Cindy B.

It was my pleasure, Kristie! I will certainly be following your writing going forward. 💗

with alt text, because everyone needs to be able to read this 😭

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky url: academic.oup.com/icb/article-...

Another day another chance to meet crisis from a different worldview than the one that created it. Be weird. Be experimental. Be bold. Be connected and brave and remember that what lasts in this complex swirl of life and matter is what fits in and flows and balances taking and giving.

It strikes me that this is true growing up: having the courage and honesty to be open about what isn't working, and to - piece by piece - to build a better tomorrow for ourselves and those whom we love.

Brava, @kristiedegaris.bsky.social!

13/13

Learning to tune into herself and her needs, she slowly built a new life for herself and her daughters ... one that included arrangements that worked for them even as they were unconventional.

12/13

She found sobriety - no, she *chose* sobriety.

Eventually she was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and found further help with medication. Over time, she recognized her dysfunctional patterns with romantic partners, and chose respecting and caring for herself over male approval.

11/13

She doesn't wallow in the pain of those years, but they are important in the assessment of the things that needed to be changed or at the very least acknowledged, broken down in size, and set in their appropriate place.

10/13

She explores her early adult years of alcohol abuse, depression, abusive relationships, etc.

9/13

Likewise, De Garis observes her childhood - growing up relatively poor; having parents who couldn't provide a stable, safe, and loving home; encountering race-based slurs from other kids; and struggling to succeed at school without understanding why.

8/13

Bit by bit throughout the book, she describes this beautiful, meditative, and very physical craft. This includes examining a structure for damage, carefully removing the stones as needed, and then rebuilding and re-integrating the stones.

7/13

In addition to being a writer and photographer, De Garis is a drystone builder (drystone being a practice/trade of carefully shaping and stacking stones to build walls and other structures without mortar).

6/13

When family members are disappointing or abusive, or when the world demands that we be X when we can only be Y, the assumptions we make about ourselves can be extraordinarily painful.

5/13

When you are a child with limited information about yourself and the world around you, your brain naturally makes tells itself stories to make sense of things.

4/13

As I was reading this memoir, I thought of so many of my friends who would be able to relate to it.

Certainly, having grown up in a different part of the world as a child within an immigrant family traumatized by a different history, I found parts of her story very relatable.

3/13

"Drystone" is a lot like the country in which it takes place. The ruggedness and poetry of Scotland are reflected in this story of a woman who is coming to terms with the legacies of family trauma, racism, sexism, and undiagnosed neurodiversity.

2/13

A photo of the cover of the book, "Drystone: A Life Rebuilt" by Kristie De Garis. The cover includes some rock-like shapes that are dark with some jewel tones. These shapes are loosely organized and some of them have words from the book's subtitle on them. The dust cover shows some obvious wear at the edges.

NEW BOOK REVIEW - "Drystone: A Life Rebuilt" by Kristie De Garis

1/13

Bluesky is THE platform for science. It’s also THE platform for city-building and urbanism.

How is it possible that anything about the funding fight does not include at the absolute minimum releasing every child from these concentration camps?

I first experienced "Being Heumann" as an audiobook from the Toronto Public Library, and felt uplifted and energized by it.

If you've read it - or decide to read it - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

12/12

Oh, and I should note that universities and hospitals FOUGHT the law that would have required accessibility because they didn't want the associated costs. Hmm sounds familiar ... (But they eventually lost!)

11/12

... above all determination to believe in oneself and stay engaged in the fight.

10/12

framing effective messaging and leveraging media, breaking down silos that existed for people of different disabilities to create a larger coalition, unswerving commitment to respectful inclusion, building alliances with other groups (Vietnam war veterans, labour unions, etc.), and ...

9/12

... not necessarily all of the tactics (I'm not sure that sit-ins would be successful today, with more militarized police/security forces) but the strategies are gold:

8/12

It's a very human (pun acknowledged if not intended lol) story, a roller-coaster of disappointments, camaraderie, determination, and joy. There are many lessons to be absorbed through this enjoyable read ...

7/12

And so began a lifetime of advocacy and activism for accessibility rights to be legally and practically established in America and in many countries around the world.

6/12

She sought legal support from the ACLU, only to be informed that her rights had not been violated, because the Civil Rights Act (1964) spoke to discrimination based on gender, race, national origin, and religion ... but not (dis)ability.

5/12

Heumann, who needed a wheelchair due to polio contracted as an infant, had intended to be an elementary school teacher, but the New York City Board of Education refused to license her because they saw her disability as a "safety risk".

4/12

"Being Heumann" is a fun and quick-paced memoir of someone who was involved in the first wave of the disability rights movement in the U.S. in the 1960s onward. It's a great view into how few protections people with disabilities had from discrimination, and what it took to generate change.

3/12

Disability has significant intersectionality with the Still COVIDing movement, so I'm sharing this book review ... It's valuable to understand some of the origins/history of the disability rights movement, for context and appreciation.

2/12