“The search for love continues even in the face of great odds.”
—graffiti message shared by bell hooks (All About Love xv)
I’ve written previously about the roller coaster of emotions I’m currently riding—fired up one minute and laid low the next. My guess is this up-down, high-low rhythm will be my norm for some time to come.
At one point, I’m knocked down by the force of historic, mounting injustice; the next I’m connecting with and inspired by others truly committed to racial justice. One day I’m literally curled up from the HURT of this era of dehumanizing pain; the next I’m filled up with HOPE from seeing people show up in persistent and powerful ways.
This morning I’ve riding high and want to share why, as I hope these resources might help with finding love, fueling justice:
- I’m truly inspired after seeing activist Shaun King speak last night here in Milwaukee. I’m deeply grateful for his reporting and calls to action via social media.
- I’m learning so much from working with America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM). I really appreciate their “Breaking News” and online collections.
- I’m feeling unbridled by reading Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/LaFrontera and planning an experiential gallery walk for class today. I’m committing (again) to working against all forms of injustice, including linguistic prejudice.
- I’m lit by sharing bell hooks’s All About Love: New Visions—the perfect book for Valentine’s Day—through “love notes” to students and colleagues.
Today is a day when so many of us celebrate love. May we search for love in the face of great odds. May we work to understand love better—to truly know and create it in our lives. May we build the emotional literacies, stamina, and resiliency needed for addressing our own complicity in injustice. May we seek to enact love, as we make actionable commitments to justice.
“To truly love we must learn to mix ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication.”
—bell hooks (All About Love 5)
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This post is written by Beth Godbee for Heart-Head-Hands.com. Please consider liking this blog on FB and following the blog via email. Thanks!
![Continuing with this week’s question: “How do I make the most of summer?”
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Answer #3: Find ways to play. I describe in “Playing Through Pain” how play (like swimming and climbing) not only helps me release physical pain but also helps with processing and planning for daily life. Play can facilitate breaks from the routines that get us stuck and help us create in wildly imaginative ways. And, truly, creativity and imagination are needed toward visioning a more humane, more just world.
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Link for this post on play: https://heart-head-hands.com/2017/08/06/playing-through-the-pain/…
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[Image: This photo shows an indoor swimming pool with the YMCA logo against the back wall, a blue water slide to the right, and a sign with “Pool Rules” posted in the front.]
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#play #summer #unlearning #learning #relearning #swimming #movement #NewHabits #visioning #DoingThingsDifferently #AdultsCanPlayToo #SummerAdventures #SummerFun #SummerIdeas #TuesdayTips #TuesdayThoughts #Swim #Pool #habits #ShakeUpEverydayLife #everyday #mindfulness #CommittedToJustice](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/8de0809cd3d681359184ef2a8dc98680/5D8830C9/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/c209.0.1021.1021a/s640x640/64512076_128242271715685_1727807375457432735_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com "Continuing with this week’s question: “How do I make the most of summer?”
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Answer #3: Find ways to play. I describe in “Playing Through Pain” how play (like swimming and climbing) not only helps me release physical pain but also helps with processing and planning for daily life. Play can facilitate breaks from the routines that get us stuck and help us create in wildly imaginative ways. And, truly, creativity and imagination are needed toward visioning a more humane, more just world.
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Link for this post on play: https://heart-head-hands.com/2017/08/06/playing-through-the-pain/…
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[Image: This photo shows an indoor swimming pool with the YMCA logo against the back wall, a blue water slide to the right, and a sign with “Pool Rules” posted in the front.]
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#play #summer #unlearning #learning #relearning #swimming #movement #NewHabits #visioning #DoingThingsDifferently #AdultsCanPlayToo #SummerAdventures #SummerFun #SummerIdeas #TuesdayTips #TuesdayThoughts #Swim #Pool #habits #ShakeUpEverydayLife #everyday #mindfulness #CommittedToJustice")
![This week I’ll be sharing ideas for making the most of summer, leading up to an announcement of “40 questions for 40 walks”: a program to support self-inquiry and alignment with everyday living for justice.
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Each of this week’s posts will answer the same question: “How do I make the most of summer?”
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Answer #1: Read to inspire action. Rather than approaching “summer reading” as an escape from everyday life, read books, blogs, essays, and articles that call to your heart and fuel your commitment to justice.
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Looking for ideas of what to read? Check out this past blog post -- https://heart-head-hands.com/loving-to-read-again/ -- or my newsletter, where I’ll be sharing reading suggestions each month. The first newsletter is coming later this month (June!), so let me know if you’d like to be added to the mailing list.
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[Image shows a stack of books with @PresumedIncompetent on the bottom. Other books include #EmergentStrategy and @jardana’s A Guidebook for White People Working for Racial Justice.]
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#Summer #SummerReading #Reading #Books #SocialJustice #RacialJustice #EnvironmentalJustice #OngoingEducation #ProfessionalDevelopment #Reader #Writer #Educator #Newsletter #bookstagram #Library #Courses #SundayRead #WhatToRead #ReadingSuggestions #DailyPosts #MakingTheMostOfSummer #SummerAdventures #Action #Inspiration #Everyday #EverydayLivingForJustice](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/8676d53c578d61d1e82c51a4bcb9ff10/5DA6D4A6/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/c250.0.940.940a/s640x640/62135619_307494566800794_3508427692187065673_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com "This week I’ll be sharing ideas for making the most of summer, leading up to an announcement of “40 questions for 40 walks”: a program to support self-inquiry and alignment with everyday living for justice.
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Each of this week’s posts will answer the same question: “How do I make the most of summer?”
.
Answer #1: Read to inspire action. Rather than approaching “summer reading” as an escape from everyday life, read books, blogs, essays, and articles that call to your heart and fuel your commitment to justice.
.
Looking for ideas of what to read? Check out this past blog post -- https://heart-head-hands.com/loving-to-read-again/ -- or my newsletter, where I’ll be sharing reading suggestions each month. The first newsletter is coming later this month (June!), so let me know if you’d like to be added to the mailing list.
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[Image shows a stack of books with @PresumedIncompetent on the bottom. Other books include #EmergentStrategy and @jardana’s A Guidebook for White People Working for Racial Justice.]
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#Summer #SummerReading #Reading #Books #SocialJustice #RacialJustice #EnvironmentalJustice #OngoingEducation #ProfessionalDevelopment #Reader #Writer #Educator #Newsletter #bookstagram #Library #Courses #SundayRead #WhatToRead #ReadingSuggestions #DailyPosts #MakingTheMostOfSummer #SummerAdventures #Action #Inspiration #Everyday #EverydayLivingForJustice")
![Yesterday I had the opportunity to present in the career showcase for Georgetown's Graduate Certificate in the Engaged and Public Humanities -- speaking about the work of Heart Head Hands: Everyday Living for Justice and seeing my business name listed as my institutional affiliation (pictured here in the name tag and program directory).
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As I keep seeking clarity about the work I'm called to do and the possibilities outside higher education, I'm grateful for opportunities like this to speak about why public writing and community education matter. Now a year out from leaving my faculty position, I'm feeling more confident in saying: "Yes, I've started a small business, and I'm an entrepreneur," and "Yes, within that work, I'm still an educator, researcher, and academic."
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In these new roles, I hope to keep breaking the lines between what's "academic" and "non-academic." Shared human experience involves making sense of and intervening into the world, yet too often schooling has restricted whose experiences get valued, named, and known as well as who's perceived as doing knowledge construction.
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Much of the work (the questions to be asked and the injustices to be countered) are the same -- in and out of schools. My hope is to do the work that matters across spaces, breaking and blurring lines, making commitments to justice actionable.
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[Image shows a name tag and program directory that sit atop a full-page handout with the logo for Heart-Head-Hands.com visible: all documents are black-and-white against a black tabletop.]
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#HigherEducation #HigherEd #PublicHumanities #Humanities #CommunityEducation #Education #Educator #Academic #WithaPhD #EPH2019 #GraduateEducation #GradStudent #GradStudentLife #FacultyLife #AltAc #NonAc #PostAc #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneur #Professor #Blogger #Writer #CommittedtoJustice #SocialJustice #EquityInEducation #Everyday
@georgetownuniversity @reinventphd @ImaginePhD @BeyondtheProfessoriate @dissertation_doctor @gradstudentselfcare @humanitiesall](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/60845e9879309fa30ba7bfea91fe022f/5D8E74DD/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/61875227_2359416610989720_2127633295834803166_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com "Yesterday I had the opportunity to present in the career showcase for Georgetown's Graduate Certificate in the Engaged and Public Humanities -- speaking about the work of Heart Head Hands: Everyday Living for Justice and seeing my business name listed as my institutional affiliation (pictured here in the name tag and program directory).
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As I keep seeking clarity about the work I'm called to do and the possibilities outside higher education, I'm grateful for opportunities like this to speak about why public writing and community education matter. Now a year out from leaving my faculty position, I'm feeling more confident in saying: \"Yes, I've started a small business, and I'm an entrepreneur,\" and \"Yes, within that work, I'm still an educator, researcher, and academic.\"
.
In these new roles, I hope to keep breaking the lines between what's \"academic\" and \"non-academic.\" Shared human experience involves making sense of and intervening into the world, yet too often schooling has restricted whose experiences get valued, named, and known as well as who's perceived as doing knowledge construction.
.
Much of the work (the questions to be asked and the injustices to be countered) are the same -- in and out of schools. My hope is to do the work that matters across spaces, breaking and blurring lines, making commitments to justice actionable.
.
.
[Image shows a name tag and program directory that sit atop a full-page handout with the logo for Heart-Head-Hands.com visible: all documents are black-and-white against a black tabletop.]
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.
#HigherEducation #HigherEd #PublicHumanities #Humanities #CommunityEducation #Education #Educator #Academic #WithaPhD #EPH2019 #GraduateEducation #GradStudent #GradStudentLife #FacultyLife #AltAc #NonAc #PostAc #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneur #Professor #Blogger #Writer #CommittedtoJustice #SocialJustice #EquityInEducation #Everyday
@georgetownuniversity @reinventphd @ImaginePhD @BeyondtheProfessoriate @dissertation_doctor @gradstudentselfcare @humanitiesall")
Love this. =) <3
Thanks, Sarah, and sending love! Thanks for your support, for reading, for standing beside me. Deep gratitude.