Earlier today, a friend texted me this quote:

 REMEMBER TO
IMAGINE + CRAFT
THE WORLDS
YOU CANNOT
LIVE WITHOUT.
JUST AS YOU
DISMANTLE
THE ONES
YOU CANNOT
LIVE WITHIN.

-Ruha Benjamin

These words gave me the kind of fuel that prompts not the attack-mode of productivity but the softness and flow of world-crafting. It reminded me to pull out from the back of the closet the crystal 3-tiered cake stand an elderly couple gifted me at the end of their yard sale this summer, and to make it the infrastructure of Christmas morning breakfast in a couple days. This tiny act of world-crafting will tilt the scales for me towards a sweet morning with my kids doing a holiday on our family’s terms, and away from the script of the holiday which, if left on default, perpetuates traditions of lying to children, exploitative profiteering, and a way of running moms in particular into the ground.

As the brook of the holiday season babbles along, whatever it is you celebrate, please know how much I appreciate you, the work you do, and our shared interests crafting the worlds we cannot live without and dismantling the unlivable ones. I’m especially grateful for the exchanges that circulate within this community and make all kinds of ripples.

Those of you who do clinical work: an extra thank-you to you right now. Your work is art — the particular kind that artists make anyway, even when Nazi’s call it degenerate or no market exists for it or people don’t recognize it as art. It’s also sacred work that upholds our society, happening basically in the context of a horror movie. Please know how amazing that is, and you are, and be extra compassionate with yourself.

And to everyone else — give the healthcare workers in your daily life an extra thank-you. And give yourself some extra gentleness as well.

Love,

Alexa

HIGHLIGHTS / UPCOMING:

PUBLICATION: Healthcare and Journalism are Facing the Same Crisis – and people are dying as a result. Slate, 12/17/21. Co-authored with Jacob Nelson.

SALON SERIES: The Joy of Looking: Collisions with Art and Collective Perspectives. First Fridays 1-3pm EST, February through July 2022, on Interintellect. Register here. 

LECTURE AND WORKSHOP SERIES, Netter School of Medicine, Quinnipiac University, January, 2022. 

Collective Understanding: A Workshop for Research Teams. University of California San Francisco Pre-term Birth Initiative. January, 2022.

Converting Clinical Transactions to Microcosms of Learning Culture: A Workshop for Health Humanities Faculty. Health Humanities Consortium, March 22-25, 2022.