EEDA Newsletter Vol 5, Res 24: The Future of EEDA, Directional Living, What to Do Now, and more
This is a public issue of Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice. Feel free to share it!
Hi friends! I’m shaking up the cadence of this newsletter a bit in that this week is going to be another resource week instead of an essay. January will be the 5-year anniversary of this newsletter and I’ve been thinking a lot about what this newsletter (and the podcast) will look like moving forward, given the events of the past year and especially the past few weeks. I do think a lot will look the same: focusing on taking care of ourselves and each other while trying to do as little harm as possible under capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. I intend to continue being the queer Black Mary Poppins we all need once in a while, trying to balance whimsy and hard truths.
This newsletter and the podcast are my way of offering support, advice, and resources that are either hard to find or practically nonexistent. Searching online for some of the resource categories I share can be overwhelming, so I curate and make these accessible. With these things in mind, you may be seeing resource issues more frequently and essay issues a bit less. This is not written in stone, it’s just where I feel things are heading and how I can help folks the most.
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As I mentioned, I have more resources to share this week so let’s get to it!
Resource 1: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Bluesky Thread
A poignant thread on Bluesky by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein which includes many links to some next-level reading including (1981) Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” and (1977) The Combahee River Collective Statement.
I believe a Bluesky account is needed to view the thread but thankfully, Bluesky is free.
Resource 2: The Covid Safety Handbook: Staying Safe In An Unsafe World by Violet Blue
It’s now available for preorder! It’s also available on Amazon if that’s your thing.
Resource 3: 10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won by Daniel Hunter for Waging Nonviolence
This was an incredibly helpful read. “The key to taking effective action in a Trump world is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.”
Resource 4: Finch Care App (recommendations)
Since I shared this resource last week, three readers reached out to me to give really positive recommendations for this app and I wanted to let you all know this, since I have yet to try it myself. Thank you for that bit of community care, friends!
Resource 5: Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life by Megan Hellerer
Underfulfilled Overachievers (UFOAs) are described as the folks who followed the “right” path and went to a university with a lot of prestige. UFOAs earned top grades, got that degree, might have even gone to graduate school and got those degrees as well. The UFOAs then secured the career, got the promotion, got the next promotion, and are at the top of their game. They have accolades showered on them, are receiving all the gold stars, and they’re hitting every goal, which may include life goals. They bought the house or the condo they think they should have, and have the spouse and kids they think they should have. If they don’t, they have a very precise plan of when they are expecting to have the kids or if they are childfree maybe they’re the rich auntie with the high salary.
UFOAs are primarily women and they’ve achieved all the achievements, yet are deeply dissatisfied with their lives. The author herself had what she thought of as the perfect job at Google and yet found herself, at the office, crying on the bathroom floor. An UFOA usually has a certain amount of privilege as well so while some of what is in this book isn’t for everyone, a lot of it definitely resonated. The author shares her own story and stories of some of the women she has coached, most notably coaching Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from being a bartender to becoming a member of Congress.
Hellerer says that UFOAs are focused on “destinational” living, that is, there is a big goal in sight and then they reverse-engineer all the right steps to take to get there. When they get there, they often realize that it’s not what they want; however, they don’t actually know what they want. Cue crying on the bathroom floor. Hellerer, instead, coaches people toward directional living, which involves letting go of trying to have all the future moves figured out and only focusing on what the immediate next step should be. I appreciate this in particular because it’s something I write about in my own work. She uses the analogy of driving at night when it’s completely dark and you only have headlights to drive by. You can’t see ten miles in front of you. You can only see what is directly ahead and yet you drive with that knowledge and still get to your destination.
This book includes exercises to help you on your way so it isn’t just a “read it and you’re on your own” primer. The exercises are intended to be returned to and repeated throughout your journey.
Recent & Current Reads
Inclusion of a book in this section is not necessarily a recommendation and these books won’t necessarily be added to my Bookshop. Links are affiliate links.
Recently Read:
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade (backordered on Bookshop and Thriftbooks but you can get an ebook through Verso)
Currently Reading:
Loving Corrections by Adrienne Maree Brown
African American Folktales: Stories from Black Traditions in the New World by Roger D. Abrahams (sorry, can’t find it on Bookshop. My copy is from 1985. Found some on Thriftbooks, though not my exact copy)
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
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.