A recipe.
Take two oranges.
Halve and gut.
Blend beyond recognition.
Then wait.
Find the thing that makes them oranges.
And tenderly knit back together.
Once whole again
— The oranges, that is —
Take your strong arms and gather up good greens.
The beautiful, lush kind.
The peppery and unforgettable kind.
Two dump trucks full.
Spread yourself wide and hold onto them so very tightly
— The greens that is —
Then drench, thoroughly, in everything you’ve got.
Everything in you.
Everything that counts.
Once this is complete
— And it may take years, mind you, or several lifetimes
Whichever comes first —
Then
— And only then —
Marry great, good greens with masticated whole oranges
Take one big bite
And die happily, lovingly, well.
***
Welcome to The ALIVE hour.
Illustration: Shannon Colon
Audio mixing / narrative / music: Chloe Riley
Things found in real life
Your letters back which look like this:
And this:
And this:
And these excerpts from the smiley face letter above:
My fear is one day losing time and that the feeling of being rushed will swoop in.
For the first time and after multiple attempts, I made my first origami heart. And I give it to you. Know that even when life is rough, or you feel scared to talk so the world may hear your voice — you are loved.
Things found on the internet
This extraordinary newsletter from the novelist Sheila Heti, which lays out a decade of her diary entries in alphabetical order to create a work of not quite fiction, not quite memoir. Here is A through C.
The self’s report on itself is surely a great fiction, and what is a more fundamental mode of serialization than the alphabet?
This profile on the now 100-year-old Françoise Gilot — painter, writer, former spouse to Pablo Picasso, exquisite wearer of red:
As young women, we were taught to keep silent. We were taught early that taking second place is easier than first. You tell yourself that’s all right, but it’s not all right. It is important that we learn to express ourselves, to say what it is that we like, that we want.
I see life as a labyrinth. You don’t fight it. You go where it takes you. You go the other way.
This ongoing + strange obituary section from the New Yorker. This one profiling a 340-year-old tree:
“It’s dead, yes,” Waskiewicz said, “but I prefer to think that it’s just not vertical anymore.”
Want to say hi? Your options include:
Snail mail: 104 N. Benton St., APT 302, Woodstock, IL, 60098
Email: thealivehour@substack.com
Magic ALIVE hour telephone, coming soon to an ALIVE hour near you (for paid subscribers only.) Stay tuned
***
Talk to me. I’m listening. <3
The ALIVE hour