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Maybe I'm volunteering
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"Though we live in a world made of gifts, we find ourselves harnessed to institutions and an economy that relentlessly asks, ‘What more can we take from the Earth?’ This worldview of unbridled exploitation is to my mind the greatest threat to the life that surrounds us." Returning the Gift, Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer
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On Wednesday night I face-muted for two hours and watched my city planning office pretend like they worked for the real estate developer that owns the land across the street, while the investors pretended like they would build something "green" as if building nothing at all were simply impossible. There were a lot of us there, neighborhood people who since 2007 have run a city-wide ecological campaign, on the side, as a "hobby". The trees are hundreds of years old. The land is alive for us, and it's in the middle of a city. It is not a park, it is a biotope. It should stay that way, of course. I used to contributed more to our non-profit, and it looks like I need to again. There is more fight to be had. The website I built isn't even mobile optimised ffs.
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On Thursday I ran a workshop for other Open Organisation Ambassadors about what our website needs to do. That one is built on a Jekyll template, after I build a different website for the cooperative using Jekyll. At the time I was super interested in learning the templating language Liquid and was hitting flow figuring it out. But I don't have so much time for such experimenting at the moment, which is tragic. For some of you dear readers, this is eye-rolly simplistic front-end coding BS. For others, I'd imagine I just sounded like some sort of software developer.
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At the co-op, we also have, like, paid work. We have a lot on right now, and it's all jammed into Q1. It has been the busiest January I've ever had, and I don't understand it.
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Maybe I'm a driver
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15 years ago when I transplanted from the USA to Germany, I did as an American would likely do and went to get a driver's license. My first visit they asked for documentation that I didn't have, and so I went away to collect said documentation and then returned. The second time they wanted different documents. The third time they wanted different documents from States I hadn't been to in a very long time. Always something different. Translations. Apostilles. Legally stamped dibbity bops that weren't exactly easy to come by. Long story short, 15 years ago I gave up trying to get a German driver's license and "quit driving" (aka drove semi-illegally on a US license that I had to renew in person every three years.) This week, I beat the system and am now the proud owner of a German Driver's License.
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People who are born in and spend their entire lives in the country of their birth will not fully understand what this experience was like. I'm sure that getting a license in any country can be a hassle, but being an immigrant requires a patience you cannot imagine. I started driving on a farm when I was 12 years old. When I was 15, I worked at a Driver's Ed school. I got my learners permit weeks after starting my part time job, and my first license the day after I turned 16. I have been driving over 25 years. And to get a driver's license in Germany, as an immigrant, all I had to do was wait 15 years and go to the Amt three separate times in 3-month intervals.
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As an immigrant who has been living in Germany since 2007, but refuses to relinquish United States citizenship because my fucking family is American and giving up your citizenship is a whole thing, I am not allowed to vote. Not for the chancellor, not for the city mayor. Not for the people who make decisions about what is allowed to destroy the biotope across the street.
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Don't take your vote for granted. Don't take your home for granted. Don't take things that are easy for you for granted. You never know what someone else struggles for.
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Maybe I need help?
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I didn't read all the stuff I saved this week. I was too busy, so don't have so many links to share. But thank you for reading anyway, and as always, hit reply and guide me. I don't know what I'm doing.
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