The Space Between Naming & Meeting A Need
Hi there.
June has been an off month for Post-Ev Post, largely due to offline events that I can’t discuss online at present; it’s too new, too private, too etc. Yet oddly, June continued to be a period where I ended up getting a lot of new subscribers here.
I think that was in large part due to my latest essay published on June 4:
In that piece, I contrasted how the social media that we’ve collectively used over the last 15 years of the web has an incredible capacity to expand your world and make you feel connected, but when your world contracts amid crises, that sense of connection can wither quickly.
I also wrote that I had found myself “in another period of contraction.” I didn’t know then what that period would yield or how long it would last. In truth, I still don’t. I do know that it has been a period of hardship, and that right now, as I write this, there is more hope than there has been in months.
I couldn’t have known when I posted that June 4 essay what the rest of June would bring. It was all conditional, just like the previous sentence. But I am still glad I said what I did in that piece.
I’m still not good at socializing.1 I still feel disconnected from a broader sense of community. But I want to change that. And I will. Present circumstances haven’t allowed me to pursue meeting that need, but I have named it. And that is something.
I’m not original in saying that cultures like white evangelicalism do not teach us to recognize our own needs, or even accept that they are worth meeting (teachings like original sin and total depravity do a number on our ability to be kind to ourselves). It is a victory when we can name a need, even if it cannot be met immediately.
I am thankful for all those who have subscribed recently, and as I approach these (hopefully) stable weeks ahead, I also hope to resume my more regular cadence here.
If you haven’t subscribed, feel free to do so here:
As I learn more about my own neurodivergence, I am more certain that that is a contributing factor as well.