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Jono & Laynie

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oh grad school

This semester is in full force, and with 400+ pages to read a week (plus papers and presentations, and, oh wait, I'm working too), you will probably not see me (the Laynie half of us) socially for the next several months.

So I'll offer a wee snippet of a paper I turned in last semester on what our response should be to the layers of environmental and fiscal crises we see in our world.

1200px-Worldmap_LandAndPolitical.jpg

 

Gandhi commissioned us to be the change we want to see in the world, and in the midst of dark times, we must believe change in possible - all other alternatives are simply not acceptable.

We can choose to believe we are powerless and stay paralyzed, or we can garner the power we do possess - our time, our resources - and do what we can, where we are, with what we have. And people will follow because passion inspires movement and all too often, people simply need to be shown the way.

If we wait for the government - or someone out there - to make the needed changes for us, we might be waiting forever. I propose we put down our devices, open up our wallets, and walk into the world outside our front doors.

Anne Frank once wrote,

Riches, power and fame last for only a few short years. Why do we cling so desperately to these fleeting things? Why can't people who have money more than enough for their own needs give the rest to their fellow human beings?  Why should anyone have to have such a hard life for those few short years on earth? ….How wonderful it is that no one has to wait, but can start right now to gradually change the world!  How wonderful it is that everyone, great and small, can immediately help bring about justice by giving of themselves!....If you follow this advice, within a few generations, people will never have to feel sorry for poor little beggar children again, because there won't be any! The world has plenty of room, riches, money and beauty. God has created enough for each and every one of us. Let us begin by dividing it more fairly. 

So what is our response today? We can change our own little worlds as early as this very hour, and we don’t have to wait for anyone else to legislate a law or propose a new plan to do so. We can’t regulate the housing market tomorrow, but we could start a petition to do so from our living rooms. We can let a single mom live in our spare bedroom for a year while she saves up money for downpayment. We can’t feed the hungry people of the world in one day, but we can plant a community garden (and then another, and another). We can put our money where are mouths are and move our money to credit unions, buy less, buy used, not buy at all. We can pay our employees fairly, purchase groceries or cook a meal for someone in need. Kindness and conviction spread. If we don’t like anyone who is running for a political office, then we can run ourselves because no one is stopping us from doing so. There is much to be done and always a place to start. We have no excuse for waiting.

...So let’s not look only at short-term action steps, but also at long-term solutions and all the stages between to get there.  None of the things mentioned are a full solution in and of themselves, but they are all advances and leaps in a better direction.

Indeed, ideally, we could start over, rip up everything - roots and all - and slowly build a system that’s set up for success. But no matter how we play our cards, starting with nothing will never be an option - we already have too much of a mess.

...So what do we do? We change an ideology by choosing to live counter-culturally every day - by talking about revolution and then by living it. We make the conscious choice to run, not walk, in the opposite direction of all the greed and selfishness and violence we so loathe in the world. Someone is writing the story of our generation; let’s be those people. We do what we can every single day. Every single day we do something, take even a tiny step in the direction of this existence we crave. We turn off lights and open windows. We don’t buy plastic water bottles, we use cloth bags for our groceries, we compost, we plant trees. We plant more trees, we share what we can. We don’t let capitalism define us. We research, we write articles, we recycle. We slow down, we learn to live simply. We speak up, we speak out. We protest, we march, we don’t wait for charge - we become the change. We grow tired, but we do not give up - not tomorrow or the next day either. It will be exhausting and demoralizing. We will lose friends; we may lose ourselves. But we must keep standing, placing one foot in front of the other, fighting by any means possible for a better world we will likely never see, but must believe with all our hearts is possible.

“A reminder: To get serious about systemic change is to get serious about decades, not weeks or months, of work. It also requires getting serious about large-order processes, not simply elections and policies” (Gar Alperowitz).

The time is here, the time is now. Someone must lead the charge - is it you? Let’s go.

 

 

tags: labour studies, mcmaster, mcmaster university, graduate student, grad school, grad student, graduate school, hamilton, change, solidarity, anne frank
categories: grime life

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Sunday 01.14.18
Posted by layne grime
 

Remember Us

Hi there friends!

(It's insane that we're already almost two weeks into January.) 

This is just a little reminder that two weeks from TOMORROW our book will go on sale HERE. Please do buy as many copies as you'd like because the more we sell, the better publisher options we'll have...

Beyond that, I should explain (because apparently I haven't done a good job until now and many people have been confused)...over the last 1-5 years, I've actually written three books. Two of the books have been with my friend Lindsay (Remember Us and Twelve Hearts) and one has been a solo project (We Were All Drowning.)

They are all fiction (general adult fiction) and all Very Different.

Remember Us:

At its core, Remember Us is a humorous and poignant story about family. It explores forgiveness, love, loss, and the unexpected beauty of the people who share the same DNA.

The story centers around the Hamiltons and commences thirteen years after Bernice, formally known as mom, walked out of their lives without a word.

When 25-year-old Ben calls his twin and best friend, Reese, to tell her their father Carl has cancer, she drops everything and races back to their childhood home in Nebraska. Bernice shows up unannounced on the doorstep a few days later at 10 p.m. exactly with three suitcases, her pet chihuahua Rocky sitting high in her fuchsia purse, and mascara running down both cheeks.

She said she came to be helpful.

Remember Us chronicles the Hamiltons through the next three months as they begrudgingly grow reacquainted with each other.

We'll be taking pre-orders for Remember Us for 30 days starting January 26 and hopefully we'll make progress on having a publisher and/or an agent whom we can work with long-term after this step.

I love all three books for different reasons and am glad to be publishing Remember Us as a way to celebrate the milestone of actually writing a book. Sometimes it still sounds crazy to say out loud!

Also, I am SO GRATEFUL for your support along the way.

Writing has been a dear, dear dream of mine for as long as I can remember and I've learned so much from this process. So THANKS for all your love along this journey. I couldn't be here without you!

tags: author, debut author, writer, writing, writing life, writer's life, writers blogs, writers, book writing, typewriter, toronto writers
categories: grime life

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Thursday 01.11.18
Posted by layne grime
Comments: 2
 
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