Pod Mapping

I’ve been acquainted with Mary in activist circles for maybe ten years, but we hadn’t ever taken out time to meet one-to-one and get to know each other better. They have an auto-immune disease that has grown worse, and they had to “retire” from activism because of their health. “It sucks having an invisible disability,” they explain. “Everybody thinks you’re weird for masking; they don’t know you’re just trying to save your life.”

We talked about the crisis in the USA (that seems to enter every conversation now), and I asked them what they feel drawn to, in the way of resistance or movement forward. They said writing and pod mapping.

Pod mapping? I never heard of it. 

They explained it, and here’s an article that explains it. Basically they feel the USA is about to collapse, possibly in civil war, possibly because the current administration is destroying every system that ever made us a country. So they're identifying a small group of people they feel they can depend on after the collapse, and so are a great many who were in the streets during the Black Lives Matter protests and the first trump resistance. They’re building support networks for after fascism.

I’m glad to hear it. I want there to be people who survive and begin again.
We don’t know, of course, where things are headed with the USA. But whatever happens, having a trusted pod you can rely on makes great sense.

The poet Andrea Gibson died yesterday. There’s a very moving forty-minute youtube interview with Andrea and Megan Falley, their wife. I think the video will touch all of us who’ve had encounters with cancer in ourselves and loved ones. They also do a great job of explaining in the interview why they (and some others, including my friend Mary and sometimes I) use "they/them" pronouns.