I'm backish

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Ordinarily, I post when I have some time to ruminate. I have some half finished and largely forgotten posts – about the Occupy Movements, about household decision-making, about animals. By the time I revisited them, the fervor that led me to write about them had diminished and there they sat.

I’m doing pretty well in Baltimore. I feel engaged. There’s no shortage of movement work, PhDing, pets, stray cats, teaching, and socializing. Most times I have to actively say no to the awesome events and leisure activities in order to take a breath.

Problem is, I’m too busy. The weird thing about doing schoolwork in Toronto was that I had time to sit with my ideas. I let the ideas breathe. Paradoxically, having that much space felt isolating and depressing. I actually enjoy the momentum but I know it's detrimental to my progress as a PhD candidate.

I've purposefully downshifted for April (at least a little). Hopefully that will allow me some space for reflection - both academically and politically. I'm currently reading a lot about the environment and I'm really concerned about the lack of political momentum in the U.S. in this regard. This is topped off with these incessant attacks on women's bodies in really fundamental ways around rights that I (sadly? stupidly?) took for granted. It makes me think about how social movements solidify gains. The state as mechanism to do so is such a tenuous entity.

While I'm happy overall, I do feel a little uneasy about the state of things writ-large.