Delving into the psychology of a closet from the #NEVERWORNS newsletter (Youtube too!): "Maybe I'm having trouble styling it. I bought it with white pants but I kind of felt like I was a finance bro"; and "The daughter is like the one stop before Goodwill" aka the Soft Trash Can Move, a guilt-free way to part with the item; "This scarf is not warm; it's like wearing a demented Italian noodle on the shoulders"; research on how retail therapy can relieve residual sadness.

Bonus: What is everyday aspirational and an interview with the people behind @madonnabrunetteofficial Instagram, an incredible cornucopia of the singer's moments with dark tresses.

Because I had inherited a vast legacy of silence, because silence was my country, I had to build a wall to see its borders. These two methodologies—the persistent Italian unchanging, the hyper Chinese dream of progress—are two ways of addressing the same vacancy: the void between where we came from and how we got here.

I cannot presume to know anything about Italy or the Italians. In the way of Roland Barthes, the Italy I speak of is the Italy of my mind—a place one goes to think of other places, as I've learned that every country one travels to will always be a site of mourning for one's first country.