Good afternoon team,

I didn’t know what I was going to write about today, then The Economist arrived and I read their obituary of Heather Heyer and cried like a lady in a David Lynch film. I love the Economist obituaries for their focus on the everyday of their subjects. That’s especially evident here, as are the consequences of letting our everyday be profaned:

Her way was to stand up loudly for them, and to ask anyone who disagreed why they believed that? And how could they think it? But the sheer size of the white nationalist rally planned for August 12th made her feel, for the first time ever, that she really had to get out in the street. She and her friends could try to spread a different message, that Charlottesville was a place of love. Suddenly, she had to do more than just argue. More than just cry.

https://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21726701-legal-assistant-killed-far-right-rally-charlottesville-was-32-obituary-heather

Enjoy now an interview with the writer of this and all Economist obituaries, Ann Wroe. A bit of classic The Hairpin to brighten your Friday:

“I don’t think of dead as dead, that’s the thing, and therefore it doesn’t trouble me. It’s an absence, if you like. It’s not the end.” She notes how “I never mention how people die, because I don’t think that’s important at all. I think an obituary is a celebration of a life.”

https://www.thehairpin.com/2014/06/an-interview-with-ann-wroe-obituaries-writer-for-the-economist/

Keep loving, keep fighting,

Alex.