This [pandemic] year [in mostly zoom-land] I learned…
...space and time are actually just one field, which is absolutely bonkers.
...a lot from Hank Green, actually, not just on the silly clock app either. I learned about osteoblasts and natural killer cells and photoexcitation and cell structures and prey-predation cycles and convergent evolution as we watched the entirety of both Crash Course Biology and Ecology, starting in September and concluding earlier this spring.
...a lot from my fellow science-offering collaborators beyond Hank Green, about ecosystems and the creatures that live there - like the coral reefs where teeny tiny Harlequin Shrimp lives alongside the giant Crown of Thorns starfish that eat the coral, which are, in turn, eaten by those tiny shrimp…
...to crochet a granny square. Also, I learned I prefer crochet projects like granny squares, which resist becoming tedious by changing colors often, and building many mini-completion serotonin boosts into the process of generating that elusive “finished a whole crochet project” serotonin boost.
...the first seven Hanon piano exercises, as well as “Home Again” by Carole King and “Love Like You” from Steven Universe. I learned (again, always) that I love to play the piano. I learned to listen for chords and loosen up enough to fool around listening for one I want. I learned that my previous self was much more advanced than I gave them credit for at the time.
...Inktober is an essential, joyful practice for me as an artist, growing in my art-making skills and confidence.
...figure drawing is rad, even on zoom. Bodies do not go together the way you think they do.
...Leonardo da Vinci was alive when Machu Picchu was constructed. Art history has a heavy, racist, Western bias. Splashed ink landscapes speak to my soul. These incredible Ife heads exist. The people the Spanish called the Aztecs actually called themselves the Mexica and they had a graphical writing system which they used to compile incredible amount of astronomical/astrological/agricultural information via these images.
...my knowledge of tarot and astrology is deep and readily at hand & I get a lot of pleasure talking about the how-tos of an everyday magic practice.
….my body prefers daily tag games to sitting at a desk.
...my body is capable of great change.
...how to do a handstand.
…how to belay and rappel, how to sit with my fear and feel it, how to do a pullup, how to do 10 pullups, how to climb a 5.10, how to climb the tall wall, how to climb outside, and that I’m capable of so much more than my fear wants me to believe.
...the name of many, many more genres of electronic music than I previously knew existed.
...D&D has a LOT of rules.
….a balanced D&D game is about equally divided between combat and pure roleplaying.
...it’s okay to cater to your D&D session to your most invested player, even if they do turn evil, (maybe by accident or maybe on purpose - they appear to be relishing in their villany), and it’ll probably take the party longer to catch on to what you think is an extremely obvious transformation than you have allotted for it. It’s okay to get sidetracked - sometimes the most fun thing from the session is not the big reveal you’ve been planning but rather the fact that one of the druids summoned 8 creatures into this cavern and now there are EIGHT VERY UPSET ELK underground in this smoky forge…
...listening to D&D podcasts will make you a better DM. Listening to your players will make you a great DM.
...tinies hour at the park is from 10 to noon. People watching remains good all day.
...voice acting is a fun, delightful, silly, joyful activity to do deliberately. Also, turns out I do a lot of manipulation of my voice on a regular basis, and that my high school voice and theater training are uncommon and super useful. I am learning the low, soft edges of my new voice.
...testosterone really does make your body different.
...most people don’t talk about bodies in the (admittedly sometimes gross) extremely frank terms that I like to. As I return to the world, I am also learning that this makes a lot of grownups quite uncomfy. I’m also learning that I don’t care so much about making them feel comfy as I once did...
...tiny zines are among my favorite art-making mediums - that while I could never imagine limiting myself, if I had to choose just one they would certainly be in the running.
...I love to make art so many ways - with watercolors and oil pastels and ink and paper and collage materials and pressed flowers and acrylic paint and cameras and digital pixels and words and piano keys and my own voice and by making my body dance. I love to make art, with my self and with others.
...making art in a zoom room with friends and no agenda is a low-stakes, meaningful way to connect.
...there are so many things I miss - including sharing art supplies - but I’ve learned that it doesn’t help my brain to list them all. I’m learning to have boundaries with my own thoughts, too.
...practicing non-hierarchical relationship goes beyond my work at ALC and stretches into all parts of my life. I’ve learned I get great pleasure in practicing polyamory, and that the communication and emotional regulation skills I’ve developed in the last five years of deschooling are both flexible and so, so helpful in that sphere of my life. I’m learning new communication and emotional regulation skills in poly-land that are helpful in ALC-land.
….practicing compassionate boundaries is hard and ongoing.
...practicing compassionate boundaries is freeing and present.
...I have the patience to wait, when that’s what necessary, and the facilitator skill to know when.
...the wheel of feelings is an extremely useful tool for me.
...while zoom/screens/digital communications are not the same as being in person, the internet is still a place where our resilient and interdependent communities are able to play with each other across spacetimes of crisis.