So glad I read this today for myself, but also to recommend it to any friends/family who see activism as incompatible with joy or self-care and are loSo glad I read this today for myself, but also to recommend it to any friends/family who see activism as incompatible with joy or self-care and are looking for ways to weave this kind of work into their lives. We're all unlearning here. This book is very gentle in tone and easy to read but delivers some hard truths and asks some good questions. :]
Over the last couple of years, I've come out of that liminal space she describes when you're only doing inner work and not doing much resistance out there in the world because I didn't reallyunderstand the connection. I didn't get that the best thing I could do for myself was to go beyond reading, writing, and talking about what "should" happen but to physically involve myself in the resistance, too. We're all we've got; it feels great to be a tiny part of that.
Knowing how to make your resistance palatable to the people around you is hard. It could look like I'm angry and stressed, but I'm more hopeful and excited about life than ever, despite personal issues I'm still working on. Whatever it looks like to others, what's important is what it feels like to you - and if it doesn't feel good, it is worth asking yourself whether you are still holding onto colonial ideas or priorities that are making your life needlessly stressful or chaotic.
I'm excited to know about a book like this, it can connect a lot of dots for people, especially if they are open-minded and short on time.
This is not a book only about Earth/climate, but here's a quote I liked:
"...as we consider our relationship with Earth, the scenario is this: we are the oppressor, telling Earth again and again that she is beautiful and resilient while we pillage and take from her, while we push her back down and tell her to keep getting up. She has been resilient again and again. She has resisted again and again, and yet here we are, fighting not just for the survival of humanity but for her healing. Fighting climate change isn't just so that we can be comfortable again - a people-centered climate argument isn't really a climate argument at all. Fighting climate change is about giving Mother Earth the love and respect she has always deserved"....more
Concise, accessible intro to feminism. Some cisnormative/heteronormative language jumped out to me, even as a cis person in a hetero relationship. It Concise, accessible intro to feminism. Some cisnormative/heteronormative language jumped out to me, even as a cis person in a hetero relationship. It does a great job of outlining why feminism benefits men and women and why we need to raise kids differently.
For the most part, the author writes very gently toward men without any blaming/shaming language. That helps its effectiveness to a degree since, as she recognized in the essay, men *generally* have fragile egos because of how they are brought up. Good one to send to ur bf if they are open to it - the audiobook is only 45 mins long.
“The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn’t have the weight of gender expectations.”...more