The things we want to keep from quarantine
This week, as New York has started to inch its way slowly back to some version of normal, I’ve been thinking about what things I might want to keep in my life after quarantine is over. (I was inspired in part by this piece we ran at Vox this week where we asked our audience what quarantine habits and lifestyle changes they want to keep).
The way that the coronavirus forced us all to press pause on our lives for months was frustrating and economically devastating, with all kinds of other consequences. But we also had the opportunity to step off the treadmill, to think about what really matters and what our priorities are, to develop new habits and routines. And some of those things weren’t all that bad.
The writer Julio Vincent Gambuto recently wrote:
From one citizen to another, I beg of you: take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud. We get to Marie Kondo the shit out of it all.
One thing I realized during quarantine was that my life in the Before Times was, in fact, something of a treadmill, moving at breakneck speed without being entirely sure where I was going. I felt busy and over-scheduled, and wasn’t really thinking about what I was doing in terms of priority level: I was just doing everything, saying yes to too many things instead of prioritizing the things that were most important to me; I was letting my calendar run my life.
Quarantine sucked in many ways, but it also forced me to slow down, and allowed me to develop some healthier routines: working out at home every morning, cooking a whole lot more, drinking less, reading more books, and just generally prioritizing my own health and wellness. And when we go back to “normal,” those are all things I’d keep and make room for in my life — and more intentionally define a new normal for myself. What do you want to keep?
Some related reads: plan who you’ll be after this, the gaslighting of America has begun.
Quarantine cooking
This week I made this spinach-artichoke baked pasta, crispy-skin salmon with miso-honey sauce, and this sesame noodle dish for the thousandth time.
What I’m reading
Prepare for the ultimate gaslighting, Forge/Medium.
What if working from home goes on….forever?, New York Times.
2020 is the summer of the road trip. Unless you’re black, New York Times.
The racial reckoning in women’s media, Vox.
How apples go bad, The New Yorker. A meditation on the produce, or maybe on the police.
The food world is imploding over racism. The problem is much bigger than Bon Appetit, Vox.
The end of minimalism, The Atlantic.
Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter, you can click the “heart” at the top of this post on Substack or share it on social media or forward to a friend — they can subscribe at nishachittal.substack.com. You can follow me on Twitter here and Instagram here. And if you have thoughts on this week’s newsletter or suggestions to include in the future, feel free to reply to this email and let me know.