What are your top five things that have brought you comfort and/or joy during the past year? It can be anything: foods, movies, people, animals, thoughts, books, records, yoga positions, a particular hike, a new pen, an old friend, whatever!
Sam Smith
Perspectives copy editor & second reader
– The uncanny abundance of my tiny backyard garden in Brooklyn
– Unexpected letters from friends in far-away places
– Friendships struck up in the streets
– The often-murky Atlantic Ocean at Rockaway Beach, to which I’ve grown closer than ever
– Baking lavish desserts (even when my cat is the only one around to appreciate them!).
Hilary Lazar
Perspectives & IAS collective member
– Getting so much more time with my kiddo and partner that I wouldn’t have had otherwise (fuck the daily grind under capitalism)
– Feeling inspired and strengthened by all the amazing mutual aid projects and BLM uprising (another world is possible!)
– Slowing down, noticing the birds in our yard, taking neighborhood walks, and exploring local trails and lakes (reconnecting with nature and masked up adventures with friends can be pretty great)
– Finding my inner crafter, baker, and gardener (I’m a pandemic cliché)
– Working on Perspectives and the “Pandemics from the Bottom Up” online issue!
Maia Ramnath
Former Perspectives & IAS collective member, organizer, and author
– Reconnecting with bike riding
– Voices of hawks and crows outside my house in the morning
– Ben & Jerry’s
– Multiple Star Wars TV series
– Witnessing the collective will, imagination, and courage to change; the hope that since everything status quo has broken down anyway, how we grow back can be different
Charles Weigl
AK Press
– A new kitten
– More naps
– Restarting a writing practice
– Silence
– Never worrying about being somewhere
Theresa Warburton
Perspectives & IAS collective member
– Getting sick of and finally ignoring my phone
– Writing texts like letters
– The five-minute check-in with faraway friends, especially during uprisings
– Books about witches
– Movie franchises that prevent me from having to make decisions about what to watch next
Charles Overbeck
Eberhardt Press
– Comrades
– Monster energy drinks (to survive night demos)
– YouTube videos (string theory, neurological disorders, Rachel Maddow, WWII tank battles, etc.)
– Gorilla Glue #4
– Gardening
This is from the Power issue (n.32) of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, available directly from the IAS by clicking here!