First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

Upside of Being Single, Summer Edition

Cartoon by Roz Chast for The New Yorker

Art Matters

Banksy in Paris this week

How We’re Going to Get Through This

Together enamel pin by Adam J Kurtz

Between Loneliness and Solitude

This week, the prolific poet and critic, Donald Hall passed away at 89. He was Poet Laureate of the U.S. and received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama. Hall was married to another lauded poet, Jane Kenyon until her untimely death from leukemia. More than 20 years after his wife’s passing, Hall wrote an essay in The New Yorker about solitude, love and mourning. Don’t miss it.

Illustration by Marc Johns

Heavy Lifting

Maybe you can help me figure this out. I need to flip my Queen-size mattress, and every time I consider doing this alone, I’m certain it will hurt my back. If only the dog could lend a paw. Any suggestions for a 100-lb weakling?

Fork by Jean Jullien

A Beacon

Meryl Streep turns 69 today. Amidst this heart wrenching week, piled onto a dispiriting year that is tearing at the fibers of a nation, I’m reminded of goodness when I see Meryl Streep’s face. She embodies the possibility that one can live with great talent, humility and honor. In my faith tradition, for 25 hours starting at sundown each Friday, we practice hope that the impossible is possible. So as the sun sets tonight, I have to believe that we will heal.

1981 photo by Ted Thai/Getty Images

Mental Health Break

Dancing Tulips by Carl Kleiner

Summer Plans

What’s on your summer must-do list?

Painting by Shawna Gillmore

The Art of Clean Up

This dustpan designed by Christopher Specce just might inspire me to sweep more.

What Will It Take to Stop the Heartbreak?

The revulsion is becoming bi-partisan. All four living former First Ladies—Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Roslyn Carter—have now condemned the administration’s family-separation policy. It’s almost impossible not to be moved by the horrific images and audio of children being torn from their families. (As an inexplicable sidebar, today an acquaintance said to me, you can’t really know what it’s like because you’re not a parent.) This is a moral emergency. Protest information here:

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images