Cheesy Rat Blues

"I do not believe that Mahmoud Khalil should have been in a position to teach the public a lesson about principled solidarity and principled action. And yet, when he was taken away from his family, unjustly detained for over one hundred days, had the moment of this child's birth stolen from him, and endured the horrors of separation and detention (which of course are not unique to him) he often made efforts to decenter himself, to recenter the Palestinian people. He did not waver on his principles or his stance in order to appeal to some imaginary moral center of the state. He was steadfast in his beliefs and his purpose, and he was steadfast in his own humanity, which allowed him clarity when it came to the humanity of others. I was a teenager in the months immediately following 9/11, and, at the time, my initial approach was to make these incredibly flawed and ridiculous (but youthfully and foolishly idealistic) appeals to the Broader Public. This might seem familiar, becaus...

  Watching the Olympic women's bike road race last summer as they tore through metro Paris was absolutely enthralling. It was iconic in so many ways: cyclists and their lean profiles flying in piles of groups through fan lined cosmopolitan urban trappings, peeling past historic sites and locations. Architecture, effort, various cameras flying along like peering birds as everyone flies along. Except over a 170 mile course at 26 mph. 6000 feet of climbing, 4-5 hours of machine forged legs pistoning at an unconscionable pace. Absolutely enthralling and exhausting, I wonder what these athletes do after the race. Eat a giant cheeseburger? Do a blood transfusion? Sleep in an ice bath for an hour? My favorite Olympic sports are swimming and anything with a relay, but these competitions that integrate the host city are really awesome. And an American won out of the blue! Just sucked up to the favorites and fried them like eggs on the last leg to the finish line. The Olympics inspired me to...

I've been trying to find / engage in opportunities for real joy instead of release (which is what SM scrolling and dumb TV is). Release is needed sometime, but man it is NO substitute for real opportunities to engage in joy. And it some ways I am rediscovering the feeling of real joy in activities I can do for myself. I do experience real joy anytime I am with Jody, but she cannot and should not be the sole source of such experiences. Many of us need joy these days. I cannot enjoy joy absent hope though. Without a sense that holding space and a desire for a new reality is authentic, joy turns purely to release, or escape, for me. So they feel intertwined. A few perspectives have helped me to frame both joy and hope. ******* The first is a piece by John Cave, which he shared on the Late Show recently. In responding to a writer's question about having faith in people, "do you still believe in us?", I feel like he was responding to me when he wrote the following : "...