aroraborealis

Here is an amazing thing that a big group of people working together can do:



This is a Castell, which is a tower made of people, typically competitively. Bunches and bunches of people make up the lower level(s), leaning in to lend strength and stability to the higher levels.

There's a lot I love about this, but one of my favorites is that it's mixed age and mixed gender. Fun for the whole family!

People are awesome.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving proper, and the day of giving thanks for the people in my life. I feel so blessed and lucky to know the great people I do, to share my life with my family and friends in deep and meaningful ways. I am so lucky to have grown up in a warm, loving family, and lucky again to have found my way into a community of people who work hard together to have loving and mutually supportive relationships of all kinds. People are what make everything worthwhile.

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

Hey, it's my birthday! Want to do something to help me celebrate? Go out of your way to make someone's day extra awesome and then come back and tell me about it!

These can be frustrating and disillusioning times for feminists and other people focused on social liberation and progressiveness in social issues across the board, but especially group and identity issues along the lines of sexism, racism, heterosexism, classism, straightism, etc. I see all of these issues as being tightly linked: they all take very similar shapes, and people who fall into more than one marked category feel the hit from each one.

Anyway, I've been super excited to see a couple of Ted talks in the past couple of years that are men talking about the importance of feminism, recognizing that feminism is a movement that seeks to improve society for all members*, not just women, despite the name. I've linked to Tony Porter's talk in the past, but it pairs so wonderfully with the more recent talk by Jackson Katz that I wanted to include both.

Porter really focuses on the damage the patriarchy does to boys and men, how constraining the notion of masculinity is, and how harmful.

Katz delves beautifully into some of the complexities of groupism and discusses some of the psychology and group training that causes men to tune out conversations that they perceive as "women's issues", acknowledges the way that men get more credit, attention, and acclaim than women, and gives a brief overview of what he calls the bystander approach, whereby members of the unmarked group (in this case, men) raise the bar of expectations for all members by not letting problematic comments slide. He sees this as an issue of leadership and frames it fantastically well.

All told, these videos will take about 30 minutes of your time to watch or listen to, and I think they're completely worth it. In fact, I've watched them both multiple times, and I normally time out after about 3 minutes. Please share them far and wide; I'd love to see them get some play outside of The Bubble.

Violence & Silence: Jackson Katz


A Call to Men: Tony Porter


*Recognizing, of course, that many branches of feminism don't go a great job of being inclusive across other categories like race, class, etc, but I do see a general trend of increasing awareness in lots of those branches, over time.

It's National Margarita Day! Do you know where your tequila is?

I'm brimming over with love and admiration for so many of my loved ones today. It's super yay! SO:

I invite you to tell me something awesome about someone you love or admire, and in exchange, I'll tell you something awesome about YOU.

From lewisian_gneiss by way of jillbertini (and with a couple of changes of my own):

What was your proudest achievement?
Your biggest change?
Your happiest moment?
Your saddest moment?
Your most exciting trip?
Your favourite meal?
The thing that made you laugh the hardest?
What did you do that surprised you the most?
What happened that you'd have never anticipated this time last year?
Who made you smile the most?

( My answers below )

A few months ago, I posted about addressing emails in a fun way in a work setting, and several of you gave me good ideas, and the framework for others.

Today, I sent an email to my groups regarding our new pool table with this opener:

Good afternoon, pool sharks, pool rays, pool skates, and other pool chondrichthyes

So far, I've received 50 style points, a vote for best email of 2012, and a marriage proposal.

Which is to say: Thanks everyone for your help!

People, how is this job even real?

I just organized a field day for the portion of my team participating in a pilot mentor/mentee program. We had tug o' war and egg relay and egg race and water balloon toss and hilarity and general awesomeness.

Seriously, I get paid for this?

"People are so perplexing. It's like they don't know that pleasure is one of the main reasons to live." -contessagrrl

It's my birthday! Happy birthday to me! But wait! Before you wish me a happy birthday, you have a mission:

I need your help celebrating my birthday. I need you to go into your day with a curious mind, and the intent to do something that gives you pleasure and/or joy, something that makes you laugh, maybe something that scares you a little but makes you happier for having done it. It doesn't have to be big! It could be watching a funny video on youtube, or stopping to smell flowers while you walk around your neighborhood, or taking a bus to a part of town you've never visited. Or it can be huge! It could be telling someone you love them with no expectation of reciprocation, or jumping off the high dive for the first time, or letting yourself love yourself.

Then, once you've done that, you can come back here and wish me a happy birthday, and if you want to tell me about how you treated yourself right today, I'd love to hear that, too.