A sunbird perched on the bird of paradise outside my office window moves me from what I’m reading to be in the world differently. A Hadada Ibis cries out and cuts through sound and silence, shifting my soundscape. The scent of brewing coffee breaks the scent world to which I’ve become habituated. A puppy wanders into view, another joins it, they play fight, invite my legs to join, move me from a paragraph to their world.
As someone who has been studying ways in which we care, I have never thought of distraction as a way of care. Thanks for making me imagine new ways of caring.
I loved this read on distraction. I value both the political point, and the tenderness with which the matter (sensory, embodied) of personhood, and inter-personhood, has been raised. I approached the title expecting an original take on a familiar subject -- distraction as minor assault on sacred flow/ solitude etc -- and found an original angle on familial/kin care. I am constructively challenged (habituated to the former, individualist notion of distraction).
As someone who has been studying ways in which we care, I have never thought of distraction as a way of care. Thanks for making me imagine new ways of caring.
I loved this read on distraction. I value both the political point, and the tenderness with which the matter (sensory, embodied) of personhood, and inter-personhood, has been raised. I approached the title expecting an original take on a familiar subject -- distraction as minor assault on sacred flow/ solitude etc -- and found an original angle on familial/kin care. I am constructively challenged (habituated to the former, individualist notion of distraction).
I love how distraction can become kin making, in its expansive, generative waves of sociality. Fuck those homophobes tho. Lol.
totally fuck those homophobes
(I might have convinced myself with this thought experiment—this is why I should avoid thought experiments)