I created this blog today with the intention of having a place to collect my own thoughts, and to collect from across the virtual world some of the writings and resources that have inspired my learning and growing.

I find myself with much hesitation about starting this project. I can tell that part of this hesitation is about the shame of feeling imperfect, of feeling incomplete in my learning, my political analysis, my work to challenge internalized oppression.

And part of it is being afraid of starting and then abandoning this project! So I want to talk about shame and phases, and experimentation. I’m thinking of all the times I’ve heard an adult talk about how a young person is “just going through a phase.” Imagine if we said, “they were experimenting with…” (cf. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five). In this way, we all, especially as young people, are discouraged from trying out and abandoning new things.

Related to this, I’m thinking of a culture that has abandoned the wisdom imbedded in the natural phases of our world and our bodies.

And so, I am starting this blog with the intention of rejecting the shame that gets attached to phases, cycles, and ever-changing plans. This is how we grow ourselves and build community. As others before me have said, we need a strategy of experimentation to grow and organize, to resist, create, and build the world we want.