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moominmuppetBy the time I'm talking about mood, I'm usually on my way back up again (yeah, this icon is my "bipolar" icon). Not sure if it's definitive at this point, but I'm definitely doing better today than yesterday, at least. Volunteering today was certainly good for me, as it generally is.
Activism is always good for my general sense of self. It's very deeply connected to my sense of who I am and want to be in the world, and I feel all off-kilter and blah when it's not a big enough part of my life (I see similar effects in friends who are artists and writers, but aren't finding time or energy for their work in those regards). Doing it in an awesome feminist facility full of friends and other generally rockin' women is extra-good. Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting with C and a medical director over at Metro about working with their sexual assault nurses on pelvic exam practice, and I'm also really psyched about that. And I've got my patient-instructing dates for the coming month, which also gives me more of a sense of what productive stuff I'm doing in the near future. It's always so hard to drag myself out to go do these kinds of things, and I tend to need advance warning to psych myself up for them (not just activism stuff, but social stuff too, I find), but they do me so much good. Sort of like exercise that way, I guess.
This is the project I'm working on. I think I'm going to experiment with separating out my reproductive rights and justice links into separate Linketies posts, since I'm going to be regularly sending them to the volunteer coordinator at the clinic (the political posts aren't directly applicable to this project, but they're handy in the broader sense.) I'm also thinking about having a My Abortion My Life house party; both of the movies they're offering look really good. I'll likely buy my own copy of The Abortion Diaries, since it's pretty affordable, but it's unlikely I'll have enough spare to get my own copy of Silent Choices, so this'd be a good chance to get to see it. Oh, and I need to make some more progress on compiling lists of pro-choice and feminist groups at local campuses; that's another part of my project work.
Linketies will happen later on, probably much later on, since we've got folks coming over tonight. At the moment I'm tired and headachy, so I don't think prolonged online time is really the best plan right now. I did want to mention two other thoughts that occurred to me in the past day, though.
The first is about my childhood conception of Heaven. For as long as I believed in it the thing that excited me, that naturally struck me as what "perfect" would be about, was the idea of getting all the answers. I don't recall whether anyone else gave me that idea, or whether that's simply what my brain filled in for "perfect place", but it was an oddly Sagan-ish vision to be sure. It certainly didn't have all that much to do with singing praises forever, or being reunited with everyone. No, what I was excited about what watching the universe evolve, getting all the answers about how and why things worked, getting to learn everything, read everything, etc. Even as a Christian, what I came up with was essentially "science geek heaven". Frankly, it's a thoroughly unbiblical image, considering what little is said in description of heaven (Bible study was a pretty major part of my life, but that never seemed to shake my peculiar imagining of the place). Anyway, I just thought that was kind of odd and funny. How do/did you envision it?
The other question that came to mind is basically a generational one. I was thinking about how the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the Fall of the Berlin Wall influenced me; they both happened in the middle of high school for me, right about the time I was really starting to form my understanding of the larger world. One "success", one "failure", but both hugely powerful and formative in my memories. I was glued to the TV then like I'm glued to Twitter now in regards to Egypt. I'm a total sap for protest movements; I think I've written about that before, but it's absolutely true. Although there's great danger in the power of large movements (the word "mob" should send shivers up the spine), I think there's also great, great hope, and I respond to that on a hugely emotional level. There's little on the planet that can so easily make me choke up with joy as seeing people come together to stand for justice. There's pain and horror there too, of course -- every protest movement is responding to something, and if it's enough to trigger a movement, it's probably not pretty, nor is the uncertainty and fear and risk of taking that step. Still, if you want to get me weeping like a fountain, don't bother with the traditional tearjerkers. Just toss on some protest footage and you've got me.
Activism is always good for my general sense of self. It's very deeply connected to my sense of who I am and want to be in the world, and I feel all off-kilter and blah when it's not a big enough part of my life (I see similar effects in friends who are artists and writers, but aren't finding time or energy for their work in those regards). Doing it in an awesome feminist facility full of friends and other generally rockin' women is extra-good. Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting with C and a medical director over at Metro about working with their sexual assault nurses on pelvic exam practice, and I'm also really psyched about that. And I've got my patient-instructing dates for the coming month, which also gives me more of a sense of what productive stuff I'm doing in the near future. It's always so hard to drag myself out to go do these kinds of things, and I tend to need advance warning to psych myself up for them (not just activism stuff, but social stuff too, I find), but they do me so much good. Sort of like exercise that way, I guess.
This is the project I'm working on. I think I'm going to experiment with separating out my reproductive rights and justice links into separate Linketies posts, since I'm going to be regularly sending them to the volunteer coordinator at the clinic (the political posts aren't directly applicable to this project, but they're handy in the broader sense.) I'm also thinking about having a My Abortion My Life house party; both of the movies they're offering look really good. I'll likely buy my own copy of The Abortion Diaries, since it's pretty affordable, but it's unlikely I'll have enough spare to get my own copy of Silent Choices, so this'd be a good chance to get to see it. Oh, and I need to make some more progress on compiling lists of pro-choice and feminist groups at local campuses; that's another part of my project work.
Linketies will happen later on, probably much later on, since we've got folks coming over tonight. At the moment I'm tired and headachy, so I don't think prolonged online time is really the best plan right now. I did want to mention two other thoughts that occurred to me in the past day, though.
The first is about my childhood conception of Heaven. For as long as I believed in it the thing that excited me, that naturally struck me as what "perfect" would be about, was the idea of getting all the answers. I don't recall whether anyone else gave me that idea, or whether that's simply what my brain filled in for "perfect place", but it was an oddly Sagan-ish vision to be sure. It certainly didn't have all that much to do with singing praises forever, or being reunited with everyone. No, what I was excited about what watching the universe evolve, getting all the answers about how and why things worked, getting to learn everything, read everything, etc. Even as a Christian, what I came up with was essentially "science geek heaven". Frankly, it's a thoroughly unbiblical image, considering what little is said in description of heaven (Bible study was a pretty major part of my life, but that never seemed to shake my peculiar imagining of the place). Anyway, I just thought that was kind of odd and funny. How do/did you envision it?
The other question that came to mind is basically a generational one. I was thinking about how the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the Fall of the Berlin Wall influenced me; they both happened in the middle of high school for me, right about the time I was really starting to form my understanding of the larger world. One "success", one "failure", but both hugely powerful and formative in my memories. I was glued to the TV then like I'm glued to Twitter now in regards to Egypt. I'm a total sap for protest movements; I think I've written about that before, but it's absolutely true. Although there's great danger in the power of large movements (the word "mob" should send shivers up the spine), I think there's also great, great hope, and I respond to that on a hugely emotional level. There's little on the planet that can so easily make me choke up with joy as seeing people come together to stand for justice. There's pain and horror there too, of course -- every protest movement is responding to something, and if it's enough to trigger a movement, it's probably not pretty, nor is the uncertainty and fear and risk of taking that step. Still, if you want to get me weeping like a fountain, don't bother with the traditional tearjerkers. Just toss on some protest footage and you've got me.
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Date: 2011-02-10 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-10 01:39 am (UTC)We are here to create a new and positive conversation about abortion in the lives of American women. We are sponsored by a clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and our activities are based in this area for the time being, but we are open to the stories of all women. We invite you to join us.
It's similar to projects like I'm Not Sorry, and is generally part of what has been described as the "pro-voice" movement.