“With the time I had available I’ve been of service to all kids and future generations.”
“I knew at 22 I'd pour my life force and maternal instincts into building a more just and liveable future for all. I've never looked back or had any regrets!”
After growing up at the mall in So Cali (oh mi god!) I realized that, as I said it then, “like underneath the pavement is like a living planet, Gaia! I never knew and like I wanna save her”.
I graduated college in 1990 when everyone was first declaring “it’s Earth Day every day”, having studied Environmental Studies and learned that population was a key driver of pressures on the planet and more-than-human world.
The only reason I didn’t tie my tubes right after college was because my mom begged me not to thinking I’d change my mind, but I knew at 22 I’d pour my life force and maternal instincts into building a more just and livable future for all. I’ve never looked back or had any regrets!
I’ve been a cool, quirky and reliable auntie to many and changed my fair share of diapers whilst granting friends their first postpartum date nights. I’ve also logged hours doing dishes for new moms, including sneaking into their houses and cleaning kitchens as a show of appreciation.
Most critically I’ve trained thousands of young adults (and mid-career professionals) in public speaking and the art of communicating with impact about their quest for social justice and ecological sanity. Later on I picked up the charge of shepherding other people’s kids, 40 at a time, teaching university students, and inspiring them too to work for a healthy planet.
I’ve travelled the world working on efforts to protect wild places and to the many United Nations conferences to urge global leaders to do the same. It’s been a great run and every time the topic of being childless comes up, my nesting partner and I high five that we chose not to be parents.
While I understand my relative privilege as a working-class 56-year-old post-menopausal white-presenting cis woman, I am polyamorous, unmarried and childless and that feels like a piece that has been at times marginalized. I also manage complex chronic illness. I am not sharing these identities to make a case for inclusion because I am thrilled that you are focusing on spotlighting BIPOC and LGBTQAI folks (as I have done in my work as well!) I just wanted to acknowledge that these parts of my life have led to past marginalization.
With the time I had available I’ve been service to all kids and future generations.
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