Curated

 If I’m scrolling through social media, I rarely play videos. However, I always make an exception for Emmymade.  She’s, in a word, watchable. I’m not superfan enough to know her backstory, but I imagined someone like her when reading Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave.

When this novel opens, Sunshine Mackenzie, host of a viral cooking show, is negotiating a Food Network contract and book deal. However, when someone reveals that her carefully “curated” persona is all a fake, she loses not only her fans, but her job and husband. She reluctantly returns home to a sister who begrudgingly lets her sleep on the sofa. Her niece and a friendly fisherman help her find her way back to forming authentic relationships.

The idea of a crafting a persona came up again in the next book I happened to pick up, Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig. She is, in a word, readable.

“I’m pretty sure I spent more time and energy into curating my profile than any other online dating citizen,” writes Taussig in one of the opening essays. Taussig writes about the complications of people wanting to be kind, and her just wanting to be left alone. For example, she says that explaining to a stranger how to assemble her wheelchair from the front seat of her car takes much longer than if she does it herself, as she has thousands of times. In “Feminist Pool Party” she describes how the feeling of being left out at elementary school slumber parties carries over into her colleagues commiserating over #metoo moments. Many of her essays address the need for accommodations, not just because it will help those who need it, but innovations have the potential of helping everyone. She gives the example of curb breaks which accommodate not only wheelchairs, but makes life easier for street vendors, parents with strollers, or a traveler with a rolling suitcase. With humor and a forthright writing style, Taussig is advocating for change in a world that is, for the most part, oblivious to the need.  

Less scrolling, and more listening, perhaps?