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psongster's Journal
Created on 2004-11-10 00:25:16 (#5094612), last updated 2009-09-18
2,374 comments received, 3,032 comments posted
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521 Journal Entries, 0 Tags, 0 Memories, 0 Virtual Gifts, 1 Userpic
Basic Info| Name: | psongster |
|---|
BioI find it difficult to describe myself. I can't start by saying, "I am a [professional identity]," since (to my great disappointment) I don't currently have a career. I've had chronic fatigue syndrome since I was twenty-two (1988), which is much of why I don't have a career, but I don't want to identify myself as a sick-person either. So here are some pieces of the kaleidoscope ...
I often describe myself as an intellectual omnivore -- I'm an intellectual, definitely, and my interests are wide-ranging. I have a Ph.D. in American Studies, through which I studied and taught American cultural and intellectual history, the history of gender, the history of sexuality, the history of education, and the history of social thought. I have taught at Boston University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I also have a masters of theological studies, which focused on connections between gender and religion. As an undergraduate I did a double major in biology and religion and a concentration in women's studies. When people asked me about the combination, I explained that the two majors gave me different perspectives on what it is to be a human being, while the women's studies gave me a theoretical perspective that tied it all together.
I have published two books. The first was a young adults' biography of Lydia Maria Child. The second is called "Reinventing Marriage" and is about a couple who married in 1887 and tried to create a different sort of marriage -- one based on companionship and two separate professional careers. I have written much of a third book on the history of Americans' attitudes towards taxes (and how they are related to ideas of community, citizenship, power, and religion), but I've given up (at least for now) on getting that finished and published.
I am a gardener. I grow lots of vegetables and flowers, some fruit, and no lawn. I love being in relationship with this small patch of earth and all the things living on it. I might call my philosophy organic plus ... my goal is to build the health of the community of living things we call soil, and encourage an abundance of beauty, tastiness, and biodiversity on my small suburban plot. I'm also beginning to branch out towards gardening elsewhere, most notably on a traffic circle near my house. And I much enjoy doing garden consultations.
I am a Unitarian Universalist. I grew up UU and was in seminary planning to become a UU minister when I got sick. For seventeen years I was not a member of any religious community -- partly because of my own spiritual struggles, but more because I was putting as much of my physical energy as I could into my professional work, and there was none left for church. I started to attend my local UU church in September 2006 and joined in January 2007. This felt like both a homecoming and a rebirth, and it has brought me much joy.
I am partnered with a wonderful person whom I love deeply and hope and expect to be with for the rest of our lives.
I am polyamorous, which for me means that I am happiest when I am deeply close to two people. I have not been in such a situation since 1994.
I would like to have more work in my life. I want to feel like I am giving more to the world. I cannot handle a standard full-time job -- my body collapses. So I am looking for part-time work and/or episodic work (paid or unpaid, depending) that my body can handle and that gives me a feeling of using some of my abilities and serving the world. In some ways I am quite capable -- I think of myself as a good learner, a good writer, a good teacher, a good organizer. But one track of my brain always needs to be devoted to medical self-management -- there are so many things I cannot do, or must do only in particular ways, if I am not to pay a high price in pain and fatigue. And my capabilities vary greatly from day to day, week to week. I am blessed with much freedom, and for that I am truly grateful. But I would like to feel I am putting my freedom to better use.
I often describe myself as an intellectual omnivore -- I'm an intellectual, definitely, and my interests are wide-ranging. I have a Ph.D. in American Studies, through which I studied and taught American cultural and intellectual history, the history of gender, the history of sexuality, the history of education, and the history of social thought. I have taught at Boston University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I also have a masters of theological studies, which focused on connections between gender and religion. As an undergraduate I did a double major in biology and religion and a concentration in women's studies. When people asked me about the combination, I explained that the two majors gave me different perspectives on what it is to be a human being, while the women's studies gave me a theoretical perspective that tied it all together.
I have published two books. The first was a young adults' biography of Lydia Maria Child. The second is called "Reinventing Marriage" and is about a couple who married in 1887 and tried to create a different sort of marriage -- one based on companionship and two separate professional careers. I have written much of a third book on the history of Americans' attitudes towards taxes (and how they are related to ideas of community, citizenship, power, and religion), but I've given up (at least for now) on getting that finished and published.
I am a gardener. I grow lots of vegetables and flowers, some fruit, and no lawn. I love being in relationship with this small patch of earth and all the things living on it. I might call my philosophy organic plus ... my goal is to build the health of the community of living things we call soil, and encourage an abundance of beauty, tastiness, and biodiversity on my small suburban plot. I'm also beginning to branch out towards gardening elsewhere, most notably on a traffic circle near my house. And I much enjoy doing garden consultations.
I am a Unitarian Universalist. I grew up UU and was in seminary planning to become a UU minister when I got sick. For seventeen years I was not a member of any religious community -- partly because of my own spiritual struggles, but more because I was putting as much of my physical energy as I could into my professional work, and there was none left for church. I started to attend my local UU church in September 2006 and joined in January 2007. This felt like both a homecoming and a rebirth, and it has brought me much joy.
I am partnered with a wonderful person whom I love deeply and hope and expect to be with for the rest of our lives.
I am polyamorous, which for me means that I am happiest when I am deeply close to two people. I have not been in such a situation since 1994.
I would like to have more work in my life. I want to feel like I am giving more to the world. I cannot handle a standard full-time job -- my body collapses. So I am looking for part-time work and/or episodic work (paid or unpaid, depending) that my body can handle and that gives me a feeling of using some of my abilities and serving the world. In some ways I am quite capable -- I think of myself as a good learner, a good writer, a good teacher, a good organizer. But one track of my brain always needs to be devoted to medical self-management -- there are so many things I cannot do, or must do only in particular ways, if I am not to pay a high price in pain and fatigue. And my capabilities vary greatly from day to day, week to week. I am blessed with much freedom, and for that I am truly grateful. But I would like to feel I am putting my freedom to better use.
ConnectInterests (26):
american history, biology, climate change, compost, dancing, ecology, economics, effective philanthropy, feminism, friendship, gardening, gender issues, healthy cooking, history of sexuality, history of social thought, liberal/progressive politics, nature photography, nutrition, psinging, resource conservation, singing, sustainable agriculture, the qur'an, unitarian universalism, urban nature, wealth and poverty
Schools:
Swarthmore College - Swarthmore, PA (1982 - 1987)Harvard University, Harvard Divinity School - Cambridge, MA (1988 - 1990)
Boston University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Boston, MA (1991 - 1999)
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