One year later...
a gigantic thank you from me to you
Hey examined family, guess what? We’ve been doing the damn thing for a year now. I first asked you if you’d be up for honoring my labor and love by subscribing on September 18, 2020. Since then, we’ve raged together, laughed really loud, cried really hard, and prayed some, too.
Here are the top three posts in Examined Family history in case you’re curious:
I want to say thank you. Your comments are so thoughtful, often poetic, and sometimes fierce. I learn a lot from you. Your email replies are filled with little details of your lives that build such solidarity, and make me feel trusted, and like all these words are actually of good use.
You keep me going. You keep my small faith that when I sit down at the blank screen and let it flow through me, it’s not a narcissistic act. It nourishes me, sure. You nourish me. But the writing itself is a gift, an exchange, not a performance.
Being paid for this gift has been dignifying and reassuring to me for a bunch of reasons. A lot of the work I do is unpaid—I kiss booboos and do school pick-ups and organize women’s groups, cohousing potlucks, giving circles, and school meetings, and all of this is infinitely worthwhile, but not valued with cold hard cash by society. It’s nice to make my own little society here that does value that labor, and the words that I wrap around it, so much so that you’re even willing to pay for it. If you can’t pay for it, and these words are still useful to you, I’m so glad you’re here and I don’t ever want you to feel obligated. If you can, and haven’t, now is a cool time to do so.
I also wanted to remind you of all the good listening and giving we’ve done. You read Q&As with so many incredible humans this year—a somatic expert, a preschool teacher, a native designer, a human rights lawyer, a climate activist, a high school student, a participatory budgeting expert, an EMT, lots of podcasts hosts and writers, a palliative care chaplain, and so many more.
And as you remember, I donate $250 to each guest in honor of their labor and our admiration out of your subscription fees. That means we’ve collectively donated nearly $5,000 to so many organizations and issues we care about: mental health in India, food security in Austin and West Virginia, LGBTQ+ rights in Kenya, legal justice in New Orleans, peace for women in Korea, domestic violence and educational equity in Oakland, of course, and access to medicines the world over, among so much else. (For a full list, see below. As always, feel free to pile on!)
How cool is that? How abundant is this? Thank you thank you thank you.
As always, please let me know how I can be of more and varied uses. I got words. I got observations. I got outrage. I got love. And I got you.
Two very specific questions: you seem to like the audio essays, huh? That’s so cool. I’ll keep doing those. My friend Louise told me that I need to slow down, so I tried to read slower on Wednesday. Let me know if you’ve got other thoughts.
I’m sort of over the Times these days and reaching for another cool instastory ritual to welcome into my life. If you’ve got ideas, let me know.
Oh, and one specific ask: if you love this examined family we’re building together, will you spread the word? You can email five friends you think would like it and send them your favorite post, or tweet or gram if that’s your kind of thing, post on Facebook, or just send a text completely composed of emojis. You can gift someone a subscription even! I’m not so interested in world domination, as you might imagine, but I sure like the idea of growing the crew of smart, big-hearted people from which we can all learn from each week.
The organizations we’ve donated to: Women for Women International, Girls for a Change, Oakland Elizabeth House, Zinn Education Project, Women Cross DMZ, Innocence Project New Orleans, STEM from Dance, The Banyan, Covenant House, Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Fund, Trans & Queer Solidarity Fund Kenya, Neighbor 2 Neighbor, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Arc Foundation Shelter Campaign, I-MAK, Equity Allies for OUSD, #FeedTheWest, and MASS Design Group.
A couple of things to check out:
Today, I’ll be in conversation with Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play, about Learning in Public. Starts at 9am PST / 12pm EST. RSVP and join us!
And I was so honored to be in conversation with Nompumelelo (Mungi) Ngomane, granddaughter of Desmond Tutu, on her podcast. Listen to that here.
