Care
We had an interesting conversation today in our team meeting about "self-care," what it ought to open up (the ability to ensure one's own well-being) and how it often winds up being used. I said at one point that "self-care" was invented by capitalism as a means of soothing us into quiescence. But our conversation eventually came around to the notion that the problem in that term and its deployment is the "self" part. Care is key, but it needs to be part of our interactions with others rather than just ourselves. I think this is part of what Mariame Kaba is suggesting when she says, in We Do This 'til We Free Us, "I don't believe in self-care: I believe in collective care, collectivizing our care, and thinking more about how we can help each other" (28). Turning from the self to the collective, and then to the action of collectivizing, allows us to be taken care of as part of the whole, rather than as apart from the whole. That turn to collectivizing also reveals care to be inescapably political, making the turn from self to others all the more pressing.
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