Treatments are going very well this morning, & the dad is the happiest I've seen him in a long while.

🫂💛 Thank you to everyone who's donated. I think I can send individual replies via ko-fi and I'll be doing that today. With the last two days / emergency surgery, the cost skyrocketed to 17,000.000COP, but everyone's help has now almost matched it (14,900.000COP). When we sit down to budget at month's end, what an amazing gift of freedom this will be for a family that's gone through so much. ❤️

Evening CoSo!

Today was rough. César was badgered all day by hospital staff, as we waited for a key transfer to come through so his son could get critical surgical follow-up aid.

But! He's receiving those treatments now, & I've posted a piece for #OnlySky that reflects on a huge challenge for many secular folks: How to be present with integrity with folks in need who find their greatest comfort in faith. We share so much as humans that always matters more. ⬇️

#Humanism
https://onlysky.media/mclark/when-an-atheist-sits-with-spiritual-people-in-need/

This is going to be a fragile week for me, but I need to get a lot done.

When I try to disengage over the holidays it's to prevent a downcycle, which can easily be set off by... oh, tons.

This last week's dizzying fall into essentially adopting a family in need for a bit is 100% up there in terms of things that can set off despair.

But we go on. I postponed my first podcast recordings for a week; I have tons writing to finish & send out instead.

🫂💙 Stay strong, lovelies.
2023 coming in hot.

Apparently the eight-year-old is going to school today after all.

Imagine - your brother still in intensive care, your dad stuck by his side, and you left to organize yourself and head off to school on your own.

We eighties kids were the last of the latchkeys. We used to be incredibly self-reliant and left home alone tons. Here, that happens a lot too.

But still. What a rough way to start the new school year (Colombia's schedule runs differently).

Morning CoSo. 💙

Keep up the good fight.

Out of surgery. Into intensive care. Still delicate. They say it went well.

The dad is spent. Obviously. Some families have no luck at all.

Hug your loved ones. Vax up. Use antibiotics sparingly and follow the protocol in full. And don't throw children out on the street. Little things, I know - but what a difference they make.

This episode of This American Life features writer Etgar Keret telling stories about his mother, who was in the Holocaust, in the Warsaw Ghetto, &... had a most unusual way of weaving trauma into the stories she crafted into bedtime tales for her son.

It's both a heavy episode & testament to how we carry heavy lives forward lovingly through narrative. Choose your time for it wisely, but it is worth the reflection it offers, on how we move forward in our haunted truths.

https://pca.st/episode/2ceb61ee-6347-4b79-a714-e10647c7d271

*Mind you, I am not telling the dad about *any* of those high risk factors. I am, however, bracing him to expect a longer post-op recovery if/when his son pulls through. They're currently cutting out the damaged bits of right lung to halt the infection in its tracks. This will be his second surgery in under a week to fight a dual bacterial infection.

Poor tyke. Solo tiene 4 añitos. There is no justice in this world.

I'm up with the dad tonight.

The infection spread to his son's other lung, despite stem cell therapy. Necrotizing pneumonia is apparently on the rise in the world, along with other signs of antibiotic resistance.

I've been doing a *lot* of reading into surgical interventions during this emergency operation. He has so many high risk factors for morbidity: late admission, incomplete vaccine schedule, malnutrition...

Poor brother at home, too. So much for starting school tomorrow. What a world.

Morning, CoSo. 💙

Today's newsletter covers the full saga of César's family - framed by reflections on "Fifth Business", and what it means to feel like you aren't at the centre of your own life: rather, like a supporting character, complexly critical in the saga of so many others.

Much love to you all.

Thank you for everything you do, where you can, how you can, with those most urgently hurting in your lives--& against the systems that first brought their hurt about. 💪

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/fifth-business-and-other-people-on

Massive power outage this afternoon in my district. Apologies if folks don't hear from me for a bit. Not sure what's going on or for how long. Life! Never ceases to be interesting! 👌🏻🫂 Be well! Be kind! Seek power outlets for all your devices as often as you can!

Song on my afternoon working playlist reminded me of a short film I haven't seen in years. Paused for a trip down memory lane. Maybe you'll enjoy this one, too. #CoSoFilms #AmWriting

https://youtu.be/cCeeTfsm8bk

Over 8 billion of us.

Boggles the mind sometimes, doesn't it?

When the UN was formed in 1945? We hadn't even reached 2.5 billion.

Trying to make space for one another - on a mental level: to *really* take in that we're all family, all on the same lifeboat - isn't always easy.

We make mistakes.

We scrap over the wrong sites of dissent.

And yet... we keep showing up: with curiosity, humility, & a hope for something better.

Good morning CoSo.

Thanks for showing up, wherever you can & do. ❤️

"We would benefit from remembering the Nigerian historian J F Ade Ajayi’s corrective that colonialism is an episode in African history, not its principal, much less sole, shaper."

Everything I've read by Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò has been a gift. This is no exception.

(Opening preamble gives way to a rich body of #History; do stick with it.)

https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-of-precolonial-africa-is-vacuous-and-wrong

Please enjoy this #CoSoNature #AnimalTax from my walk to the next work location. Happy Friday!

(For my second edition of the Carrasquilla translation, out March 4, I have to add in more about Colombian Catholicism because my North American Catholic readers were thrown by many facets of the culture here. Brujas are BIG in Colombia; there's an abiding conviction among rural, coastal, and older generations that witches slip into your homes at night and steal your breath. *Definitely* need to add more such secondary material to the re-release to contextualize the work going forward.)

Going to a new work location for eps 2 & 3. (Deconstruction of the Westphalian system in the bag! 🎉)

I always feel terrible after run-ins with folks like that street preacher. He genuinely believes in demons & witches, & can't comprehend people not scared of spooks in the night. It is *deeply* insightful to be reminded I share this cosmos with people who live in a demon-haunted world... but like, at a distance. My mere existence as a non-superstitious person drives an already scared human nuts.

Had another exhausting run-in with my challenging street-preaching newspaper vendor.

This one was striking, though, because he was eagerly talking about a section I can usually reference to get folks to back off: Christ's cruel treatment of a herd of pigs, by accepting a demon's request to be thrown into them, driving them to suicide. Apparently some people are *delighted* by that anecdote. Huh! You learn something new about human cruelty every day.

(Got my weekend crossword, though! #Winning)

The goal today is to *completely* lock in three podcast scripts.

Been a Week, though. I'm still present in the life of the hurting family - the child was hastened out of hospital SUPER quickly, and has been receiving ongoing care from a home set-up. His pneumonia is still pretty bad, but I've learned a heck of a lot about new treatments in the process, I tell you what.

More on that on Sunday. Today: Podcast scripts.

Can't grieve & hustle at the same time.

Happy Friday, Coso!
Hug a loved one.