It feels uncomfortable to post pretty photos when children are detained in solitary confinement (regardless of your politics, can we agree that solitary confinement is torture? And that, if anyone is to be tortured–which I don’t think should happen, but if you are ok with it maybe you can also agree that–it should not be children?) and people are working for no money to make gadgets we sure like but maybe don’t need, not the way we (all) need things like food & water, shelter, and love. And people in Japan are still suffering from the effects of the tsunami and earthquake almost a year ago. And US politics seems more and more insane from the outside, not to mention that some people think it’s ok to make this much money when other people on earth make this much. Or less. Or work in indentured positions. Or are outright enslaved. And still there are people who think that we shouldn’t have to take care of the people around us (by ensuring that they–and we–have access to education, infrastructure, and healthcare). And that’s the tip of the iceberg.
Which is why I haven’t been around a ton. I have a hard time reconciling my inner and private life (which is complex, contradictory) with an online life that at its best is often still flat and dimensionless. That I am making poems/objects/pictures/books and also I am worrying about the lives of the people around me, the ones I know and the ones I don’t. (Thanks, Juliana Spahr.)
But I have been working on things, and I will try to be present here more often. I just want to find a way to be here that acknowledges all the things I am thinking about, and just posting photos of nice stuff doesn’t really do that for me. On the other hand, making things is part of the way I am in-the-world and it’s part of (and formational of) my ethics. I just don’t want to contribute to a blithe ignorance of the privilege I (we) have to live like this.
