quotidian resistance

[kaberett]

For Reasons I have been having Difficulty with food, generally, for the past couple of weeks. Today I am At Home, with - due to some scheduling mishaps that have worked out in my favour - an A also At Home.

I have made soda bread, with rosemary and raisins. I have topped up the buttermilk and it's resting. The yoghurt has come out of the Instant Pot and gone into the fridge. I have prepared the base mix for vanilla ice cream, at Adam's request, to rest overnight and be churned tomorrow. I have eaten soda bread and pickled onions and cheeses and a perfect pear, all of which I actively wanted to eat. I have ingredients for tagine and am working slowly up to maybe making it. I will shortly feed the sourdough.

I wanted to go to the central London protest this evening and had every intention of doing so. And then I had to go out for eggs for the ice cream and I got more and more panicked as I got closer and closer to home, and have decided, to my very great frustration, that trying to get out this evening is really not a good idea.

I can keep myself alive, though, and coax myself back toward health, and keep feeding people, and I have signed the (38deg) petitions (No10); as my next step I will get in touch with my MP.

Keep living seems a small thing, a sad thing to offer (not quite what you deserve me to be), but it's what I've got tonight.

Comments

[kaberett]

......... on the one hand my MP is already very THIS IS BAD AND SHOULD NOT HAPPEN about this entire Situation, which, good.

On the other, her most recent two retweets are about ~gut microbiome transfers~ and ~their effects on autism-like behaviours~ and

I do not

even know

where to start

[kaberett]

this nature paper, which, I really did not need this eliminationist Autism-Parent-Centric bullshit today.

[kaberett]

okay apparently my political action for the day is tweeting my MP, ugh

[booksarelife]

That was an awesome tweet you did! Also what does “gut microbiome transfers” mean?

[archangelbeth]

Collecting poop, doing things that try to minimize pathogen transfer, and inserting that poop into someone else. Rectally, I think.

If such things caused better absorption of nutrients and/or reduced intestinal pain (e.g., gas, etc.), then I'm sure there might be a lessening of stress, and thus a lessening of the "symptoms" of a stressed autistic person. (Which probably describes most or all of the autistic folks they've been dealing with.)

I would not want to throw around words like "cure," however. Not least because I do not want my Offspring to shiv me, but also because most of the autistic behaviors that upset neurotypicals tend to be responses to stressors*, and therefore a "lessening of autistic symptoms" is probably "individual has more spoons to cope with stressors in the environment." They're not "less autistic"; they're less stressed.


(*Others are "happy stimming" behaviors, which neurotypicals find unpredictable and thus get all bent out of shape about, and some are "avoiding a stressor in the first place" behaviors.)

[vass]

<333 *covers face*

[redbird]

Keeping yourself alive is resistance, against this regime.

[radiantfracture]

Hear hear.

You alive is a big win.

[lunabee34]

Hugs

[sebastienne]

I am glad that your body is asking for food and rest again, or at least that you can hear it again. You deserve a break after the week you've had!

[rydra_wong]

I also did not make today's protest (owing to having to abruptly get myself on a train back to London), but there's one scheduled for Saturday. Which gives more time for mental preparation, at least.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/08/28/protest-planned-queen-approves-parliament-suspension-10645072/

and I got more and more panicked as I got closer and closer to home, and have decided, to my very great frustration, that trying to get out this evening is really not a good idea.

Sounds like a good call. Frustrating, but the right decision.

[silveradept]

At a certain point, we'll all be able to get together and sing songs about surviving and living.

[alexwlchan]

Keeping yourself alive is an act of resistance in this political climate.

I’m glad you managed to have food today, and hope the situation continues to improve.

<3

[kaberett]

I ended up actively Wanting To Cook Dinner instead of Giving Up And Ordering Takeaway this evening, so signs are promising. <3

[untonuggan]

<3

[calissa]

Sending love. <3

[swaldman]

While I am grateful to the people who have been protesting, I also bear no grudge against people not doing so for whatever reason ;-)

I'm debating whether to bother writing to "my" MP, because it's Ross Thomson...

[divulge]

<3

[vass]

have decided, to my very great frustration, that trying to get out this evening is really not a good idea.

Been there. There sucks. Alive good. <333

[ewt]

So, not having read this, I tooted:

"Clearly I am spending the day in the kitchen and garden because politics are too stressful to do anything other than gentle self-care.

I cannot protest safely -- I know the point is to be heard, not to be safe, but please believe me when I say the risks work out differently for me.

Things are bad, politically, where I am. But I will still have bread tonight. I will still have passata next week.

I can't do a lot more about the political situation than sign some petitions and contact my MP. I do these things even though they feel futile.

But I can tie back tomatoes, feed the sourdough culture, pull dandelions. "

Solidarity.

[sfred]

<3

[booksarelife]

Also, hugs if you want them

[davidgillon]

There's significant intersections between the set of idiots in favour of proroguing parliament (because Cromwell was such a shining example of democracy in action?) and the set of idiots who are offended by people who are not just like them. 'Keep living' is an act of resistance even if you can't manage anything else.