WORK YOUR BRAIN OUT WITH OUR 5 FAVORITE LONG READS THIS WEEK

Our Mental Yoga Sunday posts are designed to get our readers to slow down. Stop rushing. Take your time and read something longer than 140 characters or a grocery list. Shut the bathroom door, turn on the fan for white noise, run the water...whatever you have to do in order to find some peace. Some quiet. Some salve for the soul. Turn time to syrup through an hourglass as your Sunday oozes by. Sprinkle in some music, work in the yard, snuggle with a significant other...even if it's your iPad. Without further adieu, here are the 5 long reads we enjoyed most this past week:

1

Where Are You Really From? (Real Life)

“But where are you really from?”

Sigh. This again.

Say what you mean, please: Are you actually asking why I have the accent I do? Is it my skin color that prompted your question? Perhaps you’re wondering where I live, or how I got to where we’re meeting today? Sometimes I’ve already answered your question, but somehow you don’t accept my answer."

2

Is There Awareness Behind Vegetative States? (Nautilus)

"Imagine that a loved one, let’s say your brother, has suffered a serious brain injury. After languishing in a coma, he finally “emerges”—that is, he cycles between sleep and wakefulness, yanks his hand away when it’s pricked, is startled by loud noises, and so on. But it’s not clear that he’s ever truly awake; his eyes are open, but they rove around aimlessly. He can’t communicate or follow instructions, even simple ones like “Squeeze my hand” or “Blink if you can hear me.” Does your brother still inhabit his body?"

3

The (Still) Awesome Life of Dick Vitale (The Ringer)

ESPN’s indefatigable college basketball evangelist doesn’t take vacations, hasn’t eaten dinner at home in a decade, and still feels like a diaper dandy. But how long will 77-year-old Dickie V be a PTP-er for the Worldwide Leader?

“One of the beauties of traveling and doing games with Dickie V,” said Musburger, “was the fact you never — as in ever — had to call ahead for a reservation at a restaurant. Dickie V would always lead the way. He would burst through the door, and everybody would look up and there would be smiles all around. Anybody and everybody would get us a table. Dickie V would obligingly sign all the autographs. Then it was 50–50 whether the restaurant would pick up the check or bring it to me.”

4

The Unbelievable Story of the Most Expensive Record Ever Sold on Discogs (SPIN)

"Back in January, an anonymous Discogs buyer apparently shelled out $18,000 for a copy of a rare rock album called 301 Jackson St, the highest-ever recorded sale on the online hub for record collectors. The 301 Jackson St. sleeve appears battered and scuffed in a photo, and the seller described the condition of the album itself as “poor.” “It is worn, what would you expect ( read the stories),” he or she wrote, somewhat cryptically, alongside the listing. “The record itself however plays beautiful. You can’t find one anywhere."

5

The Hippies Have Won (NEW YORK TIMES)

"Consider granola: The word used to be a derogatory term. Now it’s a supermarket category worth nearly $2 billion a year. Kombucha was something your art teacher might have made in her basement. The company GT’s Kombucha brews more than a million bottles annually and sells many of them at Walmart and Safeway. And almond milk? You can add it to your drink at 15,000 Starbucks locations for 60 cents.

Just as yoga and meditation have gone mainstream (and let’s not get started on designer Birkenstocks), so have ideas and products surrounding health, wellness and eating that play like a flashback to the early 1970s."

MENTAL Yoga Sunday :: 5 FAVORITE LONG FORM READS THIS WEEK 4.9.17 ~ Fin.

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