I personally don't feel untethered much anymore, but I certainly relate and have felt it so often in the past. This was a really interesting read and I look forward to your future essays. I work in the care sector as a support worker, and while I love my job and it makes me feel like I'm making a difference in people's lives, I sit with an uneasy feeling working in a machine that makes *taking care of people* a commodity that can be bought and paid for.
It'll be a little way down the track, but if you stick around, I can't wait to hear about what changed for you Sam.
I'll share more about this soon, but our family relies on a bunch of incredible support workers to survive. I absolutely hear you on the pitfalls of the commodification of care and support (a whooooole lot to say about this), but I also believe there are other lenses we can see this through that might humanise it for all of us - those receive care, those "offering it", and those paying for it through taxes. (One way of viewing taxes is through a communitarian lens, which sees them as an expression of our communal responsibility for shared resources that we all value.)
As this thing evolves, I'd deeply love it to become a conversation that makes us all feel less alone.
I'm still figuring out a plan of ensuring that any engagement on here is sustainable and energising for me in the midst of a pretty bonkers family situation, but I'll fill you in as I do.
In the meantime, if there are particular things that resonate in this newsletter, feel free to share them below. Even if it's just a copy/paste of a particular line.
I personally don't feel untethered much anymore, but I certainly relate and have felt it so often in the past. This was a really interesting read and I look forward to your future essays. I work in the care sector as a support worker, and while I love my job and it makes me feel like I'm making a difference in people's lives, I sit with an uneasy feeling working in a machine that makes *taking care of people* a commodity that can be bought and paid for.
It'll be a little way down the track, but if you stick around, I can't wait to hear about what changed for you Sam.
I'll share more about this soon, but our family relies on a bunch of incredible support workers to survive. I absolutely hear you on the pitfalls of the commodification of care and support (a whooooole lot to say about this), but I also believe there are other lenses we can see this through that might humanise it for all of us - those receive care, those "offering it", and those paying for it through taxes. (One way of viewing taxes is through a communitarian lens, which sees them as an expression of our communal responsibility for shared resources that we all value.)
I, for one, feel constantly untethered... or at least unhinged.
I get the feeling that the former eventually leads to the latter!
As this thing evolves, I'd deeply love it to become a conversation that makes us all feel less alone.
I'm still figuring out a plan of ensuring that any engagement on here is sustainable and energising for me in the midst of a pretty bonkers family situation, but I'll fill you in as I do.
In the meantime, if there are particular things that resonate in this newsletter, feel free to share them below. Even if it's just a copy/paste of a particular line.