I really need to schedule time for rumba again... I miss just losing myself in a crowd/beat.

(Partially, I left early morning classes for English teaching & article writing, but I was also avoiding a woman who'd latched onto me as an obvious business partner to solve her income-flow problems by doing translation for her accounting business to expand her reach to a North American market. Didn't have time/interest, but she really killed my vibe with all the requests.)

...Maybe evening classes? 👀

And... now I can get back to yesterday's newsletter.

There were HUGE problems with uploading the paperback version of my collection, & it essentially took me 12 hours of tweaking to fix the issue after trying to go forward with either a doc version (non-ideal, requiring a lot of fiddling with page counts) or PDF version, despite bizarre errors being flagged until I found the problem's secret source.

Now though? Out of my hands! Awaiting link!

Back to writing about global politics via SFF. 👌

Okay, CoSo.

Today for #OnlySky, I talk international politics. 🌍

Specifically: NATO, the EU, and what three case studies in membership bids tells us about the delicate struggle to rise above nation-state conflicts in pursuit of a better peace on the global stage.

Join me in thinking about Finland, Sweden, and Ukraine in light of what they teach us about the delicate *and necessary* role of international civic spaces for us all.

#Humanism #Politics #Europe #Ukraine
https://onlysky.media/mclark/so-this-is-nato-sweden-finland-and-ukraines-year-in-bids/

Today's episode of Vibe Check finds the sisters talking about grief in the wake of one's mother's death. These Black queer "church boys" (by upbringing) offer a lovely set of insights into the gifts of deeper knowledge that can accompany a passing, and the abundance of care and even laughter that can join us in grief. I thought it might be right up the alley of anyone sitting with loss - recent, or in a later phase of its journey.

#Podcasts #Grief #Humanism
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/life-has-been-lifing-lately/id1637476174

Tired? Yes.

But also ending the day grounded in the value of the work I strive to do.

As ever--& as anyone else with mood disorders, living without much support, surely knows:

Sometimes one small part of you wants you to believe it is the whole of you.

& it can very quickly hijack & diminish the rest.

But we are more than the little hijackers who sometimes get inside our heads.

& there is life after the rides they take us on.

Remember the rest of you.

Even & *especially* when it's hard.

🙃 We live in deeply unserious times, especially when it comes to our media.

It's just a shame that all times with life involved are very serious, too.

✊🏻 Fight the power, etc.

Yesterday's sleep-deprived euphoria is giving way to meditation over the parts of ourselves so deeply habituated, the best we can do is try to break the pattern when it shows up.

I have a personality that makes it easy for me to get caught in helper roles that are often abused. I know things would be easier if I'd had stable community / a healthy partner to pour care into from the jump, but that's not always to be.

So, we go slow. Watch for signs. And course correct for healing on the way.

Okay, #Trekkies! 🖖

Today for #OnlySky, I look at how the latest episode of #StrangeNewWorlds corrects for missteps from TOS's "The Cage" and its surrounding production culture.

"Among the Lotus Eaters" offers a generous look at the role of memory in identity formation, considers uses and abuses of forgetting, and reaffirms the role of "cerebral" storytelling in #StarTrek writ large.

(Some wobbly plot choices here, but come for the #Humanism and stay for Ortegas!) #SFF https://onlysky.media/mclark/memory-forgetting-and-choosing-our-better-selves-among-the-lotus-eaters/

Stepping out for a working walk before evening writing.

When thinking global-locally, mind that you don't stuck in a bubble. A lot of online activism can obfuscate the core site of action in our lives. (And thanks for doing what you can, where you can!)

#YouTube
https://youtube.com/shorts/wz65SyC-A5s?feature=share8

🫂 I love being fully human with all of you.

(Sleep exhaustion might be hitting me like drunkenness, but I *think* this sentiment still holds when I'm "sleep sober". 🙃)

On a more positive note (since helping this person *really* affirmed for me the importance of the stories that constituted most of my published work for over a decade, informed by life among *so* many hurt people who hurt people), I have done something a bit indulgent today and put on a dress a friend once made for me *out* of my words. Today I'll finish pbk tweaks on the collection to *hard* launch on July 11, after so much sadness froze me on J4. Tomorrow we move on.

#WritersOfCoSo #GoodVibes