I’ve been quiet here. My youngest child is a toddler now, and we moved into a new home that needs a bit of work, so I haven’t been making time for many of my interests. I haven’t been having much “fun”.
That doesn’t mean that I’m unhappy — my day-to-day life is full of joy! But it’s a lifestyle where you can blink and miss years, and I don’t want to spend too much time like this. I know that if I wait until I feel like I have “free time” then nothing will change, so I simply need to start making commitments outside of the home.
I don’t know what form these will take. I spent several years (primarily before the pandemic) involved in “socialist organizing”, but I’ve since arrived at the opinion that that sort of work is not a good approach for achieving any of my goals¹. I’ve been giving this question a lot of thought, but probably, I just need to try a few things and find something that feels right.
My new neighborhood is predictably (for Southern California) car-centric, but our specific location allows us to walk to most of the places we regularly visit (schools, parks, the library, grocery shopping, etc). The only public transit option for leaving the neighborhood are bus lines, and I hope to explore those soon. I am excited about a few potential gardening and technical projects I can pursue around the house (I really want to put together a solar-powered server), but I’m intentionally putting these off until I finish a few more urgent projects around the house, and establish an engaged life outside of it.
So that’s where I am. Trying not to blink and miss 2023.
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[1] I’m speaking here about mash up of Alinskyist community organizing and entryist approaches to labor unions — with the occasional foray into electoralism — that’s popular with the post-2016 US “left”. I gave it a fair shake and I feel like I wasted my time.