Dad You're Wrong is a podcast about contentious situations that we all get ourselves into with friends, family members, coworkers, etc where it is tricky to try to break down what they are saying, and what the philosophical underpinnings of their statements are in order to be able to identify the concerns and raise them in a way to maximize your odds of being understood and maybe move the situation in a positive direction while minimizing all the ways it can go horribly wrong. With the recent rise of the phrase "Okay Boomer" it highlights the space that we attempt to fill. Dad You're Wrong is about getting better at the conversations you have while you still have hope in the utility of the conversation. It is the conversations before you resign yourself to just saying "Okay Boomer."
Just like "Boomer" in "Okay Boomer" isn't limited to folks in the Boomer generation and is not referring to all members of that generation, the "Dad" in "Dad You're Wrong" is also not exclusively "Dads", nor is it referring to "All Dads." As an example, in the first episode that will be dropping later in the month, Chicory explains a scene where they are at a gaming table at a convention and the storyteller was the "Dad" of the situation. He said and did some problematic things which our hosts discuss, dissect and consider how we can think of these situations in the future and what actions we can take when we find ourselves in similar situations. He is not a literal dad, but is the main conversation target that we keep in mind. We think there is a chance we could have a productive conversation with, but it will be tricky, and we will need to pull them with us every step of the way. The Ur-Dad of our show is similar to some of our familiar Dads from sitcoms. Our goal is to help our listeners communicate effectively in the face of resistance and these folks can be any gender, age, or family status. Sometimes we will even discover that a host may have been the "Dad" in the situation.
To start with Dad You're Wrong will be delivered monthly and I'm hoping to get the first episode delivered this month. If you want to make sure to get an email notification when the first Dad You're Wrong episode is published, join the mailing list by sending an email to dadyourewrong@gmail.com stating you want to be added to the mailing list. Also, if you have Dad You're Wrong situations you would like us to discuss, feel free to drop us a message about that too. We are starting off with personal experiences but would love to branch out into helping listeners with their situations as well.
I am not one of the hosts. Those parts are played by Chicory and Zero, two very authentic humans who bring a lot to the table and balance each other very well. I am the producer so I am doing a lot of the behind the scenes work including but not limited to scheduling, initial topic framing, editing, producing, publishing, compiling show notes, handling social media, marketing, and other such things. I'm learning a lot and I appreciate your patience and grace with this initial foray into the field. I expect that quality will improve over time but also that these initial episodes will provide value to a lot of people over time.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
October 2019 Accountability Report: Time / Effort
This month I played around a bit with my Time / Effort axis of my commitment. I started hour measuring and reporting weekly in order to be closer to being on track and to give folks more updates about the commitment I was struggling with. During week three I had a conversation with my partner that caused me to reflect on the ways that my conceptualization of this commitment might be problematic. I haven't come to solid conclusions about the issues with the conceptualization but I did provide a blog post about how my process was going to change going forward.
To that end, I have decided to simply report on the work that was done and make goals for the following month. We can then check in about the status of those goals monthly. There will be a relationship between my goals and time but being more abstract it will help me to treat myself humanely regarding misses and show up more authentically from a human place I want to cultivate in myself.
This month I really started getting the podcast pieces together. I got my Mac back and started learning audio editing. I read through Pat Flynn's free podcasting guide and got a birds-eye view of the process and necessary steps. The first episode is shaping up well and I've been working both on the episode, the infrastructure for the podcast and the pipeline for getting episodes through from start to finish more efficiently in the future. There are a lot of steps to producing a podcast and I'm learning a lot but it is really slow going. I set up an email for the project and a mailing list. If you know you want to receive an email when we launch our first episode, you can send an email to dadyourewrong@gmail.com and I'll make sure you get added. It will be low frequency and easy to unsubscribe from if you change your mind.
Project for Awesome is coming up again and this year I want to show up in a powerful way. This month I was looking into research for Raices. Their services are focused in Texas however, and although Texas has great need and Raices is an excellent organization that I frequently support monetarily, I think that selecting a nonprofit that serves immigrants nationwide may have broader appeal with the Project for Awesome audience and thus increase the odds of getting funded. So this year I am going to make a video for Freedom for Immigrants' National Bond Fund.
My mom and I have been thinking about the ways in which we see community, how it is similar and different from how other people conceptualize it. We think that there are strengths that arose from our circumstances that are not well represented in the self-help space and that the self-help space in general focuses too little on the role of community in their purview. We have fallen off on some of our conversations but we did meet once in October and it really renewed my interest in the project.
At time of writing this we already voted but it technically happened in November so I'll be writing more about this in the next Accountability report. One thing that I did do within the bounds of October though was watch the Democratic Presidential Debate. I do feel like each additional debate is yielding fewer returns as far as knowledge about the candidates but with such a large field I also feel like I haven't gotten to a point where I can conceptualize each of them uniquely and fairly so I really appreciate the debates as an opportunity to drive home my feelings about different candidates, both my appreciation and my concerns.
I've been trying to get back into micro-volunteering as a way to use spare moments here and there or times when ill to make the world better, even in small ways. Here are a few that I've been working on in October:
- Free Rice: Allows you to practice your vocabulary (or other subjects) and, for correct answers, uses ad revenue to donate rice to the United Nations World Food Programme
- The Hunger Site: Actually a collection of sites that you can visit once per day and ad revenue goes to support. I click through all the sites except the autism site because as an autistic person I am skeptical of the way that the money is being used. I know they have the best of intentions but there are a lot of work being done to autistic people that is quite harmful.
This month my blog posts were entirely about accountability. I think that by changing the format of my Time and Effort commitment I should have more time and energy instead of spending so much of it bean counting and reporting. I think these monthly posts are still helpful and I think this new goals focus will help a lot.
From above:
Additionally:
I have set some pretty ambitious goals for myself. It likely won't all get done but having goals will help me stay focused and moving forward. It will provide me motivation and incentive on days when it is hard to make myself work on this. If you've read all this, please let me know in the comments which project you are most excited to see more of.
To that end, I have decided to simply report on the work that was done and make goals for the following month. We can then check in about the status of those goals monthly. There will be a relationship between my goals and time but being more abstract it will help me to treat myself humanely regarding misses and show up more authentically from a human place I want to cultivate in myself.
Podcast:
This month I really started getting the podcast pieces together. I got my Mac back and started learning audio editing. I read through Pat Flynn's free podcasting guide and got a birds-eye view of the process and necessary steps. The first episode is shaping up well and I've been working both on the episode, the infrastructure for the podcast and the pipeline for getting episodes through from start to finish more efficiently in the future. There are a lot of steps to producing a podcast and I'm learning a lot but it is really slow going. I set up an email for the project and a mailing list. If you know you want to receive an email when we launch our first episode, you can send an email to dadyourewrong@gmail.com and I'll make sure you get added. It will be low frequency and easy to unsubscribe from if you change your mind.
My Goals for November's end-of-month update:
- Publish a blog post about the podcast so that folks know whether they want to be an early listener.
- Publish the first episode
- Appear in all the major podcast distribution channels
- Have 10 people opt-in to our email list to be notified of new episodes
- Have 1 review of our podcast by an early supporter
- Make at least 4 social media posts about the podcast
- Episode 2 audio producing complete and show notes started
- Episode 3 rough edit complete
- Episode 4 raw recording
- Episode 5 & 6 ready for recording
- Organize brainstormed ideas
- Initial Patreon Setup
Project for Awesome:
Project for Awesome is coming up again and this year I want to show up in a powerful way. This month I was looking into research for Raices. Their services are focused in Texas however, and although Texas has great need and Raices is an excellent organization that I frequently support monetarily, I think that selecting a nonprofit that serves immigrants nationwide may have broader appeal with the Project for Awesome audience and thus increase the odds of getting funded. So this year I am going to make a video for Freedom for Immigrants' National Bond Fund.
My Goals for November's end-of-month update:
- Publish a blog post about my history with the Project for Awesome and introducing it to the community.
- Research and outline the points I want to cover in my video
- Write the script for my video
- Publish a blog post about my research, outlining, and script writing process.
- Initial footage for video recorded.
- Research how to do video editing techniques required for video
- Make at least 6 social media posts about the project
Community Project:
My mom and I have been thinking about the ways in which we see community, how it is similar and different from how other people conceptualize it. We think that there are strengths that arose from our circumstances that are not well represented in the self-help space and that the self-help space in general focuses too little on the role of community in their purview. We have fallen off on some of our conversations but we did meet once in October and it really renewed my interest in the project.
My Goals for November's end-of-month update:
- Have met with my mom at least once
- Track down all my notes from previous conversations and organize them
- Make goals for 2020 for the project
Voting:
At time of writing this we already voted but it technically happened in November so I'll be writing more about this in the next Accountability report. One thing that I did do within the bounds of October though was watch the Democratic Presidential Debate. I do feel like each additional debate is yielding fewer returns as far as knowledge about the candidates but with such a large field I also feel like I haven't gotten to a point where I can conceptualize each of them uniquely and fairly so I really appreciate the debates as an opportunity to drive home my feelings about different candidates, both my appreciation and my concerns.
My Goals for November's end-of-month update:
- Research, Vote, Return Ballot - (Already completed)
- Meet with Mom to help her vote - (Already completed)
- Watch the November Presidential debate.
- Write a blog post about Voting as Showing Up
Micro-Volunteering:
I've been trying to get back into micro-volunteering as a way to use spare moments here and there or times when ill to make the world better, even in small ways. Here are a few that I've been working on in October:
- Free Rice: Allows you to practice your vocabulary (or other subjects) and, for correct answers, uses ad revenue to donate rice to the United Nations World Food Programme
- The Hunger Site: Actually a collection of sites that you can visit once per day and ad revenue goes to support. I click through all the sites except the autism site because as an autistic person I am skeptical of the way that the money is being used. I know they have the best of intentions but there are a lot of work being done to autistic people that is quite harmful.
Goals for November's End-of-month update:
- Track down some of the other Microvolunteering I've done over the years and re-evaluate potential for future volunteering opportunities.
- Write a blog post about my history with Microvolunteering and recommended places to get started.
Management:
I spent some time this month researching for how I wanted to fulfill my monetary commitment. As usual, it takes some time to select my Kiva repayment re-loans and this month there was an extra loan to research since my timing allowed me to make an extra loan due to a sponsor special. You can read more about my Kiva process in a blog post I wrote about it. Since the school year has just started I did research and selected a Donors Choose project to support. I also was thinking a lot about the circumstances that caused me to start these commitments in the first place. The incarcerated and detainment of people without cause and in inhumane conditions is unacceptable and horrific. As my depression with some of the aspects of this fight increases I have shifted my focus toward bail bond non-profits. I looked into a few options and selected one that serves residents in the detention center in Tacoma (Fair Fight), and one that serves citizens awaiting trial nationwide (Bail Project). I also decided on a national immigration bond non-profit for my Project for Awesome charity (Freedom for Immigrants).Goals for November's End-of-month update:
- Research and reloan repayments and make a round up loan in Kiva.
- Ensure my Patreon language is up to date with how I changed this commitment.
- Post at least once about my Patreon on Social media.
Blog Post:
This month my blog posts were entirely about accountability. I think that by changing the format of my Time and Effort commitment I should have more time and energy instead of spending so much of it bean counting and reporting. I think these monthly posts are still helpful and I think this new goals focus will help a lot.
My Goals for November's end-of-month update:
Standard:- 1 Money Commitment Accountability Post
- 1 Time / Effort Commitment Accountability Post
From above:
- 1 blog post about the Podcast
- 1 blog post about the Project for Awesome
- 1 blog post about Research, Outline, and Script Writing for Project for Awesome
- 1 blog post about Voting as Showing Up
Additionally:
- Consider, decide, and write about my Christmas plans regarding gift giving
- Brainstorm a list of 10 blog post topics for the future.
Conclusion:
I have set some pretty ambitious goals for myself. It likely won't all get done but having goals will help me stay focused and moving forward. It will provide me motivation and incentive on days when it is hard to make myself work on this. If you've read all this, please let me know in the comments which project you are most excited to see more of.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
October 2019 Accounting Report: Money
Introduction
For new followers, one of the arms of my "Showing Up" pledge has to do with monetary contributions. I am contributing 10% of my income to solving problems in my communities, local, state, national and global in a range of ways.This month I got my first Patreon supporter so in addition to my wages I also earned $1 with this project.
Base Wages: $4827.83
Overtime Wages: $210.75
Patreon Contributions: $1.00
Total: $5039.54
This gives me a contribution goal of $503.95 this month let's see how that broke down this month. Let me know in the comments if any of the contributions inspired you to take action. All of us showing up, even just a little bit, makes a big difference in aggregate.
Monthly
Patreon: $70
I have many folks that I support on Patreon who are showing up in this fight with their creative works in a wide range of formats and modes of expression. While I don't necessarily support any one contributor significantly, I feel like Patreon is the opportunity for folks to come together and support the work to make things better by following through with showing up in the world as we want it to be.
Unloop: $30
I had forgotten until I was looking at bills this month that I have a recurring donation to Unloop, which I should have mentioned in last months accounting report. Unloop is an organization that goes into prisons and teaches incarcerated people to code. It also supports them on release with finding work and stability as they transition to life on the outside.
Podcast Hosting: $12
I'm working on producing a podcast which I will be talking more about later this week. One of the recurring monthly expenses will be podcast hosting. Since this is service of the other arm of my Showing Up pledge to dedicate time, energy, and talent to addressing problems in my communities, it will count within this tithe.
Kiva: $10.24
You can learn more about my experience with showing up via microloans on Kiva in the blog post I wrote. With the migrant crisis, I am continuing to focus the majority of my microloan efforts in Central America.
This month I helped facilitate the following loans:
Via Repayments getting re-lent:
Sandra Elizabeth, a food seller in El Salvador.
Candida Lorenza, a food seller in El Salvador.
Valentina de la Paz, a weaver in El Salvador.
Federman de Jesus, a construction entrepreneur in Colombia.
Via Bonus for making a qualifying loan during a sponsor matching event:
Madeleine Flaure, a beautician in Cameroon.
Via Rounding Up to the next loan: $10.24
Catherine, a cereal processor in Rwanda
Social Media Giving
Birthday Fundraisers: $82
When I know that I'm going to be contributing 10% over the course of the month. It is easier to just say "Yes" to Birthday fundraisers. It encourages philanthropy within communities by showing buy-in and honors the efforts of folks who want attention they receive on their birthday to go to a good cause.
Note: I have since realized that Facebook Birthday Fundraisers can be used by Facebook as their charitable contributions, so if you are going to do a Birthday Fundraiser, please consider setting one up yourself instead of doing it through Facebook. You can still advertise it on Facebook but this way Facebook gets less opportunity to dodge taxes on your charitable contribution.
Individual Community Needs: $45
A few needs arose among people in my online communities which I contributed to help alleviate.
This Month's Callings
This month I felt called in a couple directions. I felt called to help teachers who need support in their classrooms and to help free people from detainment who do not need to be detained.
Donors Choose: $25
To support classrooms I selected a campaign via Donors Choose to help supply a special education classroom with chairs for circle time so that the environment would be less chaotic as students would not be moving their chairs across the room. Having worked in schools I know how much valuable instruction time is lost due to infrastructure issues in transitions so this campaign to provide the classroom with a durable solution that can be used for years to come seemed like a good investment.
Minnesota Prison Writers Workshop: $25
I learned about the Minnesota Prison Writer's Workshop via a Facebook Ad of all things. Since visiting the prison in Clallam Bay with Unloop, I have really taken to heart the transformative effect of programs in prison which provide opportunity and challenge to come to terms with internal struggles and grapple with authenticity and connection. My experience in writer's workshops and the testimonials from prisoners who are a part of this program leads me to believe that this is a great use of funds dedicated to making the world a better place.
Releasing Prisoners: $204.83
To support releasing folks from unnecessary detainment I contributed to a couple of different Bond Funds. Like with Kiva, Bond Funds are a great return on investment as when the released people show up for their court dates that money gets returned to the fund and gets re-lent out to support even more individuals being released. To support releasing detained neighbors in Tacoma's Northwest Detention Center, I contributed to the Fair Fight Bond Fund. To support releasing citizens charged with crimes but awaiting trial, I donated to The Bail Project.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead towards November, I know that I'm going to be picking up some equipment for the podcast that I'm editing / producing so that we can have better sound quality as sound quality can make a big difference in listenership. I'm also thinking that releasing prisoners in time for the holidays will likely be a big calling. Additionally the Vlogbrothers Hank and John Green have launched a fundraiser to raise funds for Partners in Health and as someone who identifies with the Nerdfighter community I will will want to take part in that as well.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
October Time Progress #3 - Re-evaluation and adjustment
I was not very good at keeping accurate record of my time this week. I also had a conversation with someone very important to me about this general endeavor and they caused me to reflect on the overall structure and its revelations about and its impact on my privilege and mental health.
As a person, I am pre-disposed to extremes. There are many reasons for this and we can discuss them at some point but it does mean that sometimes I need to reflect on why I'm choosing the things I'm choosing. In this case it is because this project helped me to walk back my more extreme reaction to the immigrant concentration camps. It feels like extreme action has to be taken so I set extreme goals in order to honor those feelings I was feeling.
The time goals I made were not sustainable. Perhaps they would have been had my life been structured differently or had I been a healthier person. I thought that I had gotten around this by just having a tradeoff system for compensating failures with monetary contributions. Part of me still thinks this is a good way to proceed. Honestly at this point part of me feels like whatever works is fine. My support person pointed out that I have a very white tendency to rely on punishment and shame and transactions. They were not wrong. And this is perhaps unhealthy for me in addition to being problematic. But this tendency is also very aligned with the manifestations of my autism, anxiety and depression. I need to measure. If I don't measure then I won't know where I am. If I don't know where I am then I may end up in analysis paralysis, or depressive non-action, or some other pitfall.
My mom used to collect buttons when I was a little kid. I eventually inherited her button collection and one of the buttons that comes to mind right now is "Don't tell me to relax. Stress is the glue that holds me together." This is how I was raised. My family struggles with mental health concerns but the struggle is productive and well-supported. We also grew up in poverty. These factors come together in another button my mom had proclaiming that we "Put the fun in dysfunctional." I never felt the need to be normal, in fact that word had negative connotations in my home growing up. We were encouraged to be ourselves and adapted to our circumstances in a wide variety of ways. I feel very fortunate that I could find space for creating systems and making things work for myself, even if it relied on mentally manipulating and goading myself.
Despite my pride in getting where I am and having the tools at my disposal that I built over years of working with limitations and strengths of my experience, capacity, and being, I want to take seriously the ways that I am blind to the way whiteness played into that development. I still don't fully understand it but I want to honor the critique that has been given in this regard.
Interestingly this week I also listened to a very relevant episode of Best of the Left titled #1311 Our Culture and Our Economy are Making Us Depressed which got me reflecting on the ways in which much of our activism relies on the same workaholism and dehumanization of our time and energy to function. This is what I do. I set up systems of success and failure for myself to goad myself into min-maxing my time, attention, energy, and effort to a greater cause. I always set it up in a way to be sufficiently noble. Folks have a hard time critiquing me because it is for a good cause. This may subconsciously be by design. Make no mistake, all of this is very very white. I'm not through it yet and so I'm not able to explain it well. My lack of ability to explain it though just means I'm not likely to engage other white people directly about it unless they are no more confused about this than I am.
I was talking with another friend this week about this, and they brought up the 2005 graduation speech by David Foster Wallace called This is Water. We mostly talked about the initial story of an older fish swimming by some younger fish and saying "How's the water?" and one of the younger fish responding "What is water?" There is so much that we don't really see, much less deeply understand. And for many of us with privilege that is the case.
Anyway, all of these things have come together this week to make me reflect on this project and how to do it the best justice I can and less from a place of ego and less from a place of recreating the oppressive systems that permeate this culture, while also being true to the parts of myself that are true and valid and keeping in mind things I know to be true. It is true that making commitments and following through over time yields more benefit than a haphazard approach for me. It is also true that what gets measured improves. On the flip side it is also true that bean counting takes time and energy that could be better spent.
I'm going to continue splitting up my two commitments. Money commitments lend themselves well to efficient measurement. There is a risk of it seeming like bragging but I hope by focusing on a percentage that it will be seen as encouraging, not stifling. There is so much work that needs to be done and supporting the people doing that work is essential. Viewing it as a tithe is useful for me due to my previous religious background. Dedicating a portion back to my community separate from what is legally required by taxes and frequently used in ways that make the world worse. Time commitments on the other hand are difficult to track, easy to fall into negative mental patterns around, and discourages me from embracing my humanity in my projects. So numeric time accountings will cease going forward. I still have projects I want to take on and goals I want to achieve and I want to keep track of some of the work I do in order to encourage others to join me, but it will no longer be measured in hours.
So, what did I work on this week? Well, first I'd say that the mental, emotional, and community work that brought me to this re-evaluation, conclusion and adjustment is aligned with the general mission and perhaps is the most "showing up" thing I've done so far in this endeavor. In addition to that, I took some time to reloan some Kiva funds, worked on my collaborative community project with JAX, some online microvolunteering, and a bunch of podcast editing and production work. I'll be speaking more about the podcast in the next week or so.
As a person, I am pre-disposed to extremes. There are many reasons for this and we can discuss them at some point but it does mean that sometimes I need to reflect on why I'm choosing the things I'm choosing. In this case it is because this project helped me to walk back my more extreme reaction to the immigrant concentration camps. It feels like extreme action has to be taken so I set extreme goals in order to honor those feelings I was feeling.
The time goals I made were not sustainable. Perhaps they would have been had my life been structured differently or had I been a healthier person. I thought that I had gotten around this by just having a tradeoff system for compensating failures with monetary contributions. Part of me still thinks this is a good way to proceed. Honestly at this point part of me feels like whatever works is fine. My support person pointed out that I have a very white tendency to rely on punishment and shame and transactions. They were not wrong. And this is perhaps unhealthy for me in addition to being problematic. But this tendency is also very aligned with the manifestations of my autism, anxiety and depression. I need to measure. If I don't measure then I won't know where I am. If I don't know where I am then I may end up in analysis paralysis, or depressive non-action, or some other pitfall.
My mom used to collect buttons when I was a little kid. I eventually inherited her button collection and one of the buttons that comes to mind right now is "Don't tell me to relax. Stress is the glue that holds me together." This is how I was raised. My family struggles with mental health concerns but the struggle is productive and well-supported. We also grew up in poverty. These factors come together in another button my mom had proclaiming that we "Put the fun in dysfunctional." I never felt the need to be normal, in fact that word had negative connotations in my home growing up. We were encouraged to be ourselves and adapted to our circumstances in a wide variety of ways. I feel very fortunate that I could find space for creating systems and making things work for myself, even if it relied on mentally manipulating and goading myself.
Despite my pride in getting where I am and having the tools at my disposal that I built over years of working with limitations and strengths of my experience, capacity, and being, I want to take seriously the ways that I am blind to the way whiteness played into that development. I still don't fully understand it but I want to honor the critique that has been given in this regard.
Interestingly this week I also listened to a very relevant episode of Best of the Left titled #1311 Our Culture and Our Economy are Making Us Depressed which got me reflecting on the ways in which much of our activism relies on the same workaholism and dehumanization of our time and energy to function. This is what I do. I set up systems of success and failure for myself to goad myself into min-maxing my time, attention, energy, and effort to a greater cause. I always set it up in a way to be sufficiently noble. Folks have a hard time critiquing me because it is for a good cause. This may subconsciously be by design. Make no mistake, all of this is very very white. I'm not through it yet and so I'm not able to explain it well. My lack of ability to explain it though just means I'm not likely to engage other white people directly about it unless they are no more confused about this than I am.
I was talking with another friend this week about this, and they brought up the 2005 graduation speech by David Foster Wallace called This is Water. We mostly talked about the initial story of an older fish swimming by some younger fish and saying "How's the water?" and one of the younger fish responding "What is water?" There is so much that we don't really see, much less deeply understand. And for many of us with privilege that is the case.
Anyway, all of these things have come together this week to make me reflect on this project and how to do it the best justice I can and less from a place of ego and less from a place of recreating the oppressive systems that permeate this culture, while also being true to the parts of myself that are true and valid and keeping in mind things I know to be true. It is true that making commitments and following through over time yields more benefit than a haphazard approach for me. It is also true that what gets measured improves. On the flip side it is also true that bean counting takes time and energy that could be better spent.
I'm going to continue splitting up my two commitments. Money commitments lend themselves well to efficient measurement. There is a risk of it seeming like bragging but I hope by focusing on a percentage that it will be seen as encouraging, not stifling. There is so much work that needs to be done and supporting the people doing that work is essential. Viewing it as a tithe is useful for me due to my previous religious background. Dedicating a portion back to my community separate from what is legally required by taxes and frequently used in ways that make the world worse. Time commitments on the other hand are difficult to track, easy to fall into negative mental patterns around, and discourages me from embracing my humanity in my projects. So numeric time accountings will cease going forward. I still have projects I want to take on and goals I want to achieve and I want to keep track of some of the work I do in order to encourage others to join me, but it will no longer be measured in hours.
So, what did I work on this week? Well, first I'd say that the mental, emotional, and community work that brought me to this re-evaluation, conclusion and adjustment is aligned with the general mission and perhaps is the most "showing up" thing I've done so far in this endeavor. In addition to that, I took some time to reloan some Kiva funds, worked on my collaborative community project with JAX, some online microvolunteering, and a bunch of podcast editing and production work. I'll be speaking more about the podcast in the next week or so.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
October Time Progress #2
October Time Progress #2
To be on track according to a per day accounting, by end of day 10/12 I should have had a time achievement of 29 hours. Let's see how I did:
Podcast Editing/Producing: 9.5 hours
I have my Mac back and am able to start editing the episodes we have recorded. I am also looking at what is needed for the deployment and launch pipelines and organizing the various prep documents for the group.Blog Posts: 0.5 hour
Last week's Progress report.Micro-Volunteering: 0.75 hours
Free Rice vocabulary practice during the week and The Hunger Site except for the Autism one. I'm autistic and don't approve of where the money is going.Project for Awesome Research: 0.25 hours
More on this upcoming but I will be taking part in the Project for Awesome and encouraging others to join me. I will be creating a video for RAICES and encouraging others to watch and vote and maybe grab some excellent Project for Awesome merch.Monetary Tithe Goal time spent: 0.25 hours
Time spent administrating the monetary tithe goals counts towards the time tithe. Kiva always takes me more time to administrate and I started early this month because they were running a promo that if you fund a loan this week in certain categories they will give you a credit to fund another loan so I did an initial rollover early. I wrote a blog post about Kiva if you want to know more about Kiva.Conclusion:
So it looks like I completed 11.25 hours for a total of 16.75 hours this month. I wanted to be at 29 hours at this point in the month which puts me at 58%. 58% is still above the September rate of achievement vs goal which was about 32%. Check in next week for the next update.Sunday, October 6, 2019
October Time Progress #1
I did not get any feedback regarding my post about failing my time commitment last month. I think for at least this month my plan will be to provide weekly progress reports on my time journey so that we can see whether or not I'm on track over a shorter time span. This also will give more time for reflection and for others to weigh in with their thoughts about how to achieve this goal and compensate for lack of achievement.
To be on track according to a per day accounting, by end of day 10/5 I should have had a time achievement of 12 hours. Let's see how I did:
To be on track according to a per day accounting, by end of day 10/5 I should have had a time achievement of 12 hours. Let's see how I did:
Podcast Editing/Producing: 6 hours
I have my Mac back and am able to start editing the episodes we have recorded. I am also looking at what is needed for the deployment and launch pipelines and organizing the various prep documents for the group.Blog Posts: 1 hour
Get accountability posts for September compiled, written and edited.ICE Rights Alexa Skill: 0.5 hours
Started researching the common advice given to undocumented immigrants in the United States regarding their rights and start thinking about the VUI for the skill.Micro-Volunteering: 0.25 hours
Free Rice vocabulary practice while not feeling well.Patreon Upkeep: 0.25 hours
Made a reasonable banner and figured out how to get it off my phone and onto the site.Monetary Tithe Goal time spent: 0.25 hours
Inspired by a teacher friend whose campaign was successful I selected a Donor's Choose campaign to contribute to. This one helped with reducing infrastructure based friction to the flow of activities in a special education classroom. Time spent administrating the monetary tithe goals counts towards the time tithe.Conclusion:
So it looks like I completed 8 hours which is a 66% rate thus far. It is still possible to achieve but this is also a challenging goal. At the moment, I take solace in the fact that 66% is above the September rate of achievement vs goal which was about 32%. Check in next week for the next update.Thursday, October 3, 2019
September 2019 Accounting Report: Time
I've decided that it would be best to break up my monthly accounting report into two sections. This way if folks have triggers regarding either money or time they can easily skip the ones they have issue with while still accessing the one they want.
Time:
The other axis of my "Showing Up" Pledge is time investment of 10%. This can take a wide range of forms but it cannot be simply time spent making myself a better person. That is important but standard work. There was a time where taking time to become informed would count and it is possible that for some of you following along on this journey that it is the best way to spend your time. If you join me in this pledge you can make your own rules about what counts and what does not count. Another type of work that I am not counting is standard social media slacktivism. If I'm only reacting, it doesn't count. Exceptions will be made for situations where I do research for a response that I believe will mentor and move someone forward on their path in this fight. It is somewhat arbitrary but I know when I feel like I'm doing work and I know when I feel like the work I'm doing has a good chance of seeing a return on its investment.
September has 30 days in it, which is a total of 720 hours to use for everything that must fit into the month. 10% of my time is 72 hours.
Blog Posts: 5.25 hours
I've been working on a few different blog posts to get this community up and rolling with a sense of what we are even doing here. It has been slower going than I had hoped but I was able to publish a few blog posts in addition to some drafts that are waiting in the wings for later:
- Labor Day Resolutions and Project Kickoff
- Showing Up with Kiva
- Statement-Wear
- The September Accounting Reports
Podcast: 13.25 hours
I'm working with a very special team to produce a podcast. We are working on getting a little bit of a backlog of episodes. I am getting my computer up to the task and learning how to edit audio. I'm also learning about all the other pieces of producing a podcast. There is a lot to learn and I'm not ready to announce the podcast or even the copy to describe what it is yet but hopefully I will have those pieces in place before the end of next month.
Micro-Volunteering & Micro-Citizenship: 4.5 hours
Flu Shot: 0.5 hours
I know that I should have gotten flu shots before this point. I'm a bit ashamed to say that this is the first year I've actually followed through. When I was younger I didn't really understand the impact that the flu can have on vulnerable folks. As I got older I became one of the vulnerable folks as I have psoriatic arthritis and my medication lowers my immune system. Mostly after that point I was too lazy or busy or exhausted or something... always too "something" to look into whether I could have the flu shot on my medication. This year I decided it was important as part of showing up to do this small citizenship step. Flu shots can protect folks who can't get flu shots and folks who could be in significant danger if they catch the flu. With the Trump Administration and ICE's decision to not vaccinate the folks detained in camps, we could end up seeing just how bad a lack of herd immunity can be. I hope that they reverse this decision but in the meantime, we should all get our flu shots if we can, every little bit of herd immunity helps.
Conversations that Count: 3 hours
Time Required for the Monetary Donation Work: 1 hours
Failures / Consequences / Next Steps: -49 hours
10% of time especially is a challenge. I want to acknowledge that I failed to reach my goal this month and find a path forward that honors the commitment I made while also not sabotaging my work next month. One option would be to compensate my time misses with monetary contributions. I have a measurement of what my time is currently worth to this society and I could attempt to trade that amount to cover the loss of time. This is too steep for me as for this month it would mean $1838.88 over my normal monetary obligation. If I instead were to pay a $15/hr minimum wage it would be $1080 for 72 hours which is high enough that I can't just easily trade but low enough that if I put in sincere effort to meet my time goals I will not hurt myself too badly financially to make up the difference.I am also someone who tends to be rather hard on myself and beat myself up over failures. It is possible that just honestly owning my performance and moving forward would be a better model for others.
If you have any other recommendations for how I can honor this obligation even in my failure, I would appreciate your thoughts. I will give myself one week past the end of the month to determine and make whole the obligations of the month. Time can only be used during the month, though, as my time obligations are high enough that paying it late in the next month will only cause me to start off the next month behind.
Please comment on any thoughts you have for how I should handle this deficit. I will take all recommendations under advisement and make a determination by October 7th.
September 2019 Accounting Report: Money
I've decided that it would be best to break up my monthly accounting report into two sections. This way if folks have triggers regarding either money or time they can easily skip the ones they have issue with while still accessing the one they want.
Couscous: $3.19
Canned Tuna: $1.89
Oatmeal: $1.79
---------------------
Total: $6.87
It wasn't much but it was something I could do to make things a little bit better while doing the shopping I was already doing. Imagine if everyone who had the means to do so donated $7 worth of shelf-stable goods to their local foodbank, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter, what a difference that could make in many communities.
Money:
One axis of my "Showing Up" pledge has to do with money. I will be contributing 10% of my income to solving problems in my communities, local, state, national and global. This month all my income came from my job. I am paid a gross of $25.54 per hour as a test specialist at Amazon. Since I worked or got PTO for 167.5 hours during days in September that gives me a gross income of $4277.95 which gives me a contribution goal of $427.80 this month. Here is how those contributions shook out.Kiva Top-Off: $16.86
You can learn more about showing up with Kiva by reading the blog post I wrote about it this month. This month I did my Top Off early so I imagine that my October Kiva loans will be more numerous.
This month's Kiva loans counting repayments and my top off amount:
Endis Roxana from El Salvador for a freezer to help with her fish selling business.
Juan from Honduras for a solar powered freezer for preserving his milk for sale.
The Margaritas De Chuatzam Group from Guatemala made up of a variety of entrepreneurs including tailors, nixtamal millers, spare part sellers, and folks raising animals and running small stores.
Juan from Honduras for a solar powered freezer for preserving his milk for sale.
The Margaritas De Chuatzam Group from Guatemala made up of a variety of entrepreneurs including tailors, nixtamal millers, spare part sellers, and folks raising animals and running small stores.
Hopelink: $6.87
A young girl was volunteering with her family outside of the grocery store when I went shopping. She asked me if I would like to help the homeless. I asked her to tell me more. She very matter-of-factly explained exactly what to do. I took her shopping list and bought a few items on it to support my local food-insecure folk and to honor the time and dedication the family put into raising resources for the community. Some of the items were also on Sale!Couscous: $3.19
Canned Tuna: $1.89
Oatmeal: $1.79
---------------------
Total: $6.87
It wasn't much but it was something I could do to make things a little bit better while doing the shopping I was already doing. Imagine if everyone who had the means to do so donated $7 worth of shelf-stable goods to their local foodbank, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter, what a difference that could make in many communities.
Patreon: $67
I acquired some new folks to patronize so my monthly bill for support went up to $67. This also means that my own first goal for My Patreon has also gone up to $67 as the first goal I have with this endeavor is to be able to cover the support of all the creative folk that I've found doing work in this fight and marginalized folks doing work of authentically showing up on the platform. If you've read a couple of my posts and this endeavor I'm on is something you want to contribute to, consider becoming a patron. It will be very encouraging to see people supporting this even in tiny ways.
Political Contributions: $50
I have not yet decided who I want to fully support in the Democratic Primary but I think that it is important for me to support the folks who I think are most likely to be able to confront Trump in the General, most able to rebuild our global community and most likely to address the needs of our communities at the local, state, national and global levels and lay a solid foundation for continued improvement at all these levels. To that end I am contribute to several campaigns of democratic candidates for president. This year campaign contributions and polling is how candidates get a podium at the debates. By contributing I am sending a message that these are the folks I want to hear more from as we winnow towards an eventual nominee. I encourage you to donate towards your preferred candidate(s). I will probably do a blog post about the folks I'm leaning towards later on but for now, imperfect engagement is still showing up.
Statement-Wear: $33.24
I made a blog post about Statement-Wear earlier this month and what counts towards my goal and what does not. This month I picked up a #NoTechForICE travel mug. It is bright and easy to see from across the room and I feel it is important to be visible on this issue while working at Amazon, though not on any of the technology used by ICE.
RAICES: $253.83
Until as a country we stop ripping families apart at the border. Until as a country we reunite all families that have been torn apart. Until as a country toddlers do not need to represent themselves in immigration court. Until as a country we stop the atrocities that are concentration camps. Until we find our soul when it comes to caring for the strangers in our land, I will round out my monetary commitment with a donation to RAICES.
RAICES is a non profit organization that provides legal assistance and so much more to immigrants in the United States. It helps reunite families and helps children who have no one else. If you have money to help and care about this problem and don't know what else to do, consider donating to RAICES.
Monday, September 30, 2019
Statement-Wear
Statement-wear is what I'm calling products that I buy which could qualify as virtue signalling but is also useful in the work I'm attempting to do. Not all statement-wear will count for this showing up project. Statement-wear must meet the following qualifications to count as contributions:
- The people selling the statement-wear must be doing the work. These folks are selling this to fuel their own work of showing up and making things better.
- The statement made should be stark enough to provoke conversation and impact the perception of not only me but the environment around me.
- I must feel reasonably informed to provide a couple of sentences of explanation when asked about it by random strangers on the street.
- If I am asked for more than information than I can provide in that moment, I must provide a way for the person who asked about it to get more information. This can either be by providing personal information for them to contact me and then showing up by doing that research to answer their questions, or by providing them with a reference to a more authoritative source of answers.
- I must be willing to make this statement out in the world with strangers and not just wear or bring to safe spaces where I know everyone agrees with me.
Even with these caveats I should be judicious and limit my Statement-Wear purchases. Even in these cases there are many problems that are made worse by over-consumption when that consumption is not needed. It is more efficient to simply financially contribute to campaigns doing good work than it is to have some of that money siphoned off for an unnecessary physical product.
I have several pieces of Statement-Wear I've accumulated over the years and still have great conversations over. My favorite of these honestly has been the Honor the Treaties shirt that I picked up several years ago. The most common question I get asked regarding this shirt is "Which treaties?" to which my first deadpan reply is invariably "All of them?!?" We then transition into a more nuanced conversation about laws regarding keeping native children in native families which was the initial campaign out of the Lakota Law Project. My next favorite is my Don't Forget Flint sweatshirt, one of Little Miss Flint Mari Copeny's fundraisers for her hometown of Flint which was disastrously impacted by terrible water policies.
This travel mug is my most recent pieces of Statement-Wear. As someone who works at Amazon, although not on software used by ICE, I feel it is important that my colleagues know where I stand. I want to encourage an environment were we can grapple with political ramifications of work, build connections with potential allies and set standards for what we find unacceptable.
Some pieces are statement wear only in specific contexts. These are not items that I would count towards my goals if I were purchasing them today. This is not to say that I wouldn't purchase them. They just fall short of at least one of the standards that I set for myself. For folks interested in following along with your own Showing Up journey, I recommend setting your own standards for what counts and what doesn't count. As with anything on this journey, you don't need to do the same thing as me. Make your own rules based on your values and what you think will make things better.
Special mentions from the above photo are the Project for Awesome socks. I will be recording a video for Project for Awesome this year and taking you all along with me so stay tuned for more information about that. I love fun socks and the Project for Awesome always has a good pack for purchase. Not shown here are a bunch of other P4A socks and a Decrease World Suck shirt. Another special mention is the @jillisblack shirt. Unfortunately the text got cut off but if you want one of your own you can check it out here. She has a bunch of good merch and her content always leaves me with something to consider. The only reason this doesn't count for me is that I don't consider myself terribly good at explaining it to random strangers. I mostly wear it to woke spaces where we can use it as a point for reflecting on our current lives and priorities.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Showing Up with Kiva
One "Showing Up" opportunity that I've taken part in since 2007 is Kiva. Kiva is a non-profit that allows people from all over the world to help raise funds for loans to people all over the world. Usually the folks it helps struggle to get access to funds in a more standard way. In many areas of the world a loan of a few hundred to a thousand dollars is transformative for their business and their community. By accessing capital, these borrowers gain stability and are better able to leverage their hard work in a more efficient way.
These are loans, which means the borrower does their best to repay all the support from around the world. You don't get interest with your repayments and there is a chance of delinquency or default so you could think of it as a risky way to store your money at a negative interest rate, which doesn't sound great. For me though it has been really fulfilling to be able to reinvest in communities around the globe over and over again. It is also nice to be able to grow the fund by "topping off" a loan, which is what happens when I am left with less than $25 in my Kiva account and add more funds to round it out to a full loan segment. There have also been a handful of times in my life when I fell on hard times and withdrawing the funds from Kiva repayments has made the difference between being able to pay bills and not.
Loans are in $25 increments and you have a lot of search options to let you focus on the issues that matter most to you. This has varied for me a lot over the years and frequently shifts due to what is happening politically in the world. There have been times where I put my focus on loaning to Middle Eastern countries that are either under siege or take a lot of Syrian refugees such as Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. There are times when I would focus on shorter loans in order to get repaid quickly and be able to loan out again to help more people faster. Group loans tend to be better for this. Sometimes I focus on single parents, or youth.
Currently I am focusing on Central and South American countries. While I can't do much to help stabilize countries in the region, more financial stability among the general population will help a bit and as an United States citizen concerned about the plight of refugees coming to our borders I want to do what I can not only for those who come to us but also those who are vulnerable and could be more stable with a bit of resource access for their business endeavors in their own countries. Refugees usually want to be in their home countries but there are circumstances that make doing so unfeasible.
Repayments start rolling in a little after the midpoint of the month. They don't all arrive on the same day so I usually wait until the 1st to add my own funds for "topping off." When you investigate loans you can find out a lot of information such as the riskiness of loans serviced by that partnering agency, what the cost is to the borrower, and what the repayment schedule is. Now that I have been doing this for a long time I usually care less about the repayment period but for new borrowers it can be nice to see the funds come back quicker for re-lending purposes.
This month I'm not waiting until the end of the month to add more funds and round off because I'd like to get this post out ahead of the last minute push to get all the pieces together for my monthly accounting post. I may end up with additional repayments to loan out later in the month but I think I'll wrap them all up into October instead.
This month I'm lending to these two from my repayments:
Endis Roxana from El Salvador for a freezer to help with her fish selling business.
Juan from Honduras for a solar powered freezer for preserving his milk for sale.
My "round-off" loan which is a combination of repayments and personal additions ($16.86):
The Margaritas De Chuatzam Group from Guatemala made up of a variety of entrepreneurs including tailors, nixtamal millers, spare part sellers, and folks raising animals and running small stores.
Like I said, I've been participating in Kiva since 2007. It has been quite the journey and I'm glad that I'm starting this "Showing Up" group to be able to share it with you. I look forward to sharing my loans and contributions here and celebrating milestones with you all. If you would like to join me in contributing to Kiva borrowers, consider signing up with my invite link. Nothing special will happen for either of us other than I will feel warm fuzzy feelings looking at the count of loans made by people I've invited.
Current Stats:
Total Lifetime Deposits: $1,944
Total Lent: $7295
Loans from People I've Invited: 6
I think I'd like to have some sort of celebration when my "Total Lent" stat reaches $10,000. Let me know of any ideas you have for how to celebrate in the comments. It is still a long way out but I'd like to start thinking about it early.
These are loans, which means the borrower does their best to repay all the support from around the world. You don't get interest with your repayments and there is a chance of delinquency or default so you could think of it as a risky way to store your money at a negative interest rate, which doesn't sound great. For me though it has been really fulfilling to be able to reinvest in communities around the globe over and over again. It is also nice to be able to grow the fund by "topping off" a loan, which is what happens when I am left with less than $25 in my Kiva account and add more funds to round it out to a full loan segment. There have also been a handful of times in my life when I fell on hard times and withdrawing the funds from Kiva repayments has made the difference between being able to pay bills and not.
Loans are in $25 increments and you have a lot of search options to let you focus on the issues that matter most to you. This has varied for me a lot over the years and frequently shifts due to what is happening politically in the world. There have been times where I put my focus on loaning to Middle Eastern countries that are either under siege or take a lot of Syrian refugees such as Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. There are times when I would focus on shorter loans in order to get repaid quickly and be able to loan out again to help more people faster. Group loans tend to be better for this. Sometimes I focus on single parents, or youth.
Currently I am focusing on Central and South American countries. While I can't do much to help stabilize countries in the region, more financial stability among the general population will help a bit and as an United States citizen concerned about the plight of refugees coming to our borders I want to do what I can not only for those who come to us but also those who are vulnerable and could be more stable with a bit of resource access for their business endeavors in their own countries. Refugees usually want to be in their home countries but there are circumstances that make doing so unfeasible.
Repayments start rolling in a little after the midpoint of the month. They don't all arrive on the same day so I usually wait until the 1st to add my own funds for "topping off." When you investigate loans you can find out a lot of information such as the riskiness of loans serviced by that partnering agency, what the cost is to the borrower, and what the repayment schedule is. Now that I have been doing this for a long time I usually care less about the repayment period but for new borrowers it can be nice to see the funds come back quicker for re-lending purposes.
This month I'm not waiting until the end of the month to add more funds and round off because I'd like to get this post out ahead of the last minute push to get all the pieces together for my monthly accounting post. I may end up with additional repayments to loan out later in the month but I think I'll wrap them all up into October instead.
This month I'm lending to these two from my repayments:
Endis Roxana from El Salvador for a freezer to help with her fish selling business.
Juan from Honduras for a solar powered freezer for preserving his milk for sale.
My "round-off" loan which is a combination of repayments and personal additions ($16.86):
The Margaritas De Chuatzam Group from Guatemala made up of a variety of entrepreneurs including tailors, nixtamal millers, spare part sellers, and folks raising animals and running small stores.
Like I said, I've been participating in Kiva since 2007. It has been quite the journey and I'm glad that I'm starting this "Showing Up" group to be able to share it with you. I look forward to sharing my loans and contributions here and celebrating milestones with you all. If you would like to join me in contributing to Kiva borrowers, consider signing up with my invite link. Nothing special will happen for either of us other than I will feel warm fuzzy feelings looking at the count of loans made by people I've invited.
Current Stats:
Total Lifetime Deposits: $1,944
Total Lent: $7295
Loans from People I've Invited: 6
I think I'd like to have some sort of celebration when my "Total Lent" stat reaches $10,000. Let me know of any ideas you have for how to celebrate in the comments. It is still a long way out but I'd like to start thinking about it early.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Labor Day Resolutions and Project Kickoff
Hello Everyone!
My name is Whitney Levis and I'm exploring the power of showing up. I've been playing around a bit with this over time in general but now it is time to organize, document, and encourage others. I'm setting up a Patreon for this endeavor as an easy way for folks to encourage me if they find this to be useful. Things may shift as time goes along but it is better just to jump in and get started.
Earlier this year I took part in the Ration Challenge. It was an eye-opening experience that I recommend everyone to try if their doctor signs off on it.You buy the equivalent to the contents of a ration box for a week's worth of rations. Then everything you consume for a full week comes out of that box. It is a fundraiser for refugee rations and as you raise more funds you get access to additional resources for your week. By self funding you get access to one spice for the week, I chose garlic powder. Once you cross $200 raised you get to use salt for the week. My community and I raised $542.30 placing me at #201 in the country for fundraising for this challenge. It really reminded me that people want to work together and help out where they can. It reminded me that there is power in deciding to show up.
Towards the end of the Ration Challenge, the news broke about just how bad the conditions are in the detention facilities, including the ones that are housing children separate from their parents and often separate from their siblings as well. I'm really tired of being right about this administration. I'm really tired of having to explain my frustration with the obvious statement "People are Dying." But here we are. With this news breaking, and my diet having been so unbalanced, I was not in a good place. After taking some time to process my rage and despair with loved ones, I decided that I needed to think through how I can best help and find a sustainable level of dedication I can provide to working on these goals.
My usual level of slacktivism was not cutting it. This isn't to say that slacktivism isn't helpful. It definitely is. I have psoriatic arthritis, and autism, and depression and anxiety. Mostly I can juggle that, keep moving forward in my life, help others, and engage with the world. Sometimes I can't. Slacktivism is a great way for me to do micro-volunteering and for folks who also struggle with a variety of things it may be a good place for you to start too. Being informed and helping others be informed is crucial work and for a long time it was the only work that I could do. While I have gotten feedback from some folks in my life that these information transfer efforts are a great service to them, I am now called to do more than this. It is time to figure out what.
I reflected on my time in Churches. I remember my old Church in Sequim and the dedication that folks there would put towards showing up and going where they were called. While my relationship with faith is complicated for now, my sense of calling isn't. I am called to help people and hold accountable those who profit on the misery of others. In my church we tended to tithe 10%. I'm going to go back to that but do it in a different way. 10% of my money and my time are going to be devoted to showing up to solve the biggest problems I see in our society and the world.
Exactly what I'm working on may vary from time to time as will how I choose to spend my monetary contributions. Currently the default for the monetary contributions is going to be Raices. From what I can tell they are the most efficient way to donate to help get asylum seekers out of cages and reunited with their families and for the moment that is the issue that speaks most deeply to me.
I plan to use this space and my Patreon to talk about what I learn, reflect on experiences of the past, be accountable for my goals, encourage others who wish to join the path, and share resources.
I saw a post recently about Happier Labor Day as this idea to pause and reflect on your labor and make resolutions that will make for a better labor situation for you. What is labor but how we choose to spend our time in order to meet our needs and generate stability and purpose. I think that this project is well aligned to that idea and given that it is right around my birthday. I plan to keep with these initial goals and standards for at least 1 year. I can re-evaluate after that but there should be enough flexibility in the system to make it a year of 10% of time and money.
If you were doing this challenge, what would you spend your time doing to help? What organizations would you donate to? Please leave a comment. I'd love for folks to get their own ideas and set their own goals as we move forward together to make things better by showing up! Who knows, maybe I will be inspired to contribute as well. I will be contributing a minimum of 72 Hours and $420 to this project over the course of September. Stay tuned and let me know your thoughts!
My name is Whitney Levis and I'm exploring the power of showing up. I've been playing around a bit with this over time in general but now it is time to organize, document, and encourage others. I'm setting up a Patreon for this endeavor as an easy way for folks to encourage me if they find this to be useful. Things may shift as time goes along but it is better just to jump in and get started.
Earlier this year I took part in the Ration Challenge. It was an eye-opening experience that I recommend everyone to try if their doctor signs off on it.You buy the equivalent to the contents of a ration box for a week's worth of rations. Then everything you consume for a full week comes out of that box. It is a fundraiser for refugee rations and as you raise more funds you get access to additional resources for your week. By self funding you get access to one spice for the week, I chose garlic powder. Once you cross $200 raised you get to use salt for the week. My community and I raised $542.30 placing me at #201 in the country for fundraising for this challenge. It really reminded me that people want to work together and help out where they can. It reminded me that there is power in deciding to show up.
Towards the end of the Ration Challenge, the news broke about just how bad the conditions are in the detention facilities, including the ones that are housing children separate from their parents and often separate from their siblings as well. I'm really tired of being right about this administration. I'm really tired of having to explain my frustration with the obvious statement "People are Dying." But here we are. With this news breaking, and my diet having been so unbalanced, I was not in a good place. After taking some time to process my rage and despair with loved ones, I decided that I needed to think through how I can best help and find a sustainable level of dedication I can provide to working on these goals.
My usual level of slacktivism was not cutting it. This isn't to say that slacktivism isn't helpful. It definitely is. I have psoriatic arthritis, and autism, and depression and anxiety. Mostly I can juggle that, keep moving forward in my life, help others, and engage with the world. Sometimes I can't. Slacktivism is a great way for me to do micro-volunteering and for folks who also struggle with a variety of things it may be a good place for you to start too. Being informed and helping others be informed is crucial work and for a long time it was the only work that I could do. While I have gotten feedback from some folks in my life that these information transfer efforts are a great service to them, I am now called to do more than this. It is time to figure out what.
I reflected on my time in Churches. I remember my old Church in Sequim and the dedication that folks there would put towards showing up and going where they were called. While my relationship with faith is complicated for now, my sense of calling isn't. I am called to help people and hold accountable those who profit on the misery of others. In my church we tended to tithe 10%. I'm going to go back to that but do it in a different way. 10% of my money and my time are going to be devoted to showing up to solve the biggest problems I see in our society and the world.
Exactly what I'm working on may vary from time to time as will how I choose to spend my monetary contributions. Currently the default for the monetary contributions is going to be Raices. From what I can tell they are the most efficient way to donate to help get asylum seekers out of cages and reunited with their families and for the moment that is the issue that speaks most deeply to me.
I plan to use this space and my Patreon to talk about what I learn, reflect on experiences of the past, be accountable for my goals, encourage others who wish to join the path, and share resources.
I saw a post recently about Happier Labor Day as this idea to pause and reflect on your labor and make resolutions that will make for a better labor situation for you. What is labor but how we choose to spend our time in order to meet our needs and generate stability and purpose. I think that this project is well aligned to that idea and given that it is right around my birthday. I plan to keep with these initial goals and standards for at least 1 year. I can re-evaluate after that but there should be enough flexibility in the system to make it a year of 10% of time and money.
If you were doing this challenge, what would you spend your time doing to help? What organizations would you donate to? Please leave a comment. I'd love for folks to get their own ideas and set their own goals as we move forward together to make things better by showing up! Who knows, maybe I will be inspired to contribute as well. I will be contributing a minimum of 72 Hours and $420 to this project over the course of September. Stay tuned and let me know your thoughts!
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