EEDA Newsletter: Vol 5, Iss 14: Some Ideas on What To Do Now
This is a public issue of Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice. Feel free to share it!
Hi friends. Wow, what a week. I’m writing this on the afternoon of Thursday, July 4th after a morning of dissociating by making biscuits and gravy and having a friend over to help us eat it all. This week’s issue is supposed to be an essay behind a paywall but as it happens sometimes, I’m making this one public. It’s going to be a bit of a hybrid essay/resource situation based on the current events in the United States (which have actually been building over years but I have no time nor inclination to get into that). Many people are [rightfully] freaking out right now about what to do. Within my circles there are a variety of reactions: dissociating, organizing, crying, and some folks new to the struggle suddenly realizing that yes, all this bad stuff affects white people too. There is also a lot of overwhelm and confusion about where to even begin. For today’s issue, I’m going to give a bit of a sneak peak of our upcoming podcast episode where we talk about what we feel is perhaps the most important thing to be doing right now. I’m also going to uplift some advice and resources I’ve shared in the past and some new things as well.
I love to mentally check-out as much as the next guy but at some point, we’re all going to have to be present and get moving. Yes, joy is an act of resistance and also resistance needs to happen in other ways too. Sorry friends, we can’t just vibe our way out of this. If you need to find a mental health professional to help you manage all these big feelings, I have a newsletter issue on finding a therapist and we have a whole podcast episode on it as well.
Learn: Project 2025
While the whole of Project 2025’s manifesto is available online, Democracy Forward has blessedly created a People’s Guide to Project 2025 so we can understand what we are dealing with government-wise. There is also a very high-level, short overview on Joe Biden’s website here.
Read: What It Means To Be Optimistic About the Future via Happy Dancing by Charlie Jane Anders
This issue of Happy Dancing came out almost a month ago and I have had it bookmarked in my email because I’ve read it at least 3 times since it landed in my inbox. It is the sprinkle of pixie dust that I need to keep present and moving.
Listen: Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Podcast
We are actually going to go into a bit more detail about the section below in next week’s podcast episode but I want some of it in writing for this audience. You can find the EEDA Pod on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts. New episode drops every other Wednesday.
Build: Community
This is what next week’s show is about. Community is so important and it’s the only way that we will make it forward. The idea of doing this can be overwhelming, I get it, and it’s especially hard because a lot of people aren’t practicing the most basic of community care of wearing masks during the ongoing pandemic. I encourage you to cultivate community in any way you can, online and in person in the ways you feel safe. My wife and I still mask everywhere and our everyday masks are from MaskLab and when we are going in a more crowded indoor space, we use FloMasks. Friend and journalist Violet Blue offers a great review on FloMasks here and a really great list of recommendations on being as covid-safe as possible in large gatherings.
That being said: community. If you need to start volunteering with a local group to meet people, do that. Volunteer at the local food bank. Go to your local library and see if they have a list of local volunteering opportunities (some do!). If you are from a certain culture or identity, find some groups around that, like going to the local LGBTQ+ center. If it is safe to do so, get to know your neighbors. I feel like, if it’s safe, this is the bare minimum we should all be doing. We should know the people who live around us by name and if you’re up for it, trade contact info. The Nextdoor site/app is a fucking nightmare and most Facebook groups are as well. We are very fortunate that we have cool people in our neighborhood so the Facebook group is fine. The Buy Nothing group for our neighborhood is good, too, and the Buy Nothing groups are usually kinder. I suggest if you are on Facebook and your neighborhood has a Buy Nothing group, at least join that.
For more, here is a link to Volume 4, Issue 3, where I write more about community.
Read: Book Recommendations
The following books have been integral to my being able to do anything, including my continuing to write this newsletter for almost 250 weekly issues and help spread information and resources that should be shared:
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong
Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World by Vivek H. Murthy. You can read some of what I’ve written about it here.
Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World Without a Bullhorn by Omkari L. Williams. You can read some of what I’ve written about it here.
Bonus: Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown. Full disclosure: I have not yet read this book but I’ll be reading it this month and it seems relevant.
That’s it for this week! You can shop many books I’ve mentioned in this newsletter at my affiliate shop, The Infophile’s Bookshop, and support independent bookstores. In fact, any Bookshop, Amazon, or Etsy links in this newsletter are affiliate links so if you shop through those, it helps support my work. Or you can leave me a tip on Ko-fi, Paypal, or Venmo.
If you want to send me some snail mail, you can find me at P.O. Box 21481, Oakland, CA 94620-1481.
You can find our podcast, Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts.