And Then

Archive of my Now page. What’s a Now page?

May 2020

#staythefuckhome #restiamoacasa

It’s May 2020. I have been #stay(ing)thefuckhome since March 9th as we in the US enter the second month of trying to live through and care for each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. I am at home in Boston, MA with my partner Maggie and my 2 coopmates. We have lived in a collective coop-style home for a decade sharing labor & expenses, processing both food & emotions, and building chosen family connection. I feel as grateful for my privilege as I feel devastated for those who are being hurt the most.

What I’m thinking about, reading about, working on

What does wealth redistribution look like for me & Maggie?

  • The Dirty Details of my New Salary – Dean Spade
    • “So here is what happened. I went from making around $37,500-45,000/yr for most of my post-law school life to suddenly having a job that pays me $120,000/yr. I feel so many things about this that it is hard to take it apart. My foster mother cried when I told her, she was so happy…I must be excited to be rid of the feelings of uncertainty and anxiety that accompanied those experiences, right? But those feelings of relief aren’t out front. What has emerged most loudly are two elements. 1) a set of triggers and emotional responses about early trauma experiences of scarcity and survivor guilt about finally being secure and not being able to share it with my mom, and 2) a range of questions about how best to live my principles of wealth redistribution in the face of this new amount of resources to distribute.”
  • The Pandemic is a Portal – Arundhati Roy
    • *read this article first thanks to Nick Gray’s newsletter
    • “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
  • Time to Redistribute Those Checks, Baby – Susan Raffo
  • Massachusetts Redistribution Fund

Supporting Local Farmers & Learning about Gardening

What TV Am I watching?

  • Billions