#funisanecessity

During her lifetime, Concepcion Arenal (1820-1893) actively challenged religious, legal, and scientific authorities to advocate for women’s rights and promote social reform. She was the first woman to attend university in Spain (she wore men’s clothes and didn't ask permission), she pioneered Spanish sociology and feminism, and she chased a robber out of her uncle's house with a shotgun as a youth. And yet, only one of her essays (to my knowledge) has been translated into English! I'm a draft and a half in to translating one of her best-known books, La mujer del porvenir (The Woman of the Future). It includes Arenal’s witty note to the reader and heaps of sharply composed arguments that expose the absurdity of common justifications of feminine inferiority in 19th century Spain, some of which still ring eerily true today.  Come learn about this historical awesome-person and prepare to fascinate your friends with your knowledge whenever social gatherings become a thing again. Free event link in bio! Also here if this is cross posted on another platform: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/funisanecessity/494805 March 8th, 2021 11 am - 12 pm EST All are welcome! Please share widely!!! Also my eternal gratitude to @ruizruizisabel for sharing her art with me to help visually support this work! <3 Go check out her incredible books and illustrations celebrating notable women in history! #funisanecessity #work in progress #marchmeetthemaker #translation #teacher #learner #haveroffun #historicalwomen #spanishtranslation #writer #smallbusiness https://www.instagram.com/p/CMJKoSbhWGn/?igshid=1qc27bcpzbyij

My desk is… not a desk. I have two proper desks in my house (one is covered in plants and filled with audio equipment, the other is a little guy that holds my printer and a collection of in-progress journals and art books), and a nice kitchen table on long-term loan from some beloved friends (pictured). My office workspace, though, is a Lifetime card table. {Aside: I’m experiencing symptoms of metaphoritis (credit for the word goes to the incredible Reuben Jackson, my Young Writers Project co-teacher, beloved new friend, brilliant poet and kind human extraordinaire. Go read his work—I’ll wait.) as I edit this to share. Spending a lifetime playing my cards as best I can, and turning office-y work-flow into game-table play-flow is kinda the whole vibe I’m goin’ for). Okay back to the rest of the thing.} Originally, I worked on a card table out of frugality and space constraints—in a previous housing situation, I had one bedroom for me and all my creativity, and my housemate had a card table and let me use it. Then when I moved into my apartment and started looking for desks, they all had an irritating amount of features (I knew I would fill the drawers with nonsense and stack the shelves with papers that I would then ignore until they became either irrelevent or urgent), often inadequate knee space (I move while I work—leg crossing space is key), and wood or particle board tabletops that wouldn’t stand up to the battery of paint and water and acetone and other arcane artistic admixtures to which I am wont to subject my main creative surface. So I bought myself my very own card table. And I love it. I’d have one in every room in the house if that didn’t seem a little much. #funisanecessity #onmydesk #cardtable #abstractwatercolour #sketchbooking #marchmeetthemaker #keepitsimple #lovequote #homeoffice #writerspace #homeiswheretheartis #wearyourweird #officespace #teacher #learner #haveroffun #befrienderofhumans #dancerofdances #writer #gatelesswriting #gateless #smallbusiness #practiceinpublic #playflow #lifeisastory #lifeisasong #singit #playinprogress #thisistohavesucceeded https://www.instagram.com/p/CMBTu55hrCa/?igshid=8uibs2qj0dor

If you’d have asked me a couple years ago, I’d have told you my top values were learning, preparation, connection, and then I’d have tucked fun in there somewhere, hoping it could hide amidst official sounding words with more syllables. Not anymore. I’d like to have as much fun as possible, and then leave when it’s my time to go. That’s my whole life goal. Fun as a core value might sound selfish, or frivolous. I’ve thought the same thing. I just haven’t come up with a more consistent guide, solace, and motivator. Fun takes reality on its own terms, gets creative with limitations, and helps meaning emerge from seemingly arbitrary challenges. It takes intuition and improvisation seriously, and fuels joyful discernment about what is and isn’t working. It facilitates learning, and joyful connection. It makes hard tasks easier and more appealing. It is a marvelous fuel for doing, being, and making. It bakes love right into the process. And who doesn’t want a little extra love in their life? #funisanecessity #values #marchmeetthemaker #learningtolove #handletteredfont #calligraphr #lovequote #funquote #adventuroussoul #gentlerebellion #wearyourweird #teacher #learner #haveroffun #funandlearning #makingthings #letteringquotes #befrienderofhumans #dancerofdances #writer #gatelesswriting #gateless #pastoralcare #playflow #lifeisastory #lifeisasong #singitloud #playinprogress #thisistohavesucceeded https://www.instagram.com/p/CL_FJAuhsnR/?igshid=4fwtpxe66jd5

I once had a friend inform me I was a “balanced” person, which I had a good scoff about, before feeling really seen when she continued—“It’s a musical sort of balance.” And I liked that. My brain parliament is basically a huge jazz ensemble, and it shows in my work. We spend a lot of time playing, and making “wrong” notes sound as much like collaborative magic as possible. My style is a whole lot of bothness. Wholesome and bawdy, focused and flexible, queer and… okay pretty solidly queer, but I didn’t know for a while because where I grew up, the only option was to be Ellen and she was already herself. Awake and sleeping, natural and constructed, normal and strange, extended and contracted, understated and extra, feminine and genderful, digital and analog, classic and iconoclastic, sporty and artistic, appreciator of paper mail and email. If you’re reading those things and thinking to yourself—but those aren’t opposites. Correct. They’re all different parts of my wave/particle of the human experience. Multiplicity is fine. So is complexity. So is paradox. Had a cool conversation with my friend Ollie the other day about how we got along well despite having different emotional amplitudes. We both experience the same ranges of emotion, I just tend to experience them bigger, and one slips into the next fairly quickly. I used to think of that as a brokenness—some sort of unfortunate inconsistency. Again, a friend’s perspective helped me shift my own. They said that being around me, they know that if I’m in some internal weather that seems to be distressing me, all they do is listen, and wait a minute, and nine times out of ten I find my way out of the forest by the end of the conversation. So for all my fellow people with strong feelings—maybe all those notes you hit are music; maybe you’re a marvelous sentient weather system. And I love to watch a good thunderstorm as much as I love the calm sweet air that comes after. Wishing you self-kindness, Alex #funisanecessity #findyourstyle #marchmeetthemaker #learningtolove #handletteredfont #calligraphr #lovequote #bothness #paradox #contrast #imbalance #ismusic #gentlerebellion #wearyourweird https://www.instagram.com/p/CL8W6jOhInJ/?igshid=18ggk41fecngp

Fun is a Necessity started in 2011 (10 years ago!) with a blog I used to keep in touch with family while attending a traveling expeditionary whitewater kayaking boarding school (Yep, you read that right. Go ahead, ask me about it—the stories are as delightful—it was a combo of feeling like a Nat. Geo. correspondent, a cast member on a ridiculous slice of life comedy, and a teenager who just wanted a hot shower, a candy bar, and fast, functional wifi). Though many things have changed in my life since then, my enthusiasm for learning, teaching, and helping people feel connected has not! <3 #funisanecessity #brandintroduction #marchmeetthemaker #learningtolove #handletteredfont #calligraphr #lovequote #blogtobusiness #writerbusiness #gentlerebellion #wearyourweird #teacher #learner #haveroffun #befrienderofhumans #dancerofdances #writer #gatelesswriting #smallbusiness #practicinginpublic #whitewaterkayaking #playflow #lifeisagame #playit #lifeisasong #singit #oldwriting #fromthearchives #playinprogress #thisistohavesucceeded https://www.instagram.com/p/CL4MwB-BYJQ/?igshid=9i4pbphc6osy