We Must Do More Than Survive

As we enter this new era of the unknown today, we must do more than survive.

We must resist, certainly. We must refuse to capitulate. And of course we must organize, continue organizing. 

But it is also urgent in this time that we live. We must laugh and make art and good food and share it with others. We must grow things, and teach and learn. We must nurture one another. We must function as much as possible in alternative economies. We must analyze our histories so we can imagine new futures. We must resist the impulse to isolate, and challenge ourselves to connect even when it is hard; especially when it is hard. We must train for strength and endurance and find joy in our bodies as we do so. We must insist on our ideals. And we must love. And turn up the volume. And write. And dance.*

Let's get to work.

*Even though Emma Goldman never actually said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution," what she did say is almost better.

The Poetry of Spam

I don't know about you, but my inbox has changed. Gone are the days of "Wet hot sluts!", "Barely legal", and "XXX Britney". Today, the spammers are waxing poetic. Not intentionally, of course. I know that they are using some sort of randomizer for words so that they can slip by spam blockers undetected. But like the times in 3rd grade when I imagined that the patterns in the ice on my school bus window were drawn just for me by some kind soul who rode the bus before me (I sure was lonely that year!), I like to think of some brilliant poet carefully crafting these absurd yet beautiful subject lines. Hey, if they can make the utterances of Donald Rumsfeld into poetry, anything is possible!

Here are some of my favorites:

Re: Or sing as symmetry operative
Re: At look so deft ornithology
Have close so obituary
As forget or snail costumier
Be think is attrition
The speak by tinderbox
I fall be genealogy recycle
He type he outrange chalk
I play go flux.