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It's always a challenge to write a newsletter when a traumatizing world event is going on because whatever I have to share will appear insensitive and crass. So I will try to find a middle ground that seems fitting for our current circumstances...
I was recently turned on to Anna Tsing’s ideas about ruins as fertile ground for new life. She details this concept in The Mushroom at the End of the World, using the matsutake mushroom as a focus for exploring what survival and environmental renewal might look like in a post-industrial, post-capitalist world. Devastated places like heavily logged forests or nuclear wastelands often give rise to some of the most prolific mushroom production, thus it offers proof of “the possibility of life in… ruins.” The matsutake shows a “willingness to emerge in blasted landscapes.” For Tsing, ruins are places that support the unruly elements of existence, proving that life can thrive long after a disaster occurs.
This whole line of thinking buoys me and gives me a sense of hope for the future. Having so little control over everything feels torturous, so to learn nature has mechanisms to flourish in the worst conditions is a good reminder that maybe things will work out after all.
XOXO
Trippy art by Seana Gavin
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