the owl and the olive tree

I'm pretty happy with how my resolutions went last year, so that's good. But I don't think the yearlong goals is a paradigm that works all that well for me. For instance—my reading through the year lead me to the conclusion that one environmental place that I can make a difference is to reduce the nonsustainable seafood I eat, and replace it with sustainable seafood. But that wasn't in my resolutions; my resolutions focused more on the ethics of terrestrial meat products. Similarly, one of my resolutions was to finish several short stories and submit them to markets; instead, I wrote a YA novel. Which isn't a failure, just a misapprehension of what would be good for me to do.

So. Instead, this year, I'm making the following singular resolution:

Every week, I will make a list of sixteen personal things, small or large, domestic or artistic, that I want to accomplish that week. I will also make a list of sixteen work-related things that I want to accomplish during work hours. And then I will accomplish at least twelve of them. (Why sixteen and twelve? I like those numbers, and they're attainable. That's all.)

I may also make sixteen (total, not personal and work) goals per month, of a larger scope than the weekly goals.

This gives me a bit more scope than simply making daily to-do lists, but also gives me the flexibility to change from week to week and month to month.

Over the past couple of months, I have seen several ugly reminders that racism is alive and well. I just don't see it a whole lot because I'm, you know, a middle-class white woman. I don't have to look if I don't want to, and that's a privilege.

But that doesn't mean that it's not my responsibility to do what I can. So, some promises:

* I am going to do my best to call out racism when I see it. Even if it's my friends doing it. Even if it hurts. Some days I'll have more energy for it than others, but... I already call out sexist speech, and it's short-sighted (and privileged) in the extreme for me to only stand up about things that affect me personally. In other words: I will do my best to be an ally, in whatever small way I can.

* I am going to participate in 50books_poc, the pledge to read 50 books by people of color during the year. (I'm already up to, hm, let's see -- six, I think -- so it's feasible.) I'm not counting manga, not because they're not legitimate books written by non-white people, but because I can read a volume of a manga in twenty minutes, so it isn't much of a challenge to read 50. I may do a secondary challenge to read 25 manga, too. Why do this? Because it's easy for an American reading books in English put out by an American publisher to read very little besides white people just by accident -- so it's worth putting the extra effort in to make sure I'm reading diverse voices. If that sounds cool to you, I encourage you to join! If your reading rate is too slow for 50 to be feasible, you can always pledge to do 50 in two years or something -- that's not too uncommon either.

And if you see me acting in a way that's racist, please call me out, too. (Or sexist, heterocentrist, etc., it's just that those are easier for me to see myself.) I am so far from perfect that it's not funny, but I'm trying.

And if you have any recommendations for books by non-white authors, I would love to hear them!