Don't be the best. Be this instead.
Our family spent the last week at an all-family violin camp in the Blue Ridge mountains, and it brought us some much needed peace, joy, and community in these tumultuous times.
The 1 person you're missing at your coalition table
Maybe I've worked with your coalition directly and maybe I haven't and maybe we haven't even met -- whichever group you are, I know someone you are most likely missing at your coalition table: a local historian.
4 ways to center humanity in your work
Our political and business leaders may be failing to center humanity right now, but that doesn’t mean we should too - in fact, I think that means we should be even more intentional about centering humanity.
Find your low-lift solutions
Growing up, were you, like me, always told to work hard?
It’s advice I’ve come to question over the years.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have deep respect for a strong work ethic. I just wonder if we’ve gotten overly obsessed with the idea of working hard instead of working strategically, smartly, efficiently. Which sometimes means the work is actually…easier. Faster. More fun.
Counted Out - are the keys to transforming math education the keys to transforming community health?
Are you a math person?
This Pi day, the giving circle I’m a part of hosted a screening of the documentary Counted Out, which explores how, “in the 21st century, fueled by technology, data, and algorithms, math determines who has the power to shape our world.”
What organizing IS and ISN'T
Unfortunately, everything is still on fire, and the public’s health (and SO much else) remains under threat.
I talked earlier this month about how taking action requires a) actually planning and committing to take action and b) organizing.
But what even is organizing?
Today, I want to share a little primer on what organizing IS and what it IS NOT.
A New Year's wish + invitation
Thank you for being a part of our Community Threads family! Having this space to share with you all and reading your emails about what you’ve gleaned from these newsletters have meant the world to me this past year.
So as we close the chapter on 2024 and enter 2025, I wanted to share with you a new year’s wish + invitation:
Movements need weavers and warriors
What a week.
In the last issue of Community Threads, I spoke about how voting isn’t enough - that we need to organize movements. That remains true regardless of who wins an election or which political party is in power.
We need to come together - in a highly organized, long-term, consistent way - to make collective demands for concrete changes. We need movements.
And movements need both weavers and warriors.
Why voting isn’t enough
With election day fast approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about voting.
At an event I was at a few weeks ago, someone brought up the distinction between technocratic strategies and democratic strategies - that technocratic strategies focus on policy (which is necessary, but not sufficient, to transform health in our communities) while democratic strategies focus on politics (which is all about POWER).
We can’t transform health in our communities without democratic strategies that center power.
The difference between cynicism and skepticism
Are you a pessimist or an optimist?
I’m optimistic (almost to a fault, my husband would tell you).
But…I’m also pretty skeptical.