Volume 4, Resources 10: Demand Avoidance and Angela Davis in Conversation with OMCA
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Hi friends! It’s a resource week and this week has been a doozy so I’m bumping the personal updates to the end and putting the resources up front. Let’s get to it!
Resource #1: "Demand Avoidance: A Guide For When You’re Too Anxious to Do Anything" by Sam Dylan Finch via Alma
As always, your mileage may vary with this one. There is some stuff in this article that I found super duper helpful and other stuff that I looked at and said, “That’s not for me and I don’t identify with that, but surely someone else can use the info!”
I definitely tend to get down on myself for sometimes not being able to “just do the thing.” It’s not for lack of motivation, it’s more about what is referred to as “task initiation.” KC Davis talks about it a lot in her book How to Keep House While Drowning. I have motivation. I know where I want to go and be and what I want to do, it’s just getting myself onto the “on-ramp” that I sometimes struggle with and I know I’m not alone.
While this article talks about demand avoidance mostly as connected to autism and ADHD, demand avoidance is something that almost everyone has experienced at some level. I found some of the tips on combating it or rather, working with it pretty helpful and I’ll definitely be putting some of them into my toolbox. I may have also pre-ordered the Anti-Planner the article mentions as well.
Resource #2: “A Question of Memory - Interview with Angela Davis at OMCA”
My wife and I recently went to see the Angela Davis—Seize the Time exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California. If you are in the area, we highly recommend it. I am grateful that I can share one of my favorite parts of the exhibit with you, which is a ~30-minute interview with Angela Davis created specifically for this exhibit. In it, she talks about her journey, her relationship to her past, and how she was and remains a symbol for revolution. She also talks about the importance of art in a revolution and it's so good. I implore you to allow yourself the time to watch this interview.
As I mentioned, this week has been festive and not in a good way. My catalytic converters got stolen out of my truck right in front of our home. I am now dependent on Nicole for rides everywhere (which is fine) and I had scheduled an appointment almost every day this week (annoying). I went to the dentist on Monday and got a crown because an old filling from my youth was cracking my tooth. I did not mean for that to rhyme but, hey, you’re welcome. Also, something is chomping on the leaves of my lemon tree. And Nicole found an unwanted caterpillar on my Bay laurel. And then like, white supremacy and grief on top of it all, etc. Me being me, of course I am worrying about not having the spell slots to be available for my loved ones who are also having a hard time.
All things considered, I’m shocked at how functional I still am? I had my first Bean Day Sunday this past weekend and it was the first time I made beans in this new home. The first time I’ve made beans since New Year’s, actually. It managed to soften some of the blows this week by not having to also have to decide what is for dinner the first few nights. I’ve finally gotten all my stationery unpacked and having it all out there makes me realize that I have an absolutely obscene amount of stationery so I’m going to be sending out a lot of random mail for the foreseeable future.
So, the bad stuff is really bad but I’m working hard on 1) allowing myself to feel my feelings and 2) finding where I can have agency and joy when I can and some of that includes some new projects that I’m working on which I am excited to share with you when the time is right!
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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.
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