This is the Kos newsletter: warm email notes from your friend. Finding the simple joy in parenthood, bodies, spirituality, creativity, and beauty. Sound like your jam? Subscribe below for weekly notes.
Dear friends,
I’m sitting at a stranger’s table, writing to (many) strangers, feeling (a little) strange. Last week I saw a whale near the shore, over and over. That’s not a metaphor. I literally saw a whale. I’ve never seen a whale, ever, and saw two submerge and spout a dozen times at Stinson beach in Northern California—a beach I’ve been to half a dozen times. It was miraculous. They’re massive creatures.
It's the largest animal on Earth.
In fact, the blue whale is the biggest animal ever known to have existed. It's even bigger than the enormous dinosaurs that lived over 65 million years ago.
I think when I say they’re massive I think I grasp just how big they actually are but I know I don’t. I recently listened to a paleontologist fanboy over whales, reminding his celebrity hosts that we have mammals bigger than most dinosaurs ever were right now in our oceans, owning the deep blue outright. I mean, he was so excited about whales. If a scientist who studies dinosaurs gets that excited about whales, shouldn’t we all?
Ten years ago when I lived in New York City and took the _ line (can’t remember?! never thought I’d forget which line runs right to my favorite corner of Central Park. Alas.) I’d get waffle fries from Shake Shack, then push my City Mini stroller around The American Museum of Natural History, heading straight for The Ocean Room. It’s a sprawling room dim enough that my night blindness made it hard for me to see others in the opposing shadows across the hall. Nobody goes there to see anything but the blue whale: a model reaching 94 feet and weighing 21,000 pounds, suspended from the ceiling, arching its majestic form over the thousands and thousands of curious, tired, hungry, hangry museum visitors below.
It’s not a real whale, but that doesn’t erase one iota of the magic of walking under a replica of the largest living mammal so grand, so insanely beautiful. When I’m in that room I get the same feeling I get when I’m watching the stars at night. Where the sky gets bigger and bigger and I feel smaller and smaller and it feels both peaceful and chaotic thinking about how any of that, or this, or me, or anybody, came to be. Do you crave feeling small, too? When something’s so big there’s nothing to do but surrender?
Thanks so much for reading. It’s been a while since I’ve shared some fun links so, shall we? I only have a few this week:
David Sedaris has a new book out. Get the audiobook. Go see him on his tour. We saw him at Berkeley and he talked so much about his culottes and he was hilarious. Loved this bizarre interview with Dax and Monica from Armchair Expert.
Carina Nebula. Stephen’s Quintet made me cry. Okay, wait SMACS 0723 made me cry even harder:
Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
Such a fun watch but I’m too much of a mom now. How are all these kids drinking so much alcohol, like all the time?? I’d read all of Jenny Han but not this one and my fav is still To All the Boys.
The best sunscreen is the one you put on. I love the way this one smells.
I’m loving my new summer perfumes rec’d by my sister: Mystical Misfit (perfect floral) and Sun Saint (coconuty summer).
Playing The Initiative with Keen and our two oldest boys. Smart and legitimately fun for everybody. It’s a story game with clues. You play a round and solve a clue, then play the next night to solve the next clue. Really impressed with the storyline.
Is Marine Layer good? Their stuff looks so soft and pretty high quality.
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Always enjoy reading your newsletter. Glad you and your family are back in the states. Looking forward to hearing about your next adventure. The whale story is amazing. When I went to USF I remember loving Stinson beach for birdwatching. Keep sharing those links. I need to get the Sedaris audiobook. Peace and Love.