I didn't read this yet, and will have a better comment when I do, but the title popped up in my notifications and I immediately started singing a song to myself by Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip called "Go Get You Some" and wanted to thank you for reminding me of it 😂
"because the world is structured to require more from us than it provides for us."
This line stuck with me through the entire article. It felt like the fuel that kept it all moving. People all across this supposed land of opportunity, are expected to put in more than they will ever receive, an inherent and unending poverty built into the systems that claim to support us, claim to be necessary. Where would these systems be without the labor that built them? Where COULD these systems be if they put back into those laborers the same energy that was given?
I love the real community created by the things you speak on in this article, it is beautiful, collective, and very literally what this world needs more of, but I am always disappointed about the conditions which have forced people to create these communities. That said, this is the stuff that makes me believe in people, believe in my "crazy beliefs" that we don't need money to survive, let alone grow. People will provide for each other, and as you stated it's more than love, it's practicality. It makes rational sense to give to each other because what you give to others will come back to you. It is sad that we live in a world that doesn't recognize the beauty of community, one that forces people to build community from trauma and fear, rather than love and collectivity. Thank you for this discussion, my gratitude extends to your parents who taught you the importance of preparation and collective care. It is because of people like them that I believe humans will one day find their place, even if that day comes after I leave this world.
I’m grateful for how you stayed with that line and let it keep working on you. It came from watching effort consistently exceed return, and learning early that the imbalance wasn’t accidental. You named that clearly, the way these systems depend on labor they were never designed to replenish.
What you said about disappointment landed with me too. Not disappointment in people, but in the conditions that make community necessary in the first place. That tension sits at the center of the essay for me. The care is real. The beauty is real. And it was still forged under pressure. Holding all of that without turning it into a romance feels important.
Your point about provision being practical rather than sentimental is exactly right. This isn’t generosity as virtue. It’s care as sense. Care as the most reliable structure available when others fail. That understanding is older than policy and sturdier than rhetoric.
The way you closed, naming my parents, moved me. They would recognize your words immediately, even if they’d call it something simpler. Reading like this, thinking like this, is its own kind of shared ground.
How is this every Black person/family's home I've been in, including mine?!
"The bodega bag becomes the vessel for flour and cornmeal when you are seasoning fish, shaken until the coating clings. It becomes the small trash bag hooked on a cabinet knob during meal prep so you do not have to pause your rhythm to walk to the garbage. It becomes the liner for bathroom waste bins, the protector of wet umbrellas, the organizer of small things that would otherwise scatter."
We DEF reuse and redistribute "the bag" in so many ways.
I didn't read this yet, and will have a better comment when I do, but the title popped up in my notifications and I immediately started singing a song to myself by Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip called "Go Get You Some" and wanted to thank you for reminding me of it 😂
"Get You Some" not go get you some*
"because the world is structured to require more from us than it provides for us."
This line stuck with me through the entire article. It felt like the fuel that kept it all moving. People all across this supposed land of opportunity, are expected to put in more than they will ever receive, an inherent and unending poverty built into the systems that claim to support us, claim to be necessary. Where would these systems be without the labor that built them? Where COULD these systems be if they put back into those laborers the same energy that was given?
I love the real community created by the things you speak on in this article, it is beautiful, collective, and very literally what this world needs more of, but I am always disappointed about the conditions which have forced people to create these communities. That said, this is the stuff that makes me believe in people, believe in my "crazy beliefs" that we don't need money to survive, let alone grow. People will provide for each other, and as you stated it's more than love, it's practicality. It makes rational sense to give to each other because what you give to others will come back to you. It is sad that we live in a world that doesn't recognize the beauty of community, one that forces people to build community from trauma and fear, rather than love and collectivity. Thank you for this discussion, my gratitude extends to your parents who taught you the importance of preparation and collective care. It is because of people like them that I believe humans will one day find their place, even if that day comes after I leave this world.
I’m grateful for how you stayed with that line and let it keep working on you. It came from watching effort consistently exceed return, and learning early that the imbalance wasn’t accidental. You named that clearly, the way these systems depend on labor they were never designed to replenish.
What you said about disappointment landed with me too. Not disappointment in people, but in the conditions that make community necessary in the first place. That tension sits at the center of the essay for me. The care is real. The beauty is real. And it was still forged under pressure. Holding all of that without turning it into a romance feels important.
Your point about provision being practical rather than sentimental is exactly right. This isn’t generosity as virtue. It’s care as sense. Care as the most reliable structure available when others fail. That understanding is older than policy and sturdier than rhetoric.
The way you closed, naming my parents, moved me. They would recognize your words immediately, even if they’d call it something simpler. Reading like this, thinking like this, is its own kind of shared ground.
How is this every Black person/family's home I've been in, including mine?!
"The bodega bag becomes the vessel for flour and cornmeal when you are seasoning fish, shaken until the coating clings. It becomes the small trash bag hooked on a cabinet knob during meal prep so you do not have to pause your rhythm to walk to the garbage. It becomes the liner for bathroom waste bins, the protector of wet umbrellas, the organizer of small things that would otherwise scatter."
We DEF reuse and redistribute "the bag" in so many ways.