Do not kiss the ring. Do not bend to power. Power will come to you, anyway. Don’t make it easy. Not everyone can stand and fight. But nobody needs to bend the knee until there’s an actual memo to that effect. WAIT FOR THE MEMO."
Thank you for sharing that piece on collapse too - this is a new writer to me and I also loved her essays on creating community and motherhood. I’ve also had that lingering sense of collapse for a long time and really appreciated her - and your - thoughts on it ❤️
Glad it resonated. Tbh I think it’s real, tho I would say I have a different starting point perhaps, so the feeling of collapse has always been on the periphery…
Thanks for your always interesting scan of what's around Yassmin. Great to revisit Hilary Mantel through Katie Ward's friendship with her.
And yes, yes, Rosie Spinks' piece on collapse resonated... and my take is that it resonates with so many of us because of the 'place' we find ourselves in, as we read - ie in a western society that equates 'progress' with material increase (and globalisation has meant it's an increasingly universal aspiration). As human beings we do tend to think in terms of getting somewhere, (progressing) because it reflects life, which to all intents and purposes is sequential... this comes after that, and leads on to something else. The years (if nothing else!) stack up. From seven or eight decades on, I can say that we look back on life, as a long process/progress of getting to where we are in this moment. What Rosie and so many others are turning to as progress, is much more internal, much more human-experience-based, and human sized than what we see around us in bigger and bigger manifestations of material progress, eg the Toyota Hilux instead of the family station wagon (ummm this is real - in Queensland, Australia, the Hilux, a crew cab 4WD pickup truck, sold a higher number of units than any other car on the market last year). Rosie's thoughts bring to mind the Small Is Beautiful ideal of the 1970s, and so many discussions and ideas similar to those Rosie is exploring. As well as connecting with our smartphones, it's good to remember who we are, what we are, and that flesh to flesh is how we're born and is our starting place for community and warm human connection.
"You have more power than you think!
Do not kiss the ring. Do not bend to power. Power will come to you, anyway. Don’t make it easy. Not everyone can stand and fight. But nobody needs to bend the knee until there’s an actual memo to that effect. WAIT FOR THE MEMO."
T
Brilliant.
I just downloaded signal
Yessss!! I loved this so much. WAIT FOR THE MEMO!!! 💙💙💙💙
Thank you for sharing that piece on collapse too - this is a new writer to me and I also loved her essays on creating community and motherhood. I’ve also had that lingering sense of collapse for a long time and really appreciated her - and your - thoughts on it ❤️
Glad it resonated. Tbh I think it’s real, tho I would say I have a different starting point perhaps, so the feeling of collapse has always been on the periphery…
That article about Hilary Mantel's writing advice is such a nice revisit. Thank you! 😊 X
Thanks for your always interesting scan of what's around Yassmin. Great to revisit Hilary Mantel through Katie Ward's friendship with her.
And yes, yes, Rosie Spinks' piece on collapse resonated... and my take is that it resonates with so many of us because of the 'place' we find ourselves in, as we read - ie in a western society that equates 'progress' with material increase (and globalisation has meant it's an increasingly universal aspiration). As human beings we do tend to think in terms of getting somewhere, (progressing) because it reflects life, which to all intents and purposes is sequential... this comes after that, and leads on to something else. The years (if nothing else!) stack up. From seven or eight decades on, I can say that we look back on life, as a long process/progress of getting to where we are in this moment. What Rosie and so many others are turning to as progress, is much more internal, much more human-experience-based, and human sized than what we see around us in bigger and bigger manifestations of material progress, eg the Toyota Hilux instead of the family station wagon (ummm this is real - in Queensland, Australia, the Hilux, a crew cab 4WD pickup truck, sold a higher number of units than any other car on the market last year). Rosie's thoughts bring to mind the Small Is Beautiful ideal of the 1970s, and so many discussions and ideas similar to those Rosie is exploring. As well as connecting with our smartphones, it's good to remember who we are, what we are, and that flesh to flesh is how we're born and is our starting place for community and warm human connection.