Sometimes the urge to correct disinformation is *so* strong.

But it's not always the right time, and people aren't always receptive.

(Sometimes they know they're bending the truth, but pursuing other ends when doing so.)

At those moments, one can "use the tools"...

But a humanist strategy is to learn to sit with and learn from the discomfort of not being able to fix every factually incorrect belief.

We're not always going to share the same convictions.

We *do* have to share the same world.

Quick aside:

We all have subject-positions, and the greatest integrity comes from being upfront about our own.

Here on CoSo, we have folks who are hawkish, folks who are pacifist, & pacifists who own guns. We have spiritual folk, hardcore religionists, & atheists. We have conservatives, liberals, & leftists.

I am firmly secular humanist. My advocacy is always pro-democracy and pro-human agency.

I don't *want* to be everyone's cup of tea.

I want everyone to feel free to steep as they choose.

Nah, that version caught WAY too many noises from kids playing in the footie field and dogs barking at each other.

I'll try again tomorrow. Good practice round, though!

Patreon next.

#War

There's a lot of pain that comes with seeing relentless news of people dying.

That pain is worsened when our countries play very public roles in suffering.

No one should feel ashamed to express dismay at the loss of human life.

No one in a *democracy* should feel they have to shut up about concerns with respect to state actions.

And if people are learning now how complicit we've always been in suffering? Good. That will ideally lead to better praxis in general.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israeli-strikes-southern-gaza-city-rafah-kill-13-109471596

It also seems quiet(er) out, so I'll hazard a recording session in half an hour, once I've gotten myself into a slightly calmer state.

I *do* need a good run, super early in the morning, to purge some of these Big Feels - but for that, I also need to sleep through the night for the first time in weeks, so, we'll see.

One task at a time. 🤞

But after that & a few annoying encounters with people who mistook me for a tourist (something that makes people think I can't speak Spanish, because they're so struck by the vision of the Other, and who thus act like nothing I'm saying makes any sense)...

I breathed out. Had a decent encounter with someone. Then another.

And on my way back, I sat with a street person I know who just wanted to talk about how losing his sight was scaring him.

Paso a paso.
Relearning how to "people" takes time.

my nerves were frayed and I fell back into a way of venting I used to do all the time in Canada, when I was *so* miserable, *so* stuck in my life, & saw no way to fix any of my problems, but also couldn't help being in pseudo-public spaces (for work) where everyone around me "needed" me to fill in a perceived gap in their life. That's the kind of suffocation I've been feeling lately, and to have that old venting behaviour come out around someone *actually* in need filled me with great shame.

+

Even going across the street for a bit led to a few interactions that showed how frayed my nerves are right now. It took me no fewer than five interactions to get the last one sort-of right, and I still feel very much unable to "people" well right now.

One thing I hate doing is bringing negative energy to a genuine request from someone on the street. I was hit by such a request 2 blocks from home, by someone who needed just a wee bit more for a vital medication. We went to the pharmacist but

+

@Museek! 🥳

Happy birthday to a human who does so much for her communities, and who navigates hurdles that would *not* exist in a more just world. 💛🫂 May you feel surrounded today by love, family, and hope, and may the year ahead present more triumphs than setbacks - for you, and for all the people that your advocacy so powerfully supports.

On the plus side, this is going to drive me out of the apartment, because I can't hear myself think in here.

Taking a notebook to the mall instead, which will somehow be quieter than the highway during a protest day.

TTFN take two. 🫂 Be good to your noggins.

It's a strike day. More trucks just arrived, flashing Colombian flags and operating in collective protest for a number of grievances. This is going to be VERY NOISY for the rest of the morning.

Well, so much for recording. I'll finish a Patreon post instead, and try again early tomorrow. #Colombia

Or... not.

For some reason the taxi and truck drivers are tooting today. Another strike? On a Sunday? When ciclovía promises the closest we get to a little quiet?

This is my fault for not being ready to record pre-dawn, but ugh. Let's see how long this goes on for. A strike, or maybe they're gearing up for a funeral procession. Either way, they might do laps along my stretch of highway. I have to wait and see.

All right. I didn't make it outside this morning, and every task is taking twice or thrice as long because I really don't give a hoot about much right now, but fingers crossed the traffic will be mild enough that I can record today's BookTube without too many re-takes. TTFN, all.

Oh, Texas.

From Erin Reed:

"Within hours, multiple GOP officials in Texas signed onto Abbott’s call to ban trans and GNC teachers from teaching. These include Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi and multiple Texas State legislators and candidates such as Briscoe Cain and Brent Money. Their reaction to Abbott’s comments are in line with the Texas GOP platform passed in 2022 that call [for] extensive restrictions on trans and GNC individuals in schools."

#LGBTQ #Trans #Politics
https://open.substack.com/pub/erininthemorn/p/gov-abbott-we-want-to-end-trans-and

(Also, hello, good morning, and good Sunday. 💛)

Some days it feels like we're at the edge of a story our cultures have been telling themselves for the last 250 years - since the crafting of states around colonies, and the dawn of modern nationalism in a myth of ethnic purity inflamed by a British judge going to India and realizing that Sanskrit shared a common origin with European tongues.

We've built so much of our sense of the world around what's ultimately a blip of a cultural idea in deep history.

Will we live to see what comes afer it?

Apropos of nothing, I now have a super strong urge to re-watch A Serious Man (something I do maybe once every 3-4 years?).

"Things aren't so bad! Look at the parking lot, Larry! ...Just look at that parking lot..."

https://youtu.be/UzKzPd4lhQM