Refreshed, starting.....now

I spent Saturday on the West Facing side of Smith Rock. It was beautiful. It felt so good after a week of finals to be outside, to be doing something besides sitting staring at words on paper. We met 2 pretty awesome people, and Dan may have found another climbing partner for mountaineering, which would be great for him.

Sunday a climber was coming down somewhere on the Southeast side and fell. He was 55 and died when he fell. He wasn't climbing, although he was a climber, he fell coming down a steep trail. I just feel as if I should mention him and keep the people around him in your thoughts.

Ever since my grandmother died a few weeks ago, I just feel the need to remember people. You can't keep the dead alive. But I can keep their thoughts with me. And my good friend Jesselle told me after my grandmother died, that in a way she gets to live on through me and that she's probably very excited to live on through me and rock climb, and surf and love and be active. Which boils down to the fact that I need to remember that it's important to live. To not waste time on things that will never matter. I can only live, I don't have any other choice. And I miss Grams so much, but I can remember her, and that's what matters.


I did not think that bell hooks could possibly teach me anything else new. Well, I figured that by rereading her works I would come to new insights, just like when you reread anything. I am currently reading her "Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center" and I am, as usual, blown out of the water. I just finished a section where she's talking about how saying "I'm a Feminist" implies it's a lifestyle, and people attempt to use it as a lifestyle when they're searching to define themselves. But the truth is, it is not a lifestyle. Feminism is a political movement and that it would be more appropriate to say "I advocate Feminism" as opposed to "I am a Feminist." By saying we advocate feminism, it doesn't negate other political movements or theories. It just says that we advocate the movement to end sexist oppression and systems of dominations (whether it's sex, race, or class). I love it that she specifies all systems of domination. Because they are all interrelated and it is necessary to address them all at the same time, not try to fight one at a time leaving the other to fend for itself.

I was having trouble reading Tong's summary on all the different types of Feminism. None of them seemed to be what was completely right. bell hooks just gives me so much courage and insight every time I turn the page. I feel refreshed and hopeful again.