Hello, it's been a while!

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Hello Edgeryders!

@johncoate reached out to me and inspired me to give an update about what I’ve been up to. Also, coincidental a good friend @dnllvrvz posted on the campfire a while ago.

Since I was really on here I’ve changed my name to Ephemeral. It’s part a regular tradition in my life where I select a new name to symbolize the end of one phase and the beginning of another. The end in this instance is I finished my degree at Minerva Schools in Political Science and Literature.

Professionally, I’m working at the Qualcomm Institute at the University of California, San Diego as an education consultant. We were running a piolet of how to teach students the basics of complexity research through an online seminar, and concurrently have them work with research at the university on group projects. Ironically, we don’t have any students right now because of the crisis, so I am looking for remote contracts to stay afloat.

I’m still involved in mental health initiatives. I volunteer some time with the Global Consortium for Academic Mental Health. Most of the members are current from across the U.S. and Western Europe. Their aim is to “cultivate excellent mental health in academics worldwide”.

At the same time, I’ve been volunteering a bit with the Emergence Network. I feel like there could be a lot good synergy between the minds moving in that space and this one! They’ve got an experimental participatory gathering coming up, May 31st - June 4th. It’s called Wilds Beyond Climate Justice and promises to be a dance into a different kind of space in the climate discussion.

I’ve also had the chance to join last year’s Science and Non-Duality (SAND) gathering in San Jose. I’ve really been loving the community around SAND. A lot of free thinkers who see the need to take different approaches to how we understand relations between ourselves, each other, and our planet.

I’ve also been exploring the concept of becoming a death doula. I’ve gotten to spend some time volunteering with a hospice and I’m very called to end of life work. I’m still beginning to explore this direction and would love any resource people have come across.

Personally, I’ve been using the quarantine to connect with my partner. We are currently in Argentina, but the timeline on staying continually changes (both in contracting and expanding indefinitely). So like everyone, I am doing best to deal with uncertainty.

I’m looking forward to looking through the site and seeing what everyone’s been working on!

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Hi @shajara, how could I miss your post, welcome back! Glad to hear you are safe with your partner, and hopefully the lockdown will come to an end soon for you too.

I’m in Brussels, and coping, like everyone else. I found the staying at home to be an extremely productive period on some ends, but a very tiring one too.

At Edgeryders we have been having a lot of conversations around wellbeing, how people cope with these times. We are moving all activities this year online - and have started to plan an Online Summit for Resilient Livelihoods. It is an open invitation for members to host listening sessions in the preparation on a topic they care about - if there is anything you would like to think deeply with others, there’s your chance.

Does the work expand on specific kind of issues? We’re having a conversation with @atelli about refugee or exiled academics, many of whom are free thinkers militating for academic freedom, had flew Turkey a few years back and are now hosted in European countries, predominantly Germany. If you could think of someone to get in touch for a conversation, I’m happy to follow up. Atelli will also be hosting a session at the Summit on the topic.

Wow, this is something I have never thought of, how commendable.

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It’s nice to see your post here! And it was also great to see all of the cool stuff you have been engagin with lately!

I had a chance to meet and interact with Bayo when he came to Brazil in 2017. Must say the guy has a very peculiar way to look at the world and the crisis we’re going through. Glad to know you’re also connected with them!

Wow! My partner and I are preparing to welcome a child into this world with the help of doula. Because of that, the term “death doula” suddenly seems to have a lot of meaning.

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Same Bayo @dnllvrvz ?

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Yes, same Bayo =)

Here’s a short movie we featured when he came over that year.

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Hey @noemi it’s great to hear from you and see what everyone here has been up to! It’s incredibly to see how y’all are taking advantage of your existing digital infrastructure to create an opportunity for everyone in the network to gain more support.

The Consortium is still quite early stage, it was only conceived of in September, so it hasn’t yet focused in on specific issues, beyond training for university staff & students. That said, I will definitely talk to them about opportunities to amplify voices of exiled scholars, once the consortium figures out it’s own reach.

It’s definitely not as popularized as it could be. Fascinatingly, hospices are the only business in the U.S. that is required to have a certain percentage of their hours worked by volunteers. Without enough volunteer hours in relation to their regular employee hours, they risk closure. A large part of the rational, is because 90% of people who interact with those who are dying are caregivers in some way (family members, nurses, home health aids, etc.), and it becomes important to have someone who can just connect with them in a human way.

It’s interesting to think about how civic requirements for businesses could shape the development of other industries.

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It’s a crazy small world! Bayo’s great so it’s wonderful to hear everyone here has met him in some way/shape/form.

Yeah, it’s a very big role to live up to. I think in many ways I am approaching it slowly, and trying to grow into the confidence needed to support people/families/communities through such a big transition. Also, I’m glad to hear you and your partner have someone there for support in that way. I’ve gotten to know a number of birthing doula’s over the last year or so, and their work is so essential. A real balance to the dehumanizing inherent in the medical system.

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Hm, I’m wondering if anything changed with covid? In Belgium, the UK and Italy at least, infections in care homes were one of the biggest problems and political scandals. Not sure how it was felt in auspices?

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I am actually not sure how they’re handling it. I know patient safety/care is also the highest priority with the hospice I worked with. Interestingly, most of their patients were in their own homes. So it might be a matter of reducing the number of hospice staff who visit (to limit exposure), and taking extra pre-cautions when entering. Way before the crisis we already had to use hand sanitizer and/or wash our hands when entering a patient’s home, to ensure we don’t bring anything potentially harmful with us.

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