i remember it like it was just last night. But mostly because it WAS just last night. This is the status i wrote minutes after it happened: Holy craps. After months of #NotOnOurWatch preaching I had my first real experience of it - old motorcycle guy in a car park going off at a car guard and I marched in and let him have it. So much adrenalin. Body shaking. I had the advantage of [...]
i had breakfast with myself this morning. Well that's not entirely true, but the big bearded man who sat across me also goes by the name of Brett [Thompson] and he is a living legend. He also is a vegan, but wait, before you start throwing things, just hear me out for a little bit. i met Brett through my wild pink-haired You Tube legend of a friend Grant Hinds [go check out his stuff here, [...]
This is a follow on from yesterday's All Lives Smatter post so if you haven't read that yet, start over there... Some key thoughts from part I: # It would have taken an absolute miracle for someone to grow up in apartheid South Africa and be completely not affected or indoctrinated by racism in some shape or form, hence my resonance with other white people who refer to themselves as Recovering Racist - not because [...]
This has been on my mind for a while and feels like a very delicate subject to broach, although a necessary one. For the last two to five years i have been on a personal journey of understanding the causes and effects of apartheid a lot more, as well as the negative consequences that continue to effect a lot of people. Let me put this up front: i have a long way to go... but [...]
Let's talk about race, baby. Let's talk about you and me... Wait, what, more? Yes, but offline. i was reminded by tbV that i had mentioned this idea a while ago when life was still in crazy transition before we found this place to rent. Years ago i hosted a set of gatherings at Seattle coffee shop at Canal Walk that were called "Not a Meeting" cos of my hatred of meetings [well meetings for [...]
So let me begin by saying this, "I really LOVE meat!" For the last, wow, must be almost two years?, my wife tbV and i have been doing our best to do a week of normal eating [as in what we're used to, which is not a crazy amount of meat actually] followed by a meat-free week. But we were chatting last night and realised [or confessed] that we don't find it all that easy. [...]
All lives matter? True. i thought we had gotten to a point where we didn't need to have this conversation again. But after explaining it on two or three different conversations threads this week i figured i would give it another go - some people are still catching on to this one. And i get it - it is quite subtle and nuanced and until you get it, you don't get it... so we need [...]
i am busy reading Eusebius McKaiser's "Run Racist Run!" It has some great and helpful insights, but this piece on white people expecting people of colour to help us not be racist i found really helpful in terms of putting words to something i've started to understand for a while. Also as a helpful response to those people who have tried to understand things and get involved in the race conversation only to receive push back [...]
i am busy reading Douglas Adams 'So Long and Thanks for all the Fish' book which is the third part of the increasingly badly named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy [which was five books long] and i came upon this gem of a passage which i think is so deeply profound. i also think that if you think it's deeply profound then it's probably no for you and if you don't then it probably is. [...]
So yesterday's post looking at Parenting Ideas from non-parents generated a lot of healthy conversation. i had a few more people share some more ideas and while me sharing them is not an endorsement to all of the ideas [this is honestly meant to be some input to reflect on, consider, see if there is any good worth holding on to] there are some things here that i really think are helpful. And so parentals, [...]
