14th Mar 2022
I have been extremely resistant to writing these past few weeks, that new year energy rapidly washing away. But with commitment as the word of the year, I shall persevere! It’s not for lack of things to say. More so that the last month for me has reflected our collective weather and international turmoil, everything stirred up and stormy, unsettled and uncertain. I have been waiting for the dust to settle, impatiently. I remembered though, that writing can be a way to clarify and internally settle, so here I am. A invitation from a dear friend also reminding me I can write less too, coaxed me back today.
My reading commitments
Commitment, my word for the year, shows up in my reading choices and habits. I’ve always been a reader, buying way more books than I could ever hope to read. However, what I’ve read and how much has shifted over time.
I went through my phase of only consuming non-fiction broadly self helpy type stuff when I was really struggling to figure out my path, back in 2014-16. I realised though, that for all the supposed wisdom and advice I was consuming, very little was making its way into my life and I fell out of love with the genre all together, drifting towards a simple daily habits and incremental improvements model of growth. If I can sleep well, eat well, move, meditate/breathe well and rest/reflect each day, that takes care of 90% of my physical and mental health needs.
I struggled for a couple of years to find books that I could engage with until, in 2019, I went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with my bestie, Hanita. As we clicked through endless pages of 1000s of acts and shows and activities online, trying to figure out which to get tickets for, Hanita suggested a handy rule to help us choose. How about ‘no straight, white, men?’. Whilst cutting down our options by at least three quarters, it also helped us uncover incredible shows from Travis Alabanza’s Burgers to Sophie Hagen to a musical about Josephine Baker to a one woman show called Sexy Lamp to Sophie Duker and so many more. I can’t describe how much fun it was and how enriching to see such wildly different narratives and creative expression. We were spoiled.
It made me wonder about other ways I could intentionally invite voices into my life that we’re less familiar, less obvious, less culturally dominant. So, I decided to apply the same rule to my fiction reading. Since the summer of 2019, all the fiction I’ve read has been absent of straight, white, male writers. I read fiction each night before bed and I’ve found myself drifting off into the worlds of missionaries in Belgian Congo in the 1950s, a serial killer sister in Nigeria, a young dominican bride migrating to New York in the 1960s, generations of a Korean family as they move from Korea to Japan from 1910 to today, a couple fleeing from the Spanish civil war to Chile to motherhood explored through trans and queer characters and most recently, a muslim family trying to build a mosque in a quaint English village*, to name just a few.
The last few years I’ve read nothing but fiction and as I came into 2022, I realised that I needed to integrate my need for stories with a deep love of learning. So this year I’m trying to do both, diverse voices through fiction and then non-fiction, mostly about the impact space, as mentioned in my last blog. I’ve missed absorbing an expert's life’s work, consolidated into a book.
For those of you worried about my lack of straight white male narratives, not to worry, they still appear in the biographies I’ve listened to recently. I would highly recommend the audiobooks of Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey and Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (I still miss his presence in the world), read by the men themselves and just really good fun.
I’m curious, for the readers out there, how do you find your next read? What stories capture you? Do you have any recommendations for me?
*The books these refer to, all I’d highly recommend:
Understanding Ukraine
When Russia invaded Ukraine, I felt shamefully surprised by what happened, unaware of the historical, geopolitical dominoes that had fallen to get us to this terrifying place. I’ve read/watched/listened a lot over the past few weeks. I share some resources here for those of you who want to learn a bit more about why we are here and some of the present and future implications of these actions. What I’ve found most useful about these in particular is the expertise of the people speaking and the contextualising of how this fits into a broader picture of events.
Past: John Mearsheimer’s 2015 University of Chicago Lecture: Why is Ukraine the West’s fault? - given over 6 years ago, after the annexing of Crimea, this was particularly eye opening from the professor of political science and international relations. (TY Caine for the rec!)
Present: Outrage + Optimism podcast with David Miliband and William Hague two former UK foreign ministers talking about both the humanitarian crisis being created by the war and the impact on climate change efforts.
Future: Professor Jem Bendall’s post Ukraine: how it could go and what to do about it. A thoughtful, more personal piece that reflects on possible futures what leaders can do to ensure they are thinking carefully about their response to the crisis.
There are of course also numerous ways to support people on the ground directly, the DEC appeal being the largest, Unicef too. Details of refugee sponsorship is also soon to be published here in the UK, if embarrassingly slowly.
How have you been reacting to the news in Ukraine? Have you seen any useful ways to understand the situation or support? Have you even had the capacity to engage given all else that is going on still for many?
Random bits
As London chapter co-lead of Zebra’s Unite, we hosted an event in January about the future of funding impact driven businesses. If you’re curious about what we discussed you can check out the highlights here
Newest podcasts in my rotation: Maintenance Phase (real good for breaking down the myths and bias in the health and wellness industry, revealing many of my own biases whilst their at it! TY Juli for the rec!), Everything is Alive (wholesome and surprisingly emotive interviews with inanimate objects) and The Grand Tourist with Dan Rubenstein (for the design lovers out there)
Until next time friends. It’s been so lovely to reconnect with folks over the past few months in response to these emails, do hit reply if you’d like to connect/chat.
R x