November 8, 2025

A Few Things to Tell You Vol. 8

short and to the point

Well hello there, it’s Saturday again!

Today’s missive is short and pointed ~ Tuesday I’ll be back with so much sewing content I just can’t wait to share with you.

But now? Here’s what’s on my mind … it’s a bit heavier than normal for a Saturday newsletter.

Want lighter content? I wrote about JACKETS on Tuesday ~ I contain multitudes!

This past week has been surreal ~ how do we reconcile the fact that we live in a country where food assistance can get cut off / delayed for millions as political leverage, and public school unions like mine are holding staff food drives to feed our students, despite many of our staff not quite able to make ends meet themselves, and schools like mine are holding student food drives to collect food from the minority of the students who can afford to donate to help feed the majority of students who don’t have enough food and WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL.

Excuse me if my cynicism about the state of the nation is bleeding onto the screen … but if you happen to live a life not touched by this travesty, know that it’s brutal out here.

If this is you, please donate to Feeding America or your local food pantry!

Guess who’s trying to put a bandaid on a gaping wound yet again? Public schools.

This crisis has really set the tone of my week, and drove a lot of the planning for the professional development sessions I led for staff on Friday regarding teacher burnout and strategies for survival in a system with extreme mission creep.

How do we manage to stay in a profession when the literal federal government doesn’t think our institution should exist and our schools that are barely funded by the government are expected to fill the role of the … government? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. I’m really happy with the solutions-and-compassion-based sessions PD I ran, and damn it, I’m PROUD to be a public educator.

If you are interested in my presentation notes (no slide show) or the educator journal I created, just reply to this email! If I get enough responses, I’ll put it all together for y’all ~ I wasn’t sure if there would be any interest.

The above is what poured out when I sat down to write just now, exhausted but fulfilled after a week of so much sewing, a union meeting with district admin, HUGE PD sessions to plan and run, seeing JOHN FREAKING GREEN speak at a local university, celebrating the oldest’s birthday, and seeing Ben Folds perform at another local university. WHEW. And today is sewing class day!

A few notes from John Green’s presentation:

• Find a problem that exists and get close to it

• Most change is made one person at a time

• Philanthropy is nice, but government is where real change happens

• Resentment is a good fuel but it burns pretty dirty

• When you’re feeling lost after college, just know that you don’t HAVE to go to law school. You can, but you don’t have to.

• You’re going to have to be led by love - work community relationships - if you’re led by love a lot of good things will happen 

He was hilarious but also deeply deeply real about death, disparity, poverty, global inequities, and of course healthcare and tuberculosis. That first point above hit me so hard because it’s something that perplexes me on a daily basis: people talking about, making policies about, complaining about, lamenting about, things they haven’t even tried getting close to. And for goodness sakes, if you can’t or won’t get close to it, at least donate some money to help?

And the second thing above is what fuels me to go to work every day.

Working in public education puts you CLOSE TO problems and we can individually be the ONE PERSON driving change in a child’s life. Green talked about going to global summits on tuberculosis and leaving feeling powerless, but sitting in a room with one young man deeply suffering is what made him both see the issue clearly and feel empowered to DO SOMETHING.

If you haven’t read Everything is Tuberculosis yet, I can’t recommend it highly enough. And consider volunteering with youth, at a food bank, etc.

AND BEND FOLDS! Absolutely phenomenal. He broke the pedals off of his piano during the show and I assure you that his ability to carry a show acapella while his piano was being fixed was the most impressive thing I have seen on a stage.

And finally, a searing piece about podcasts that will not leave my mind. via Links I Would GChat You If We Were Friends. This two paragraphs in particular:

The episodes are a layer of white noise, a way to blot out thoughts. Podcasts came of age amid the growing absence of meaningful contact in the average person’s day, in a time when silence is hated. 

All that is to say Covid and the Biden era was excellent for podcasts. Already isolated individuals now worked from home, with only roommates or a dog for company. The sharp rise in loneliness facilitated the shift from high-brow liberal shows to cartoonish hangout sessions with the worst every gender has to offer.

That’s all I have for you this weekend … but there will be sewing content on Tuesday and I have some fabulous magical books to share with you soonish as well! Hang in there …

Thanks for stopping by!