just gotta keep on keepen on

ok so i got discouraged and i haven't written in weeks but talking with a friend yesterday made me realize i needed to keep trying

the trouble with writing is it steals the heart and spirit from of my words. so every thing that is so alive in conversation is flat and lifeless in written words.

which is why i just have to keep doing it till it gets better, but i'm afraid by the time it gets
better anyone who stumbles across this blog will have given up cking it out.

siiiigh! oh well .i can only do the best i can do at any given time.

speaking of time if you have any free to give i'd be glad to have it. there's always something i need help with.

blogging with training wheels

i have dyslexia /learning disabilities and never learned to type .writing has always been a challenge .having a blog without spell ck means writing it in gmail remembering to to hit save before i cut and paste-lost a lot of the first food bank blog that way.didn't have the heart to try to reconstruct it.

i have great conversations that folks say i should blog but mostly the take too many words to do them justice. so for now my commitment is to blog something,anything at least twice a week till it becomes a habit and less intimidating.then maybe i'll start saying more of what i really want to say.

food for thought

first friday senior mercy brown bag food bank

3 natural flavor purified water apple drink 0% juice lots a sugar

1 lb dry beans

1 can tomato paste

2 cans mixed vegetables does anyone ever wilfully buy these?

8 snack size butterfingers granola candy bars

1 box cereal 8 pk cinnamon candy sprinkles oatmeal

1 pk english muffins

1 partially rotted cabbage

5 apples

what more could a person want for the next tow weeks? protein?nutrition?

--
"If you have come here to help me then you are wasting your time, but
if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine then
let us work together."
--Lila Watson (aboriginal activist)

less survival

actually i first noticed this phenomena at the senior center lunch.the first time i went there i noticed when folks lined up for 2nd helping there was a men's line and a women's line. something i hadn't seen since grade school .i asked the women sitting next to me what that was about and she said it was because the men used to push the women out of the way

this says nothing about the impossibility of the frail elder of any gender having a chance to get more food.


want to say more,say it deeper,talk about it in relation to culture and social change.

ah well slowly, slowly bit by bit i hope i'll gain momentum.i know i'll never learn to spell.
and there doesn't seem to be a spell ck here.

so much to say so little energy

sooooo little energy -more one of these days -please stay tuned

survival of the fittest how can it change

survival of the fittest how can it change

the first in a series of rants about being a little older a bit disabled and living life near the bottom and how to make whole system change trickle down to me and mine.

a few months ago they started a new food bank at a large senior apartment complex(not to be confused whit the senior food bank-more about that later)

i've gone a few times with mixed results,but thus day word must have gotten out that there was good stuff to be had. people lined up in droves . while i sat on the side lines,i can't stand for long . i watched a elderly man nearly knock over a women using a walker so he could get in front of her in line.
this treatment of old folks of each other is scary and disheartening and unexpected.

i rarely see folks help each other .

how do we being whole systems change here

as much as i con type for now.

to be continued or not

--
"If you have come here to help me then you are wasting your time, but
if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine then
let us work together."
--Lila Watson (aboriginal activist)

bio bits and pieces

iris may mcginnis (me) is a human being trying to stay human.

I began looking for and trying to build sustainable community in the Back-to-Land and anti war movements in the 1960's and in the Women's Movement in the 1970's. I began support groups for working class women, started working with Reclaiming on the first Spiral Dance in 1979 at the beginning of that community and participated in a long term affinity coven involved in direct action politics. I worked in various direct action and social justice movements through the 1980's, often living collectively. In the 1990's health issues caused me to slow down and move back to the country where I was involved for a number of years in the Mendocino Environmental Center and Parents For Peace. In 2004 I became involved with the Association Building Community Council and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to be more accessible to trainings in Nonviolent Communication, class, social action, race, etc.

I often have no clear idea how to say succinctly what is important to me. How many characters can I have? How can I estimate how many I's I am? I don't want anyone to read this and get the idea I think I am important. I have more questions than answers and sometimes have responses, but often fewer than I would like.

"If you have come here to help me then you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine then let us work together." --Lila Watson (aboriginal activist)

If you came here from meeting me out in the world (Nexus for Change, ABC event/mailing) to find these few bits and pieces about me, please know that I have memory issues related to my disabilities. I would love to reconnect with the wonderful people I've met recently. PLEASE follow up with me by sending an email to iris at abcglobal dot net or commenting here on my blog, and remind me about our connection. PLEASE don't take it personally if I haven't come to find you first.