Tikun Olam: Shakesville end of year fundraiser

[sonia]

For my December contribution to making the world a better place, I contributed to Shakesville's end of year fundraiser. I've been reading that blog for a long time, and I've learned so much about politics and social justice. Lately I've been veering away from reading some of the grimmer posts, not because I think they're wrong, but because I find I need to keep hope alive in myself, even as we descend deeper into the morass. I like that Liss says that asking for money is one of the most feminist things she does, because, yes, her labor is worth being compensated.

I've enjoyed my year-long commitment to give $100 each month toward making the world a better place. I will probably continue. I need to evaluate where my money is going and see how this fits into my budget. This has been a year of feeling financially insecure, even though my practice is doing better than ever before.

I think partly I'm not used to trusting myself to my practice, after so many years of it not being enough, and also the insecurity is political as well as financial. I feel like I'm living under threat, after so many years of working hard to build a life that works for me. Even though I know life isn't fair for so many people in so many ways, I still thought I could figure out how to build security for myself.

Maybe things will still turn around somehow, or maybe we can take the ride down the drain with grace. I don't know what else to do but keep doing what I'm doing, making choices as best I can as things continue to unravel.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I trust you will make good choices.

“Even though I know life isn't fair for so many people in so many ways, I still thought I could figure out how to build security for myself.”

This is the 2017 theme song. I live in hope that more people understand this with the return of the sun.

[sonia]

Thank you for your trust. It helps to take that in.

I'm noticing that part of me is screaming "Emergency! Emergency!" but it's long-term, not short-term. I wish there were some short-term extreme action I could take that would have an effect, rather than doing little bits as I can over the long term.