Introduction to Becks’ Note
Oh, Hi! I’m Becks. I am an aspiring writer who has been holding ideas in my overcrowded head and innumerable notebooks as long as I can remember. I went to school for journalism and communications, earning a diploma and bachelors degree. I’ve mostly done proofreading and formatting work, letting my dreams of being a writer take the back-burner to everything else. This year, I’ve decided enough is enough. Life isn’t guaranteed and my fears of failure, rejection, and judgment aren’t going to hold me back any longer.
So, here we are, or at least I hope it’s a we, as I am currently posting this to a brand new website into the void of cyberspace. I don’t have a coherent plan for this space. I only know that I want to share my thoughts, perspective, humour, and stories. I hope that these writings will resonate with people and that a community of folks can come together to exchange ideas and support.
During my bachelor degree, I had a phenomenal professor. She was a journalist by trade — PhD by education. During one of her seminars we focused on the future of journalism as a medium. Many think that journalism is a lost art. Most media these days is biased. With the urgency of a 24 hour, instantaneously accessible news cycle, the number of one sided, misinformed, or dis informed articles seems to only be increasing. This outstanding professor taught me that the idea that unbiased media has ever existed is false. Human beings aren’t truly capable of being unbiased. We are able to take another perspective. We are able to learn from different experiences and points of view. However, we will forever be filtering things through our own individual perspectives. Her solution was to divulge these view points to readers. Allow them to see your political view, your socio-economic status, your ethnic and gender identities. In doing so, you lay bare your biases, whether conscious or unconscious. The reader is then able be informed of these and take them into account while reading your piece. It is for this reason, I wanted my first post to be an introduction to me. Once you know a bit about me, you’ll know a) whether you think you’d even want to read my opinion on anything and b) you’ll be able to see my biases when they pop up and adjust your reading or interpretation as needed.
So, I want to share a bit more about myself to give you background on why I might write about something or why I might believe/feel/think a certain way. I am a non-binary, Canadian of European descent. I was born and raised in western Canada. I grew up in a home with feminist parents, who both worked outside the home. One as a banker, one as a trades person. I attended an incredibly diverse high school, even for a large city. My graduating class was over 500 people. I went on to get my journalism diploma. While at school, I met my husband. Now at almost 40, I see that we were still babies when we met, and the fact that we have been together 19 years, married for 16, boggles my mind. We have two incredible children, both teenagers at the moment. Incredible here can take the positive or negative connotation depending on the hour or the day. They are really lovely kids though, I say as only a mother can (see the bias (wink emoji)).
Okay, that’s the personal stuff. Now to the political stuff. I don’t belong to any party in Canadian politics. I don’t believe that anyone should be a member of a party unless they are running as a candidate. Citizens should feel free to vote for the best candidate in their riding, whether that is a Conservative when they normally vote Liberal or an NDP when they have historically voted Conservative. I believe in election reform both Federally and Provincially. As I don’t belong to any one party, I’m often asked to explain my political thinking. I’ll do my best to describe that now.
I believe that all humans deserve the basic dignity of a home, healthcare, community, and secure access to food.
I believe that everyone should be able to live the life that best suits them, their circumstances, and their beliefs as long as it does not infringe on anyone’s ability to do the same.
I believe religious dogma has no place in government policy including education.
I believe in paying higher taxes if it means that #1 is possible for everyone.
A good summary of my political outlook could be “Secular Hippy”. Many a friend has described me as “crunch” and “SJW”. I don’t balk at either of those. But I am a bit more than that as well.
Alright, so I’ve covered my background, my political views. Now I guess, I should share a bit about my personal beliefs. From point #2 above, you’d be forgiven if you assumed I was an atheist. To be honest, from the age of 21 to my early 30’s I described myself that way. However, I realize now that agnostic would have been better. I was raised in the United Church. If you aren’t familiar with it, this is a progressive Christian sect. They were the first in Canada to have female and gay ministers. They are often pushing for inclusion throughout society. The community that a church provides has always been tempting for me, but I’ve felt like a fraud whenever I’ve attended as an adult. I think Jesus was an wickedly cool person. I believe if more people, especially self proclaimed Christians, followed his example our world would be a very different place. I don’t believe that Jesus was god (the holy trinity) nor do I believe he was more divine than any other being. So, Christian churches don’t work for me. I’ve attended Quaker meetings, but again the Christian belief created friction for me.
Now I describe myself as “the least woo woo, woo woo person” you’ll probably meet. I am spiritual, honour my ancestors, practice Reiki, and meditate. I’ve been know to attend moon circles and ceremonies (or “witchy things” as my husband lovingly refers to them). I try to do yoga daily, my best friend and yoga teacher would tell you I’m very bad at this part LOL. I believe that the universe is vast, beautiful, and terrible. Ultimately we don’t really know anything about how any of this really works. I don’t mean to say that science is bullshit. The earth is round, medicine is real. Not understanding how something works does not negate the fact that others do understand and study it. I don’t believe that science and spirituality are mutually exclusive. Our ancestors’ stories about how they understood their world to work, myths, are powerful and should not be discarded for science. They should be told along side it. Although I have my own beliefs based on my own experiences, I don’t expect overarching reality to necessarily support them. I’m happy to hear about other people’s faiths, or lack there of. I am ferocious lay-scholar of religion and its adjacent subjects. I suspect that many of my posts will expand on both my political and spiritual beliefs, and theories I have around them, so I won’t blither on about them any longer.
Lastly, I’ll leave you with my diagnoses. I have struggled with major depressive and generalized anxiety disorder since my teens. I was diagnosed neuro-spicy in my 30’s (AuDHD) and I suspect if I’d had the support for the spicy brainwaves bouncing around in my noggin, I wouldn’t have suffered the depression and anxiety part so badly. I have Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). This is the umbrella term for things like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, long COVID, etc. This means that I’m doubly lucky to be considered disabled by developmental and physical means. I occasionally require the help of a cane to safely get around and have needed to use a wheelchair during certain activities (i.e. taking my kid to the amusement park). I share my diagnoses with you, not for your pity, but to preemptively explain my perspective on various things.
Well, there you have it. A (not) so quick introduction to me, so you can interpret my writing. I will try to find a way to code my posts in case you identify with one aspect but no another. Hope you all join me for this writing journey, again fingers crossed other humans read this.
In kindness,
Becks
