The Dispatch by Folk Rebellion, Issue 1 — Rebel (Feb '18)

TH E R E B E L I SS U E

Rebel (noun): A person who rises in opposition. A renegade.

A revolutionary. A breaker of the status quo.

No1 Feb 2018

As you sit down and feel the fullness of the Dispatch’s pages please know that the depth, length, and size of our publication was intentional (much to the dismay of my editors, graphic designers, and printer!). In a world that has mass quantities of low-level content in a constant churn and burn battle for your attention, Folk Rebellion’s decided to zig when everyone else is zagging.

Yes, the internet has allowed ALL to become creators, media channels, megaphones, and platforms.... but when everyone can create anything all the time the result is, well, pancake batter. It’s watery and spreads wildly.

Four years ago, when I started Folk Rebellion there was always a pie-in-thesky idea to create a physical publication that people could touch and feel and love all over. Yet, time and time again I was told to be realistic. “The industry is over”, “Nylon just folded,” “Print is dead.” But my little nagging voice in my head and your thousands of notes and emails and convos kept leading me back here. Thank you for giving me the courage to walk the walk and talk the talk.

What you will discover in the coming pages is an ode to analog, moments of simplicity and playfulness, a call for intelligence, and all the things slow, nature, tolerance, parenting, and nonconformity. What you will not see is ad after ad telling you to get “better”, buy things, or subliminal messages eroding your psyche and confidence because our partners were hand-selected by me and invited to share a single letter with our community. Should their stories strike a chord with you, I ask that you let them know. It’s because of them that we are able to get the Dispatch out to your doorstep.

This newspaper is a testament to more.

More freedom. More real things. More connection. More substance. More voices.

More community. More one-great-awesomelyfluffy-pancake.

Without further ado, I introduce to you our inaugural issue appropriately themed in honor of all of you and the path that lead me here; The Rebel Issue.

Raise Hell & Live Well, Jess Davis Editor-In-Chief and Founder of Folk Rebellion

The Dispatch, by Folk Rebellion, is made by the community, for the community.

F OUN D E R + E D ITOR-IN -CH IE F • JE S S D AVIS AS S OCIATE E D ITOR • PIPPA BID D L E CRE ATIV E D IRE CTOR • RYAN L E M E RE ON L IN E COM M UN ITY M AV E RICK • L E XI WEB ER OF F L IN E COM M UN ITY M AV E RICK • L IN D S AY THO MAS S TRATE G Y ROUS E R • JE N N A D AIL E Y G RAPH IC D E S IG N • S TE FAN PE RKIN S G RAPH IC D E S IG N • M ARIA G OTAY G RAPH IC D E S IG N • S OPH IE E RS KIN E M E D IA RE L ATION S • KAF I D RE XE L

Brooklyn, NY February 2018 The Rebel Issue Issue 01 | Copyright 2018 Subscribe at www.folkrebellion.com. No part of The Dispatch by Folk Rebellion may be reproLetters to the Editor, classified submissions, and sponsorship duced in any form without prior written consent from the inquiries can be sent to hello@folkrebellion.com. Pitch us at publisher. The Dispatch’s liability in the event of an error is pitches@folkrebellion.com. limited to a print correction.

CONTENTS INTERVIEWS: BEHIND THE SCREENS JESS'S SNAKE OIL + SOAP BOX ART LOVERS, HALT! HOW WE'RE WIRED: EXPERIMENTS IN REBELLION / SCIENCE OF CURIOSITY SLOW IS BORING MY ROOMMATE, MY FATHER LSD, CREATIVITY, AND THE MODERN PSYCHEDELIC HOROSCOPES REVERSE DATING COLUMN REVOLUTIONARY TECH ANOTHER SET OF SHOES: LIFE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE LIFESTYLE DESIGN: THE MORTGAGE THE FUTURE OF WORK IS TECHNICAL–LY HERE THE NOMADIC FAMILIES OF THE UNITED STATES

8 11 12

14 17 18 22 25 25 26

27 28 29 31

35

GOING WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

38 46 48

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE QUEEN OF THE NILE HOW-TO: THE ‘SO DON’T THROW IT OUT PROJECT’ WELL BEHIND THE WHEEL: THE INTERSECTION OF CERAMICS, WELLNESS, AND FEMINISM

55 58 61 62 64

ROCK YOUR BLISS: SAYING NO GANG HANGS REVIEWS THE KITCHEN SINK SIMPLE PARENTING WHY WE SHOULD ENCOURAGE OUR KIDS TO DO SEMI-DANGEROUS THINGS

67

ASK JESS FUNNIES

49 65

69

GAMES, ACTIVITIES, & PULLOUTS These are tear out, pull out, dog ear, fold, mail, scribble, love, play, pass and use IRL moments.

POSTER SMALL TALK CALENDAR AND “FUCK IT BUCKET” POSTER

5 6 16 21

30

SNAIL MAIL: LETTER TO NO ONE

36 BOARD GAME 63 (YOUR INNER) KIDS 70- CROSSWORD, MASH, ETC.

THE REBEL ISSUE

ISSUE ONE

SMALL TALK Re–bel–lion: (noun)

a) Defiance toward authority or established convention b) Dissent from an established moral code or convention of behavior

WHAT REBELLION IS:

WHAT REBELLION IS NOT:

Pulling back the curtain.

Asking questions.

Taking nothing at face value.

Going left when everyone else is going right.

A bold mindset.

A defiant attitude.

Middle finger salute to the man.

Challenging the status quo.

Complacency.

Believing whatever Google tells you.

Not asking “...and now what” questions.

Keeping up with the Joneses.

Coloring inside the lines.

Something to slap on a bumper sticker.

A clothing fad.

Just another effin hashtag.

CELEBRITIES WHO REBELLED AGAINST SCREENS, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND PHONES IN 2017

Ed Sheeran Amber Rose Justin Bieber Selena Gomez Kim Kardashian Kendall Jenner Daisy Ridley

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

WE'VE GOT THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE IT. THERE AIN'T NO WAY WE'LL LOSE IT. 3:40 lesson in rebellion from Twisted Sister. Paul Ryan used the song during the 2012 Republican Party's presidential campaign which led to Twisted Sister frontman, Dee Snider, speaking up with a big hell no: "I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan's use of my band Twisted Sister's song 'We're Not Gonna Take It' in any capacity. There is almost nothing he stands for that I agree with except the use of the P90X."

Leslie Jones Demi Lovato Iggy Azalea Rihanna Lena Dunham Chrissy Teigen Taylor Swift

O F I NT E R E S T • 5 hours: The amount of time an Average American spends on their phone as of March 2017. Facebook scrolling accounts for 19% of that time.

• Tim Ferriss refers to himself as Bim Berris when talking about micro-dosing because it’s illegal.

• Between 2007 and 2016, bike riding among youth ages 6-17 declined nearly 7%.

• 70% of children are deficient in Vitamin D. Turns out LCD is a sorry substitute for good old fashion sunshine.

•The tiny hit of dopamine you get each time your phone pings is so strong that studies have shown tweeting is harder for people to resist than cigarettes and alcohol.

• Celebrity LSD enthusiasts: Cary Grant, John Lennon, George Carlin, Aldous Huxley, Dr. Andrew Weil, and Jack Nicholson to name a few.

RE B E L !

AG A I N S T F B ’ S P U L L : THINGS TO DO INSTEAD OF SCROLLING

• Matthew McConaughey accents. “Alright, Alright, Alright…”

• Road trip.

• Stoke the fireplace.

• Try to get to second base place.

• Create something - a friendship bracelet, paint by numbers masterpiece, handwritten love note, slow cooked meal, a really good cup of coffee.

• Muddy your boots.

• Play tourist at home. Bike and drink and eat and bike and eat and drink your way through your town.

• Cut up old magazines and make a vision board. Or a Bodyguard inspired stalker letter.

• Swipe on airplane mode and slip into a bubble bath, bed, or patch of grass.

• Open a book and dog ear your favorite pages.

• Put on your favorite vinyl and sing along. Sam Cooke is required, pants are optional.

LIST OF WEBSITES TO HELP YOU TAP INTO YOUR INNER REBEL Outsideonline.com • Wanderlust.com • Theminimlaists.com Resist.org • Escapeartist.com

•Total trip on LSD lasts anywhere from 6.5 to 13 hours. It takes about 20-60 minutes to kick in and another 15-30 minutes on the come up.

•By the 1990s the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam on their own had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970.

HASHTAGS

FOR #REBELLION ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

#resist (top tweeted hashtag of 2017) #nonconformity #revolution #rebelheart #kindredfolk #smashthestatusquo #revolt #challenge #opposition #resist #rise #questioneverything

4

#rebelwithacause #woke #staywoke #damntheman #savetheempire #maytheforcebewithyou #badass #realshit #itsatrap #rebel #staycurious #slowlife

ANTI-ANTI-INTE

• POLYANDRY: Marriage of one wife to multiple h • POLYGAMY: The marriage of one person to mu • OPEN RELATIONSHIPS: When each person has o

which they freely acknow

• POLYAMOROUS RELATIONSHIPS: The practice of

with the knowle

• GENERATIONAL POVERTY: A family having lived • EPISTEMIC CURIOSITY: The type of curiosity as • PERCEPTUAL CURIOSITY: What happens when s • POVERTY LINE: The estimated minimum level o • NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER: Richard Louv coine

especially children,

• PROPRIOCEPTION: Our sense of our physical pl • INTEROCEPTION: Our sense of our internal ope

THE REBEL ISSUE

RESISTANCE TEENY TINY ACTS OF

REBELLION

T H E

Walk as slow as a motherfucker everywhere you go. Do not race. Do not rush. Drag your sneakers down the sidewalk. Purposefully drive 5 miles under the speed limit with some 80’s hair band blowing your hair back and steering wheel drumming. Got kids? Get on their level and be late for morning bell while you look for that last damn Lego figurine they care so much about. Eating?

Make the waiters in restaurants beg you to leave. Be the person everyone is waiting to finish so you can clean the dishes. Got a makeout partner? Do I even need to say that racing is the work of inexperienced teenagers? Take your time to the point that the people behind you on the street, in the mall, at the post office, are huffing and stomping around you. It’ll make you chuckle to see how angry/stressed/anxious/ridiculous others are...and you are not. Because, really...what’s the point?

W H I S K E Y

As part of the compromises that led to the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789, the new Federal government agreed to assume the Revolutionary War debts of the 13 States.

In 1791, at the urging of Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, Congress used its new constitutional authority to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises” and enacted an excise tax on distilled spirits, to help pay off the resulting national debt.

The excise tax was the first nationwide internal revenue tax. The tax was especially onerous to small distillers on the western frontier, because larger distillers, most of whom were located in the East, paid a lower tax rate.

The tax was also more burdensome on western farmers because corn they distilled into whiskey served as currency on the frontier, often being traded for goods and services.

“WHAT DOES REBELLION MEAN TO YOU?”

From the beginning, the Federal government had trouble collecting the whiskey tax along the frontier. While many small western distillers simply refused to pay the tax, others took a more violent stand against it, roughing up and intimidating federal revenue officers.

We ask folks of all ages a question to see if our generations are really all that different:

GEN 2020

MILLENNIAL

@rqwindle: Rebellion to me means to keep timeless virtues alive.

Even if pop culture/media/what have you, makes those virtues seem boring and less exciting. @kkwilcomb: Rebellion in this era means caring about others and doing the best you can in this world.

GEN X

@simply_lve: Rebellion, to me, is being yourself in a world that tries to mold you to be some ideal norm. Rebellion is listening to yourself instead of doing what everyone else is doing.

Rebellion is a quiet (or loud) fuck you to an establishment that is trying to numb you, dumb you down, and hide your light. Rebellion is being you, no matter what! @ranckstarr: Being unapologetically me.

Moving home at 32 and single to take care of an ailing parent. Practicing gratitude in the moments, but also allowing myself to say, “dementia fucking sucks” and “this is hard.”

Rebellion is feeling all the feelings and being free to vocalize it in a world that doesn’t want vulnerability. They see it as negative, but I see it as realness and healing.

Rebellion is being unapologetically vulnerable. For myself not anyone else.

ELLECTUALISM

BOOMERS

The violence escalated in 1794 as armed rebels and militiamen confronted revenue collectors and federal troops in several western Pennsylvania counties, resulting in beatings, destroyed property and at least two deaths.

In our time it was overthrowing the government, the media, the corporations, the wars. We were loud. We used love. I didn’t think the younger generations had it in them. But this political climate is showing me signs of activism, caring, and rolling up the sleeves I haven’t seen since our rebel times in the 60’s and 70’s.

By July 1794, western Pennsylvanians had had enough. Some 7,000 frontiersmen marched on Pittsburgh to stop collection of the tax. President Washington responded by issuing a proclamation on August 7, 1794 calling on the rebels ”to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes.”

On August 7, 1794, President Washington also invoked the Militia Act of 1792, which, after Federal court approval, allowed the President to use state militiamen to put down internal rebellions. On The same day, Secretary of War Henry Knox sent a letter to the governors of Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia requesting a total of 12,950 militiamen to put down the rebellion.

TRADITIONALISTS

President Washington attempted to avoid bloodshed by appointing three federal commissioners to negotiate with the rebels throughout August and September.

After repeated failures at negotiating a settlement, the commissioners returned to Philadelphia on September 24, 1794, where they reported that it was “absolutely necessary that the civil authority should be aided by a military force in order to secure a due execution of the laws.”

@caitlin.sammons: My 80+ grandmother passed away months ago so I can’t ask her, but I know what her answer would be. She always said, “would you want a whole world of just you’s and me’s?” What she meant is that the world is a better place when everyone is themselves, meaning embracing our differences and what makes us unique, and that is often an act of rebellion. When I told her I was older and trying to follow some of the rules now, she said “Kid, make your own.” She’s the one who taught me that the most beautiful thing I can do with my life is to be myself and therefore be rebellious. To think and live outside the box.

On September 19, 1794, George Washington became the only sitting U.S. President to personally lead troops in the field when he led the militia on a nearly month-long march west over the Allegheny Mountains to the town of Bedford.

In the face of this overwhelming force, the uprising collapsed and the federal government proved that it would enforce laws enacted by Congress.

Of those who participated in the insurrection all except 33 were pardoned.

Of the 33 who were arrested, only two were convicted of treason, and President Washington pardoned them in July 1795.

Rebels who fled and were never arrested were later pardoned by President John Adams.

The successful suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion helped to confirm the supremacy of Federal law in the early United States and the right of Congress to levy and collect taxes on a nation-wide basis.

Thomas Jefferson took a very different view of the “Whiskey Rebellion.” He believed that the government had used the army to stifle legitimate opposition to unfair government policies.

husbands, multiple spouses of multiple genders.

ultiple spouses.

one or more sexual partners outside the relationship, wledge to each other.

f having simultaneous intimate relationships with more than one person at a time, edge and consent of all partners. in poverty for at least two generations.

ssociated with discovery and creation.

FOUL LANGUAGE IT’S BEEN PROVEN THAT PEOPLE WHO SWEAR OR USE

ARE MORE INTELLIGENT. HERE’S SOME OF OUR FAVES:

something doesn't jive with what you know to be factual or accurate.

of income needed to secure the necessities of life.

ed the phrase in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods to describe how human beings, , are spending less time outdoors and the results include a wide range of behavioral problems.

lace in the world.

erations and intuition.

5

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Child: Saving the world from the bad guys...like in Star Wars.

Teenager @infamous_drawing (17): Things that come to mind when I think of a typical rebellious teen: getting bad grades, shoplifting, sneaking out, ditching class. But maybe rebellion can mean something a little different. Perhaps chasing your dreams can be an act of rebellion and going against what your peers are forcing you to do, taking a risk and not knowing the outcome, but enjoying the journey every bit that you can.

President Washington responded to the harassment of federal officials by issuing a proclamation on September 15, 1792, condemning interference with the “operation of the laws of the United States for raising revenue upon spirits distilled within the same.”

ISSUE ONE

the anti-influencer. @THE_SALTY_BLONDE, HALLEY ELEFANTE

WHAT IS THE SALTY BLONDE?

HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE OVERSTIMULATION FROM THE VIRTUAL WORLD WITH SO

I still can’t answer this. Do you know how douchey it sounds to tell someone that you're

MANY COMMENTS, DM'S, AND OPINIONS OF YOUR WORK VIA KEYBOARD? IS IT VUL-

an online influencer?

NERABLE TO BE SO "OUT" THERE? It's extremely hard to put yourself out there to

HOW DID YOU BEGIN?

the masses of the scary internet. It's not for the

I started it as a hobby to hopefully

thin-skinned and I can't imagine having started

get some free clothes. I was broke,

this when I was younger. People assume that you

bored, and had no friends in

love the attention and spotlight, but for me that

Hawaii yet, so I figured I’d start a

couldn't be any further from the truth. Believe it

secret account and give it a shot.

or not, I'm a pretty private person.

I styled all of my old clothes together, put the self timer on, posed

CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT A DAY IN YOUR

like an asshole, and captioned the

LIFE LOOKS LIKE FOR YOU?

images with exactly how I would

I start with work emails, take lunch on the beach

talk with my friends back home.

where I take pictures, hit up the post office, open

Never once did I think it would

new packages, style outfits, take more pictures,

become my full-time job.

and then I'll get back to urgent emails. I have better with set office hours and taking weekends

INTO FASHION, BEACHES, &

off from email.

BEERS? When I was little I would dress up

IN AN ONLINE WORLD FULL OF

as Cindy Lauper, Madonna, or the

MAGAZINE STYLE PHOTOS, #LIVING-

girls from the ZZ Top video, She's

MYBESTLIFE HASHTAGS, AND INSPIRA-

Got Legs, which in hindsight was

TIONAL QUOTES….HOW DID YOU FIND

beaches? Since my teens. I grew up in Utica, NY with the worst winters and not much to do as a kid. I wouldn’t change it. It gives me my character. At the same time, I couldn't wait to get out and be by the beach.

YOU’VE BEEN CALLED AN ANTI-INFLUENCER. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF ONE? I do consider myself going against

Photographer: Nico Guilis, Find Your California

highly inappropriate. Beer and

31, NORTH SHORE OF O'AHU

SUCCESS BY DOING NONE OF THAT? I think it was refreshing for girls to see something real and different. My images are not glammed up (thanks sunnies), with no professional photographer, and I'm just being myself. Which is mostly drinking a beer on the beach with a turkey sandwich and chips.

CLOSE YOUR EYES… WHERE ARE YOU IN 20 YEARS? I have no fucking idea. This question gives me anxiety.

the grain a little bit. It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of this industry at times and have chosen to do things my own way. But at the same, time I am

A QUOTE THAT HELPED YOU BECOME WHO YOU ARE TODAY

super grateful that I am even a part of this weird world. But the feeling I get when seeing

"Who cares what other people think." —My mom

6

REBEL MANIFESTO: Leave everyone better off than when you found them.

FAVORITE PLACE OFFLINE: Road tripping across our country, flying to other countries, in the mountains, at the sea…with a film camera in one hand and a journal in the other.

SPIRIT ANIMAL: 49% Deer, 51% Wolf

LILLIE DUNCAN

Each month we feature a member of our community.

This isn’t any of that (air quotes) stand-up, pillar of the community glad handing you see in traditional organizations.

that I am empowering girls around the world, it’s awesome.

the rebel rouser.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

given myself a routine because I found I work HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN

BEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME: This is the hardest question you could ask, this answer changes often. My most played album of 2017 was "I Forget Where We Were" by Ben Howard…from start to finish, the whole thing is one beautiful, lush, raw story.

FAVORITE PRE-INTERNET HOBBY: Reading. Still my favorite way to escape the world.

like I was someone. That, hell yeah, I’m good at that. And it kind of went on from there.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING? I've been writing since I was little. I was published in third grade and I wrote short stories in junior high.

But I never thought that I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a real estate agent because I thought that was a cool job that would make me a lot of money.

YOUR WRITING MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU ARE A NON-CONFORMIST. I CONSIDER YOU A REBEL. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF ONE? I think so, yeah. I believe that honoring our truth is our most important part in this great world. But I think that a lot of us conform because we unconsciously, are on a very primal level, just terrified of being ostracized and not having that connection we all so desire.

YOU WORK IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD WITH MANY PEOPLE HAVING DIRECT ACCESS TO YOU WHICH COMES WITH PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS….HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE OVERSTIMULATION FROM SO MANY COMMENTS, DM'S, AND OPINIONS OF YOUR WORK VIA KEYBOARD? IS IT VULNERABLE TO BE SO "OUT" THERE? One of the most beautiful beliefs that I have, and need, to navigate the world is that we do not control the feelings or thoughts of anyone. I'm not accountable for how the world reacts to something, so I really

28, SO CAL

just need to be sure that I feel really good in my creation.

Photographer: Alli Kaukas

IN ONE LINE, DESCRIBE WHAT JANNE ROBINSON/'THIS

CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT A DAY IN YOUr LIFE LOOKS LIKE FOR YOU?

IS FOR THE WOMEN' IS.

I usually wake up in the morning around sunrise, make a coffee and head for my Jeep to get to the water.

Janne Robinson is a 21st-century feminist beat poet, director, author

In the morning, I go to the ocean. It puts me at my absolute best. Every single day. Then I'll go and

of 'This Is for the Women Who Don't Give a Fuck' and CEO of 'This

make a huge kick ass breakfast and a second coffee and then I'll work there are a couple of hours. For

Is For The Women'—a company dedicated to empowering women

the past two year,s up until 3 months ago, I was cramming too much on my plate. Thanks to some key

to walk tall like an old cypress tree.

people in my life I have much better balance and control on burnout and working.

HOW DID YOU BEGIN?

CLOSE YOUR EYES… WHERE ARE YOU IN 20 YEARS?

HAPPY ACCIDENT OR INTENTIONAL?

I see a house on the ocean, coffee in cups, my Jeep in the driveway, a man. For me happiness and joy,

When I was 18, I started to write really personal descriptions of my

ironically since I spent so much time saying….screw suburbia, kind of looks like that in the future. I am

journeys through Australia. I changed a lot that year and I started to

really looking forward to setting some roots down and growing the personal side of my life and relation-

share some of those writings on Facebook. And one of my friends

ships. And of course to continue to work on my one true love, my writing.

said I should become a travel writer. So I took 30 things I'd written and submitted everything I'd written to 100+ travel magazines.

TELL ME ABOUT "THIS IS FOR THE WOMEN."

Everyone denied me. Well, shit. I figured out quickly that I wasn’t

I’ve been trying to make this for two years. My spoken word poem had more than a million views and it

that kind of writer. I was more personal. I had a roommate who said

was suggested that people may want to tangibly hold it. But I have had lots of learnings as I’ve stuck to

my stuff was way too personal to put on Facebook and that I should

the Made In US that I wanted. It’s been such a journey for me to stick to my integrity. I never wanted to

start a blog. Like put it there, over in that corner. And I'm so happy I

start a company with cheap, shitty, stuff. It’s now its own company and I have so many ideas. Eventually,

never listened to her. I mean, I have 50,000 followers at my personal

I see retreats and a non-profit.

people. I was discovered by Elephant Journal shortly after and they

A QUOTE THAT HELPED YOU BECOME WHO YOU ARE TODAY

were really excited about my voice. And, at that moment, I really felt

"Don't try." —Charles Bukowski

the unfiltered cartoonist.

IN ONE LINE, DESCRIBE WHAT BROOKLYN CARTOONS IS.

SINCE YOU WORK IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD, HOW DO

admit that my day can get derailed if I've poured hours of my time

Brooklyncartoons (gen why's unfiltered selfie) is an Instagram ac-

YOU HANDLE THE OVERSTIMULATION, AND OPINIONS

into a cartoon and it doesn't do well.

count that focuses on the intersection of becoming an adult and the

OF YOUR WORK VIA KEYBOARD?

entrenchment of technology in our everyday.

WAS THERE SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED TO GIVE YOU AN AH-HA MOMENT IN HOW OUR

HOW DID BROOKLYNCARTOONS BEGIN?

CURRENT SOCIETY IS USING TECHNOLOGY?

HAPPY ACCIDENT OR INTENTIONAL?

Yeah, when I noticed that tangible spaces were being de-

Photographer: Carlos Moscat, courtesy of DSTLD

@ BROOKLYCARTOONS, EMMET TRUXES

page, almost 40,000 in my author page and it's how I share with

After graduating in 2006, I moved to Brooklyn and tried to keep cartooning, but I was in my early twenties and it was impossible to draw with all the exploring, going out, and life lessons to be learned.

Nevertheless, it was during this time that I first put the words “Brooklyn” and “Cartoons” together but waited out the recession studying architecture in graduate school, putting cartooning on hold for four years. It wasn’t until I graduated, got married, settled down in Williamsburg, and then moved out to Los Angeles in late 2014 that I finally had the time to build the account.

YOU WRITE ON THE INTERNET ABOUT BE-

signed specifically for Instagram and social media marketing. Our physical world is now inundated with Instagram bait, little visual triggers that trick us into snapping a selfie and posting what is essentially free marketing. On the other hand, I think that in our efforts to prop up our digital selves with quality content that proves how interesting, cool, and cultured we are, we are curating experiences for ourselves that otherwise we wouldn't have.

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND WHERE ARE YOU IN 20 YEARS? Mars.

33, LOS ANGELES

ING A REBEL. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF ONE?

I've been in the trenches of Instagram obsession for just about three

A QUOTE THAT HELPED YOU BECOME WHO YOU ARE…

I appreciate the compliment, but I definitely do not consider myself

years, and the best lesson that I can pass along is to try your best

No seas cautivo de idiomas e ideologías...which is a song lyric from

a rebel, mainly because I know that there are artists and designers

to not give a fuck about what anyone else thinks, especially the

"En Todas Partes" from a movie called Habana Blues. It basically

out there doing far riskier, badass, and rockstar things than I ever

algorithms. This isn't easy though, and while I long ago learned to

translates from Spanish to "don't be held captive by language or

could.

ignore negativity or ad hominem attacks in my comments, I'll freely

idealogy" and it's a solid breakdown of how I try to live my life.

7

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

the poet who doesn't give a fuck.

@THISISFORTHEWOMEN, JANNE ROBINSON

THE REBEL ISSUE

ISSUE ONE

Dear Dispatch,

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

We’re Leesa and we’re stoked to be a part of the The Dispatch by Folk Rebellion. As a company that is focused on better sleep for everybody, we know that unplugging and being mindful is such an important (and often overlooked) piece in today’s hectic world.

Restful and restorative sleep elevates your life in so many ways. It helps your mind and body prepare for the challenges of the day ahead.

From the outset, Leesa has believed that everyone’s life can be lifted after a good night’s sleep. As a certified BCorp, our goal is to ensure that everyone finding refuge from homelessness, domestic risk or human trafficking in a shelter will find a comfortable bed waiting for them. We donate one mattress for every ten sold. Tonight, 23,000 people will sleep better thanks to our donations. Our hope is that they will dream of a brighter tomorrow and wake up with their heads held a little higher.

Our social impact program is at the heart and soul of what we do and sharing our passion with the Folk Rebellion Dispatch community is a great place to do that.

Keep dreaming!

Here’s to a better night’s sleep, The Leesa Team

8

Snake Oil + Soap Box

S C R A M B L E D E G G S F O R B R E A K FAST B R A I N S THE DAY BEFORE I COULDN’T HAVE TOLD YOU WHAT I’D HAD FOR BREAKFAST.

My brains were scrambled eggs.

I don’t mean to give tech a bad rap.

There were other variables, which led to my memory loss, brain fog, malaise, dissociation, and receding creativity and attention (both of which were really important for my profession). Looking back, the 24/7 lifestyle of work, work, work, party, crash, work, work, work, repeat, probably didn’t help. Neither did stuffing my lunch in my face while hailing a cab in between appointments, forsaking yoga, hiking, writing class, or any sort of rest, leisure, or stress relief for Just. One. More. Email. It was a mixed bag of shittiness, which led me to this current place.

A place where I no longer recognized who I was or remembered what I’d had for breakfast.

Giving no context whatsoever to my sleeping husband, Glenn, I spat out “I feel like my old self.” He stretched a warm arm around me and whispered, “I didn’t know there was an old self and a new self.” That was the statement that changed my life forever. The proverbial light bulb went off and all but exploded.

I leapt out of bed, grabbed my journal, dusty from being forgotten, and curled up on the lanai and began writing again for the first time in forever.

What was different? What was new?

How do I so suddenly feel better?

Why is there a “new self”? And what the hell happened to my old one? My heart already knew the answer, but I allowed my pen to explore the insides of my cobwebbed and confused mind.

Six months before our trip to Hawaii, I had been visiting doctors about all of my mysterious issues, which seemed to come on suddenly but compound with time: Western medicine, Eastern Medicine, Holistic, Psychotherapy, hell, I even

visited an energy doctor. They all had different ideas about what was happening to me and no matter the diagnosis and treatment plan I followed the doctor’s orders to the T. Gluten intolerant? Bye pizza. Vitamin Deficient? Bring on the supplements, juice cleanses, and nutrient-dense whole food eating plan. Leaky gut?

Enter escapades of spilled bone broth and elimination diets. Stress? My yoga mat became my third arm, and I often lamented, “Don’t stress me out, man!”

But it seemed all the lifestyle changes in the world could not change my brain back to its former self.

As I sat cross-legged, journaling in the papasan listening to the Kauai rain hitting the tin roof, I wrote the following sentence: The only thing that’s different than my current view is the lack of technology I’ve had on our vacation.

It was so simple and so obvious. And also, so terrifying.

I’d like to tell you that this life-changing digital detox was my idea. Instead, I will tell you the truth; that this was a family-imposed intervention that was sprung on me as I was getting the flower lei at the Honolulu airport.

And so, their ultimatum led me to rediscover myself. Though, I went on that journey kicking and screaming.

No, like literally, crying in the corner of the airport.

Back then I would’ve probably told you my greatest accomplishments were things like the brand video that went viral and garnered millions of views or my 40 Under 40 award or how I had perfected the multitask better than anyone I knew.

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Today that shit don’t mean shit to me. Yes, I am proud and managed to acquire less and in return gain more grateful to have had the experience; hell it’s what got me to here. freedom. My relationship with technology is a much healthier one now, though ever evolving.

But my idea of accomplished looks much closer to unanswered text messages, a bedside table with a teetering tower of half- And when no one else could, I healed myself. read books, out of office hours, and pillow forts with my son.

In our crazy-busy world, I have accomplished the enormous By powering down, I have plugged back into life. task of becoming a human being.... not a human doing. I’ve

JESS DAVIS

But today, on this morning, in this bed, I could feel the satin sheets rolling like sultry waves under my skin. Today, I could smell the sea outside and the salt was stinging awake the inside of my nose. Today, I could hear the neighborhood rooster welcoming in the arrival of the Hawaiian sun. Today, I could tell you that I hadn’t felt this alive, alert, and aware since, well, I can’t remember when... because my brains were scrambled eggs. And it was all technology’s fault.

ISSUE ONE

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Why You Shouldn’t Be So Quick to

By Alexandra Israel

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n October 21st, 2017, The Broad opened Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, a special exhibition featured six of the acclaimed artist Yayoi Kusama’s kaleidoscopic installations. How do I know this since I don’t live in LA? I have seen countless selfies of friends, friends of friends, and PR professionals skillfully posing within the exhibition just as thousands of others have done in another of Kusama’s ‘Insta-famous’ rooms, Dots Obsession: Love Transformed into Dots.

Instagram—which currently has over 800 million users— has changed the power dynamics of human interactions. As people can share their photos, videos and Instagram stories with their friends and strangers across the world in real time, they can build and assert their online identities. When this involves taking selfies in an art installation, it can give viewers the false sense of being part of an experience, even if they are thousands of miles away.

The ease of sharing and ‘quick bite’ consumability should make Instagram the art world’s best friend, but does it really? Does going to an exhibition and Instagramming the entire time count as experiencing it in the way that the gallery or, more importantly, the artist intended the work to be seen?

As top museums, such as The Museum of Modern Art and The Louvre, and leading galleries use Instagram to connect with their audience, they post images, videos and other online content that alter the importance of actually seeing the work in person. Museums and galleries risk the biggest draw becoming not the work, but the proof via selfie that you’ve been there. Instead of encouraging curiosity and a desire to experience things in person, social media usurps the power of the art.

I have never seen a Yayoi Kusama exhibition in real life; nonetheless, I’ve been familiar with her work ever since Facebook introduced me to the paper-dot filled obliteration room (the full exhibition was entitled Yayoi Kusama: Give Me Love) when it came to New York City’s David Zwirner Gallery in 2015. By then, Instagram already had a firm footing in our online lives. The over-saturation of selfies in galleries, one’s where you are so distracted that it becomes hard to focus on the art, makes me wonder if the around-the-block lines outside the David Zwirner gallery in Chelsea are indicative of people’s love for Kusama’s work, or the desire to get a perfect picture in the midst of it.

Mixing taking a selfie with actually trying to appreciate art turns out to be a lousy idea.

That’s what Linda A. Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University found in her 2013 study, “The Influence of Taking Photos on Memory for a Museum Tour,” which revealed what happens in your brain when you try to do two things at once. In the study, participants were led on a guided tour of an art museum.

They were directed to observe some objects and to photograph others. The results showed that when participants took photos, they remembered significantly fewer details about each object (including the location of the object in the museum).

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When I interviewed Professor Henkel, she went on to say that the second it takes to fire up a Boomerang video can be enough to cause your attention to waver away from what you’re ostensibly trying to appreciate: “We are using our energies to collect our ‘trophies’ to show each other, thinking about how we look in selfies and what sort of responses we might get when we post, which results in not paying full attention to the scenes in front of our own eyes.” So much for multitasking!

As th and I in r build

An alternate perspective is that Kusama’s work is actually designed to draw your phone out of your pocket. By doing so, you may just be fulfilling the intention of the piece. New York Times art critic Roberta Smith criticized Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, which was exhibited last year at the Hirshhorn, for being “too in step with our narcissistic times.” But it’s all part of the #yayoikusama experience, which has taken cities including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and New York by storm.

Peg Streep, a New York-based author of twelve books and blogger at PsychologyToday.com, believes that social media is not only diverting our attention, but also deflating our expectations for moments that haven’t even happened yet. When she recently went to the Dale Chihuly show at the New York Botanical Garden, her

Mixing taking a selfie with actual trying to apprecia art turns out to b lousy idea.

THE REBEL ISSUE

get on the Instagram Bandwagon

DID YOU KNOW? • #InfiniteKusama reached 91 million Twitter and Instagram accounts, with 330 million impressions.

lly ate be a

attempt to do something out of the ordinary backfired.

“I didn’t know many people who went to the Chihuly show, so it seemed fresh to me. As it happens, friends of mine went right around the time I did and their photos followed mine on Facebook. Social media has impacted the way in which art and exhibitions are unveiled for the first time, and not necessarily in a positive way. Instead of creating the expected FOMO reaction, Instagram enforces the ‘been there, done that’ effect.”

An art lover who actively seeks out new exhibitions, Streep is planning a visit to the Infinity Rooms strategically. “Timed exhibitions,” or exhibits that limit the amount of time a person can stay inside are, she says, “nothing new, but social media has made this rule a bigger pain than ever as people are wrestling each other to get the perfect selfie. I want to spend my time in the Infinity Room looking at the art!”

A few museums have already taken a firm stance on selfie-taking, and more can’t be far behind. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has declared that photography is only allowed in designated areas where no artwork is on show, such as the central atrium. They reason that allowing photos to be taken next to Van Gogh’s masterpieces causes too much distrac-

• As of print time, IG users tagged the Infinity Mirrors exhibition 49,500 times.

• Nearly 100 visitors with mobility constraints were able to use virtual-reality (VR) headsets to experience VR versions of the rooms, part of Hirshhorn’s commitment to radical accessibility.

tion for the museum-goers who are there to actually see the art. The National Gallery, The Getty Center, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Rhode Island School of Design Museum, The Smithsonian and The Metropolitan Museum of Art are still figuring out what to do about our obsession with taking pictures. While issues have come up with the popularity of the selfie stick, none of these institutions have instituted a full ban on photos so far.

Will we one day live in a world where we are forced to put our phones down at the door and enjoy art for arts’ sake? It seems unlikely, but the dialogue has begun. Besides, distraction can be destructive and expensive. Just consider the Kusama pumpkin, that was allegedly crushed by someone trying to take a selfie at the Hirshhorn Museum last year. It better have been a great shot.

• A four-foot-high sculpture of one of her polka-dotted gourds went for $784,485 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October 2015.

WANNA DIG DEEPER? •

Follow @yayoikusamas on Instagram

•

Follow @hirshhorn on Instagram

•

Check out Henkel’s 2013 study, The Influence of Taking Photos on Memory for a Museum Tour: "No Pictures, Please: Taking Photos May Impede Memory of Museum Tour" published in the Association for Psychological Science.

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Read more by Peg Streep at www.pegstreep.com or on her blog “Tech Support” on PyschologyToday.com.

•

The Art Media Agency (AMA) Professional Newsletter is published each week in French and English, featuring around 40 pages of the latest news from the international art market.

Will we one day live in a world where we are forced to put our phones down at the door and enjoy art for arts’ sake?

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

s people can share heir photos, videos Instagram stories real time, they can d and assert their online identities.

H OW WE ’R E WI R E D

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ISSUE ONE

Experiments in Rebellion: TESTING SOCIAL NORMS IN ORDER TO LIVE A CONSCIOUS LIFE

by Shereen Thor

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y favorite rapper of all time is Eminem. Early in his career, he was just so unexpectedly crazy; so undeniably insane, it was to the point of demanding respect.

You may not like him, he said, but you will respect him.

His rebel levels were so high that it stirred me up and made me feel more alive. That energy is extraordinarily powerful in so many ways. No doubt such energy has changed the world, and our individual lives, for the better.

Rebels are often misunderstood or even vilified in the more conservative parts of society. We ruffle too many feathers, and that bothers people.We can fake humdrum complacency to avoid rocking the boat, but inside we feel trapped, stifled, and bogged down by rules. Social norms like how to act, where to sit, and what is acceptable in general are just not our style. But in the world of creativity, art and entrepreneurship rebellion thrives.

Those are spaces expansive enough to truly let the rebel breathe, live, flourish, and innovate.

So this column is an effort to kick up some dust, raise a little hell, live a conscious life, and examine how we can assert our role as people who refuse to play by the rules of the system.

Famed French philosopher and writer Albert Camus said that “Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.” This is what we hope to inspire here. We are questioners, we are seekers, we are adventurers, and we absolutely refuse to be sheep or lemmings or drones. There is no blueprint for rebellion, so we seek to make our own. To this end, I’ll be experimenting (on myself) with things that buck the norm and question the system in the hopes of developing my inner rebel and giving you, the reader, some insight into how you can too.

To kick us off...I did a juice cleanse. Who needs eating?

Eating is for normal people, right? So here was the plan: drink juice for three days straight; no food allowed. I had the support of a self-described “Detox Expert,” some literature on the possible impacts, and my will to keep me strong.

The benefits of cleanses are debated by doctors, nutritionists, and health nerds, but this is what I was told: You can’t drink just any juice. I needed to get cold-pressed juice and, as long as I drank a juice every 2-3 hours, my body would know it was being fed and would have all the necessary nutrition needed to function properly even without solid food.

On top of that, I was told that it’s so easy for the body to digest juice that solely drinking it gives your digestive system a sometimes-much-needed rest. The extra energy is what’s used to detoxify. And as an added bonus, since most toxins are stored in fat, it also helps your body break down the fat as well.

Juice cleansing is a 3.4 billion dollar industry that first became popular in the 1970s thanks to people like fitness and nutrition expert Jack LaLanne. Many mention subjective benefits such as improved mood, glowing skin, weight loss, and improved overall appearance.

Detoxification is one of the most cited benefits, and one of the primary reasons why people do a juice cleanse, though there is not sufficient evidence to prove that it actually does this.

Some of the dangers associated with a juice cleanse are headaches, fatigue, difficulty thinking, moodiness, stomach pain, hunger, low protein, low fiber and an increased danger of getting type 2 diabetes.

But I had my second kid eight months ago, and I welcomed any opportunity to lose some of the baby weight so, regardless of the dangers, I bought my cold-pressed juice and started the cleanse. By day three, I was down 4.5 pounds and was less “puffy,” if you will.

I also felt elated and happy. I consider myself a pretty happy person, but this was extraordinarily happy. My mood was so good and so high that I found myself being a more loving wife, mother, and person. It was such an unexpected and wonderful byproduct of the experience.

Not only did I lose weight, but my quality of life went up considerably. So much so that I decided to continue the cleanse for an additional day! (What the hell is wrong with me?)

Once I started to break the fast and reintroduce solid foods into my diet, I found my mood drop a bit. I had no idea there was another level of happiness to be had, so I’m on a newfound quest to figure out what piece of the diet caused the mood alteration so that I can continue the elation party. I also had no idea that I had a food sensitivity, so I’ve started an elimination diet that allows me to zoom in on how specific foods and food groups impact me.

So there you have it. Stop eating and you will be a happier person. Just kidding. Keep eating, but take an opportunity to be thoughtful about it, whether through a juice cleanse, a sugar detox, or any other exercise that tunes you into what you put into your mouth. You just might learn something new about yourself.

This juice cleanse was my first experiment in rebellion in an effort to live a more conscious life and no doubt it was a success. The clinical benefits are still being sorted out, and each person should do what is best for their body, but I certainly benefited from switching things up and trying something different. My mind was clearer, my energy was higher, and I don’t miss those few pounds.

My challenge now is to keep the dial tuned into my body so I can continue to discover new pieces of myself.

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THE REBEL ISSUE

Science of Curiosity

by Kristi Pahr

But where does that curiosity, that drive, come from?

We know we ARE curious, but WHY are we curious?

What causes the spark that can change the world?

Scientists have been trying to answer that question for quite some time, but haven’t been able to nail down the specific mechanism responsible for all the brain’s wonderings and musings. They have been able to determine a few things, but those answers just led to more questions.

What has been determined, however, is that there are essentially two types of curiosity: perceptual curiosity and epistemic curiosity. Perceptual curiosity is what happens when something doesn’t jive with what you know to be factual or accurate. If you walked outside and the sky was green, your perceptual curiosity would be piqued since you “know” it’s not supposed to be. Epistemic curiosity is the type of curiosity associated with discovery and creation. Say you hear a new piece of music that moves you, and you try to discover the composer, or you see a sunset and are inspired to recreate it in pastels, that’s epistemic curiosity.

One is based on unpleasant responses within the brain (the green sky is confusing and troubling), while the other is based on pleasant responses within the brain (creating something, the painting, or learning something new, finding new music you love).

all positive stimuli. Getting the right answer, learning something new, making something from nothing, trigger our dopamine response. We’re wired to WANT to learn, and it’s that drive to learn new things, to gather and store information, that allows us to create and to solve problems. It makes sense that curiosity is vital to critical thinking. Without our innate curiosity, we would not have the ability to look at problems from different angles or maintain the objectivity that’s necessary for thinking around problems and coming up with new and creative solutions.

If not for this innate curiosity, this desire to know more, people like Da Vinci or Tesla or Curie or Crick would never have been revolutionary. Where would we be as a culture, as a civilization, without men and women with curious natures? If Larry Page had never wondered about the algorithms that made the early world wide web work, if Da Vinci had never imagined helicopters or wondered why blood is red or how it moved within the body, where would we be?

The great thinkers, creators, and imaginers of the past left a legacy of curiosity and wonder, but how can we see the world as they saw it? We can embrace their legacy in our day-to-day lives. We can see the world through the same lens if we remember to question everything. Ask questions, try new things, be open to surprise, and don’t take anything at face value. Pull back the curtain. Take the red pill.

We are curious by nature. It’s hardwired into our brain and coded into our system to wonder and to muse and innovate. Our curiosity is our super-power, it differentiates us from other animals and allows us to change everything about everything. In the modern age, it seems like we only have to dream things up for them to become real, self-driving cars and drone delivery services, smart- and automated-everything.

We can have our clothes picked out for us and delivered to our door, our laundry detergent and dog food set up on subscription services, it’s like we almost don’t even have to...think.

WE’RE WIRED TO WANT TO LEARN AND IT’S THAT DRIVE THAT ALLOWS US TO CREATE AND TO SOLVE PROBLEMS.

Our brains have a reward system that gives us a fix when we answer a question, solve a problem, scratch an intellectual or creative itch. Dopamine is released within the brain when we’re exposed to any positive stimuli, and creation, discovery, and problem-solving are

Is it better? Does removing the mundane from our lives free up bandwidth in our brains for more eccentric thought? Some people surmise that the

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ability to scratch every intellectual itch immediately does just that. That we can say “Hey Google who is that actor in that thing?” or “Alexa, who sang that song that’s in that show?” and have those questions answered immediately, leaves room for us to wonder about questions that are more complex, more nuanced than anything we can just Google.

But are we doing that? Are we using technology to give us space or are we filling every available nook and cranny, every wrinkle and fold in our brain with whatever is brightest and loudest and flashiest at the moment?

Are we filling up on the Kardashians and not leaving room for the cosmos? Is The Bachelor so loud that we’ve forgotten to ponder spirals? Is our curiosity getting lazy?

In this brave new world of automation and noise, we must not forget to wonder. We must not forget to muse.

Our unique ability, our super-power, is the thing that made us what we are today, our curiosity created us.

But if we stall here, if we don’t give ourselves time and space to wonder, to ask “What next?” and “If, then?”, if we stay glued to our phones and our social networks being spoon-fed other people’s lives and information, if we don’t look up and we don’t look down, we’ll never move forward.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Around 500,000 years ago, our early ancestors learned how to use fire. Paleontologists assume it all began when a lightning storm sparked a wildfire. The results?

Cooked food from a cleared and easily forageable landscape. Early humans realized in a rudimentary way that food cooked with fire was more palatable and nutritious than raw food, and so set out to harness flames. It was because they were curious, driven, and had a problem to solve that life on Earth would never be the same.

• 8.2 million: Estimated number of people who own an Amazon Echo.

• 1.9 million: Estimated number of times the Alexa App has been downloaded since it was released in 2014.

• #1 most popular Alexa skill: Setting a timer.

• 2nd most popular Alexa skill: Play a song.

• 3rd most popular: Read the news. (Well, she won’t be fucking reading The Dispatch to you.)

• 1.2 million: # of interactions on Twitter and Facebook in response to “The Bachelor” 2017 season finale.

• “This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill: the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill: you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

• —Morpheus, The Matrix

• Listen to Knowledge@Wharton podcast Episode #91: The ‘Why’ Behind Asking Why: The Science of Curiosity • Check out Why: What Makes Us Curious

by Mario Livio • Get your hands on Critical Thinking: An Exploration of Theory and Practice

by Jennifer Moon

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SHIT TO SCHEDU LE : Watch: Ferris Bueller's Day Off Read: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck Check out: Moby Richroll Podcast Listen to: Bowie Album, The Next Day Friendship Bracelet Making Party Family Dinner Outside Time: X-Country Skiing

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THE REBEL ISSUE

MO NDAY

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SLOW IS BORING W EDNESDAY

Had you told me seven years ago that today I would be an advocate for slow living and that I would have enough opinions on the pace of modern life to fill a book, host a podcast, and speak in public about the benefits of living a slower life, my first reaction would probably have been, “What’s a podcast?”

And then, one week, as I finished recounting all the things I “had to do” in order to live a successful, meaningful, productive, and socially acceptable life, she looked at me and asked, “Have you ever considered… doing less?”

All I could hear her say at the time was that I simply wasn’t cut out for a modern existence. I was lacking in some way. Deficient. I needed to slow down because the world was moving too fast for me. Initially, I was offended. But as her question settled in my brain I began to get excited at the idea of slow. Over time, the simple suggestion nestled within her question genuinely changed the course of my life.

I’m not here to instruct you on how to live a slow life. I can’t. Because your slow and my slow will look completely different. And, anyway, trying to tell a rebel how to do something is a great way of ensuring they do the opposite. But I do want to leave you with a thought. Slow isn’t just about the pace at which we live our own lives. It’s much bigger than that. Slow is about valuing quality and depth in all areas of life - connection, health, critical thought, our planet, education, parenting, relationships, and community.

Have you ever heard the saying, “Good. Cheap. Fast. At best, you can have two”?

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Slow gets a pretty bad rap in modern society and I only had to look at my own assumptions about living a slower life to see just how little we value slow. Slow meant saying no. Slow meant missing out. Slow was lazy. Boring. Average.

Mediocre. Beige.

But slow is the precise shade of lavender in an incredible sunset.

Slow is noticing the smell of wet earth after the rain has stopped.

Slow is committing to memory the sound of my kids playing and the feel of their fingers on my face.

Slow is having time for long conversations with people I love.

Slow is laying in bed with my husband and remembering how much we thought we knew 15 years ago.

Slow is having the energy to help others.

Slow is saying yes to Sunday afternoon bushwalks and siestas.

Slow is putting the phone down when someone wants to talk to me.

Slow is making time to read every single one of Stephen King’s books.

Slow is understanding that I will never be everything to everyone and that’s more than OK. Slow is time in nature and learning how connected we all are.

Slow is feeling my feelings in their uncomfortable entirety.

Slow is saying yes to adventure.

Slow is traveling and learning and soaking in the reality of new places.

Slow is stopping to notice the clouds and the ants and the feel of the grass underfoot.

Slow is making space for the things I love. And then enjoying them.

Slow is understanding that life is fast and time is precious.

Slow is making the most of both those things.

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She would sit and listen to me, week in and week out, as I would tell a slightly different version of the same damn story. Busy, unhappy, crying, distant, lonely, leave me alone, sad, angry, never relaxed, absence of joy, sleepless nights, iPhone, constant scrolling, endless comparisons, mindless consumption, emotionally unavailable, self-medicating, head up my own ass… Choose your own adventure.

Really? Ask the nay-sayers. How can slow – plodding, ponderous, lagging, sluggish, leaden – be anything but boring?

FR I DAY

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I was diagnosed with severe postnatal depression not long after my second baby was born in 2010 and, as part of my treatment and recovery, I met with a psychiatrist every week for many months. Every week I would sit in her office and spend the first 15 minutes of our session pretending that everything was fine and that I didn’t really need to be there because, look at me, I am coping!

I’m great! Everything’s great! Then I would spend the following 30 minutes complaining bitterly to her about just how busy I was, and how I never felt at peace, never enjoyed time with my kids, and never felt happy or content. How, in fact, aside from crippling anxiety and a terrifyingly, almost constant black rage, I didn’t actually feel a lot of anything.

But in the seven years that have passed since I began to adopt a slower pace, my life has become immeasurably more interesting. It’s become more active.

I’ve said yes to more incredible things than I ever thought possible. I’m awake and aware and living the hell out of my days. I’ve written my own eulogy and am living the life I want celebrated when I’m gone. My life has become antibeige.

T HU R SDAY

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After that, I would have scoffed. Seven years ago my life was definitely not slow. In fact, I worked diligently against the idea of slowness. To me, slow was boring and downtime was merely a wasted opportunity. A wasted opportunity to do more, buy more, covet more, compare more, and cram more in. More stuff, more toys, more clothes, more busyness, more places to go, more rungs to climb, more expectations to meet.

Somewhere along the way, I’d learned to equate the idea of more with busyness, busyness with success, and success with happiness.

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by Brooke McAla ry

Just what are we missing out on when we consistently choose Cheap and Fast?

What are we missing out on every time Good gets left behind?

That’s where slow comes in.

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ISSUE ONE

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t’s a late autumn afternoon in Center City Philadelphia, and Michael and I are heading to the subway. I’m beat from work, my nose is running, and I can’t find a goddamn tissue anywhere in my corduroy jacket. Michael runs up ahead before pulling a huge potted palm plant out from under a pile of black garbage bags.

“Oh wow!”

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

“We are not taking that back to the house,” I say.

He starts dragging it along the sidewalk. I sigh, wipe my nose on my sleeve, and help him lug the thing a few blocks to the SEPTA. The train rattles toward West Philly and Michael, his face peeking out between the big, green palm fronds, breaks into “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” I squirm in my seat as other riders shake their heads and roll their eyes. I’m mortified, again, and I decide it’s probably time to find a new living situation.

Soon, though, Michael got sick, and I decided to stick around because, sure, he’s my roommate, but he’s also my dad.

MY ROOMMATE, MY FATHER.

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At one point, Michael went by the name “Michael Morning Sun.” My family lived on two communes when I was a kid: a Zen commune in Colorado and then a back-to-the-land commune in Glorieta, New Mexico.

It was the early 70s, and the hippie ideal was to raise our own food, stay out of ‘The System,’ and be free of ‘The Man.’ The vision for parenting on these communes was that everyone would pitch-in. The reality was that my brother and I were left alone for long stretches. To entertain ourselves, we covered ourselves with Michael’s shaving cream, peed in giant ant hills, and, at one point, snuck into the greenhouse where all the delicate seedlings were waiting to be planted. For fun, we pulled out each of the little green shoots. Rows and rows of them.

The adults had just finished a primal scream session.

When they found the carnage in the greenhouse, they were ready for round two.

Unfortunately, the hippie ideals of freedom and selfsufficiency seemed to be a poor match against the siren

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THE REBEL ISSUE

song of American commercial culture. Michael somehow never gave into the temptations, but as a hippie kid, I sure did. I would escape the compound so that I could go to public school, and one day visited a new friend’s house. When he swung open a kitchen cabinet to find an after-school snack, it was as though the lid had been cracked on the Ark of the Covenant. My face didn’t melt, but as a kid who was fed hand-ground whole-grain gruel for breakfast, I stood mesmerized before boxes of highly-processed sugary cereals: Tony the Tiger pushing his frosted sugar flakes, Cap’n Crunch and his treasure chest of mouth-shredding empty-calorie ecstasy, and that frog with his sugar “smacks.” A short while later, my parents took us for a picnic at a state park where I witnessed a family making bologna and American cheese sandwiches on Wonder Bread. As I set down my hand-ground peanut butter sandwich on bread as dry as the fucking Sahara Desert, I had the thought: That’s America, and I want it!

In Jersey, I lost my shoulder-length hippie hair in my first barbershop haircut, putting an end to the “so are you a girl or a boy?” questions I was getting in school.

My mother, now working three jobs, didn’t have time to hand-grind anything, and my brothers and I fully immersed ourselves in highly-processed American culture.

When I turned thirteen, Michael talked my mother into sending me to visit him for the summer. I had mixed feelings, but I went.

In Santa Fe, Michael set me up with a bicycle so I could tag along on his gardening gigs — he’d put those commune skills to some practical use while I’d been away. We hitchhiked wherever we couldn’t bike, and he’d have me stand out in front of him to increase the chance of us being offered a ride.

One evening, Michael and I were eating his creative interpretation of enchiladas on the back stairs of the school bus, the sun setting over the arroyo and the smell of the pinyon trees in the air.

“I’ve got something to tell you,” he said.

I took another bite and shrugged my shoulders.

“Alright.”

“Brian, look at me. I’m gay. I love men.” he said.

He asked me if I had any questions. “Nah, I’m, I’m cool,” I told him. A few weeks later, I went back home to Jersey.

It was the 1980’s, I was in Middle School now, and it seemed like the worst insult that could be leveled as a

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Perhaps the most successful hippie social experiment in the US was called “Movement for a New Society” or MNS for short. A bunch of very organized urban hippies got together in the 70’s and created a real alternative hippie infrastructure. There was an MNS credit union, a food co-op, and New Society Publishers, all of which are still around today. But at the heart of the movement was a land trust of several large, four-story row houses clustered in a neighborhood. Ten to twelve hippies could shack up in each of these homes and live affordably. Each person had their own room, but they shared common meals and other resources, and a third of one’s time was supposed to be spent earning “bread money.”

The remaining two-thirds were for social change work.

It was a social change movement built on a roommate model, a situation that suited Michael perfectly when he decided it was time to leave Santa Fe. He got a room at an MNS house, plugged into the infrastructure and started cleaning homes part-time for his bread money.

Now in Philadelphia, he was only a short bus ride away.

One day, Michael surprised me with a call and told me he had some friends who were moving to Colorado. I could earn some money by driving their car from Philadelphia to Denver for them. “I also wanted to let you know,” he said, “I’m HIV positive.”

That was 1987, the after Azidothymidine (AZT)—the first effective AIDS drug—was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Now HIV wasn’t a death sentence or, at least, not an automatic one.

I thought about this news while driving west in a borrowed car and eating greasy hashbrowns in Stuckey’s

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Fortunately for me, the commune scene didn’t work out because, in both cases, the leaders were insane ego-maniacs. We moved to Upper Canyon Road in Santa Fe— still using an outhouse, but now within biking distance of a Woolworths. Michael moved out, rented a separate place and lived on his own. He had a bushy beard now and came to visit every few weeks, grabbing my brother and me with his big hands, and swing us between his long legs. Other times when he visited, he shut himself in the bedroom and we could hear him crying. When my parents split for good in 1976, my mother moved us to suburban New Jersey near where she’d grown up.

Michael stayed in Santa Fe, living in a converted school bus that sat on cinder blocks at the end of a dirt road.

pubescent white boy was ‘faggot.’ I didn’t know anyone else who was ‘out,’ so, as much as I liked to brag about my carefree summer in Santa Fe, I was glad that my dad was a couple thousand miles away. I loved him, but the distance it made it easier to leave that piece of him out of my stories.

ISSUE ONE

restaurants. I started attending classes at the University of Colorado, and I thought more about Michael. About mid-year, I bailed. I caught a Greyhound bus and took the long, two-day ride to Philly without any intention of making it back to class. Michael greeted me at the door laughing, his green eyes sparkling, and gave me one of his big bear hugs. That’s how I became one of Michael’s roommates.

––––––– I had to admit that the palm plant made a fine addition to Michael’s mostly trash-picked room furnishings.

Thriving spider plants reached to the floor and made his place feel like a jungle. He would invite roommates into his room to join him for tea and discussions, and we played lots of pinochle.

West Philly sidewalk.

The memorial service was held at the neighborhood church he’d taken to going to. All of Michael’s family and friends, the functional and the broken, sang his favorite songs and remembered him. We took his ashes and turned them into the soil in the new garden. Then I went upstairs and looked around the space my roommate had left behind. I grabbed a spider plant to hang in my room before I noticed the palm plant, bright and healthy.

I grabbed that, too.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Most of my high school classmates were in college, picking up marketable skills and degrees, but I spent my time cleaning houses with Michael, reading books from New Society Publishers, discussing America’s orgiastic materialism, it’s fetishized militarism and, it’s confused, fragile, desperately frightened brand of masculinity.

Michael introduced me to homeless philosophers, soonto-be or recently institutionalized poets, challenging any latent assumptions I had about the kinds of folks society tosses aside.

My dad took his AZT religiously and seemed to be holding off opportunistic infections — a good sign. My brother, Chris, graduated high school and decided to join us at MNS. And Charles, Michael’s lover and companion, moved from Santa Fe and found an apartment nearby. Inspired with new energy, Michael decided to plant a garden out in front of the big row house. He and Charles took the subway to the garden center, and Michael hefted a big bag of soil onto his shoulder and headed back home, singing. When a pain shot through his lower back and he collapsed on the sidewalk, Charles hailed a cab and rushed him to the doctor. The bag of soil stayed on the sidewalk.

The news was not good —Michael’s liver was wrecked by infection, and also, possibly, from the high doses of AZT. In just a few months, he was skin and bones, unable even to prop himself up. Sitting next to his hospital bed listening to his shallow breathing, blood and spittle caked around his mouth, I considered this man: my friend, my freak, my roommate, my dad. I felt like that abandoned bag of garden soil, carried briefly in Michael’s loving arms, then dropped and busted open on a

nner

Scanned by CamSca

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ISSUE ONE

Creativity, and the Modern Psychedelic Renaissance

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

by KRISTI PAHR Illustration by KRISTI HEAD

C

reativity can manifest itself in as many ways as there are ideas to bring to life.

From chainsaw art to writing code, any time you use your imagination to solve a problem or make something new you’re being creative. But what if there’s a problem that’s stumping you or a concept you’re struggling to give form to? What if your creativity needs a boost, what do you do?

Some people exercise or meditate. Some people drink alcohol. Some people have sex.

And some people drop acid.

Generally, when we think of people taking LSD, we think about college-aged kids pushing their boundaries and exploring new freedom, hippies in the summer of love, or artists like Jerry Garcia and Alex Grey. LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) has long been thought to be the purview of the young, the rebels, the counter-culture. But, before that, before Timothy Leary and Terence McKenna, before the psychedelic revolution of the late 1960s, before Steve Jobs and Susan Sarandon discussed it openly in the 2000s, there was Albert Hofmann.

In 1938, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann developed a compound that he hoped would function as a respiratory and circulatory stimulant. When it failed to fulfill that role, LSD was set aside. It collected dust until 1943 when Hofmann, inspired to try again, synthesized a new batch and, in true pioneer form, dosed himself. In a memo to the head of the pharmaceutical division at the chemical company where he worked, Sandoz, Hofmann wrote the following: Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to stop my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and to go home, as I was seized by a peculiar restlessness associated with a sensation of mild dizziness. On arriving home, I lay down and sank into a kind of drunkenness which was not unpleasant and which was characterized by extreme activity of imagination. As I lay in a dazed condition with my eyes closed (I experienced daylight as disagreeably bright) there surged upon me an uninterrupted stream of fantastic images of extraordinary plasticity and vividness and accompanied by an intense, kaleidoscope-like play of colors. This condition gradu-

In the years since, LSD has been lauded as a miracle and vilified as poison. It’s been used by celebrities and inventors, musicians and scientists. And it’s been outlawed in all 50 states and by many other countries.

Despite years of medical and psychiatric research, and several promising studies into its use as a treatment for alcoholism and depression in the 1950s, Congress passed the Staggers-Dodd bill in 1968, banning LSD nationwide. Luminaries in the field of psychedelic research, like Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, were ostracized by the academic and medical establishments, and denounced as “quacks.”

who needs to think around a problem or to come up with unique or novel solutions, but we knew that even without the science.

People have been dropping acid to open their minds for over 75 years now, and it’s not just the usual suspects. CEOs and programmers and athletes also partake, trailblazers not just in

In the 2000s, the tide began to change and science again turned its eye to LSD. Despite difficulty obtaining funding, prestigious universities like Johns Hopkins and UCLA began studying acid and other psychedelics, picking up where the studies from the 50s and 60s had been forced to drop off. Alcoholism, opiate withdrawal, anxiety, depression, and PTSD, a wide variety of the plagues of modern mental health, are being studied in relation to how theyrespond to treatment with not just LSD, but also MDMA and psilocybin. The modern psychedelic renaissance has officially begun.

music and art, but in genetics and mathematics.

ally passed off after about two hours.

The rest, as they say, is history.

In 2016, a groundbreaking study published in Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience described the changes that take place in the brain when you trip.

Brain scans of volunteers who had been injected with LSD showed connections between parts of the brain that are not usually connected, allowing information to be processed in new and unorthodox ways. Dr. Neiloufar Family, one of the researchers on the study, told the International Business Times, “‘The effects of LSD on language can result in a cascade of associations that allow quicker access to far away concepts stored in the mind...Including a hyperassociative state may have implications for the enhancement of creativity.’”

So what does that mean? Well, because of an LSDinduced boost in certain neural networks, thoughts, concepts, and connections that you may be storing subconsciously can more easily come to the surface.

It also means that LSD may be a boon for anyone

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Steve Jobs famously said that taking L S D w a s “ o n e of the two or three most important things I ever did in my life,” and that it “reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”

THE REBEL ISSUE

Doc Ellis, pitcher for the Pirates in the 1970s, took acid before being called in to pitch a game he was not scheduled to play. He proceeded to pitch a no-hitter.

Phil Jackson, the famed coach of the record-breaking 1990s Chicago Bulls and the LA Lakers and forward for the Knicks in the 70s, said his love for the game was deepened and strengthened during an early morning Malibu acid trip.

tion, though, of how microdosing is any different than, say, popping a Xanax or an Adderall? How is microdosing then pitching a no-hitter, any different than the doping scandals that have rocked the MLB over the last decade?

Nobel prize winner Kary Mullis, claimed his experiences with LSD in the 60s and 70s were more instrumental in his success than any classes he took while a student. He told the BBC: “What if I had not taken LSD ever; would I have still invented PCR (polymerase chain reaction, a biochemical testing technique)? I don’t know. I doubt it.

I seriously doubt it.”

For starters, LSD isn’t addictive. It doesn’t cause users to exhibit drug-seeking behavior commonly seen in opiate or benzodiazepine addicts. There are also no known longterm side effects from microdosing. Long-term alcohol use almost certainly results in liver damage, and longterm use of opiates or benzodiazepines can cause everything from liver damage to brain damage. With LSD, aside from a bad trip, the risks are basically nil.

Even today, the trend of microdosing, or taking small doses of LSD, is gaining ground around the world and across industries. Tim Ferriss, entrepreneur, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, and all around cool guy, frequently waxes rhapsodic about the benefits of LSD microdosing, and the trend is taking Silicon Valley by storm.

Small doses, below the level necessary to trigger hallucinations, are being used to improve cognition and heighten awareness and focus. This raises the ques-

Will there be a world one day where LSD is considered legitimate medicine? Where doctors are not only allowed to but encouraged to prescribe it to their patients instead of dangerous opioids? Where, along with legal cannabis, people have access to safe, non-addictive medicine that just so happens to also go well with rave music and a light show? While there is currently no legislation pending that would reschedule LSD to allow it to be studied more easily, the stigma is lifting. As with cannabis, a more accepting public view is the first step to a more accepting legal view, and we are gaining ground every day.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N • Read “The Outlaw Of Psychedelic Substances Is Irrational, Unjust, and a Violation of Freedom”.

• Google article “This is your brain on LSD, literally”- CNN • Download NPR’s Fresh Air podcast: ‘A Really Good Day’ Recaps A MonthLong Adventure Of Microdosing LSD. • Read Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal by Tom Shroder

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ISSUE ONE

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Dear Rockstars and Rebels, You are a cheeky, analog bunch and we like that about you. Thank you for choosing to subscribe to the Dispatch and supporting thoughtful print publications.

We at AllSwell love us some pen-to-paper and it doesn’t get much more analog than that (except cave paintings, maybe?). We make half-lined (“WRITE”) and half-unlined (“DRAW”) notebooks for you to fill with your musings, jottings, scribbles and lists.

Why? Because putting pen to paper is actually good for you. And that’s not just our opinion. It’s scientific, empirical fact: there are mental, emotional and physiological benefits to writing things down. Try it out and see how it goes, just a few minutes a day. You don’t need to do it in an AllSwell notebook, but if you want to we have plenty for you to choose from.

Fear of journaling got you stuck in the mud? Come join us for one of our creative workshops or trips.

You can find out more at www.allswellcreative.com or @allswellcreative.* In Swellness, Laura Rubin Founder, AllSwell *Yes, we’re aware of the irony, pointing you towards a device to find out how to be on your devices less. We hope to offer tools for finding a reasonable balance in the digital age, to consciously make choices, rather than eschew it altogether.

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THE REBEL ISSUE

Futuristic candy. It’s a novelty and a surprise. What part of your life needs a burst of surprise, sweetness and innovation? What would be a very different way of going about things? It’s time for innovation. It’s time for a candycoated vision of the future. Believe in the idea that life can be very different than it is now. Change can be sweet.

HOPPING ON A POGO STICK

In constant motion. You are so busy. Enjoy yourself but don’t get carried away. You need to be able to maintain your balance, especially in your important relationships. Treat yourself and others with kindness. Focusing on kindness will help keep you centered.

A BRIGHT STAR

Look around. Fly high. Fly quickly. Look for opportunities that you wouldn’t be able to see on the ground. Elevate your vibration so that you can catch new opportunities. You don’t have to be popular. But you do have to be proficient. Strive for excellence in what you’re doing and don’t overthink the result. You have the ability to soar in your career.

Study the elephant’s feet. So strong and massive. So heavy when they hit the ground. Taking up space. Leaving an imprint.

You are ready to be definitive and certain of your stance. When you make a move, you will be sure of it. Trust in yourself. Be confident.

MAKING A SMALL BOUQUET

Allow yourself to enjoy. Spend quiet time doing simple things.

Keeping your hands busy is very good for your active mind. Take care of the chores, errands and projects that need to be attended to. Cleanse and refresh.

A LIGHTNING BOLT

A SINGLE BLADE OF GRASS

RIDING HORSES IN A RODEO

You are ready for adventure.

Let yourself have fun. Go after a new experience. Play and frolic more than you have for a long time. You need to let go of the restraints of adulthood. Not just by putting them aside for a moment, but by really trying to get some mental distance from your responsibilities. Open yourself up to celebration.

You are making quick turns.

You’re along for the ride, but you’ve got the reins in your hand.

Stay poised in the moment. Don’t think too far ahead or linger on the past. Use your intuition, your skill and your desire to propel you forward. It’s okay to be speedy when the moment is right. Prepare for flashes of insight that will inspire your next move.

Imagine the root system of a blade of grass. It’s time to get grounded.

It can be simple. Connect with nature. The abundance of nature will remind you that you are whole and well. You have everything you need within you. You were born complete. You are enough.

A spiral. A beginning, a middle, and an end. A continuum that goes on for eternity. Constant change and adaptation. Meditate to gain clarity. Then ask yourself what you are ready to let go of.

Create a ceremony of release so that you can start a new cycle.

A SNAKE MOVES ALONG THE GROUND

Help yourself along. Give yourself a hand. You are ready for transformation. Set yourself up well, so that the transformation is supported. If you are going to shed your skin, you need to nurture yourself through the process.

What can you do to show yourself deep love and compassion?

PATTING DOWN SOIL AFTER PLANTING A SEED

Pause for just a moment. You’ve done something wonderful. Slow down and savor. You’ve planted a seed in the hopes that it will grow.

Notice where this is happening in your life right now and pause to reflect on how powerful that is.

Instead of rushing ahead, honor what you’re creating.

REAL TALK, GROUP TEXT Everyone loved hearing Carrie Bradshaw’s tales…but why was she the only one to have all the fun? And why were each of her columns left with a question, never answered? Hell, she didn’t even have Bumble.

In Real Talk,Group Text we will feature your modern love stories along with questions you’re dying to have answered. It’ll be like your neverending group message chain with your bff’s, but with strangers. Guaranteed to include lots of unwanted, un-based, baggage-filled, projecting, psuedo-scientific, potentially unhinged astro hunches, “gut” instincts, and opinions…just the way you want it.

“DID YOU HAVE WORK DONE ON YOUR VAGINA?” he asked.

That’s odd, I thought, as he started to get dressed beside my bed.

I mean… Is there something wrong with my vagina? Honestly, it never crossed my mind, but, then again, I haven’t ever seen another vagina. “Nooooo. I haven’t. But more importantly, why do you ask?”

I feel I need to break to give you a little history of who I am and the ups and downs of my dating life. I’m the girl who dates the impossibly hard to find weirdo’s that so easily end up in my Rolodex with the perpetually unanswered question… Is there, in fact, a weirdo magnet implanted in my forehead?

A few examples to level the playing field: •11 years ago, I married my best friend. One year later, he decided he wanted to have sex with men. We went our separate ways because I turned down his request to habitually sport a strap on.

•Then there was the ex-MLB player who went from being the most beautiful, interesting and mysterious man I had ever laid my eyes on, to quickly exhibiting concerning traits of Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man. •Or that one time I fell madly in love with a conflicted Muslim.

Conflicted because he loved me, but his family and religion did not.

BACK TO MY VAGINA… He still hasn’t said a word and my impatience kicks in. “Have you seen a vagina that has had work done before?” I asked. My thought is that he must be comparing my kitty to something he has seen before, right? I’m picking up some nervous energy as he tries to speak, he already had a slight lisp but now it was like he swallowed his tongue… and all I am trying to do is not freak out about what the FUCK is wrong with my vagina! GOD DAMN IT ANSWER ME! After what feels like an eternity, he says, “Your vagina is perfect, it looks like it was surgically crafted.” I blurt out, because the red flag is now up, “That’s ridiculous, I have a normal vagina,

how would you even know, have you seen a surgically crafted vagina before?”

And here it is. “I have, I hooked up with a transwoman once.”

It felt like my blood was slowly draining out of my body, but he had clearly just opened up an inner vault and stories began to flow. This man needed to talk.

YEARS EARLIER… He had just graduated from high school and was looking to make cash. He thought about becoming a male stripper and when he mentioned the idea to his friend, his friend had a more elaborate plan that allowed him to make more money faster. Typically, that is the goal, right?

The plan was to call their old Social Studies teacher from high school because he would pay to watch guys beat off. (As a reminder this story is being told in my bedroom after we just had sex…and just after he told me I feel like home to him.) He called his high school teacher and went over to his house to masturbate while watching porn as his old teacher sat and watched. Things continue like this for weeks and eventually crystal meth and the aforementioned transwoman was added to the mix. I asked him how it made him feel to have his teacher watch him, pay him, drug him, abuse him… and he answered, “Hot, I like the attention.” **For the record, I do NOT discriminate. I am a true believer in Come One, Love All. That being said, I prefer the man that is having sex with me to only want women, specifically one woman, me. Believe me, I realize how LARGE of a request that is these days.** I couldn’t help but ask, “how do you fill that desire for attention today.” I try to always remind myself don’t paint red flags white.

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SO, as I am listening to all this crazy sadness and sick negative attention that he is telling me makes him feel hot, I remember, WE JUST HAD SEX… He is lying in my bed confiding in me and I have somehow gone from…I could potentially date this man… to HOLY SHIT I need to call my therapist, He needs a therapist and to GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE. BUT INSTEAD…WE GO TO LUNCH. There was a part of me that didn’t want to react in a negative way because he was sharing something so intimate with me that I wanted to honor it. At the same time, I wanted to cry because of my own history with my ex-husband. I couldn’t help but wonder, ‘why me'?

And if I were to freak out, would it keep him from sharing his story in the future? Was I saving the next girl who would have also been uncomfortable with his past? Was it OK to be uncomfortable with his past?

SO I ASK:

DATING ADVICE FROM THE DISPATCH CHEAP SEATS, WHERE WE’RE ALL GETTING IT WRONG... BUT DOING IT TOGETHER.

Dater-In-Residence: Kristy Owen

Do you think we are drawn to what we do not need because we are afraid to find what really want?

Dear Dispatch: Want to help Kristy? Want to tell her you’ve been-there-done-that?

Want to ask her out? Want to share your own tale?

Please send your bits of brain gold, pithy oneliners, and all the bad advice to grouptext@ folkrebellion.com to be printed in next month’s edition.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Get inspired. Inspiration will help you learn and grow. Find a quote, a value or a philosophy that inspires you. Staying focused on this will help you follow your North Star.

Observe your thoughts and try to be positive. If that’s hard to do, take a nap and start again.

CURLED UP LIKE A SNAIL SHELL

WALKING BEHIND AN ELEPHANT

A SEAGULL FLIES HIGH ABOVE

Forecasted by Sandra Sitron

HOROSCOPES

POP ROCKS

ISSUE ONE

REVOLUTIONARY TECH HOW THE DIGITAL WORLD IS SHAPING THE POLITICAL FUTURE

by Katie Fustich

A

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ccording to Karl Marx’s seminal text, The Communist Manifesto, a successful socialist society can only be born at the hands of a revolution.

“In place of the old bourgeois society with its classes and class antagonisms,” he writes, “we shall have an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” By his logic, such a social upheaval is necessary in order to wipe away traces of capitalism and redistribute wealth and power in an egalitarian manner.

With more than 50% of today’s youth in the United States openly rejecting capitalism, as reported by The Washington Post in 2016, and an increasing number of self-identified socialists and communists in the political arena, as evidenced by a 2016 report in The Guardian, Marx’s call for revolution appears more relevant than ever.

As capitalism struggles to continue to support itself, and the number straining to exist under its conditions reaches critical mass, one can’t help but wonder what revolutions the future will bring. And, even more curiously, what these revolutions will look like.

Ask any political organizer of the last ten years, and they will tell you that technology has proved to be a vital tool in rallying support for grassroots movements from socialism to the Tea Party. For leftist ideologies, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and Instagram profiles built around these ideas are more visible than ever. There is even a “Sassy Socialist Memes” page on Facebook, for those seeking a bit of Marx-based comedic relief. Such a network ensures that those with specific political goals are able to connect with each other, and those with political curiosities are capable of participating in a community that may not be readily available in their “real” life.

The ever-expanding online world allows for the construction of proto-Marxist/socialist societies in a virtual space. For example, one could consider a project like Wikipedia—an entirely community-edited encyclopedia that has thrived for 16 years—a massive success of online socialist thinking; Paul Mason’s Postcapitalism: a Guide to Our Future explains how the human, not economic, benefit of Wikipedia makes it an anomaly in capitalist society. The grassroots, small-donation based funding of DemocraticSocialist Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign is another snapshot of this thinking in virtual action.

The events of the Arab Spring offered a portrait of technology’s use for large-scale revolution.

What complicates the leftist possibilities of technology is the fact that most high-tech entities— everything from the iPhone to the Tweet—have strong, perhaps irreconcilable, pro-capitalist ties, either in the form of incorporation, company leadership, or company policy. It’s a curious thought experiment to imagine whether something like Facebook could exist in a full-fledged socialist society. It’s unlikely many tools that modern-day leftists use today could exist in their present states if society did, in fact, shift to one that is not reliant on capitalism.

Take Facebook as an example. Facebook’s reliance on capitalistic competition—to be the best, biggest, and singular source for one’s interpersonal relationships and interaction with the media— also makes it the most central platform for many individuals hoping to organize around an anticapitalist agenda. It’s murky water: using a capitalist tool for anti-capitalist purposes may feel like a clever exploitation of the system but, at the same time, it is evidence of how difficult it can be to disconnect from the comforts of capitalist society one is theoretically working to deconstruct.

Another downside to technology, and to social media, in particular, is the passivity it allows its participants. It seems possible that so many individuals presently identify with leftist ideologies because online interactions make doing so a straightforward experience. Even interacting with the aforementioned Sassy Socialist Memes page is likely to fill someone with a sense that they are on the right side of history. But when the Democratic Socialists of America boast more than 141,000 likes on their page on Facebook but claim just 31,000 in actual membership, the problematic nature of this divide is clear. A political movement is impossible when such a significant portion of its would-be supporters are unwilling to exist outside of the confines of an online space.

Despite the uniqueness of today’s technology-rooted issues, perhaps answers to said issues could be found in reflecting on the upheavals of the past.

The autumn of 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution—an insurgence of Russian Marxist workers, lead by Vladimir Lenin, that succeeded in installing a temporary socialist government. Today, a mention of Lenin and company is likely to raise a few eyebrows, or elicit an antiBolshevik lecture. Yet, those who study Marxism, be

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it on an academic or personal interest basis, look at the events of the October Revolution with a more discerning eye, taking the greater picture of Russian society into account. While not offering a repeatable example, the actions of the October Revolution serve as an enduring reminder of what is possible when ideals are transformed into action.

At present, it feels as though the world is buzzing with the same revolutionary energy found in these early 20th-century Bolsheviks. People are eager for change and are involving themselves in the political process. The danger—to both ourselves and to the cause—comes when resistance is viewed as an end goal. So often in the past, movements have failed because the bulk of energy was placed into the organizing of the movement itself, and not into the world following the movement’s success. We see this even today with events like the 2016 Women’s March.

Organizers were capable of rallying millions of women across the country, and while many brought their own agendas to the March, the event ultimately left many with lingering questions of what could have been had the organizers been more goal-oriented.

It seems fair to say that, whatever the shape of the vessel, change is coming. Capitalism is standing on shaky, weakened legs—simply read The Atlantic’s 2017 reference guide to “late-stage capitalism”— and the revolutionaries are ready in the wings.

Technology will no doubt play a major part in future political changes, and it already is—studies such as— The Millennial Impact Project continue to concretize the connection between technology and activism.

And while previous revolutions have succeeded with much less force and forethought, the large-scale organizing allowed by tools of mass communications may, finally, make way for the establishment of a peaceful, sustainable, leftist future. One need only respond to the friend request of progress.

THE REBEL ISSUE

ANOTHER SET OF SHOES: LIFE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE

T

his past fall, the New York Times published just another piece about wealth. Entitled “What the Rich Won’t Tell You,” it is an exploration of how people in the top 1% relate to the fortune they’ve accumulated.

What the comments section contained was much more sinister. Rife with stereotypes, cliches, and classism, it was a painful reminder of how divided our country is when it comes to wealth and our opinion of it.

WHO NEEDS A GYM MEMBERSHIP ANY WAY? Throughout the day she weeds through her workload—paperwork and meetings with parents in the community where her office is located. The mission of the organization where she works is to end generational poverty, and her role is to help manage the various cases that come through the doors. She observes tricky relationships between clients, and helps families navigate the difficulties of surviving in the “welfare system.” One parent mumbles about electricity bills when passing by her desk, reminding her of the $200 ConEd bill sitting on the couch at home. Another two hundred dollars that cannot contribute to her husband’s engineering degree.

At the center of the article was the idea that the top 1% (which would include anyone making over $608k/year in NYC) was not so different from the rest of us. Which made me wonder whether those who make over a million dollars a year know the pain of having to choose between paying medical bills and buying groceries? When they discuss the normal cost of furniture with their housekeeper, do they have any idea what “normal” is for her? And when alt-right complains of welfare culture, do they understand what life looks like for someone who is working at a $101 deficit every week after paying necessary bills?

Before long, it’s lunchtime and she wonders how many animal crackers her little one has eaten today, as she pulls out a Tupperware container filled with food made on Sunday afternoon. Eating homemade stew and an ear from the crate of corn her and her sisters purchased at a nearby market, she smiles. By pooling resources with her extended family, she can usually make do on a budget of $63 a week for food.

Today we’ll be walking in the shoes of Sandra (for the protection of her privacy, this is a pseudonym), a New York native, who has been chasing the elusive poverty line since before she could say “poverty.” Sandra is one of the 43.1 million people who were “officially” poor according to the poverty rate of 13.5% in 2015. For New Yorkers like Sandra, “poverty” is defined as having a household income of $32,000 per year or less. She makes exactly $32,000, or about $465 per week after taxes.

Her mind wanders as she peruses the sale ads from a grocery store while on her phone. In a year, her child will be old enough to attend daycare at the facility where she works.

A YEAR IS NOTHING IN THE S PAN OF A LIFETIME. 5:30 pm rolls around, and Sandra launches into another project that will hopefully fill the next hour. One extra hour equals overtime pay, which will help cover that $20 she sends every week to a relative whose disability wages are garnished on a regular basis.

The average monthly rent in Harlem, the neighborhood where she lives, hovers around $2,528.

Starting a new week, Sandra aims to wake up at 6:45, but usually closer to 7:45, after a night full of late-night feedings for her 18-month-old baby.

Because her daughter is still nursing (and because breast milk is free), she finds herself the sole caretaker of a restless daughter during long nights while her husband sleeps in the adjoining room. The mother-baby duo wake up together in their low-income, city-sponsored apartment, and Sandra manages to shove something edible in both their mouths before heading out the door by 9:00 am… assuming there are no poop-splosions or inconveniently timed tantrums.

As her co-workers head home, she looks around at the organization that she loves, the organization that allows her to make a difference in the world. She relaxes into gratitude for the manager who provides flexible start times and measures her work in output rather than timeliness.

The appreciation comes fast and strong as she clocks out, knowing that her single unit of overtime has been reached, and then she takes off again.

Workout #2.

By 7:00 pm she’s in her mother’s house, baby in arms. Smothering that little girl with kisses, she reminds herself that animal crackers never killed anyone, and her baby has something so many others don’t—a family full of love. A little Jerry Springer in the morning will never take that away. With a purse full of food from her mother’s house, Sandra hops back on the bus to head home.

Jog-walking to the corner, she stands outside with her baby, willing the parenting Gods to let this ride be a calm one. A cab pulls up and the two hop in. It will end up costing $12 of the $465 weekly paycheck she just recently cashed.

Fifteen minutes later she spills out of the cab, picking up speed as she careens into her mother’s house—the only affordable solution she could scrounge up for childcare. The baby cries as Grandma rummages through the cabinets looking for sugary cereals. The TV is blaring in the background and a chorus rises up from the crowd, “Jerry! Jerry!”

God willing, she collapses inside around 8 pm. Chatting with her husband about his immigration status (the papers have been filed, but not yet finalized), she tidies the house and washes her baby’s hair. By 10 pm she’s back in bed, quietly nursing her little one and hoping - in vain - for tonight to be a restful one.

It’s not ideal, but it’s $90 a week and the childcare vouchers haven’t come in yet. She closes her eyes and turns towards the door, making a mental note to look up educational games to play at home.

6:45 am — The alarm rings.

Back outside, she hears the familiar rumble of a train arriving at the subway platform. Running full speed, she pulls out her $32 weekly MetroCard, and does her patented swipe-and-sprint, barely squeezing between the doors as the train pulls away. By 10 am she’s jogging into work, sweat dripping from her temples.

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

“Another Set of Shoes” will highlight the diversit y of life, empowering those featured to be who, and what, they are. Nothing more, and nothing les s. In the proces s, we hope to see past the stereot ypes that are so deeply ingrained in modern culture, and to illuminate the complexit y of the human experience.

by Nikki Yaeger

ISSUE ONE

lifestyle design on your own terms:

the mortgage

by Wendy DeChambeau

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

W

hether we admit it or not, we all have a rebellious spirit somewhere inside of us. For some, it manifests during the journey towards adulthood in an effort to gain autonomy and independence. For others, it comes later in life. Regardless of timing, rebellions seem to center on rejecting conventional wisdom. For me, that has meant rejecting societal expectations of what a ‘full’ or ‘perfect’ life looks like. Despite the pressure to meet them, societal norms are not always right. At least, they're not always right for me, and in my estimation, life is too short to try and stuff myself into a one-size-fits-all box.

Take, for example, the popular notion that responsible adults in their 30’s or 40’s should buy a house and hold a mortgage. A mortgage, it's said, will help raise your credit score, build equity in your home, and qualify you for tax deductions. It's what any sensible citizen would do.

On the outside, the reasoning sounds good. For some people, it might even make sense. For years, my husband David and I did hold a mortgage, but it became riskier than we were comfortable with. We hated that we were we paying our bank thousands of dollars of interest annually and we were tired of fretting over what would happen if we lost our jobs. Prolonged unemployment, we worried, would lead to foreclosure.

That would lead to homelessness, and it all felt very out of our control.

Our solution was to do the opposite of what was expected — and it’s something you could do too. We saved up but downsized. We cut our debts, instead of accumulating material goods. We gained freedom, instead of buying into the system.

By moving into a smaller house in a less expensive area, we were able to cut our mortgage in half. My estimate is that we saved approximately $4,200 ($3,100 of which was going to interest) each year in mortgage payments.

Two years after we downsized, we sold the house and used our equity to build a new loan-free home.

Because most of the labor came from our own two hands and we could complete the work bit by bit, we ended up with a small, but well-built cabin that we owned free and clear. Now our lack of mortgage or rent payments allowed us to save more than $8,500 annually. Six years after we first began downsizing, our total savings was around $42,000. By investing much of that money, we were also able to grow our nest egg.

So instead of upgrading your housing as your income increases, consider staying where you are or even

"Instead of spending more on things that create stress, consider investing in spaces, like our loan-free home, that reduce stress." going smaller. Instead of spending more on things that create stress, consider investing in spaces, like our loan-free home, that reduce stress.

While financial experts have mixed opinions on the potential benefits of foregoing a mortgage (you may not want to tie up cash in real estate or pay homeowner’s insurance and property taxes out of pocket), the peace of mind that it brought us was an important consideration. We've not experienced any negative financial side effects from our decision, and the psychological benefits have been monumental. I can rest easy knowing that I have a financial buffer in cases of emergency and no future economic downfall is likely to threaten my home.

And if you don’t have the funds to put into a home of your own, renting is a perfectly viable option, but again, don’t overextend yourself. Even though you may not be accruing equity in your own home, renting means you save money on home repairs and maintenance. It also allows you the freedom to take advantage of better rental deals as they pop up or a great job opportunity in another town. If you’re living below your means, you can still put your excess funds into savings or investments that will help expedite your timeline for realizing future goals.

Six years ago, we went rogue again when we moved to Ecuador. Our reasoning was based on more than a warmer climate. Introducing our sons to a new culture and language was high on our list, and the geographic diversity, opportunity for exploration, and friendly locals were all important factors as well. We were confident that the whole package would add to our happiness.

However, not everyone saw things the way we did.

Friends, family, neighbors, and even random acquaintances questioned our sanity. On the phone with my brother one morning, he brought up our im-

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pending move. “My friend Ronnie from Korea has traveled all over the world. He says the U.S. is by far the best country he’s ever been in. Why would you want to move your kids away from here?” he asked.

I didn’t have a short answer to this question or the dozens of others that were thrown in my direction, but I tried to explain. Still, many struggled to understand why someone would leave "the best country in the world" and take their family to a "dangerous" foreign one. While it's understandable that a move of this nature is certainly not for everyone, it was exactly right for our family.

We're not the only North Americans who feel this way. The U.S. State Department estimates that approximately nine million U.S. citizens live overseas, more than double the estimated four million expats in 1999. While some are living in foreign countries due to work or military obligations, large numbers of retirees and families are choosing to experience something new, just as we have.

As it turns out, and to my own surprise, I've spent much of my adult life finding a path that is far from ‘normal’. Currently, it involves living without a vehicle, homeschooling my sons, and embracing minimalism when it comes to material possessions.

Some would call it rebelliousness. I call it creating a life without regrets.

Whatever your dreams, aspirations, and needs, there are ways to make them happen that don't necessarily fit into the mold of society at large. Folks are living in tiny houses, touring the country in vans, traveling the world untethered to one spot on the globe, and ditching the cubicle life with passion-generated incomes.

In the coming months, I'd like to address alternatives to a variety of societal preconceptions. Come along for the ride and find your own path to happiness.

THE REBEL ISSUE

The Future Of Work Is

The “end of work” is the notion that, with time, artificial intelligence will bring an end to work as we know it. For many, the concept cues up images of endless vacations. For more, it is a terrifying proposition. Work drives communities and builds societies. Some of the greatest civilizations in the world have been felled by an excess of leisure (Rome being the classic example, as well as the Song Dynasty). If work is gone, but endeavor is necessary for society to survive what, then, will come to fill its place?

The key is to let technology work in your favor.

The effects of the current emerging technologies, such as AI, have only begun to reveal themselves, but our definition of work and mental constructs of what working looks like are already being challenged. This is not new. Factories challenged home-production, big agriculture challenged small farms, and the list goes on as far back as we can reach, and surely far past what we can even attempt to predict. So it is only natural to worry about one’s job security, but we are also entering a new age of opportunity. By harnessing technology, we can be our diverse, complicated, and multifaceted selves. We can push beyond the limits of the past, defining what it means to work once work has ended.

In a 2015 article for the Atlantic, Derek Thompson noted that, while the prevailing notion is that employment and unemployment operate as a binary, the reality of work today is a spectrum. There are those who are fully-employed in the traditional sense and those who would identify themselves as unemployed, but also a huge segment of people somewhere in between. These are the part-timers, the seasonal workers, the freelancers, the digital nomads, the entrepreneurs, and more. And they, quite possibly, have the most to gain from the “end of work.”

These somewhere-in-betweeners are harnessing technology as a vehicle by identifying the intersection of passion and

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Some people consider the effects of technology like an iCloud of looming doom, while others are more optimistic about where our rapidly advancing digital age is leading us.

We are entering the age of self-driving cars (More time to Netflix and chill!), the merging of the human brain with artificial intelligence (Win every game of Jeopardy!) and being able to eat a burger that was grown, not butchered (Animal welfare and ecological win!). Despite the emphatic positives, it is only natural to feel like we are losing grip on the reins a bit when it comes to whether technology is progressing at a rate that is too fast for our own good. Those self-driving cars will claim jobs, AI will change the educational landscape, and lab-grown meat will change one of the largest and most lucrative industries in the world. Still, few of us want to be the one crying robot.

possibility. ‘Side hustles’ are one of the byproducts. A not-job that is a job, side hustles have grown in popularity, especially among millennials, as they allow a person to both dip their toes into alternative waters and to build a backup plan or, if they truly hate their current gig, an escape route. In a 2017 article in the Guardian, Justin Tobin, Founder of the innovation consultancy DDG, shares his observation that jobs are now seen more like a stock portfolio than a single investment. Rather than “putting all your money into one stock,” he says, “a better strategy is to diversify your portfolio.” The process of doing this is likely as protective as it exploratory— every risky investment must have a hedge.

Technical-ly Here

By Heidi Carter

ISSUE ONE

Note: To the right is an editable letter to your representative.

Now, we know that you don’t have to be political to reach out to those who represent you, as representatives come in all shapes and sizes; some represent on behalf of government, some on behalf of a product or company, some are just friends you’ve delegated to speak for you when you’re at a party and don’t feel like socializing.

We’ve filled in some blanks, but the hard part, sending the damn thing, that’s up to you.

e n o y n A o T ail Mail Sn Representative’s Edition

By Rachel Roderman

Dear Representative, I’m sure you’ve noticed things are a little, well, off. Everyone’s a bit on edge. The world has gone a skosh crazy. It feels nice to know that someone is out there personifying the experience of my community, the / f r ie nds at t his part y

re side n ts of your dis t r ic t / consume rs of your pro duc t

and taking time to impact necessary change. I wanted to take a moment to write to you to make sure we’re on

the same page.

Instructions for Mailing An Analog Text Message: Step 1.

Fill it out Step 2.

Tear it out

I have been a

supporte r / ad voc ate / s t aunch e nemy of yo ur c ampaign / pro duc t / f r ie ndship

t h at of fe nsi ve comme rcial yo u ai re d / acce p te d yo ur f r ie nd reque s t

brag about you and your cause. I’ve definitely been a sheer

appre ciat ion / disgus t /awe

for the bills you’ve

since the first time I

he ard your n ame / s aw

. I have seen people come together and rally around/march against/

be ne f iciar y/v ic t im of your wor k /pro duc t/e x is te nce

pas se d/t rash youʻve cre ate d/v ibe s youʻre spre ading

. At this point, I only have

.

Step 3.

Fold it up

It is important to know and continue to ask what the people want. The conversations between representatives and those they rep-

Step 4.

Find an envelope

resent are what make our

Step 5.

Put it in an envelope Step 5. Write your return address in the top left corner if you want them to write you back. If anonymous hate/revenge/stage-5-clinger mail, we suggest leavingblank.

themselves, selfishly ignoring those they once began to make change on behalf of, that we find ourselves in sticky situations, which

Example:

I think about the generation being born around me. The kids who will grow up with futuristic drones and yet antiquated

Seymour Butts 742 Evergreen Terrace Springfield, Mass 90210 Step 6: Write the address of the recipient in the middle of front of envelope

Example:

President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 Step 7: Buy a stamp. Currently being raised to 49 cents. Still cheaper than your data plan.

Step 8: Lick stamp Step 9: Place stamp in top right corner on front of envelope Step 10: Walk to a mailbox. Either the big blue R2D2 looking things at the street corner or to your own mailbox.

Step 11: Place your KIND REMINDER/WARNING/ BORDERLINE THREAT in the mailbox and after completed brush pretend dirt off your hands in an act of satisfied completion.

democracy/c api t alis t ic m ar ke t/h appy h ours

thrive and prosper. It is when our reps choose to think only of

is where it seems we’re very close to landing. Now, more than ever, is the time for m arg ar i t as

.

se gre g ate d dis t r ic t line s/t rave l b ans/gian t plas t ic s t raws t h at are r uining t he e n v i ronme n t

ci v il r igh ts/e art h conscious pack aging/t wo-f or-one

. I think about their history classes and wonder if

they’ll understand how hard we worked and how far we somehow still have to go.

I beg you take a look at the world around you: my world, your world, the world of those whom you don’t even represent. Can you find the humanity in their experience? Can you shift your focus to the positive output that kindness and civility has on the greater community? Can you recognize the power that exists in vulnerability and taking responsibility for the past? Can you be trusted to hold the future for us all? If you’re reading this, please respond by at me f rom t he k i tche n (sor r y iʻm watching yo u re ad)

Please take this as a

.

k ind reminde r/war ning/borde r line t hre at

that we, the people, are watching. We are paying attention to your every

step and we are not willing to sacrifice our progress for your my comments and working towards a better future for of the house party. since re l y/no t going do w n w i t h o u t a f igh t/l ylas,

Me.

vo t ing accordingl y / ch anging your cur re n t ad c ampaign / w ink t w ice

prof i ts/your pe rson al age nda /your se lf ie

. I look forward to you heeding

t he pe ople of my ci t y/consume rs of your shi t/your f r ie nds

who voted you speaker

THE REBEL ISSUE

THE NOMADIC FAMILIES OF THE UNITED STATES

Nowadays, more and more families are saying “no thanks” to this version of the American dream. In its place, they are embarking on a dream all their own—one full of adventure, freedom, and non-stop family time. They are world-schooling their kids, and they’re the nomadic families of the United States.

Bella DePaulo, the author of How We Live Now: Redefining Home and Family in the 21st Century, has been studying this rejection of the ‘white picket fence’ dream and said fulltime travelers are just a part of this bigger picture. “What is great about families who travel full-time—as well as other innovative ways of living,” she said in an interview, “is that people get to live the way that is most authentic and meaningful and rewarding for them. In the case of traveling families, they get to see more, learn more, feel more.”

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND

have a massive bathtub that takes up 15% of our home.”

One family that’s going against the grain is Derek and Ami Cobia and their 2-year-old daughter, who all live on a converted school bus they bought for $3,000. This isn’t their first foray into living smaller; the couple lived in a fifth wheel RV trailer to pay off debt and downsize before buying the bus.

Unfortunately, they haven’t put in a hot water heater yet, so they are still showering at recreational centers they pass on the road, or, if the weather is hot, they’ll take a quick, cold shower on the bus.

“After living in the RV for a year, we realized we weren’t cutting as much costs as we wanted and we weren’t traveling,” Amy said. “We’d travel a bit, but our setup was so big that it wasn’t convenient, so we decided to cut costs.

We sold the fifth wheel and bought the bus which, at 27-feet long, is smaller and easier to manage than the RV.” They put another $10,000-$12,000 into fixing up the bus, and it now has a kitchen, sitting room, a crib for their toddler, and a bedroom for the adults. Plus, it has the added luxury of a bathtub.

“We’re both bath people so that was a huge part of our design,” said Derek. “We miss our bath from our house. We had a huge garden tub and would sit in there and drink wine and it was a stress-reliever. That’s why we

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A school bus may seem like an unexpected vehicle when there are so many prefabricated options on the market, but Derek and Amy loved the idea of designing their own home.

It’s hard to make a traditional RV look personalized inside, so the bus was the perfect option for the couple. Plus, Derek thinks it’s a safe vehicle to drive.

“The school bus is the perfect frame.

Buses have steel-ribbed frames that go the length of the bus so it’s almost indestructible in its design.”

So far, Derek and Amy say that traveling fulltime in the schoolbus feels more like a dream than a reality. They’ve already been across the United States once and only spent $50 on camping expenses. Most nights they boondock, parking for free on national and state lands. What they save on campgrounds goes toward paying for gas, as the school bus only

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

R

aising a family used to go something like this: get married, pop out a couple kids, buy into the American dream by taking out a mortgage, get a car or two, then work nonstop at 9-5 jobs for decades to pay it all off.

ISSUE ONE

home they built themselves from the bones of a 1966 Aloha trailer.

Before moving into the Aloha, they lived in a tiny house in Idaho to downsize and pay off the debt Macy acquired when she bought a new car, as well as furniture for the first house she lived in after college. James, was also able to pay off his student loan debt while living in the tiny home.

After their debt was gone, the couple decided they wanted to travel, see new places, and meet new people.

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

“Our travel trailer has everything that’s in a tiny house and more, but it’s way more efficient than a tiny house,” Macy shared. “We’re off-the-grid compatible, we’re solar-powered, and can be boondocking indefinitely if we want. But we can also hook up to city water

gets about six to eight miles per gallon.

“We’re still on a high; it’s pretty amazing right now,” said Derek, “It’s starting to sink in that this is our life, but for the most part it’s felt like a vacation.”

Plus, their daughter thinks its great. “She gets excited when she sees the bus,” said Amy. “We have her car seat set high up so she can see out the front and side windows.”

Derek supports the family’s nomadic lifestyle with work he does online, as a financial planner, and through their blog, The Frugal RVer. Both Derek and Amy would encourage others to give the nomadic life a try. Their plan, for now, is to travel indefinitely and to see what the future holds.

and power, too. We built the trailer to be as flexible as possible because we don’t know where we’re staying tomorrow.”

Macy calls herself the primary kid-wrangler.

James is known as the breadwinner, as he owns an e-commerce business where he provides 3D branding for wood and leather workers. Like Derek and Amy, Macy thinks living a life of travel is great for her kids, who are two and four years old.

“They are happy, they love to paint and draw so we have a drop-down art table. They love building forts out of their bunk beds and we do a movie night once in awhile. They both have Kindle Fires and watch movies in bed with popcorn.” There’s even enough space in the tiny trailer for Macy and James to watch their own movie in bed.

THE LITTLE TRAVEL TRAILER THAT COULD

Macy loves seeing her youngest learn from experience. “He’s just starting to talk and we were at Grand Teton National Park and one of his first words was ‘moose’. He’d seen a statue of a moose. It’s so cool to see him learning organically,” she shared.

Macy Miller and James Herndon of Learning the Long Way are living an even smaller life, cramming themselves, two small children, and a Great Dane into a 12-foot by 7-foot traveling

Living a life that rejects the status quo doesn’t come without challenges. There are naysayers, and people who have opinions about how kids ought to be raised. But, Macy says,

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THE REBEL ISSUE

“it’s important to find your helpers.”

Instead of getting bogged down by the negatives, “find a support group because doing this is scary and daunting.

But there are other people out there doing it, too, who are more than willing to help.”

GOING THE SLOW ROUTE, BY BOAT

GOING THE SLOW ROUTE, BY BOAT

“With life not being so rushed we feel like people have time to really get to know each other. It’s nice that you automatically feel like you have something in common with the people around you,” she said.

“Compared to land life most of our connections with other cruising families seem so much more meaningful.”

When they lived on land, it always seemed as if they didn’t have nearly as much time to truly connect with their friends between jobs, chores, sports and driving kids to and from school. Cruising hasn’t made things simple, but it has simplified things by putting them all together in one place, focused on a common goal.

Shelly’s kids onboard the boat are 19, 14 and 5 years old, and she said it’s been an amazing learning experience for them. “Learning through travel allows the kids to learn life skills, language skills, history, and geography,” she said. “We try to make learning fun so that the kids will retain information and be able to use the things they learn and experience in life to help others and better themselves.”

Onboard a sailboat, there’s plenty to think about and learn, from studying weather patterns to turning saltwater into drinking water, to helping with sailing and navigation. “Then, of course, there are the more ‘regular’ chores like meal prep, provisioning, and cleaning,” Shelly shared.

Josie Lauducci from A Family Afloat, who’s been sailing now for two years, including around Mexico, agreed that cruising full-time has been beneficial for her family and especially her kids, when it comes to social interaction.

“Our kids have learned to interact with whatever age group they are surrounded by,” she said. “I’ve heard people outside the sailing community talk about how well our kids interact with adults, or how well our 10 and 15-year-old interact with little kids.”

While living on a sailboat comes with freedom adventure, there are also challenges. Like dealing with weather, seasickness, or just carving out a little time for yourself. This alone time is especially important on a sailboat, as there often isn’t easy access to land to go out on a solo walk like there is with a school bus or a trailer. “You have,” Josie said, “to give each other time and space.”

Both families hope to “jump the puddle” next spring and head over the South Pacific.

Nomadic lives can seem pretty idyllic, but DePaulo does warn that, even though the nomadic, alternative lifestyle can be beneficial and

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Shelly Wada of Sailing From Scratch has been living on a sailboat in Mexico with her husband and three kids for one year now, and she loves the social aspect of cruising.

ISSUE ONE

For the families who are living the life, these potential drawbacks are nothing compared to the amazing benefits. No longer is the “right” path an expectation or even a given. Now, with a school bus, a tiny travel trailer, a van, or a sailboat, the world is home for so many families stepping off the traditional path. The whole world is truly their oyster.

KRISTIN HANES

THE LITTLE TRAVEL TRAILER THAT COULD

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

rewarding, there are some things families need to watch out for. “Feelings of closeness often come from repeated interactions over time with the same people, so if you are always on the go, you lose some of those possibilities for building and deepening relationships,” she cautioned. Access to broader communities and continued engagement with family and friends through social media platforms “helps some, but probably does not make up for the absence of face-to-face experiences.”

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THE REBEL ISSUE

VANESSA NIRODE

I

travel to a lot of places that many people think are dangerous. When I told some coworkers that I was going to Egypt, Jordan, and probably Lebanon this past Spring, they asked me if I had read the travel warnings.

“It’s not safe,” they said, “Are you sure you want to go there?” I was sure. I am sure. For me, travel often seems essential. I do read the warnings on the U.S. Department of State’s website. It’s just that they don’t usually scare me.

alert include Ireland, New Zealand, Germany, and the UAE.

actually say about safety and build a picture from as many sources as possible,” Ben said.

Elen Turner, a writer and editor currently based in Nepal who has lived in many places including the U.S., New Zealand, and Japan, is well-versed on the intricacies of government-issued travel warnings and advisories.

That’s the crux of the thing, after all. Advice and warnings should be listened to, but they shouldn’t necessarily scare you off from going to a place, especially if they are coming from just one source. At the same time, you shouldn’t go recklessly into a culture that you know nothing about and risk completely disregarding social customs and norms.

Instead, I wonder if they are valid. Should I pay attention to them?

Should I alter my travel plans because of them?

This past June, I traveled to Pakistan (one of those countries many governments advise against visiting) where I cycled the Karakoram Highway from Gilgit to the Chinese Border. Most of the people I shared this with weren’t shy about telling me they thought I was crazy.

It got me thinking about fear and how it relates to travel as a human need. Perhaps, for some of us, travel and exploration are indeed essential.

So I started talking to some of the people I’ve met during my travels, many of them much more intrepid than I, about travel, danger, and discovery.

PETE I met Pete in Indonesia, where we did the Cross Borneo trek together. Over six feet tall and relatively self-aware, he has been blessed with a fairly trouble-free existence when it comes to traveling. His girlfriend, Sarah, who has traveled through Burma and lived in Vietnam without him, wouldn’t call her experiences the same.

“We both minimize danger as much as possible through research and careful planning. We make sure we ain’t walking into live landmine fields, but also, we don’t let scare stories, or biased reviews put us off,” Pete told me.

ELEN In October 2017, Canada issued a travel advisory, warning of the prevalence of gun violence in America. Other countries that have raised the

“I think they're mostly politically motivated,” such as the US embargo on Cuba.

“I don't give any weight whatsoever to government travel alerts when planning my travels, and I don't think anyone else should either.”

What about if the warning comes from a living breathing individual, rather than a website?

“If a well-traveled person tells me that X is a bit unsafe,” said Elen, “then I'd probably be more likely to respect that than if someone's retired parents went on a cruise that stopped via X and felt unsafe.”

BEN Ben has been pretty much everywhere on the planet while not keeping a travel blog. He takes travel warnings and the like with a pinch of salt.

“Fear and security are so relative,” he told me in a recent conversation.

“I mean, statistically certain places are safer than others but then if our rationale for the things we do was based solely on statistics, we would never get in a car again.”

** As travelers and humans, we each need to decide what amount of risk we’re comfortable with.

Interestingly, though, the places people seem the most afraid of are the ones that tend to top the lists of favorite destinations of frequent travelers. Pakistan and Iran are often mentioned, as are Egypt and Jordan. I was in Egypt this past summer and can attest to the absolute disbelief as I stood at the bottom of a pyramid by myself because there were few tourists there.

Recently, I was on a Metro-North train heading back to New York City when a grown white man I was conversing with looked at me with fear and surprise when I said I’d been to Pakistan.

He told me a story about an acquaintance of a friend of a friend who was told by another friend that he can’t ride bikes in the country of Colombia. They’ll tackle you in the street and steal your bike, so you can’t cycle there.

I’ve not been to Colombia, but I have to wonder how much truth is in that statement. It’s similar to a story I’ve heard about cycling on New York City’s Upper West Side Bike Path, up past 125th Street and near the GW Bridge.

Supposedly, ne’erdo-wells have been known to stretch a cable across the path, snaring bike riders, knocking them to the ground, stealing their cell phones and their expensive bikes. What makes these two stories so different?

Geography, just geography.

Fear and security are relative. If what we did was based solely on statistics, we would never get in a car again.

By relative he meant, for instance, that you could walk the same street each day and feel completely safe until someone tells you that a murder took place on your route the day before. Suddenly, the place takes on a completely different tone.

“I do try to find out what people on the ground

•Lonely Planet Middle East: Jordan “Essential Travel” Information section gives the lowdown on what to know as a woman traveling alone in the area.

•Read more about badass traveler Elen Turner at www.elenturner.com •Tony Hiss wrote two awesome books on why traveling is so fucking awesome: The Experience of a Place and In Motion: The Experience of Travel. Support your local bookstore and check them out.

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As travelers and humans, we each need to decide what amount of risk we’re comfortable with.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

@FOLKREBELLION #A N A L O GA S FO L K

This is a tear out, pass along, IRL moment Stay in the moment, but if the mood strikes to share, use a #latergram.

ISSUE ONE

HOUSE RULES

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ISSUE ONE

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE. DISCONNECTING, RECONNECTING, AND NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER

by Pippa Biddle

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ISSUE ONE

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

C

lare Kelley is video chatting from the floor of her apartment in Washington D.C. Soft fall light fills her living room with a warm glow and a large green plant peeks into the right of the frame. On the other side, a wall-mounted fern, maybe a staghorn, appears to balance on her head like a delicate fascinator. The plants are only two of almost 80 that fill her apartment, blurring the line between where the indoors ends, and the world of the outdoors begins.

Kelley was first drawn towards the urban outdoors after she suffered an environmental illness caused by mold. The very walls that were supposed to keep her safe had betrayed her, and she wanted anything but to be inside. Through this experience, her relationship with the outdoors deepened and she began questioning the perceived distance between what is ‘outside’ and what is ‘nature.’ Society said that outside was what was right beyond her door. It was concrete sidewalks and asphalt roadways, streetlights and traffic cones. Nature was amorphous, seemingly unreachable in such an urban space.

It wasn’t accessible; it was something one must search for.

“We’ve convinced ourselves that beauty and the outdoors is a luxury,” she reflects today, and so ‘the outdoors’ and ‘nature’ were intrinsically different from ‘urban’ and ‘closeby.’ Once she’d realized that nature was everywhere, and infinitely accessible, the question became, “how do we start to realize that these spaces are available for everyone?”

The pursuit of an answer led Kelley towards becoming a Certified Forest Therapy Guide.

The certification process includes an eight-day training during which the participants are immersed in nature, and Kelley was nervous that she’d return home only to discover a newfound hatred for the urban D.C. life. While she says that she “was in shock for a bit,” beyond the readjustment period was a realization that she truly does love her city, and a confirmation that she wants to help others in loving it—especially it’s green spaces.

As time plugged-in has skyrocketed, time outdoors has plummeted. Today, we spend more time fiddling with or staring at technology than

we do with our feet in the grass, an average of more than 10 hours each day according to a 2016 report by Nielsen. Experiencing nature has been replaced with watching it play out on television programs with grandiose titles like Planet Earth, Life, and Wild Africa. While such programs purport to bring the magic of the mystical outdoors into spaces it has been exorcised from, there will always be something sterile about a screen. Time outside and in nature has been found to have positive impacts on our physical and mental health and decreased time has been linked to increases in depression and anxiety.

A 1991 study conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Delaware, and published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, found that exposure to “unthreatening natural environments” can have a “stress reducing or restorative influence.” Exposure to urban environments, on the other hand, “will hamper recuperation,” following stressful situations (Ulrich et al.). The findings are powerful evidence of the benefits which even short periods of time in nature can provide. Despite this, the 2017 Outdoor Recreation Participation Report by the Outdoor Foundation found that only 48.8% of American’s participated in any outdoor activity in 2016.

At some point in time, and surely long before the first iPhone, telephone, or even train, a line was drawn between what is ‘nature’ and what is not, what is ‘outdoors’ and what is simply outside. As cities have grown, the tendency to encase urbanized environs in a hermetically sealed bubble has emerged alongside it. Wilderness is something separate and far away, and even parks are a commodity.

The ability to access what is classified as ‘nature’ has become a privilege primarily available to those who can afford country homes, cars, train tickets, or even to live by a park that isn’t coated in asphalt. Author Richard Louv coined the term Nature-Deficit Disorder in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder.

While Nature-Deficit Disorder is not a DSM-5 diagnosable disorder, it has gained traction as a catchall term for the adverse effects of being disconnected from green space. More than ten

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TODAY, WE SPEND MORE TIME FIDDLING WITH TECHNOLOGY THAN WE DO WITH OUR FEET IN THE GRASS.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

ISSUE ONE

WE SLIP TRYSTS WITH TREES, MOUNTAINS, PRAIRIES, AND STREAMS BETWEEN NETFLIX MARATHONS.

years after the publication of Last Child in the Woods, giving the problem a name hasn’t diminished its pervasiveness. If anything, it’s grown in prevalence.

sliding scale so that no one is excluded based on their socioeconomic status. “For me,” she says, “it’s just not honorable to make the outdoors another place of exclusivity when it’s the most inclusive place there is.”

The urban, and even suburban, human relationship with green space has come to revolve around finding feeding times for nature cravings.

We slip trysts with trees, mountains, prairies, and streams between Netflix marathons. In New York City, ‘walking the dog’ sometimes seems to have become synonymous with ‘taking a conference call,’ as bodies with headphones in are pulled along by impatient pups. But is it even a walk if you can’t hear the snow crunch beneath your feet? And is it time unplugged if phantom vibrations haunt you even when you do leave your phone at home?

On the walks, Kelley leads participants in what, she identifies as the most important part of the time spent outside: noticing. By creating liminal space where time is slower, Kelley invites those on her walks to tune into the world around them. Sometimes that even means accepting the background noise of the city as part of nature.

However, initiatives around the United States are fighting to pop the bubble between the urban and the outdoors by welcoming what we love about the wilds into developed areas. A 2012 resolution from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress affirms that every child has a right to connect with nature.

Recognition that time outdoors is both imperative for conservation and a human right is, Louv says, “progress,” but it can’t just be about getting people out into what we traditionally conceive of as nature. It also has to be about finding ways to make nature more accessible by bringing it into our cities and our neighborhoods, our schools, offices, and homes.

The walks Clare Kelley offers are designed to be self-moderated therapeutic outings, an experience known in the United States as ‘forest bathing’ that is based on the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, a form of medicinal therapy that was developed in the 1980s and has been documented to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and improve participants psychological well being. Located in green spaces that are accessible for urban dwellers, such as Rock Creek Park, Kelley prices the walks on a

Rather than labeling the sound of a man yelling as an intrusion, Kelley works to accept the landscape as it is. That doesn’t mean ignoring when a cosmetic disturbance, like a man yelling, could become a risk factor, like when someone approached her in a park with a crowbar.

Rather, “it’s a toggle between accepting people for who they are,” while still “creating boundaries around yourself.” That is, she adds, “our whole relationship with nature. Allowing the wildness to come in, but not total entropy.” Through this process of tuning in, noticing, and acceptance, “nature connection becomes culture repair.”

City dwellers interested in such experiences can find Forest Therapy Guides in their area through the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides & Programs ‘Worldwide Forest Therapy Guide Locator Map’, which provides information on guides in places including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, and even as far afield internationally as Tasmania. Many city parks also offer self-guided walks and tours that can be turned into forest bathing experiences through the application of the same judgment-free thoughtfulness that Kelley advocates for.

On Manhattan’s East River, another type of forest bathing is taking place onboard a floating food forest called Swale. The idea behind Swale,

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which is the brainchild of artist Mary Mattingly, came in part from a gap in legislation. While growing food for public consumption on public lands, like in a park, is illegal in New York City, it isn’t illegal on the waterways that surround Manhattan. This is probably because legislators didn’t expect anyone to build an edible garden atop a barge.

urban community members were having with nature were being experienced by only half of the population — so the number of ‘interactions’ didn’t line up with the number of people actually taking part. Even fewer of the people who did report interacting with nature were doing so purposefully, with many reporting that their ‘interactions’ were incidental (Cox et al. 2017). There was a lot of looking at trees through office Lonny Grafman, Author of To Catch the Rain and Swale’s Sustainability windows, but sitting under those trees was far less common.

Advisor and Project Manager, is a leading expert in rainwater harvesting and assists in steering Swale. He hopes that it will serve as a blueprint for Windows aren’t cutting it. “If we are going to have meaningful experibigger projects to come — both in acreage and impact. Open seasonally, ences with nature,” Louv says, “we are going to have to rethink nature Swale offers numerous free opportunities including ‘open hours,’ cook- within cities,” at a larger scale than is currently happening. For the time ing classes, workshops, and educational programming. All of the experi- being, it’s up to the people to take charge. Louv’s newest book, Vitamin ences are tactile and focus on nurturing a physical connection between N, provides parents (or anyone looking to reconnect with nature) with visitors and the nearly 100 varieties of plants on board.

500 nature-based activities to try out. Even small actions do add up if they are thoughtful, purposeful, and repeated.

Impactful opportunities for reconnecting with nature that are accessible and affordable for urban-dwellers can feel difficult to track down. On chilly days in Brooklyn, NY in late 2017, visitors walked into a cold Nevertheless, they are increasing in supply. After seeing how short-term white room at the Victori + Mo art gallery, relinquished their phones, opportunities can leave kids unable to process their experiences, Outside picked up a flashlight, and wandered into a dark forest. Guided by the Perspectives Executive Director Nicola Wood, a Licensed Social Worker narrow beams of light, they explored the tactile space. (The Ray Lee and seasoned outdoor program leader, committed herself to working Project Vol. 1) NDD Immersion Room, an installation by artist Rachel with existing youth-focused programs that can provide support and com- Lee Hovnanian named after Nature-Deficit Disorder, was designed both munity before, during, and after their expeditions. Denver-based organi- to transport and to challenge. It succeeded at both. While some visitors zation SOS Outreach provides thousands of at-risk youth with outdoor settled down beside the crackling (simulated) campfire, others itched for opportunities year-round that include skiing, rock climbing, and hiking. their phones.

“There is a constant power relationship between the visitors, and the surrender of technology,” Hovnanian says, “In silence, the seated viewer becomes part of the semi-artificial wild surrounding the campfire. Some visitors feel helpless without technology, some are excited by it, and some find it meditative.” Through this, the visitor becomes as much of a piece of the work as the campfire — “Without their response to it,” Hovnanian says, “there is no reflection.”

And the purpose of the piece is reflection. Reflection on self, reflection on nature, reflection on technology, and reflection on the relationship between the three. It is a project in disconnect and reconnection. You Even so, a 2017 study in the UK found that the majority of interactions are not in nature, but it feels as if one may be. You are stripped of your

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And not all experiences need to be structured, or limited to the young.

If you’re in New Orleans, head to Ochsner Island, a small island in the middle of the Audubon Park lagoon, where hundreds of birds nest each year. Portland Parks & Recreation in Portland, Oregon offers guided walks, camps, and classes focused on the diverse ecosystems present in the city. Chicago’s Nature Oasis program provides a similar array of opportunities that are searchable through the My Chi Parks app. The increased emphasis cities are putting on providing access to green space shows a shift towards what Louv calls a “nature-rich city,” erasing the line between urban and ‘outdoors.’

ISSUE ONE

Dear Folk Rebellion Community: My name is Dave Romanelli (nickname Yeah Dave). I focus on asking people questions other than the same ol boring ones like “What do you do for a living?” I prefer questions like “What is your message?” and “Why are you here?”

I love the mission at Folk Rebellion—to unplug and experience deeper feelings and clearer thoughts.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

When we speak our message and live our purpose, each day is a sacred act.

To those seeking more clarity and a greater commitment to shifting attention away from technology and back toward nature...

Each year, I lead a 6 month program that culminates in an epic UNPLUGGED location. This year’s journey is called INTO THE WILD and I will send you a daily audio guided meditation that gives you encouragement, inspiration, and sometimes a kick in the ass... to look away from all the phones, tablets, desktops and TVs,...and look back to the wisdom of the skies, stars, seas and trees. You will conclude with a 5 day retreat to Alaska for the Summer Solstice.

It would be awesome to share a moment with you this summer in Alaska, watching bald eagles soar across the Midnight Sun...

You can start Into the Wild anytime. Visit www.

YeahDave.com for the details Love… and Enjoy Your Journey Dave Romanelli

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technology, but you’re surrounded by it. You’re immersed in an experience, but the world, like your phone, waits just outside.

Hovnanian’s piece plays into the three senses that Kelley says can be developed through a stronger connection with nature. Proprioception, our sense of our physical place in the world, interoception, our sense of our internal operations, and intuition, the invisible guide our connection to technology and disconnect from nature seem to have muffled. Rediscovering these ways of knowing and listening to ourselves is a direct benefit of being outdoors.

“We need to imagine a future,” Louv says, “in which our lives are as immersed in nature every day as much as they are in technology, and this

includes a new kind of city that incorporates nature into every building and on every block – which serves to restore residents psychologically, physically, even spiritually.” We need more green indoors, like Clare Kelley’s plantfilled apartment. We need more time outside.

We need to trade plastic for trees, cabs for bikes and need to do a better job at making nature accessible for all because it is everywhere.

It’s a futuristic vision for sure, but it’s also one that is immensely simple. It’s only logical that if a tree can grow in Brooklyn, a heron can nest in the middle of New Orleans, an edible garden can float on Manhattan’s East River, and an artist can transform a white-walled gallery into a nearly outdoor experience, then nature-enriched lives can be nurtured right alongside them.

• Google the article “Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call Me in the Morning” in Outside magazine.

• Read A Little Handbook of Shinrinyoku by M. Amos Clifford • Listen to NPR’s Morning Edition podcast: “Forest Bathing: A Retreat To Nature Can Boost Immunity And Mood” • Get your hands on a copy of John Muir’s Our National Parks

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THERE WAS A LOT OF LOOKING AT TREES THOUGH OFFICE WINDOWS, BUT WINDOWS AREN’T CUTTING IT.

ISSUE ONE

QUEEN OF Personal Essay By

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Fallen Matthews

T

here’s a peculiar thing about weddings. For most of this one, I fought not to fidget. A part of me wants to balk at the simultaneous sobs and smiles that always seem to break out. The sobriety and sunshine compelled me to claw at my cuticles. I didn’t know the groom very well, but I knew the bride from high school.

I wondered how she was and how much I’d missed. Most of my friends had fallen by the wayside and few had landed on their feet.

We all came from a small town that bred small minds and even smaller opportunities. Perhaps that was what had driven most of us to try to find Prince Charming: we supplanted the small with cumbersome carnality. Followed by the traditional wedding. The grand floral settings, profligate pleasantries, and hierarchical seating that accords the bride a status we are told we can never hope to achieve elsewhere. But, what exactly are we thinking about when it comes to marriage? Moreover, why do we think it?

The institution of marriage is undermined by substantial divorce rates. Personally, I know a lot of people who have gone from starstruck to star-crossed when it comes to romance. It’s a shift I’m sure many of the wedding guests around me have suffered; the rings noticeably absent, not unlike their partners.

When the bride begins to stretch out her vows, my mind wanders to when I’d just started college. I remember declaring a major in sociology and feeling compelled to research interpersonal relationships. The key I found in my (and others’) research was that our connections to others divert from our individual interests. That is, contrary to base instincts to simply survive, interpersonal relationships prioritize the interests of someone else. Some social scientists and humanities scholars believe this shows that we are innately dependent upon intimacy, both romance and a sense of community. We retain our humanity through connecting with others. One way is marriage.

Historically, the institution of marriage was,

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as Esther Perel says, “a pragmatic alliance that ensured economic stability and social cohesion.” These days, it seems to be more centered on the concept of love than on expenditure and enterprise, but the underlying ideas are still the same: the performance of marriage is equally asimportant as the institution. We have engagement parties, weddings, anniversaries, and Hallmark Holidays that bank on the desire to overtly express devotion. The act of love is anything but private. Yet, the premise of love is to declare you’re exclusive. In numerous developmental studies, including a 2017 study by Luciano and Orth in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, romantic relationships are cited as a rite of passage that catalyzes personal and interpersonal devel-

THE REBEL ISSUE

F THE NILE

'Goddess' by Madelaine Buttini @madbutt

• Listen to the podcast “Life on the Swingset” • Scroll through cartoons by poly web-comic Kimchi Cuddles.

• Google the article “7 Polyamory Myths That Need Busting” - Nylon

almost exclusively to refer to polygyny, the marriage of one husband to multiple wives.

Polyandry, the marriage of one wife to multiple husbands, and group marriage, multiple spouses of multiple genders, are still so taboo as to be left out of the conversations altogether. While stories of polygyny become hit shows on TLC, polyandry and group marriage are met with silence.

opment. Love is profound and progressive.

Sometimes, it’s a two-way street. We talk about soulmates as if there is just one person who will transform our lives and be the source of happiness. Sometimes, it’s more than that.

become star-crossed. There were intimacies, but there were more infidelities and “irreconcilable differences.” Marriage meant sanctity and sacrifice, yet it eroded relationships and banished freedom.

The bride begins to cry as she finishes her vows and I think about Nate’s cursive tattoo. I must have traced it a hundred times, just like the cleft in Cain’s chin. I think of how long I’ve known them, and yet how their distinctions from one another continue to amaze me.

I miss my family now. I think of how they had no idea I would end up adrift in academia where every study and subject reaffirmed my reluctance to commit, and yet every professor pontificated the perils of solitude and singularity.

Traditional conceptions of love encourage you to lay claim to someone, a singular object of your affection. I saw this in my own family, where people found their other halves only to

• Check out documentary Unicorn Land

And yet, rejection of the institutions that were once said to be the cornerstone of society is becoming increasingly visible, if not often seen as acceptable. Polygamy—the marriage of one person to multiple spouses—is used

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When the groom whispers something meant only for his bride’s ears, Nate squeezes my right hand and Cain catches my left. They are far from strangers to the reservations and revelations that war within me. We’ve shared most. We’ve made peace with few. We can never make up our minds. Indecision makes it hard for us to adapt to prescribed social roles.

We don’t fit the traditional mold, but we don’t fit the non-traditional mold either.

The bride and groom kiss, confirming their commitment to only each other, emulating ideals that so often end up empty and unfulfilled. Why do we want those fairy tale weddings when we seldom enjoy storybook endings?

I see myself with Nate and Cain, and I see that I don’t have to choose just one.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

The institution of marriage is undermined by substantial divorce rates.

• Pick up The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures

Y L H O T N T O WM O H

THE " S T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

OJECT PR

DON'T TH O R

IT OUT W " O

ISSUE ONE

photos and descriptions and shared it with family so that they could easily figure out what each item was, when and where I got it, and, the key to saving future family heirlooms, why I saved it.

BY BRETTE SEMBER

W

ith all of the hubbub over decluttering, downsizing, Marie Kondo-ing, and Swedish death cleaning I have to admit something: I like stuff. Specifically my stuff. Though it sounds more dignified if I say that I collect things: art, locally-made wares I buy on my travels, and family heirlooms. Even so, after cleaning out family members’ houses after their deaths, it dawned on me that, someday, my children would have the universally undesirable task of cleaning out mine. I imagined the things I love being trashed or donated and all of my memories being gone with them.

My grandmother traveled around the world through the 1960’s and 70’s and her house was packed with her treasures from trips, but we aren’t sure where each piece came from or, more importantly, why it mattered to her. There are memories linked to them I will unfortunately never know.

I treasure objects not only because of their beauty or value, but because of their meaning. When I hold my green and blue swirled Murano glass vase, I see not only the craftsmanship, but I remember the laughter, conversation, joy, and closeness of the day we spent on the island of Murano, Italy riding the ferry and visiting shops as a family. My collections show a little bit of who I am, where I came from, how I find beauty in this world, and what brings me joy. Envisioning all of that being gone in an instant is painful. Marie Kondo argues that “when we really delve into the reasons for why we can't let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear of the future.” But what’s wrong with being attached to the past?

When my children have to take on the task of sorting through what I leave behind, I want them to have the whole story. Sure, my blue star sapphire ring is pretty, but unless they know my grandmother wore it every day that I knew her, and that she left it to me in a gesture that filled my heart, it lacks the emotional weight that I feel as I wear it every day.

Yes, decluttering lets you get rid of things, but it also entails getting rid of the physical manifestations of memories. Sure, I can tell my kids about my grandmother’s ring or the Murano vase, but if I sold it or gave it away they would never get to hold it, the memories sinking into them through the tactile engagement with the object.

Determined that the memories and meaning of my stuff not get lost in the race to declutter, I started something I nicknamed the ‘So Don't Throw It Out’ Project. I took photos of everything that had meaning to me (and realized that I’ve gotten to the point where I only own things that have meaning to me) and wrote about where the items came from and why they were important to me. I created a document with all the

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I thought I was doing this project for my kids, but, as I worked, I realized I didn’t remember all the details myself. My own story had already begun to fade in my mind. I had to scramble to figure out what year we went to France and when my grandfather died. I had to dig out the paperwork for some of the art I’ve bought. I had to do the research to tell my own story. This made it clear to me that, if the details matter to me, I need to record them as I live. It also showed me that details fade, but emotions don’t.

My kids don’t necessarily need to keep the sheep figurine I bought in Scotland (home of my ancestors), and if they don’t want the gold shamrock paperweight my father gave me when I opened my law practice they will at least understand how deeply significant that moment was to me. I can’t control what they eventually choose to turn into their own treasures, but I can guarantee that they will have the memories, whether they keep the physical object or not, that meant so much to me.

Create Your Own "So Don't Throw It Out" Document

THE REBEL ISSUE

THE INTERSECTION OF CERAMICS, WELLNESS, AND FEMINISM

BY RACHEL NEWMAN

O

pen Instagram, click the magnifying glass in the lower left hand corner, and scroll. Among the makeup tutorials, recipe videos, baby animals, and memes, you might find a neatly manicured hand cupping an earth-colored mug filled with a matcha latte infused with unpronounceable adaptogenic herbs that, the caption claims, will lower stress hormones, ease menstrual cramps, and “restore balance.” Whatever that means.

These are the pictures of wellness influencers, who take to Instagram to tout the benefits of slowing down, eating nutritious food, exercising, and meditating—all in an aesthetically pleasing way. And if their hefty follower counts and numerous (and presumably lu-

crative) sponsorship deals are any indication, their work is absolutely engrossing to a huge portion of Instagram users, primarily young women, who yearn for more balance, health and beauty in their own lives.

With so much focus on what’s on their plates or in their cups, it’s easy to forget that the object in the influencer’s hands is a key ingredient in the promotion of the lifestyle they’re evangelizing. Often, these self-care influencers serve up post-worthy smoothie bowls and paleo-friendly breakfasts on handmade dishes from local ceramicists, who often have devoted followers of their own.

Lee Tilghman, the creator behind @LeeFromAmerica, pours her daily green lattes into ceramics from A Question of Eagles (@aquestionofeagles). She recently partnered with the

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WELL BEHIND THE WHEEL

PIECE BY ALEXANDRA BARAO

ISSUE ONE

“THE OBJEC UNTIL IT’S ACTUALLY STUDIO AN HOUSE AN IT, IT’S NO

Los Angeles-based homewares brand, started by artists Melissa Tolar and Jonathan Ballack, for a cooking and wellness workshop in Los Angeles.

“Eating from a beautiful hand-thrown ceramic dish gives you a very similar feeling to eating a homemade meal,” Tilghman said.

“It's made with love and tenderness, and you can feel it and see it with your own eyes. So when you combine the two, it feels very personal and loving.”

“Her promotion is priceless!” Cheng says. “I’ve definitely been able to connect with wellnessloving people...I think this connection between wellness and handmade ceramics lies in a desire for a simpler life. They want to live with some intention and celebrate beautiful things.”

A COMPLEX HISTORY

A desire to simplify one’s life may motivate the creation and purchase of these beautiful handmade goods, but the history and tradition that these artists are a continuation of is anything but simple.

“That principle of disinterested contemplation tends to place a lot of emphasis on the visual, and to deemphasize and, in fact, sort of demonize the idea of physical engagements with art objects—whether you’re wearing a coat or using a tablecloth or eating out of a dish,” said Jane Blocker, an art history professor at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. “So, the decorative arts have always been seen as merely decorative and merely things people use and not that they contemplate.”

For many women artists interested in handmade crafts, the reign of disinterested contemplation as the gold standard for viewing, critiquing, and even defining art has been a barrier to success in the

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KELSEY CHENG

For 20,000 years, people, often women, have created handmade ceramic objects to fulfill both function and ritual. The world of fine arts has often looked down at these functional objects, viewing them as antithetical to the idea of “disinterested contemplation,” a concept developed by Immanuel Kant to discourage people from considering their own feelings and needs while viewing fine art.

PIECE BY ALEXANDRA BARAO

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Tolar and Ballak aren’t the only ceramics artists who have gotten the wellness-influencer boost on Instagram. Kelsey Cheng (@kelseychengceramics), a burgeoning ceramicist in Chicago, has a growing followin, thanks in part to her friend and roommate, wellness influencer Addie Martanovic of @chickpeainthecity.

THE REBEL ISSUE

western art world. As Blocker points out, you can’t “disinterestedly contemplate” a mug you’re going to use to make beautiful Moon Dust lattes or a vase you’ll use to display flowers from your lover.

PIECE BY KELSEY CHENG

The late Art Historian Linda Nochlin considered these questions in her seminal essay, “Why Are There No Great Women Artists?” and concluded that the definition of “success” in the art world had been crafted by a patriarchal tradition that often disregards women’s work. Women artists, responding to the feminist movement in the 1960s and 70s, embraced the applied arts as a way to celebrate the women’s work that had been rejected by the art world for much of western art history.

“One answer to [Nochlin’s] charge was to say, well...let’s develop what women have always been doing—that is textiles, decorative arts, ceramics, etc.—and make fine arts, elevate those things to fine arts in a contemporary sense,” Blocker said.

Artists like Judy Chicago, Miriam Shapiro, and Faith Ringgold embraced these domestic, functional arts, elevating them to something that can be displayed and contemplated in a gallery. Chicago’s most famous installation, “The Dinner Party,” is a large triangular table featuring unique vulva-inspired place settings for 39 famous women, from Sacajawea to Virginia Woolf.

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

CT IS NEVER COMPLETE USED…UNTIL SOMEBODY TAKES THAT FROM MY ND PUTS IT IN THEIR OWN ND DRINKS COFFEE FROM OT COMPLETE.”

ISSUE ONE

In the 1970s, Chicago and her contemporaries viewed the gallery space as a key element in elevating the applied arts and gaining due respect for women’s work. Nearly 50 years later, today’s ceramicists seem to be more comfortable with the idea of using the functional arts for the functions they were designed to fulfill.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

RITUAL AS SELF-CARE While second wave feminism reclaimed the applied arts to celebrate women’s achievements in often male-dominated realms, today’s feminist ceramicists are often more interested in how their work supports selfcare. In a world that values expedience over quality, the act of grounding one’s self by creating or using a handmade bowl can serve as “self-preservation” and “an act of political warfare,” to quote the oft-repeated words of poet Audre Lorde.

PIECE BY KELSEY CHENG

“The object is never complete until it’s used,” said Kate Fisher, a studio artist at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. “Like I can make a mug. I can fire it, and I can love the surface and love the glaze and the color, but until somebody actually takes that from my studio and puts it in their own house and drinks coffee from it, it’s not complete.”

Alexandra Barao (@alexandrabarao), a Bay Area ceramicist who makes dishware inspired by landscapes, said that a friend of hers recently purchased one of her mugs at a San Francisco record store.

“She said, ‘You know...my morning coffee, I never felt it was ritualized. And drinking my coffee out of your mug every morning since getting it, it’s like this beautiful ritual, and I like the feeling of it in my hands,’” Barao said. It is, she added, “as if the object, brings her into the present.”

In Fisher’s words: “When you embed this handmade object into someone’s daily life, their hands don’t know it. It feels really foreign and strange. It’s different colors. All the cups hold a different amount... So I think it is like self care, because every time you use that thing, you find something else about it.

It’s more human to me.”

Tolar of A Question of Eagles also noticed this shift towards ritual when she and her husband, Ballak, began replacing their own mass-produced dishware with homemade goods.

“After we transformed our own kitchen from machine-made dishes into handmade ones, and we started collecting other handmade pieces from our other colleagues, it really was a subtle but super powerful change in our lives,” Tolar said. “If you’re going to make a beautiful latte with adaptogens and all this stuff to have it in a handmade mug sort of completes the circle in a way.”

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FOR 20,000 WOMEN, IN WORLD—H CERAMIC O FUNCTION

THE REBEL ISSUE

ETHICAL CONSUMPTION Purchasing handmade homewares--which Fisher describes as touching the most “intimate” part of one’s body: the lips--is a way to rebel against the political forces that are causing turmoil for many. Using handmade goods is an act of caring, not just for one’s self, but for the world.

As capitalism shows its “ugly face,” it’s important to understand the origins of the objects one purchases, Barao said. Since no one can completely escape the need to buy goods and make money, being intentional about purchases is key to being an ethical consumer, she added.

“I think there is a role for the traditional arts, and maybe people are coming back to this understanding that there is value in things that are handmade and made on a smaller scale and in smaller batches,” Barao said. “There’s something powerful about that, I think.”

KATE FISHER

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

0 YEARS, PEOPLE, OFTEN N MANY PARTS OF THE HAVE CREATED HANDMADE OBJECTS TO FULFILL BOTH AND RITUAL. 51

ISSUE ONE

Cheng, who makes vulva pinch pots and decorates her planters with yonic shapes, said that her work creates a way to both talk about feminism and support women artists.

“I want to use my work to bring women together,” Cheng said. “Whether that is a fun conversation piece, like the vulva pinch pots, or ensuring I support woman makers in my consumption of goods. I think it’s a pretty radical act to work alongside other women, support their work and share with your friends. It’s simple, but important.”

The ceramicists that craft these beautiful vessels are a key part of that exchange, connecting in an intimate way with all who use their works of art. “Whatever I make, if you use it, it’s a handshake,” Fisher said. “My hands made it, your hands are using it. We’re shaking hands every time you drink coffee out of the cup I made. And that, to me, was a connection between two people that didn’t use words but was so meaningful.”

KELSEY CHENG

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

These handmade ceramic pieces do bring women together through the influencers who share them. Through the glowing screens of their phones, influencers create communities of women who are empowered, maybe for the first time, to care for themselves, to rebel against a world that encourages women to work too hard for too little, and to surround themselves with beautiful objects while their political environment grows uglier every day.

ica mamer eefro s and l @ w cs. follo te recipe ul cerami t e to f a r i l u t s u e atcha r bea • Mak sfor m es fo t: Hi on IG ionofeagl g Pas n i t m s o Bec @aque er’s Block t. r e A n a y J y Are orar p k up m c e i t y “Wh P n a o • s C s e in 971 tory n’s 1 ochli Artists?”

N a d n in inner gle L reat Wome .

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THE REBEL ISSUE

Welcome to our Rock Your Bliss corner in the Folk Rebellion universe. We are two best friends and the creators of Rock Your Bliss, a yoga-inspired coaching company. We started our company almost five years ago and lead transformational online programs, retreats, and workshops all over the country. We were lucky to cross paths with Jess Davis, the founder of Folk Rebellion, several years ago and her messages on unplugging and living life have been revolutionary for us. We’ll be taking turns writing a column on not just how to find your bliss, but how to rock it.

NO

By Mary Beth LaRue

People pleasing is in my blood. It's a mixture of my sweet honey of a mama who will do absolutely anything for anyone who needs it and being raised in the Midwest where politeness reigns above all. The word "no" was not a word that was in my vocabulary up until my thirties.

For years, I often looked at my calendar only to find that it was packed with so many obligations and "get to know you" coffee dates that there was almost no space for ‘me’ on it.

I think in some ways my unconditional yes started as a survival mechanism as a kid. If I was always accommodating, always helpful, always available then people would like me... Right?

Wanting too much or being myself too much might rub people the wrong way. (Spoiler alert: It does and it's awesome.) So I stopped doing that. I did what I was asked, showed up when I was needed and was who I thought people needed me to be. Screw my own needs and expectations.

I met Jess, the founder of the Folk Rebellion movement, soon after I turned 30, and I was floored by how she spoke about her boundaries, her schedule, and her email inbox. She was the boss, and she was in control of what she could be. Lucky for me, she's become one of my best friends and someone that I look up to like a sister. One of her secrets was saying no.

In my mind saying no to things you didn't want to do was a revolutionary, rebellious act. And the idea of using ‘no’ was fucking terrifying. Today, I use the word "no" quite a bit, mostly from a loving, confident space. It took time and baby steps and, along the way, I’ve asked just about everyone I admire about their own boundaries and how they manage their time.

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Teach People How To Love You. My husband, my family, my close friends, even my dog all know this: I may love the shit outta you, but I must be alone for a little bit each day.

I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert, and even though that party sounds really cool so do my pajamas and Stranger Things 2, so tell me all about it tomorrow over coffee.

You Are Not For Everyone. And vice versa. Man, I'd love to wrap little middle school me in a bear hug and tell her she was perfect in all of her awkward glory and to keep at it. At 34, I own who I am. I laugh really big with my mouth wide open and one eye closed. I would likely pick an evening in with girlfriends over some Hollywood bash. (Okay, there’s nothing ‘likely’ about it. I would totally pick the evening in.) The more truth-telling and more vulnerability, the better. And guess what? Not everybody's down with that. But it sure weeds out the ones that aren't for me and shows me the gems that are on my path.

SAYING

— Mary Beth LaRue & Jacki Carr

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

A "No" Makes Way For A Bigger, Better Yes. I had my first taste of this when I was dating in my twenties. I'd often say yes to dinner or a coffee or whatever because I didn't want to make some dude feel bad. But while I was out to dinner listening to Mr. Boring talk about the stock market or his workout I was missing out on meeting someone really interesting or, better yet, an evening out at a dive bar with my girlfriends. This applies everywhere. Say no to what doesn't light you up so there's room for that job, opportunity, person, or ice cream that will. (This does require trust but get to building that muscle because it's important.)

You Don't Have To Explain Yourself. I am the queen of explaining exactly why I can't teach that yoga class or make it your kid's second birthday party. I think it goes back to that middle school people-pleasing syndrome. I've since found that my close friends and family deserve an explanation, but I don't need to explain myself constantly. It's freeing. It's liberating. It even feels a bit rebellious.

ISSUE ONE

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Dear Dispatch Readers,

FU CK-I T BU CK ET

Let’s get real. Technology has fundamentally changed the way we live and work, offering us unprecedented convenience, access to information, and ability to communicate on a global scale. We are more digitally connected than ever, yet we are suffering the loss of human connection. With each “like” we risk forgetting how to love and with each “follow” our circle seems to shrink. Rising income disparity and the rapidly changing socio-political landscapes have also left us feeling adrift—craving a sense of community that we find ourselves increasingly less capable of building. This cycle of isolation and division has to stop.

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SHIT TO SCHEDU LE :

Watch: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Read: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck

Check out: Moby Richroll Podcast

Listen to: Bowie Album, The Next Day

Friendship Bracelet Making Party

Family Dinner

By 2027, one billion people will leave their couches and desks every month to silence their devices and actually show up to do what they love, in real life, together. Tens of millions will make side hustles into businesses, turning around to mentor their peers after years of success. Tens more will help each other get fit, stay well, or recover—these will be lifelines for survivors, addicts, and outcasts alike. As politics return to coffee houses, millions will gather to build the leaders that are currently squashed and intimidated by the status quo. As millennials reorient around purpose-driven work, millions will gather to discuss change and foster new societal paradigms in economics, lifestyle, business, and design. From Beijing to Nairobi to Lima, we’ll create a safe space for students to become pros, followers to become leaders, and networks to become communities. Real ones we can actually rely on.

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With a few simple taps, you can have Thai food, swim diapers, or a ride delivered whenever and wherever. But what about having the right people near you when you need them? What if we harnessed technology to remove the barriers to human connection? What if we delivered real community as easily and effectively as Amazon delivers your new books? Seriously. Think about it.

Outside Time: X-Country Skiing

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

For 15 years, we’ve been working on one deceptively simple problem. How do you get people to meet offline?

Let’s get to work.

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

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TH E L DK I S PAT CE HL BY OLK B E L LCI O FO REB L I OFN D IRSEPAT HN

I SSSU UE O IS ONNEE

GANG HANGS IS A MONTHLY ROUNDUP OF WAYS TO CREATE MORE CONNECTION IN REAL LIFE.

Let’s leave the group texting, evites, and Facebook groups to the plugged-in population. We prefer postcards via snail mail. Buy a handful for 25 cents a piece, stick on a stamp, and get all the deets down in 3 short sentences.

Something like:

We are big fans of the good old fashioned house party.

If space is tight, keep the guest list short.

Hey There, Help me revive old school house parties.

Swing by my place on Thursday night for a slow cooked meal fuelled by gluten and some awesome conversation fuelled by whiskey.

-FR

Thursday. Think about it: you’re nearing the end of a long ass work week. It’s just before weekends set aside for date nights and other plans involving food, but right at the cusp of ugh-don’t-make-me-have-to-callUber-eats-one-more-time. People are hungry (pun intended) for a slow cooked meal and good conversation they just can’t get with the delivery guy.

Of course, no cell phones allowed except for the token group photo. We want to see your smiling faces in a latergram. Tag #folkrebellion and tell us how it was.

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THE REBEL ISSUE

The silver screen used to mean people gathering and watching the same thing together, yawn arm over the back of the seat moves, and sharing a tub of popcorn. Now, it means watching it whenever and wherever you want, instantly.

And usually someone is watching something else on another device, live tweeting it, or mindlessly scrolling.

Our favorite form of savasana is laying on the ground in dead man’s pose listening to the A AND B side of an album.

Gather your friends and host a listening party.

Book clubs have always been a thing, but now they are even more relevant for the camaraderie it creates for people in our screened-in world. Here’s some questions for y’all to mull over, perhaps over mulled wine.

and seclusion, followed by a surprise album he refused to promote with a single interview or live performance. The move meant that his album The Next Day went tumbling down the charts not long after it came out, but it’s hard to imagine that Bowie cared that much.

What are your values?

Why does Mark find happiness in not giving a f*uck?

How does less caring equal more time?

Does not caring mean I am bitter and dead on the inside?

What do I really want to give a fuck about?

How has technology allowed your insecurities to run amok?

Did you like this style of anti“self help” book?

What do you know about Mark? Is he qualified to give this kind of advice?

What are you always choosing? Is there anywhere in your life that it’s time to choose differently?

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

He killed off his Ziggy Stardust character at the height of his glam fame. He released a Philly soul LP when most of his followers were diehard rock fans. He made weird, noncommercial music in Berlin, and then toured as Iggy Pop’s keyboardist in clubs when he could have been packing arenas on his own. But one of his last moves was his most rebellious: a decade of silence

ISSUE ONE

We’re bringing back the kitchens of our youth. Where people gathered around the island, sat on counter tops, and got drunk on wine while they collectively made dinner with some music on. Bye seamless. Well, at least for one meal, today.

When you need to end the mindless scroll and reconnect with a human soul, keep your hands busy off of your device. Channel your inner summer camp kid and braid a friendship bracelet.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Take 4 strings and fold them in half making a looped knot at the half to slide your pin through. Pin your materials to your knee.

Organize the colors so they mirror each other. Example L-R: blue, green, pink, red, red, pink, green, blue.

Starting at the far right side, you are going to start making right knots.

Take the outermost string and place it over the string to its left so it looks a little like a “P”.

Pull the end of the string through the loop.

Holding the string taut, pull the knot upwards. Repeat once more.

Dice the tomatoes and mozzarella and throw that shit in a bowl. Mince the garlic and tear the basil, and add them 8 oz. fresh to the mix with the olive oil and salt mozzarella cheese and pepper to taste. Don’t pussyfoot 4 cloves of garlic around the salt and pepper, unless of course you have an affinity for shitty ½ cup fresh basil food; then please, pussyfoot away.

3 tablespoons extra- Let the mixture sit for an hour. Cook virgin olive oil the pasta in heavily salted water until al dente: that’s Italian for “not total 12 oz.bucatini shit.” Then, add to the tomato mixture, Salt and pepper toss, and serve.

1½ lbs. plum tomatoes

Repeat on each string until you get to the middle.

Steps 3-6 on the left side. When you get to the middle of the bracelet, the two colors of the string you just knotted will be the same. Use a right knot to tie the two middle pieces together to make the chevron point.

Keep knotting rows until your bracelet is long enough to wear.

Your bracelet by braiding the strings from the left and right side separately. Tie a knot once you reach the end, trim the frayed edges, and pull one of the braids through the starting loop, and tie a bow. Wear it on your phone-tethered hand as a reminder to get back into real life.

If the shoe fits, strap it on. The next time The Weather Channel predicts some bomb cyclone or snowpacolypse business, forgo the urge to hibernate with Netflix and grab a pair of snowshoes for a walk in the park … or woods or cobblestone streets of Brooklyn. Also, grab your friends (and maybe a flask of whiskey). Snowshoeing as a group is an awesome way to laugh your asses off bond with one another.

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Plus, the learning curve is pretty short. Remember to bundle up because this is no hot power yoga class.

Make a few snow angels and a lot of offline memories and, of course, leave your damn phone at home.

Live in a snow-free zone?

Opt for hike instead.

THE REBEL ISSUE

ARSTEE

K

FRONTIER

I came to Dave Eggers later than most lovers of hip-lit, and I’m ashamed to say I still haven’t read What is the What, which the literati consider to be one of his most influential and important pieces in what is quickly becoming a widely acclaimed portfolio of books. Like most of his books, his most recent one, Heroes of the Frontier, is a story that stays with you.

DAVIS

HEROES OF THE

In Heroes of the Frontier, our protagonist is Josie, a single mother of two. Josie is in search of answers and a simpler way of living, and she thinks she’ll find it by taking her kids off the grid in Alaska in an RV. We learn that Josie seems to be running from everything: an ex, a failed business, remorse over advice she gave to a young man who ended up dying in Afghanistan, and the doldrums of life on a wheel. As I pulled Heroes of the Frontier off my shelf to revisit it, I flipped to a stickynoted page to see what golden nugget I would find: Any given year you should expect certain things. You can expect to see some horrifying act of terror, for example. A new beheading of a man in orange is a shock and will make you want to never leave the house, but not if you have budgeted for it. A new mass shooting in a mall or school can cripple you for a day but not if you’ve budgeted for it. That’s this month’s shooting, you can say. And if there isn’t a shooting that month, all the better. You’ve come out ahead on the ledger. You have a surplus.

A refund.

I love this, not because it is depressing as fuck, but because he’s pointing out to us that this is how society is becoming. Josie is all of us. We all have regrets. We are all navigating a world that keeps throwing us curve balls. Even in Alaska, the hits keep coming as she and her children try to evade wildfires, an angry landlord, and actual bolts of lightning. There are many moments in the book that shine, but one of my favorites is when Josie gathers a few musicians together to help bring the music in her head to fruition. And that’s kind of what Dave Eggers is for me: a conductor of the crazy.

In 2009, I had just read Zeitoun at the recommendation of a co-worker.

Eggers was going to be speaking at my local independent bookstore and I arrived at the event (early, as I always do) only to find hordes of bearded educators popping squats on the floor, cued up in anticipation, hydrating from their stickered water bottles, and (wait for it…) talking to each other! Eggers masterfully navigated the event touching on all of the important hallmarks of our time: the importance of supporting our local independent bookstores, the necessity for real investigative journalism, and how the written word shall never die. Maybe, I thought, reading Eggers is a little bit more than just reading and moving on to the next book; maybe when you read Eggers you belong to a community. You stand for something.

Trail Ridge Road is just one feature of the dynamic Rocky Mountain National Park. While parts of the park are closed seasonally or due to inclement weather, the park is, on the whole, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is an outdoor person’s paradise; offering camping, bicycling, climbing, picnicking, and fishing. There is no shortage of wildlife and wildflowers.

The first time I ever drove Trail Ridge Road, I prepared for it like the pioneer settlers. I’m not sure why I had in my mind that I would suffer from altitude sickness, especially given that I live in Boulder County (elevation: 5,400 feet), but I had hydrated and brought along some bananas so my trip along the road, which reaches an elevation of 12,183 feet, would be successful. Others are recommended to do the same.

Growing up near the park, it is inevitable that you hear tales of people traveling the road only to come across some freak snowstorm and have to abandon their vehicles and hike to shelter. Thankfully my first crossing was very uneventful, and all I have are memories of the golden leaves on the Aspen trees waving to me as I drove by. In the autumn, Coloradans can be found in the parks mountains chasing fall colors, the sounds of the elk bugle, which can be heard throughout the area.

It should be noted that, as with the rest of the globe, Rocky Mountain National Park is experiencing the effects of climate change. Perhaps the most noticeable effect is the number of trees that have fallen victim to the pine beetle outbreak. Conservationists and scientists are monitoring the impact of the pine beetle, and of climate change more broadly.

Watch out for rising entry fees at all National Parks in 2018, and for fewer free pass days. In addition to (dwindling) government funding, National Parks are supported by donors and members, so definitely consider supporting the parks in your area or that you dream of visiting.

Eggers the man is legendary, Eggers the writer is a conductor. He takes all these things that are going on in our world, in our minds, and he puts it out on paper in a way that is relatable and that makes us know we aren’t alone, it’s transcendent, masterful. Eggers latest book, Heroes of the Frontier is a break from a 24-hour news cycle. Go to your local bookstore pick it up, get to your favorite coffee shop, and get that cozy seat by the fireplace. Maybe leave your cell phone at home.

Go off the grid for a few hours, I highly recommend it.

GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV

On a sweet late summer night in 2015, I looked down upon the stage from my seat in the last row of the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. The performer on stage was a local man named Gregory Alan Isakov. I had never heard his music before, but I was intrigued enough by his performance to take note when, the following June, he released an album with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Today, it might quite possibly be my favorite thing to have come out of the year 2016.

The album, Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony, opens with a masterpiece. “Liars,” written by Ron Scott. It tells the story of a man who sells his baseball cards to buy clothes, sells his clothes to buy land, and sells his land to buy dreams. It is haunting, and it is beautiful.

The album then rolls through a medley of Isakov’s earlier songs, rearranged to highlight the symphonic accompaniment: The Weatherman (2013), This Empty Northern Hemisphere (2009), and That Sea, The Gambler (2007). Listeners familiar with Isakov’s previous work can hear how the Symphony breathes life into these old songs.

WITH THE COLORADO SYMPHONY

I was fortunate enough to see Isakov perform the album live with the Colorado Symphony in early 2017. I was alone, in the cheapest seat I could find, high up behind the orchestra, nearly in the rafters, and yet still it was magical to watch it come to life.

Isakov and his band are, like any good collaboration, the culmination of all the places they’ve been, both together and as individuals. Together, they sound like the music of the mountains, and when I listen to Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony, all I can hear is home.

Buy the album, relish the first listen, revisit it (as I do), play it at dinner parties, play it on road trips when the road opens up and there’s nothing but landscape for miles, play it during harvest season, make it one of the many soundtracks to your life.

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

TRAIL RIDGE ROAD—ROCKY

MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

ISSUE ONE

TURMERIC CHEESECAKE BARS

by Purely Elizabeth

CRUST:

1 bag Purely Elizabeth Maple Almond Butter Granola 3 tbsp coconut oil

CHEESECAKE: rk, y, wo nolog ed, at h c e t es— surpris e were r liv w s , in ou us. I wa hnology, Whole30 s g n e i c m k h e g r i t t n a l i h r or the cing unities derstand ow h any o balan n lp us mm ike m s—can he ke about food co It took u sily see some l , d a g e n Foo ionship s I spo amazing Dish. i w r o n ha le relat , that a d to the tainable aviors to will be shing peop first compare , and Sus and beh month we lks teac ies. ess Xx J often om Paleo nsumption So each mazing fo heir bod N t o a . c m n m mp No put i about s fro he ju more e made t te recipe hat they l w i p r o f o o pe r fav dful of ou o be min t w ho

1 1/2 cup soaked raw cashews 1/3 cup coconut oil 1/3 cup CounterTop Foods Turmeric Honey juice of 1 lemon 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract In a food processor, blend crust ingredients. Pour into a 8 x 8 parchment-lined baking pan and firmly press crust into pan.

Add cheesecake ingredients together in a blender and blend on high-speed until smooth. Pour over the crust and freeze.

Recipes

Shredded Barbecue Chicken on Sweet Potato "Buns" T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

SERVES 4

Roasted Cauliflower with Apples, Bacon and Balsamic Vinegar

These knife-and-fork open-face sandwiches feature the flavors of a classic Southern-style BBQ sandwich without the high sugar and carb content—and with nutrient-rich sweet potatoes.

Serves 4-6

PREP: 20 minutes SLOW COOK: 3 hours 20 minutes (high) TOTAL: 3 hours 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets 2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar 4 apples, peeled and cut into thick slices 4 strips bacon, chopped Sea salt and ground black pepper

FOR THE CHICKEN 2 tablespoons Clarified Butter or ghee, melted 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons Whole30-compliant hot sauce 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs 1 cup Whole30-compliant barbecue sauce

INSTRUCTIONS Marinate the cauliflower in the vinegar for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread out the cauliflower and apple slices on the prepared baking sheet and cover with the chopped bacon and generous amounts of salt and pepper.

Cover the baking sheet with another piece of parchment paper and roast for 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and uncover. Using a spatula, flip the cauliflower mixture.

Place back in the oven and roast for another 15 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender and the bacon is crisp.

FOR THE SWEET POTATO BUNS 2 large sweet potatoes (about 3 pounds; see Tip), peeled 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions MAKE THE CHICKEN: In a 3 1/2 or 4-quart slow cooker, stir together the butter, garlic, hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Add the chicken and turn to coat the pieces. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours.

Diana Rodgers, RD of www.sustainabledish.com originally published in The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook

TRANSFER the chicken to a cutting board and discard the cooking liquid. Shred the chicken with two forks then return to the slow cooker. Stir the barbecue sauce into the chicken. Cover and cook on high until heated through, about 10 minutes.

MAKE THE SWEET POTATO BUNS: Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut six 1/2-inch-thick rounds from the widest portion of each sweet potato. In a large bowl, toss the sweet potato rounds with the olive oil and salt and place in a single layer on the pan. Bake until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

SERVE the barbecue chicken on sweet potato buns and top with green onions.

TIPS Choose sweet potatoes that are round in the middle to cut the best rounds for the buns. You will have ends from each sweet potato that are too small to use for the rounds, but don’t throw them away!

Simply chop and cook with olive oil, salt, and black pepper in a skillet for an easy side dish the next day.

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THE REBEL ISSUE

YOUR INNER

KIDS PAGE

FEATURED REBEL:

GA L I L E O GA L I L E I Born: February 15, 1564 in Italy

7 DARING ACTIVITIES FOR ADVENTUROUS KIDS

1

WALK ACROSS A LOG. Think you have good balance? Put it to the test! Find a giant log on the ground of a forest to walk across.

(Tip: Holding your hands out like a T really does help you balance!) Once you master this skill of a log on the ground, find one above the ground. You got this!

2

WHY HE’S SUCH A REBEL:

“Knowing thyself, that is the greatest wisdom.”

Galileo was the original stargazer. When Galileo argued that the sun was actually at the center, he was ordered not to teach or defend his findings. Being the rebel he was, he continued to do so anyway. In 1633, Galileo was sentenced to prison for the rest of his life, but was able to live out his term under house arrest.

He used that time to write his final book Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences explaining theories like physics and mechanics. Many say he’s the reason you have science class at all.

DID YOU KNOW? While teaching at the University of Pisa, Galileo was known to break the rules every now and then. Mostly, this rule: Wear your formal bulky, uncomfortable robes at all times.

Galileo named the four little moons of Jupiter the “Medicean stars” after his patron, Cosimo II of the Medici family, who ruled over Tuscany.

Galileo and Shakespeare were born in the same year (1564).

Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences was first published in Holland in 1638 because Galileo was forbidden from publishing in Italy.

In 1992, under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican released an official statement saying it was wrong to have punished Galileo.

WANNA DIG DEEPER? Pick up a copy of Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas

by Richard Panchyk.

Visit the Institute and Museum of the History of Science of Florence, Italy to check out an online exhibit.

Google the movie "Galileo: On the Shoulders of Giants".

4

REBELLION PART OF SPEECH: (CIRCLE ONE)

NOUN

ADJECTIVE

VERB

DEFINITION:

USE IN A SENTENCE:

Okay, you do have to keep your seatbelt buckled, but then roll your window down and strrreeeeettttccchhhh! Feel the wind blowing through your hair. Stick your tongue out. Maybe even give a shout.

COOK SOMETHING BY YOURSELF. Start with eggs—scrambled. You’ll have to make sure you don’t get any shell in the pan when you crack it. (Hint: Don’t have the heat too high or they’ll cook too fast.) If you want to challenge yourself, try over-easy eggs.

ILLUSTRATE:

WALK SOMEWHERE BY YOURSELF. Go

to the store to buy some gum. Swing by the park to slide down the slide. Go to a neighbor’s house to say hello. Whatever you do, go solo!

5 6

CLIMB A TREE. The first thing you have

to do is find the perfect tree. Avoid ones with thorns or really scratchy branches like evergreens. Look for a tree with big, thick lower branches. If the lower branch is too high, have someone give you a boost!

JUMP YOUR BIKE OFF A RAMP. You can

make your own mini ramp by stacking up logs or small bricks. Then place a large board across them. Start small and build it up as you get better and better!

ROUND UP: (If you’re interested in learning more about road racing and Kathrine Switzer, check these out)

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

3

STICK YOUR HEAD OUT THE WINDOW.

Word Of The Month:

Books:

Big Dan Runs the Marathon by Dan O’Neil Ready Steady Mo! by Mo Farah

Podcast:

7

SHOOT A BOW AND ARROW. Don’t have your own bow or arrows? Find an indoor or outdoor archery range. They will have everything you need. The hardest part will be pulling the bow back. You have to be STRONG to shoot a good shot.

NPR’s Wow In The World, episode: “Back-To-School: Recess 101”

Activity:

Find a 5k in your area and sign up! Running in the USA is a great place to search for a race in your state.

LUNCH NOTE JOKES TO CUT OUT AND GIVE TO FRIENDS

Q: What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?

A: Nacho cheese!

Q: Why did the iPad go to the dentist?

A: It had a Bluetooth.

Q: What is a pirate’s favorite letter?

A: Aaarrr

Grab (or create) your own telescope and make your own discoveries just like Galileo.

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ISSUE ONE

SIMPLE PARENTING Searching For The Broken Ones Each day when I drop my 4-year-old daughter off at school, I kneel down to look her in the eyes. I tell her, “I love you, Sis. Tell me again, what makes you beautiful?” To which she replies, “How I love people and how I treat others.”

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

I kiss her and, before she runs off I remind her, “Look for the broken ones, look for the ones that may be struggling today, love them hard and be EXTRA kind today, okay?!”

Before I had my first child, Rosalie, I had many set notions of what good parenting looked like. Most of my ideas were based on what I saw on mommy blogs. From my internet research, I started judging good parenting based on whether a parent chooses to breastfeed, bottle feed, co-sleep, homeschool or send their child to public school, to name just a few of the contentious parenting topics that ricochet around the blogosphere. For the first two years of my parenting journey, I became obsessed with mastering all of the parenting methods I found online. It was tiring, relentless, and I often felt as though I was just touching the surface of what “good parenting” actually was.

All of these judgments on parenting began to shift after I gave birth to my son, Elias, who is now two years old. Seven weeks after he was born, I held my infant son in my arms watching him nearly bleed to death due to complications of an undiagnosed rare disease. The week that followed changed everything

Good Parenting Isn’t Perfect Boxed Lunches, it’s Embracing the Imperfect

by Lillie Duncan

for me when it came to my perspective on parenting, and even life. I would hold him at night so that he could sleep comfortably while connected to all of the IVs and machines, and while he l​aid peacefully in my arms my mind ran through all of the “good parenting” measures I had learned and practiced on Rosalie. I thought about how none of that mattered anymore.

In that moment​,​I still was not sure if my son would survive.

I thought to myself, “If he did live one more day, or even ten years, would it honestly matter whether he was breastfed, bottle feed, co-slept, homeschooled or sent to public school?”

This forced me to ask questions. “If Elias lived through childhood, what type of childhood do I want for him and Rosalie?”

“What does good parenting look like now?” “How am I going to raise my children so they don’t turn out to be selfish​​douchebags who expect perfectly-prepped school lunches in the shape of panda bears and care more about how they dress than how they act?”

In the two years since those life-changing nights, I have shifted my idea of what makes for good parenting. Instead of emphasizing the external, I now believe that good parenting is empathetic parenting, which encourages emotional development that will inevitably produce kindness, grace, and unconditional love. A 2002 study published in the Journal of Family Psychology that investigated the connection between how much a parent invested in a child, and how competent a child was, found that how emotionally involved

Yes, you can do peru... with kids

There is no blog, book, or guru that has all the answers a parent is truly does matter. If we care about our children, they are more likely to care about others.

There is no blog, book, or guru that has all of the answers when it comes to parenting, and I am not a perfect parent, but I truly believe the simpler we make the art of parenting, the better the outcomes will be. The more we focus on sowing seeds of kindness and empathy, the closer we’ll get to giving our kids a better future. Every lesson we teach our children is also a lesson for us.

Every day we, too, have the opportunity to look up and notice the world around us, notice the real live people in front of us.

Look for the broken ones.

Kids Come Too: Peru

by Fiona Tapp

Hiking in the cloud forests of Northern Peru may seem like an extreme vacation, but you can (and definitely should) include your kids in this epic tour.

The most famous destination in Peru is certainly Machu Picchu, but further north there the overlooked archaeological site of Kuelap that is even more ancient. Many other less-marketed destinations are also worth visiting. They offer a more authentic and less-crowded experience, and might even save you a few bucks.

How to Get There and Get Around Flights are available between Lima and Jaen City, where you can begin your tour of the Northern Region of Chachapoyas.

This region of Peru is home to many wonders including Gocta Falls, Kuelap, and the mummies of Leymebamba. These sites are spread out across the region, so you may want to consider hiring a driver or jumping on an organized tour. Car seats are not common, so if you need one, bring your own.

The Sights Gocta Falls is a towering waterfall accessible by hike. The trail is fairly well-paved, so you could try it with a child strapped a carrier. Depending on the age of your children, though, you may want to start by horse. You can get engage kids in bird

spotting by encouraging them to search for Peru’s national bird, the Cock of the Rock. Although it can be shy, it's vibrant scarlet color is easy to spot against the lush green forest. Make sure to bring a first aid kit, sunscreen, and plenty of water.

The Logistics Hygiene: Bathrooms can be basic in Peru, so be sure to always carry toilet tissue and hand sanitizer in your backpack. If your kids are still in diapers, stock up in the cities.

After you rest your weary legs, you’ll be ready to plan your next excursion to the walled settlement of Kuelap.

Food Whether enjoying remote rustic restaurants or big city fine dining, you will find a range of family-friendly options. Ask your waitress to make your kid's dishes sin picante if you are worried about them being too spicy.

The round stone homes of this ancient settlement, built in the 6th century AD, can be found high in the cloud forests in the Chachapoyas region. Following considerable investment this year, a cable car reduces the travel time to this site. What was once an all-day drive is now a 20-minute ride, delivering you to the steep (and nearly neverending) set of steps that leads to the ruins. The site features many stone staircases that need to be carefully scaled, but horses are available for hire at the base if tired legs need a little help.

From Kuelap, you’ll have a journey of about two hours south to reach Leymebamba, where you can learn about the ancient Chachapoyas people and see actual mummies. This region remains uncrowded and offers many adventurous activities for the daredevils in your family, from canyoning to wildlife tours.

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Lodging Book an unforgettable stay at the uber-modern Gocta Lodge, which has an infinity pool overlooking the Falls. Kids will love when the alpacas are let out to roam the grounds. About forty minutes from Gocta Lodge is Casa Hacienda Achamaqui, which offers slightly more rustic options but is still very wellplaced to explore the area. A walk through the fields at the rear of the property brings you to one of the famous sarcophagi of the ancient Chachapoyas people right in the mountainside.

B&B’s are available throughout the region and offer a costeffective way to sample real Peruvian hospitality, but be sure to check reviews carefully and ensure that accommodations are suitable for families.

THE REBEL ISSUE

Why We Should Encourage Our Kids to Do Semi-Dangerous Things

by Stacy Tornio I heard the panic in her voice. “I can’t look! You’re going to fall.” It was just me and four kids, about three hours from home at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and I wasn’t looking for any drama.

What if one of them fell? What if one broke an ankle?

“I’m coming!” I shouted as I ran toward the panicked voice.

As I rounded the curve of the trail, I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I saw my two kids balancing on a giant fallen log, hanging about 15 feet above the ground, totally OK. Their two friends were watching with a mix of caution and intrigue. “You don’t care if they do that?” one of them asked me. “Nah,” I said. “Go ahead. Try it.”

The bottom line is that we need to back off when kids play so that they can face their fears, become more independent, and become problem solvers.

green light for semi-dangerous activity #1.

So if you’re a parent who believes in the “1970s summer,” or just letting your kids experience some of the childhood that you did, how do you do this? Let’s all try to encourage more semidangerous (but not truly dangerous) behavior.

A lack of independence is a result of overprotective parenting. More independence might mean a skinned knee or some bruised elbows, but we owe it to our kids. They need to be able to cope when they’re 23, and their girlfriend dumped them. Or when they’re 30, and they lose their job.

I’ve done a fair about of research and writing in this area. I’ve written books about nature, the outdoors, and getting kids outside. I’m also involved in, and believe in the work of, the Children & Nature Network, a group that works to show how critical it is to get kids outside. From this work and my observations as a parent, I believe most of the things we can encourage our kids to do fall into one of three areas: more talking, more independence, and more climbing.

M O R E TA L K I N G

This doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, even though studies show us that the long-term impacts of overprotection are real. A 2016 article in Psychology Today cites stress as being a good thing for kids to learn to deal with. In particular, “safe stress,” which includes everyday stress triggers like problemsolving on the playground or doing homework, helps brain development. Anxiety and depression are also cited as potential side effects of not giving kids room to roam.

Don’t just stop at climbing. Let’s encourage our kids to explore.

Bugs? Yes. Trees? Absolutely. Dark caves? Oh yeah (even if some of us need a flashlight because we don’t like the dark).

Kids are texting more and talking less. Research conducted

by The Pew Research Center has found that more than half of teens are communicating with their friends via messaging devices instead of face-to-face. The long-term impacts of this are still being worked out, but we know that technology can be addicting and that kids are not developing basic communication skills. A study out of UCLA found that kids who had far less screen time on a daily basis were much better at reading emotions overall.

Now let’s tie this back to encouraging semi-dangerous behavior.

Talking isn’t dangerous, right? It’s not, but I suggest we go back to something we’ve been engrained NOT to teach our kids to do. I think we should encourage kids to talk to strangers.

(Gasp! Stranger danger!) We need to teach our kids how to talk, engage, and make conversation with people around them. So

6 Daring Activities for Adventurous Kids

A couple of months after the log incident happened with my kids and their friends, we were at the beach splashing through the freezing cold Lake Michigan waves and covering themselves in sand that I’m still cleaning out of my car today. While they were having an awesome time, I saw a mom scold her 3-year-old for getting wet. “I told you not to go that close to the water!” she said. “We don’t have a change of clothes.”

She probably had no idea how ridiculous she sounded, but it was a sad to see a child get in trouble for something so simple.

She was just being a kid.

I’m guilty of this, too. I find myself stopping my kids from exploring in the woods (“You’ll get poison ivy!) or getting mad when their shoes are covered in mud (“Those are new shoes!).

But we can rewire our thinking. Instead of being worried about poison ivy, I can teach my kids how to identify it. Instead of being mad about the new shoes getting muddy, I can make sure they have old shoes easily available instead.

It seems odd to encourage any kind of dangerous activity with our kids, but it’s actually for their own good, positively influencing both their mental and physical health. As parents, let’s all make a vow to stop the helicoptering. Let’s stop being overprotective, and instead put those efforts into climbing across the logs with our kids.

6 Daring Activities For Adventurous Families

1. Walk across a log: Think you have good balance? Put it to the test! Find a giant log on the ground of a forest to walk across. (Tip: Holding your hands out like a T really does help you bal- ance!) You've got this!

1. Everyone find a bug …and touch it! Most bugs do not bite, sting, or cause harm. There’s no reason to be afraid. So challenge everyone in your family to find a cool bug. Those who are brave enough can even touch it.

2. Stick your head out the window: Buckle your seatbelt, roll your window down, and feel the wind blowing through your hair. Stick your tongue out. Maybe even give a shout.

2. Saw, hammer, and build something: Resist the urge to do the sawing and hammering for your kids. Let them be involved in the entire process. Good woodworking projects could include a planter box or birdhouse.

3. Cook something by yourself: Start with scrambled eggs. You’ll have to make sure you don’t get any shell when you crack it. (Hint: Don’t have the heat too high or they’ll cook too fast.) If you want to challenge yourself, try over easy eggs.

3. Have a wrestling match: Set the rules, pick your music, and then let the family wrestling tour- nament begin.

4. Hang out in your backyard by yourself: Sometimes it’s good to just have some alone time. It makes you think of things you’d never think of with others around. Some people love alone time while others find it a challenge. What is it like for you?

4. Climb to the top of something: …like a roof. Do you have a ladder? How about a roof? Now it’s time to combine the two to have an epic family climbing adventure.

5. Climb a tree: Avoid ones with thorns or really scratchy branches like evergreens. Look for a tree with big, thick lower branches. If the lower branch is too high, have someone give you a boost!

6. Jump your bike off a ramp: Whether you try making your own or go to a local skate park, this is a good one (and one of the most challenging ones). You might need to solicit help from a par- ent to double check the safety before you try it on your own. Keep in mind that it’s important to start small and build it up as you get better and better!

5. Sleep out in the open: Lots of families camp, but if you want to take it up a notch, try sleeping out under the stars. Yep, no tent over your heads!

6. Start a fire: Show your kids the proper technique to build a good fire. (There are YouTube clips for that, too!) Let your kids help use the matches!

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

At the time, the whole thing made me giggle. But as I reflected back on it, it made me realize just how sheltered we’ve become.

Something as simple as balancing on a fallen log isn’t encouraged anymore, it’s considered dangerous or seen as a disturbance of the natural space. And it isn’t the only activity that has gone by the wayside of yesterday’s childhood.

We seem to be terrified of letting our kids explore the world in fear of them getting hurt. It’s so common that there’s even a term for it now—helicopter parenting, a phrase coined in the 1990s by child development researchers Foster Cline and Jim Fay.

MORE CLIMBING

more talking more independence more climbing

My son’s friend joined him up on the log, walking slowly at first and then finally speeding across with ease. My daughter’s friend wasn’t quite sure, but she climbed to the edge and then slowly scooted across on her bottom.

Skipping rocks? Someone will probably end up throwing rocks at someone’s head, so that’s a definite no go. Inspecting a bug?

It could bite!

MORE INDEPENDENCE

ISSUE ONE

HOW TO LIVE

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

Words of Wisdom from the Black Sheep/Wrong Side of the Tracks/ Non-Conformist/Rebels of our Favorite 80’s Flicks & Sitcoms

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THE REBEL ISSUE

ADVICE NOT FOUND ON GOOGLE

LIES TO TELL MILLENNIALS:

Advice from Dispatch founder Jess Davis.

Dished to whoever asks for it. Follow advice at your own risk.

field for other farmers to later pick.

Avocado Toast is the leading cause of dementia.

Selfie Sticks are legally classified

Word.

from MS

as weapons in 14 states.

Paperclip

It’s pronounced å“Luh Croycks.”

Reykjavik is outlawing ‘gramming in the Blue Lagoon.

Photos you delete off your phone get directly sent to your cell phone service provider and saved on a massive

you try.

elbow. If

your

can lick

actually

server organized by number.

You

You can, and you will, learn to build and grow an online business while maintaining a healthy offline life. @thisnakedlife your focus for 2018 is going to be BATCHING and BOUNDARIES. Just because you work in a world (the internet) that never rests and is always accessible doesn’t mean you have to be. Decide your “office hours” and then stick to them. The best defense if a good offense so over-communicate what your availability will be by shouting it from the mountaintops; post it on your site, social media, drop it into your email signature, and tell people face to face. Then write. Write your heart out each day when you feel the most creative. Set a start and stop time and then go for a walk. Later in that day, or earlier the next, prepare it for online and post. Eventually you can create a backlog of evergreen content and pre-planned posts. I’m not the most organized person but planning ahead, creating communication boundaries, and not letting the fluidity of the internet seep into every crevice of my life has made me a better person, more productive, and a higher quality writer. You can do it!

technique of labeling potatoes in the

is the

When looking to create behavior changes it’s important to understand how people react to outer and inner expectations. Gretchen Rubin, the author of the Four Tendencies, has created a framework of four very different archetypes; the Upholder, the Obliger, the Questioner, the Rebel. How you talk to your son if he’s Obliger versus if he’s a Rebel would be entirely different. So step 1 is finding out which he identifies as, so you can hone your approach. Step 2 is educating and arming yourself with tools so you can better understand, and explain.

Check out a screening of the documentary Screenagers. Create some easy family changes to start; 9-9 tech free, no phones in bedroom, devices free meals, and make sure you are not a “do as I say, not as I do” parent.

Hold that mirror up to yourself mama and make sure you’re showing good habits as an example. Lastly, and the most important piece, is to put something where the device/social media/ digital communication once was. Creating a vacuum only creates anxiety and hurts your cause. I suggest incorporating new hobbies and bedtime rituals that will lessen the crave, pull, and itch that the digital addiction creates. Start a book series, intro to meditation, family walks at 8pm, journaling, learn to play the ukulele, and encourage those offline face to face friendships….be the house all the kids hang at so they don’t need to spend their nights talking via text.

“Hashtag” comes from an old farming

Siri’s dad

I have a blog where I post honest stories about day to day struggles and day to day joys.

I want it to grow. I want to be writing full-time, but I also want to live offline as much as possible. Any insight on how to grow a brand while being as disconnected from the online world would be so helpful!

– @thisnakedlife

Big Load Of Garbage

The struggle isn’t real.

I need help! Any tips for how to kindly ask my boyfriend to get the fuck off Reddit without me coming off as Satan?? We have a healthy relationship, but this kills some of my favorite moments of doing nothing together. – @stuph_kid

65

Oh the black hole of online arguments...I mean discussions. First off @stuph_kid see the question above from @rachelridleyyoga. Find out what type of archetype he is so you can better craft your non-Satan-voice ask. The key thing for you to realize is that he might not be able to help himself. This stuff (refreshing comments, the pings from new notifications, the endless scroll) is all created to keep his attention. The more attention he gives it, the more addicted he becomes. Unfortunately we are in a capitalistic society that is making money off of his eyeballs and it’s not going away anytime soon. I’ve found that finger wagging, pointing, and general looking down your nose on a loved one has the exact opposite re-

action we intend. When approaching him keep it light, use words like “we” instead of “he” or “you”, and when in doubt distract with things he likes more than internet trolls….ideally you.

I challenge you to challenge him to one week no reddit. You also need to give something up for 7 days so it’s a together vs. him thing. When he feels the need to scroll, ask that he turns to you for snuggles, laughs, makeouts, dancing, talking, tickling, whatever you can get up to, that creates connection. And maybe, just maybe, that’ll wake him up.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

My 16 year old son would happily stay on his phone, on social media, until midnight … even with school the next day. I’m aware how much it disrupts his sleep, but he just thinks I’m nagging. How can I help him understand the negative impact and encourage better technology boundaries?

Thanks! – @rachelridleyyoga

BLOG stands for

Jeremyville @jeremyville

Mathew Zaremba @matthewzaremba

Brendan Leonard @semi_rad @brooklyncartoons

THE REBEL ISSUE

FUNNIES

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T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

X-WORD

ISSUE ONE

MASH mansion

apt.

shack house alter-ego *For your rebel

INSTRUCTIONS: 1.Draw a spiral in the box and count how many lines it has. That is your “magic number”.

2. Start with the M at the top, moving clockwise, count each option until you reach the magic number. Cross off the option you land on.

3. Continue around the page, skipping the marked off option until you only have one option left in each category.

4. Circle the last option in each category.

5. This is your future.

RELATIONSHIP 1.

2.

3.

4.

Started in bar bathroom Polyamorous No time for that shit Netflix & chill

JOB

1. Careers are a 20th century invention (& I don’t want one) 2. Taking down the patriarchy 3. Consultant a.k.a. founder a.k.a. entrepreneur a.k.a. unemployed 4. Ironic 9-5

TRANSPORTATION

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Hitchhike Eco-conscious commuter Motorcycle Borrowed 2005 Ford Taurus

HOBBIES

1. Needlepoint ‘Fuck Off’ pillows 2. Hopping fences 3. Bathing in the tears of haters 4. Switching decaf herbal tea bags with caffeinated ones

LOCATION 1.

2.

3.

4.

Yoga commune in Costa Rica Off the grid cabin in Montana Upper East Side Manhattan Kansas

CREATIVE SIDE PROJECT

1. Band name consultant 2. Chick lit novella based on dates via Bumble & Tinder 3. Gluten free pizza instagrammer 4. Netflix Pilot about your #vanlife roadtrip across America to find yourself

THE REBEL ISSUE

CLASSIFIEDS WANTED

List-maker to record things I forgot, but should really look up soon. May include, but not limited to:

INSTANT TIME MACHINE MAKER Tools provided.

Experience preferred.

Compensation includes high fives, handwritten thank you notes, and a round of drinks.

We’re looking for you to transport us to summers spent road tripping in the family sedan and/or our angsty teenage years. We may also ask to relive those particularly heartbroken months in our early twenties. You know, for nostalgia's sake. We believe music is the quickest way to travel back in time and are looking for mixed tapes that will do just that. Knowledge of good soul music, 80’s hair bands, and classic rock n’ roll a must.

• Lyrics to Beastie Boys “Brass Monkey”.

• Ramen noodle place in Hell’s Kitchen.

• Quickest bike route to my childhood best friend’s house.

• The name of this constellation:

• The smell of my grandmother’s perfume.

• All of the rules for kickball.

CHARADES TEAM… …seeks extroverted member well-versed in John Hughes films.

SEEKIN G

PREINTERNET INSPIRATION

FOR SALE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA Complete set, 2007 Edition.

22 Volumes.

Excellent Condition. $1,600 or best offer.

No longer needed, because Google.

APOLOGY NOTICE: I hereby sincerely apologize to my younger self for no longer riding my bike without the handlebars, climbing trees, and spending hours daydreaming in the backyard. I’m also sorry I didn’t go wholeheartedly after your dream of being a backup singer for Stevie Nicks. I promise to spend more time coloring outside the lines and playing outside until dinnertime.

PARTNER IN CRIME.

DONATIONS NEEDED:

Non-conformists only.

Hula hoop experience a plus.

•CONNECTION •FAITH •INSPIRATION •MOTIVATION •PEACE •SERENITY •LOVE

NOW HIRING: In need of boozy brunch companion to lament over the worlds problems and recent heartaches while sitting on barstools. Option to toast to success instead.

Zero content to be published on social media. Ever.

This includes selfies and pictures of our avocado toast.

69

LOST + FOUND FOUND: Hours of sleep found scrolling through puppy Instagram accounts.

LOST: Pack of matches from Arthur’s Tavern with a 718 phone number scribbled inside. Two matches missing because I didn’t text her at the bar.

LOST: Muddy Converse from childhoods spent climbing trees and staying out until dark.

FOUND: Daydreaming found battling it out in the comments of a political post on Facebook.

MISSED CONNECTIONS: I was swiping left on Bumble when you bumped into me leaving the F train on 23rd. What happened to swiping right IRL? To the police officer who pulled me over on the corner of Rowe and Second while trying to catch Pokemon at 2 in the morning. I just want to say, you are gorgeous, that is all.

T H E D I S PAT C H BY F O L K R E B E L L I O N

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