Little Beginnings

Though I wish there was an epic tale to tell about Nick's debut, the reality is that Ellen and Lee showed up for the scheduled C-section and then they pulled the little munchkin out. Everyone was healthy and no one exploded, so it was a perfectly successful day. 
So far he sleeps, eats, and screams. Olivia is jealous and has become whiny in his wake. We're just one week in, so that's all I've got so far.

Now enough about that brand new citizen of the world.

I've been a volunteer over at The Humane League for four months now and it's like I've stumbled upon an entire little universe no one knows about. It's a factory of busy bees in there that are problem-solving, creating, discussing, scheming, presenting, and chatting away with all of the like-minded people. When you first start, you're just thrown right on into the Caddyshack harbor scene and set loose to make change. It's a lot to take in. But now that the wake has settled, I've been able to make the most of my email writing abilities. In fact, I've harassed the folks at Zaxby's (about the welfare of their chickens)(teeheehee) so much that they've blocked me. Blocked me! 

But we celebrate that kind of thing over at The Humane League. Means we're gettin' to 'em.

THL (for short) is like being on a lifelong cruise ship adventure. Each morning when you wake up, an event itinerary has been slipped under your door or in this case, your email inbox. There are heaps of events and activities that you can log into anytime. There are weekly check-ins, guest speakers presenting an assortment of topics. There is "coffee and campaigning", "Zoom happy hour", Vegan eaters talking about recipes, etc, you name it! Do you want shuffle board on the lido deck, or bingo with cruise director Dottie? It's a wild time, and then you log off and go back to your real life and it's hard to believe all of that is going on inside of your computer. 

In January my regional cruise director hooked me up with a media company that has a writing program for activists. I was honored to be accepted into the program and I am officially one month in. This company is a treasure trove of resources. They focus on content production and publishing so it's just a couple hundred writers and editors that are all strangely interested in helping others succeed. Ahh the power of a common goal. 

The crazy bit is the "Topics" page. They have real life famous activists available to be mentors for project ideas. They send out an email of paid writing gigs that are accepting submissions. They have monthly pitch meetings where you go refine your ideas with real life publishers who may pick up your story. Also they have a job board for writers and activists of all kinds. There is a news section (animal or otherwise) where people post and react and scheme solutions. I posed a few questions in response to an article on excessive hippos in South America and now I've gotten sucked into a group of four women who are trying to save Pablo Escobar's pet hippos from mass extermination on the grounds of overpopulation. What? Yep. Someone's got to do it.

But back to the "internship". I've learned a lot so far - mostly that I have no desire to be a journalist. Sure, I never thought I did want to have a life filled with hours of research and finding clever ways to restate published facts and statements, but now I know for certain that I don't possess that kind of creativity-patience-bravery hybrid. I have a very hard time coming up with things to write about because everything has been written about before. I don't believe I will write something so profound that it changes anyone's mind about ordering a burger. Smarter, more well-informed people have already written those pieces. 

The many other people in my "cohort" can write entire papers on a single statement they found in another article. They can find reasons to be offended on another person's behalf and subsequently write highly intellectual articles on problems you didn't know existed. It's a swirling vortex of traits I don't possess. And I'm ok with it. One month in an activism writers collective has brought about a whole new world view for me because mostly this writing gig has given me lots of nuggets to chew on. I have found that I lean philosophical in my thinking, as opposed to the more productive option of coming up with solutions. "Yes that is a problem and here's why," I say to no one, and then pat myself on the back for my superior understanding. 

There are all kinds of activists. The brazen, emotion-based ones (scary), bashful mute ones, productive business person types, and all kinds of people inbetween that are barbers or mechanics or teachers and they just don't like the system and want it to change. They aren't especially gifted in any particular area of activism productivity and I think I'm in that group. I haven't figured out how to best use my skill set in this arena but I'm having a wild ride figuring it out.