meet (im)material girl and a note on the politics of joy
There are a few things that keep me grounded when I am feeling untethered from myself and the world. This feeling of being untethered can be caused by a number of things. The state of the world, financial panic, social stress and anxiety, procrastination, looming tasks, general despair (I also have diagnosed anxiety and it could just be a function of that, who knows!) When I find myself in a place unconnected to reality, I try to practice grounding techniques.
The first is deep breaths. I count my breath in, hold it, and count it back out. This slows your breathing and your heart rate and can be very successful in mitigating oncoming anxiety attacks.
The second is to write. Writing my thoughts and opinions is how I make sense of the world and my place in it. When growing anger and despair threaten to take over my life, I take pen to paper and parse out why I feel so angry.
Anger is a feeling yes, but it can also be an action. Joy is the same - I think they come from the same place inside of us. A feeling that there is more to life than what we see. Anger is the feeling that we haven’t found that x factor. Joy is the feeling that we have.
Anger and joy are political - political motivators, political actions. There has never been a political movement that was not fired by anger and by joy. These are because they are indicators of freedom of expression, one of the pillars of our society and one that has consistently been under threat from authoritarian regimes throughout history. Consider the gay rights movement, in which activists fought for the right to exist within society and be protected by the same rights. One of the main memorials of this longstanding fight is Pride, a true celebration of the simple joy of existence. Regardless of the joy inherent in this event, it is constantly under fire from Conservatives, who only believe in freedom of expression for rich, white, straight men who agree with them.
There has been a lot of discourse lately surrounding how we as individuals are accountable to others for what little or large platform we have. Many people will say that “not everything has to be political.” I disagree - everything we do is political. We set personal values that reflect our beliefs - that is political. We choose to cook food at home because it’s too expensive to eat out - that is political. When we eat out, we focus on local restaurants that source locally - that is extremely political. When you complain about traffic or the potholes on your drive to work, how long the 40 hour work week feels or the cost of eggs, how cheap your clothes feel now or why the only summer outfits in the stores are maxi skirts - that is political. Every choice you make and action you take has to be reflective of your beliefs and you had better own them.
It is each of our responsibility to use our voice responsibly, to research and learn, and to admit it when we’re wrong. It is our responsibility as humans on this planet to grow and help each other grow. So this is my goal here. This is me using my voice because I am tired of feeling helpless, of wallowing in misinformation, and of people not knowing where I stand.
You may not agree with what I have to say, but I hope that you stay to read. I hope that we learn from each other and I hope that I can convince at least one person to live their values with gusto.
