and out-pacing the extremist minority. She demonstrated a way to do this in a small town: Stick to your guns and speak out. To do that at scale, however, it has to happen in a coordinated way in every small town.
“The Secret to Good Photography” by Derrick Story, photographer, in Live View
I hate sounding like some gray area, wishy-washy academic, but there’s no one way to take a good picture. Photography is that rare craft that thrives on experimentation, exploration, and yes, sometimes, utter failure.
“Poetry is a Tower of Babel” by Connie Song, poet, in Scribe
For some, poetry is the solitude of a wooded cabin. For others,
poetry is a tower of babel.
What have you been reading this week? Let us know in the responses.
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“What We’re Reading” is a weekly roundup of insightful stories and perspectives from across Medium. Browse previous editions here.
