The Radical Pragmatist

By Dr. Andy

Dispatch #4: it feels like the world is burning.

#3・ Jul 21, 2022

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Dispatch #4: it feels like the world is burning.

By Dr. Andy • Issue #3 • View online

Let’s commiserate together, shall we?

If you didn’t get our last email, check your spam…move these emails to your “priority” inbox…send up a signal flare.

I’m exhausted. Not just the super tired, spend a day on the couch exhausted…I’m talking about burnout. Full-on. Burnt. Toast.

I’m not really surprised though—I’ve not taken a proper holiday for going on 8 years. Not that I really knew how to vacation before that, either. As a Midwestern kid, work was how you showed value and was a way to feel accomplished. Sure, there were some really good summers spent by someone’s pool or in the U.P. but, since college, I’ve either been working an actual job or doing several summer hustles.

Prior to the pandemic, that felt normal…I mean it had to. As an educator, money is never really in abundance and it feels good to work. At least it did. In recent months, I’ve begun to really reflect on what my life is without work; about how my engrained need to be working or productive is really beneficial to my overall wellbeing or if it is related to a greater societal issue. Probably, both. That’s why I go to therapy.

Yet, before I could really make any real decisions, my body made them for me…and it’s yelling at me that I need a break. As I’ve started the tenure and promotion process at my university, I’ve felt a significant change in the weight of how I feel. The bleak freedom of knowing that no matter what I do in this upcoming year, none of it will have impact on that decision (mostly). It’s oddly freeing…and that doesn’t feel right.

In a society that lifts the bar higher for every person that climbs over it and that bar has no concrete footing, abstraction leads to uncertainty. Panic. Stress. We’ve created all of it. Ultimately, I think all of us have an inner desire to create to help others to learn but we’ve coopted these pleasures and spoilt them with the need to be productive. It’s draining. Exhausting.

It’s not a society that I want to perform for,

But where is the off ramp?

And I know this newsletter is like 90% of me telling you all the stuff I’ve been doing and will be doing. It’s maybe a part of the problem.

So I’m taking a break. Not for good. Just through August.

I’m taking space. To read. To rest. To rebel.

These last few months have been a grind but I’m excited for the direction that my scholarly activities are heading in.

Last week, I presented a meta-synthesis on the ableist barriers to sport and leisure activities for disabled persons at the NCPEID annual conference. You can listen to the audio and download the slides from my portfolio.
This article that I wrote with colleagues at UNT continues to get attention. We explored the intersection of gender and disability on the 2018 of the winter Paralympic Games. Spoiler alert: its not great.
In an effort to practice public pedagogy and learning, I’ve started reckless(ish) abandon. I’ve already written a few things and will be doing so on a more regular basis in the fall.

After proofing the cover, my first co-edited book, Not Playing Around: Intersectional Identities, Media Representation, & the Power of Sport, is starting to feel really real. So far, production has been going smoothly and the publisher is still projecting an October 2022 release—which is the same month as my birthday(!). I’ll share more info and where to pre-order as soon as I am able.
New episodes of Disability, Movement, Etcetera will be coming soon. You can listen to my last episode with Syren Nagakyrie, founder of Disabled Hikers, on the pod’s website or in most places you might listen to podcasts. You can also rewatch our conversation on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe everywhere so you never miss an episode.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to thinking a lot about my writing practice, including this newsletter…let me know what you’d like to see in this space by filling out this form.

It seems a great deal is misunderstood regarding the “debate” around including transgender athletes in sport. This article in Outside Magazine does an alright job exploring this complex topic. However, it seems there is still a limited consensus on what “fairness” is in sport as well as little acknowledgement of how such “discussions” are rooted in misogynist beliefs.
Recess is still being taken away from kids as a punishment. Make sure to check with your local school districts to make sure that there is policy against this practice.
I hate everything about the current discussions regarding school safety in the wake of the most recent mass shootings. Making schools even more like prisons in the US is at the top of that list.
Did you know that I try to share a picture from my week and what I’m reading over the weekend on most Fridays? Check out here. we. are. and subscribe.

Most recently, our adopted pup, Artemis, has become an ambassador for Pack Leashes. Use code ‘ThatHippiePup’ for 15% off. A portion of every sale goes to feeding dogs in shelters.

Outside of me taking time off…I have been selected as a speaker for the TEDxUNT event in September 2022. Register to receive the recorded link or show up in person!

Here I go. Vacation starting. In three…two…o

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By Dr. Andy

A semi-regular, non-serious, mostly snarky snapshot of academic and non-academic information on disability, physical activity, & accessibility.

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