Tag: writing

What to do when you can’t do anything

I have been doing a lot of dancing lately. I went out on Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday last week. Salsa, bachata, country swing, line dancing, whatever I could find. The week before I went out Sunday and Wednesday. I might do it again this week. I say that my way of taking care of myself in these dark moments has been to be an ostrich, to bury my head in the sand, but that is not true. I read everything. I see everything. I am looking less than I normally do but I am not a normal consumer of news. I am a former journalist, a storyteller, a teacher. I see it all.

And so I dance because I need the release. Because I need to be close to another human being for a few minutes, to be in reciprocity and relationship without commitment, without words, to show that I can love and be loved not for who I am or what I offer or even what I stand for, but simply for existing, simply for finding solace and release in rhythm and community. I need the thrum of the clave, or lilt of a fiddle, the collective movement that says we are all human and we need each other and love each other.

I am reminded of Dan Savage’s quote about the height of the AIDS epidemic:

“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night, and it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for.” – Dan Savage

I didn’t know we would be burying our friends this month, but we are. And I don’t know what comes next or how we move on from this terrible state, but we have to keep going. Even if you feel like you can’t do anything, you can.

Here are some things you can do if you feel like you can’t do anything.

  1. Check on your neighbors and your friends
  2. Talk about it. This hurts. You can call me if you want
  3. Bring your neighbors groceries
  4. Don’t buy from companies that don’t match your values
  5. Talk to the little people in your life about what is happening in an age-appropriate way. They can tell that you’re scared; tell them why
  6. Make art
  7. Carry a whistle and use it if you see something suspicious
  8. Follow and repost content creators and journalists who are showcasing what is really happening
  9. Dream into what you want the world to look like
  10. Keep pressure on your senators and congresspeople to hold them accountable
  11. Send money to a mutual aid fund for refugees or immigrant families
  12. Pray. Yes, pray, I said that
  13. Walk children to and from school or buses
  14. Join a protest
  15. Dance. And yes, dance. Dance, dance, dance until the light comes.

A few recent reads

Last summer, I met an old friend for drinks in Boulder. We had once been friends who shared our fiction writing and talked endlessly about the books and short stories we were reading and how we were thinking about writing different characters and story lines. You can imagine my embarrassment when he asked what I was reading and I couldn’t think of a single thing that didn’t have the words “poverty,” “development,” “poor,” “family,” or “gender” in the title. As a result, I started devouring Faulkner, and have been since been making more time for fiction.

Over the winter break, I happened to read two very enjoyable books in quick succession with similar themes: time, memory, writing, sexual oppression and violence, gender, and even some academic inquiry. If I had a literature PhD instead of an economics one, I’d probably write a paper on Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. One has elements of the Murakami-like magical realism and one is more a dystopian fantasy, but both are excellent reads and highly recommended.

By coincidence, I also happened upon the #readwomen2014 conversation on twitter this morning (h/t @berfrois). I can definitely get behind a great list of women writers. I can’t wait to explore.

I’m still reading the other stuff of course. In fact, I spent Christmas morning before everyone got up with Justice, Gender, And The Family, much to the consternation of my family and friends.

Doesn’t everyone read feminist tracts while waiting to open presents? No? Y’all are missing out.

Crowd-sourcing classroom blogging

So, I’ve made some work for myself this semester, I think. In light of the conversation a few weeks ago regarding blogging by academics, and a recent spate of blog posts on LSEImpact on social media, I decided that my students should be blogging.

In reality, I think they should be writing. A lot. And I think they should be reading each other’s writing. It’s amazing to me how many students go through college having had no one read their papers or other written work except their professors. Don’t get me wrong, I have faith in the ability of most professors to present an informed opinion on a work, but those students are missing significant opportunities to improve their skills of crafting an argument if they do not practice and put themselves out there. I can give an opinion on how to write something, but it’s merely one opinion.

It’s a good one, of course, but just one.

So, I have 25 students in two methods classes. They are going to blog about their research projects–still TBD for most, though a few have come to me with interesting ideas. They are going to blog about their reading assignments–mostly from Poor Economics or Freakonomics. Hopefully, they also blog about questions that come up in their textbooks. Hopefully, they blog about interesting things they find in the news. Hopefully, they start reading other blogs and commenting on them as well.

The course blog is here. It has three lists of links. One for each section of my class and one for several economics blogs. Some I read, some were just suggested to me. If your blog is not on there, and you think it should be, let me know. I’m happy to add it. I think the more examples they have, the better.

In addition, I’m totally open to ideas of how to make this work. Assignments that are particularly well-suited to blogging (with an economics or econometrics or research component preferred) are totally welcome. If it worked or if it didn’t, it it was an unmitigated disaster or a resounding success, I’d love to hear about it.