Hi there,
Welcome to my new newsletter, Care & Feeding. It’s a weekly thing all about the ways we care for ourselves, each other, and this planet where we live. In a world that assigns value based on what we do for work and how productive we are, care - whether it’s part of your job or woven into your life - is often marginalized or devalued (where’s the structural support for care?). But it’s also a central part of what makes us human.
I’ve been thinking about what care means since reading a book called How to Do Nothing, where author Jenny Odell writes about care and maintenance work as practices that can act as antidotes to our cultural obsession with productivity and growth. I’m so interested in this idea, because sometimes I see how the hyper-focus on these values (and the structural support they’re assigned) can shrink the available bandwidth to express care.
I want to use Care & Feeding as a place to examine and expand the ideas around self-care; care for others; and care about what’s happening to our planet. If, as individuals and readers, we can look at care through a radical (as in, fundamental) framework , then we can expand not only our thinking about what it means, but what and whom we care about - and how we express it.
Care & Feeding is an evolution of Salt & Lemons, which I started in early 2018 to connect with people who are interested in food and my work in that arena. I’ve loved writing Salt & Lemons, but have also felt an itch to go beyond how to make the best chicken wings or how to deal with a tantrum or how to compost (especially since I am no expert in any of these; please, someone, tell me how to compost!). I want to look at what’s behind all these things we’re tending to and worrying about and crying over.
So, what to expect? You can expect a note from me to arrive every Friday in your inbox. It will include new writing weaving the theme of care throughout the subjects of food, family, and the planet. It will link to stories of people doing exceptionally caring things. It will give you a chance to practice care more broadly. There will be some how-to’s. And of course, we will be talking about cooking (and feeding), because that’s one major way I know how to express that I care.
Thanks for reading,
Leigh
In the meantime, tell your friends!