Friday Fun Flier XLII
I know, I know, I've been gone for a while!
Hello everybody.
First, I just wanted to say that the overturning of Roe v. Wade saddens me. After the SCOTUS documents leaked, I wrote an article about my vasectomy and why it’s an easy, viable birth control option. I never imagined that after all the bad publicity they’d actually go through with overturning, but here we are, back in time.
I know that it’s a complicated, messy, emotional issue and that people that I grew up with are on both sides of the aisle and blah blah blah.
I also know from studying history that bad things happen whenever any group seizes enough power that they start enacting rules that limit other people's autonomy and choice.
I’m against trying to control other people on a broad scale. That’s my deepest-held political and religious belief.
We need local autonomy, local power, local rules. Understanding and accepting that other people want to lead different lives.
NOT more control and broad-stroke rules that end up punishing low-income people.
The Update
I’m still in Ecuador, enjoying my last month in this beautiful country, posted up in a coastal town with a surfboard and a volleyball my mom left me after her visit. I’m not sure where to next, as I’m coming to think of Ecuador as home, but I’m sure the path will open :)
In the last few weeks, it’s been difficult to move around due to the series of roadblock protests that have shaken Ecuador.
Pretty awesome, actually. The indigenous people mobilized and halted the economy to get their demands heard. I dig it.
What I read this week
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
When I found this on the shelf at my local cafe, I was resistant, for a whole bunch of nonsensical reasons. “Why would I want to read a book by McConaughey?” I thought to myself. “If everyone else read it, do I care?”
The last bastions of hipster-attitude douchery that live in my head from studying literature can be loud sometimes. Luckily, I picked up the book and read it anyway.
This is one of my new favorite memoirs. McConaughey comes from a different time and place. He grew up in the south and experienced a lot of tough love in a family of three boys.
If this were your average memoir, the writer would have labeled some of the things McConaughey experienced as trauma, and spent the whole rest of the book telling you how they overcame. Instead, with a wonderful understanding of the world, McConaughey never strays from the fact that his family loved each other.
It’s old-fashioned in just the right ways, without being preachy. He doesn’t try to knock you over the head with anything, just says “I’ve lived a pretty cool life, and here’s what I got to show for it.”
I loved it.
That’s all for this week everybody :) I hope you’re safe and well, and I hope the craziness isn’t getting you down.
We have more in common with each other than we do with the powerful. We deserve listening and understanding. We are stronger together.
Peace.
Always enjoy reading your emails.
Welcome back Aaron and thank for your recent update! Take care and all the best on your continued adventures!