This is the midweek edition of Culture Study — the newsletter from Anne Helen Petersen, which you can read about here. If you like it and want more like it in your inbox, consider subscribing. The people I know who are dealing with Pandemic Month Eight — and the nauseating amounts of stress leading up to the election — are those who keep turning outwards, towards other people. That turn can manifest in so many ways, and it doesn’t necessarily require leaving the home. They’re involved in Mutual Aid Groups. They’re continuing social justice reform and advocacy. They’re volunteering with political campaigns, they’re participating in free book fairs, they’re writing letters to people in nursing homes, they’re training to be election monitors. They’re doing
just signed up for an incarcerated pen pal because of this email! blackandpink.org is the website I used - it's for LGBTQ+ incarcerated folks. it feels hard to create light right now, but hopefully that will help a little.
Thank you for this one, it is weirdly perfectly timed for me. Think I might start gathering a list of ways I and my community in the UK can do this too - there is so much need and so many opportunities! 💛
Loved this. I will add that signing up to be a poll watcher for Biden/Harris here in rural North Florida has helped me keep some of the worst of the anxiety/terror demons (though not all) at bay
I LOVED this. It made me hopeful to read it and hear about all the ways that people are lifting up their communities. I have been doing a lot of political volunteering (textbanking, writing letters, some in-person stuffing of literature bags to drop off at people's front doors) the whole pandemic, and I've been alternating between feeling hopeful and also being full of despair. I agree with the interviewee who said it's meant a decrease in my empathy in some ways, but it's also increased my empathy in other ways. I'm trying to figure out what my next steps will be after the election as I want to transition to more local volunteering in my hometown.
Thank you so much for this AHP! "That nausea you’re feeling right now? That stress that’s spilling over onto your body? That’s fear: for yourself, for your family, for your country. It’s difficult to cultivate hope, or steadiness, within it. But you can try to create just a bit more hope and steadiness for someone else." YES Yes yes yes yes yes.
just signed up for an incarcerated pen pal because of this email! blackandpink.org is the website I used - it's for LGBTQ+ incarcerated folks. it feels hard to create light right now, but hopefully that will help a little.
Thank you! This was inspirational and encouraged me to get involved too!
Thank you for this one, it is weirdly perfectly timed for me. Think I might start gathering a list of ways I and my community in the UK can do this too - there is so much need and so many opportunities! 💛
Loved this. I will add that signing up to be a poll watcher for Biden/Harris here in rural North Florida has helped me keep some of the worst of the anxiety/terror demons (though not all) at bay
I LOVED this. It made me hopeful to read it and hear about all the ways that people are lifting up their communities. I have been doing a lot of political volunteering (textbanking, writing letters, some in-person stuffing of literature bags to drop off at people's front doors) the whole pandemic, and I've been alternating between feeling hopeful and also being full of despair. I agree with the interviewee who said it's meant a decrease in my empathy in some ways, but it's also increased my empathy in other ways. I'm trying to figure out what my next steps will be after the election as I want to transition to more local volunteering in my hometown.
Love this article. Big fan of the newsletter. I wrote about the nobility of service early on in the pandemic. Nice to read something with such strong parallels. Keep up the great work! https://medium.com/@joelbaileyuk/what-covid-19-tells-us-about-service-de2783e2d065
Thank you so much for this AHP! "That nausea you’re feeling right now? That stress that’s spilling over onto your body? That’s fear: for yourself, for your family, for your country. It’s difficult to cultivate hope, or steadiness, within it. But you can try to create just a bit more hope and steadiness for someone else." YES Yes yes yes yes yes.