Brave enough
Helping Friendly Newsletter, 06.17.22
Every Friday, I share 5 things to consider and a treasure chest of links. If you like them, please subscribe (it’s free).
GM! ☕️
Here are this week’s 5 things to consider:
With so many issues that deserve attention, I’m revisiting Cole Authur Riley’s essay on signal vs. noise in social media activism. She proposes more discernment around when to get loud and when to listen. “There is certainly a silence born of cowardice, a silence that emboldens oppressors. But sometimes to be silent is to finally become honest.” Intentional action, not performance, is the goal.
Related reads: Gal Beckerman’s “Radical Ideas Need Quiet Spaces” and Charlie Warzel’s “How the Internet Became a Doom Loop.” Riley is creator of the Black Liturgies project and author of This Here Flesh.I was pleased to discover this neurodiversity inclusion challenge, curated by the Heller School at Brandeis University. Two good starting points are this comic strip explanation of the autism spectrum and the PBS documentary Neurotypical. Neurodiversity is often overlooked in DEI strategies, so consider sharing these links with your org’s leaders.
The documentary Hold Your Breath is quiet and unassuming, but riveting. In it, ice diver Johanna Nordblad attempts a record-breaking cold-water swim. She strikes me as kindred spirit to cave diver Jill Heinerth, whose memoir Into the Planet also captivates. Through diligent preparation and focus, they both defy the constraints of fear: “I was scared, but I knew that if I could be brave enough to step over the brink into the blackness, my eyes would adjust and new possibilities would be revealed.”—Jill Heinerth
You may have seen Free Solo, the documentary on Alex Honnold’s epic El Capitán free climb. But have you seen What If He Falls, the filmmakers’ story? It’s a NYT video feature on the ethics of filming such a dangerous climb, and how that impacted the creative process. (ICYMI, Alex Honnold recently became a dad.)
Mary Oliver’s “Don’t Hesitate” is an invitation to embrace joy not in spite of a troubled world, but for the sake of it.🖤 This week, I’m finding joy in a Father’s Day lunch with my parents and husband (xoxo), Outlander costumes, bullet journals for reading, and the anticipation of summer. You?
—Mary Oliver, Devotions
Treasure chest
I bet you find a gem ➔ this Juneteenth, revisit the case for reparations and take action | the teens are the sanest of us all | finding joy in activism | burnout: the musical | the 7 types of rest | an activity to clarify your creative identity | how to improve your handwriting | the fantastic giant tortoise is not extinct | reasons to live through the apocalypse | strawberry moon | i’m with you, Anne and Owl👇🏼
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Happy Father’s Day, Juneteenth, Solstice, and weekend! I’ll see you again soon.
Jenny
