Yum & Yuk

Check out the great short video for GROW, Oxfam's new campaign to build a better food system

Wow, awesome: I am not your tragic trans narrative: "Here’s the thing: we’ve all got our own experiences, but in mine being trans is not tragic. It’s incredible. In fact, I’m fucking amazing. And my transness has a lot to do with that. I’ve broken one of the most absolute rules handed down by our culture, and that gives me a vision that goes beyond what seems possible to what’s needed and desired. Coming out may have felt like a necessity, but it’s given me incredible strength, the ability to take big leaps of faith, make exciting mistakes, and find liberating new possibilities. I’ve become a more caring, compassionate friend in a real way, because I also take care of myself. And it’s given me an extraordinary community if trans and gender non-conforming folks and allies who are honest, direct, incredibly loving, and fucking hilarious. And hot. So damn hot."

Image: source.

Really interesting (thanks, NK!): Veganism, feminists of color, and hope for the Animal Rights movement. For instance, "American and Western European vegans often opt for 'cruelty-free products', when in fact, these products are not at all human cruelty free. The chocolate, sugar, and cotton marketed as cruelty free is mostly not fair trade and 'the non-white racialized populations' harvesting and treating these products work in dangerous and cruel conditions. This kind of ethical consumption is leading to a racialized neo-colonialism marked by geo-political privilege."

I went to the doctor yesterday and she tentatively diagnose me with tendonitis in my knee. The good news is that she doesn't think its my meniscus (fingers crossed!), but she gave me a referral to an orthopedist just to check in and make sure. I haven't run in about 2 weeks, which sucks, but I really want to have a long term life as a runner, so if taking it easy right now is what it takes then....that's what I'll do. In the meantime I'm walking, doing 30 Day Shred, and biking (although mostly indoors, since it is rainy and cold here - seriously, there is snow on the hills and it's June 1st!). Sigh. I guess having a knee injury makes me a real runner, right? (What is really a bummer is that I don't think its from the marathon or marathon training at all, I think it's from the trail race I did a week afterwards....guess I learned a lesson there....)

"I grew up in traditional black patriarchal culture and there is no doubt that I’m going to take a great many unconscious, but present, patriarchal complicities to the grave because it so deeply ensconced in how I look at the world. Therefore, very much like alcoholism, drug addiction, or racism patriarchy is a disease and we are in perennial recovery and relapse. So you have to get up every morning and struggle against it. " - Cornel West