It's one of those rare mornings when — quite by chance — a theme appears on the blog.

I've written 2 posts: 1. "The strongest case for noncitizen voting today is representation: The more voters show up to the polls, the more accurately elections reflect peoples’ desires," and 2. "'People get very wrapped up in the idea of spontaneously desiring sex,' Dr. Nagoski said, but, especially in women, it’s fairly rare." 

In the presence of this blessed convergence of the Forces of Blog, I perform the ritual of deliberately searching for more manifestations of the day's theme. You see what it is, don't you? 

Desire!

1. "Automania — symbols of desire and destruction at MoMA/The New York exhibition presents a conflicted tribute to a car-besotted century" (Financial Times) — "a Fiat Cinquecento, the tiny stalwart of the Italian working and middle class; a Citroën DS (pronounced 'déesse,' meaning goddess), the low-slung chariot of the French bourgeoisie; a military Jeep, the stripped-down progenitor of the modern SUV."

2. "10 Desire Quotes to Help You Build a Burning Desire for Success" (Programming Insider). Good luck manufacturing desire out of any of these wan quotes, but you might achieve a slight, scoffing chuckle to see they've quoted Bill Cosby, and he said, "In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure." Are we supposed to read that and not think of sex?

3. "'I’m always looking for something slightly weird about a sexual encounter,' the fiction writer Emma Cline told New Yorker subscribers this week. Cline... was speaking not about herself but about her plots, which have included figures reminiscent of Harvey Weinstein and examine, at times, the interaction between physical intimacy and power." From "Watch Highlights from 'Words of Desire'/Three acclaimed authors discuss what makes for good writing about sex, in the latest installment of The New Yorker’s digital event series for subscribers" (The New Yorker). 

4. "The Limits of Sex Positivity/American culture still treats disinterest in sex as something that needs to be fixed. What if any amount of desire—including none—was okay?" (The Atlantic)— "In many relationships with a libido mismatch, the lower-desire partner believes that they are solely to blame.... For sexuality experts, understanding and accepting lack of desire should be as worthwhile a project as cultivating desire. Nobody is frigid; nobody is broken."

5. "Simone Biles’ desire to innovate is frustrated by her own insular sport" (published last Friday in The Guardian) — "What is clear is that Biles’ excellence has exposed the ineptitude of the WTC. Instead of endeavouring to create a code of points that allows a variety of different types of gymnasts to thrive, it has attempted to construct it with its own preferences in mind which almost always centres on nostalgia for gymnastics of the past."

6. "Some Chinese shun grueling careers for 'low-desire life'" (L.A. Times) — "'Struggle itself is a kind of happiness,' the newspaper Southern Daily, published by the party, said in a commentary. 'Choosing to "lie flat" in the face of pressure is not only unjust but also shameful.'"

7. "People's desire to live into older ages reduced by hypothetical adverse life scenarios" (News Medical) — "Dementia tops the list of conditions where people would prefer to live shorter lives."

8. "Paris Hilton weighs in on the desire to lead a ‘simpler life’" (Geo News) — " I’m so over going to parties. I never thought I would say that. I used to live for the nightlife. Now I couldn’t care less. I love being at home watching Netflix and cooking with my love and our puppies.... A lot of people don’t believe it but I’m very shy."