wow, so it's november, huh?

i know monday is usually when i send y'all good news, but i'm my own boss, so you're getting the business instead.

i'm just getting back on my feet from hurricane Ida. september felt like a decade, and october felt like a minute. my acceptance and understanding of my time-blindness means that i am used to feeling like chronological time is arbitrary, but since the pandemic began time has felt extra chaotic.

i'm finally coming to grips with the fact that a number of "crises" we are facing are not going to end.

the UN's COP26 climate conference began yesterday and creepy uncle joe is bragging about $555 billion put towards "climate change" in his lil bill. for reference, in 2020 the US spent $778 billion on its military. there is nothing radical about this bill or biden's approach. currently 329.5 million people are being held hostage by a crusty white man born in 1947 who founded a coal brokerage and a self important class traitor who thinks being some kind of queer reverse john mccain is more important than our global future or current wellbeing.

three of my friends are currently hunger striking in front of the white house to demand radical change so that our planet remains liveable. my heart is with them, but i don't believe our government has a conscience to be appealed to.

meanwhile in airborne pathogen news...

i keep having to squash a sneaky hope that "back to normal" is not only possible but coming soon. here are the most current COVID stats for Louisiana from the NYT (there's a link below the image to check your state). meanwhile, we are throwing away unused vaccines and ignoring the fact that each wave of spikes has been bigger than the last.

it's time for us to start preparing ourselves for a world in which things that were once acute crises are now a part of our day-to-day experience.

in between frantically googling gardening courses and heat resistant tiny-home designs, i am trying to ground back down into my humanity. i am reminding myself that homo sapiens have survived climate cycles and the collapse of empires before and some of us will again. i am trying to connect with ancestral wisdom in a myriad of ways, one of which is sitting with myths and stories and other ways in which we have made meaning of our lives since the beginning of the anthropocene.

i'd like to offer a book club on one of the sources that has felt supportive to me. this offering is for people of all genders who can come with a listening spirit.

Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype a book by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Though the gifts of wildish nature come to us at birth, society’s attempt to “civilize” us into…

BookshopClarissa Pinkola Estés

WWRWW Book Club

Google Docs

i'll be back to more consistently bringing you abolitionist content as a means of imagining what we can become. thank you for being patient with me as i survive the world and finish the process of creating the abolitionist deck, which is shipping this week and can still be purchased here alongside some other offerings.

as always, i hope this was useful.

if it was and you've got five bucks a month to spare, click here.

with hope,

katie wills evans