dancing near and
toward each
other,
holding still,
nearer,
holding,
nearer yet…
hoping
the other does
not back away.
both wondering
what patterns we may be repeating,
will this person accept me will they treat me as well as I’ll treat them will they treat me as well as i deserve will we enjoy each other’s company will they run away…
care, agency, wisdom
Reading that is continually freeing me to (re)negotiate and prefigure a life within the cracks.
\ frē′dəm \
(noun): the capacity to imagine how things might be elsewise, with the flexible support to try, and the hope of possibilities.
(adverb) freeing: the state of imagining possibilities; relieved of the restraints of the singular, opened to the multitudes of potentialities.
(verb) to free: 1. to imagine, illuminate, share, and explore potentialities. 2. to flexibly support, facilitate, or otherwise encourage exploring potentialities.
Often conflated with related concepts of autonomy and agency. Is social as much as personal.
*An entry from A DIY Healing Dictionary of Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Social Being. The dictionary is a work in progress and part of the larger DIY Ph.D. – Prefiguring Learning for the Ecocene performance.
Freedom?
What about the freedom to care?
Stretched to the limit,
frayed,
torn apart,
the courage to say no,
no, that is too much!
No, that is not acceptable!
No, that is not what I need.
The courage to say no opens up
the possibility,
the mental space,
the emotional wherewithal
to care.
Will we stand
and fight
for the freedom
to care?
I have struggled most as an artist and parent. Living on a single income, with twice the expenses, limits what I can do and where. I can only travel for research if the boy can come along, and has something to occupy him. The same goes for residencies. And the cost of even occasional childcare is prohibitive, let alone regular care. Travel and compartmentalization is fragmentation, causing sanity, time, and financial problems. Again, exponentially even more so with a learning difference. This is in part why my work rejects the artificial division of life, work, family, and environment. And why my practice is integrated, so I can survive and work. Not just survive, thrive. I know, just by the demographics of people who are parents, and people with disabilities, that I am not the only one.
this is not a manifesto. this is life.
A fresh and thought provoking performance at Spilt Milk Gallery in Edinburgh confronting the hidden costs of university for people who aren’t young, male, single, have no learning differences, and no caring responsibilities.
