Early July Ask

It’s the beginning of July and time for the Early Ask. It’s Catherine Seaver, and as I sit here thinking about Lace, the leadership team, and the Lace on Race community I’m reminded of the work of weeding, and gardening, and tending that gardens need. Right now I have dirt under my fingernails because I’ve been digging and planting as we visit family in Maine. The flowers are everywhere and there’s more lettuce than anyone knows what to do with… and all of this new growth, all of this possibility requires engagement, it requires my attention. There are weeds and slugs that all need to be removed and just like white supremacy, they keep showing up in our lives unless we are consistently tending.

When I joined Lace on Race and first read about the crucial part of financially engaging I was struck by the different language – the emphasis on intentionally engaging financially, of not using the word donate but instead asking people to delve into the internal work of showing up with their energy, time and resources. Learning again and again how white supremacy is a financial construct has made this part of my praxis all the more important.

Financially engaging each month feels like part of the consistent watering and tending our gardens need.
As we work to lessen and mitigate the harm endured by Black and Brown people, perpetrated by white people (me!) and white supremacy, join me in financially engaging.

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And this brings us to the by-now-familiar boilerplate, which I hope one day will be unnecessary because the Ask itself will be unnecessary:

Very simply, I would like to continue to serve you with my utmost. I thank you in advance for allowing me to do so.

I also thank those of you who have financially engaged without the prompt of the ask, and for those of you who are aware of the shortfall that has been endured post Holly. If you would like to earmark engagement specifically to address that shortfall, you can designate and we will see it, and again, your thanks for your faith in me, in us, and your commitment to our Western Star, even in the midst of adversity.

To Sustainers, Sustainers in Training, those who have registered for the Lace on Race Cafe, and those who aspire to be part of Chef’s Table, thank you in advance for your fulfilling your monthly commitment. It is you all who allow us to serve and influence and mentor and teach and abide. Every month, especially in these recent challenging months, my heart swells because of your continued faithfulness.

For those of you who engage a la carte at the Takeout Window, I hope you have seen and appreciated the value in the fare we offer you and directly invite (and gently and lovingly challenge) you to partner with us.

If you would like to know more about becoming a Sustainer or a Sustainer in Training, or if you would like to be seated in the Bistro, links are below. I look forward to walking with and abiding with you in ever deeper ways.

What we do is different from what you will see anywhere else. What we offer to you is different; and what we ask for and from you is different. We are grateful for you. You will find our walking with you will never waver.

Sometimes it’s hard to say variations of the same thing at least twice a month: but the truth is here every day: what we do here is important and needed; your financial engagement is what allows it to happen, and this: we have only scratched the surface of what could be and what reach we could have.

Thank you to those who are now and or are considering walking with me in this way.

And a candid thank you, and an invitation, to those who are considering re-engagement who have not since February. I hope you have seen our faithfulness to you individually and to the community as a whole. Our faithfulness and resolve will continue; on that you can rest. I look forward to your renewed commitment with anticipation and with deep gratitude and appreciation.

With deep and unshakable Hesed,

Your Lace

PayPal: paypal.me/LaceonRace

Sustainer Form: https://bit.ly/SustainerForm

Sustainer in Training Form: https://bit.ly/SustainerInTrainingForm2021

Join in The Bistro discussion below.

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Discussion
July 8, 2021 at 9:41 am #10558

Catherine Seaver
Member

https://laceonrace.com/2021/07/08/early-july-ask/

Early July Ask
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July 8, 2021 at 5:07 pm #10566

Christin Spoolstra
Member

In a show I’ve been watching, there was discussion of reparations (pause: engagement in the LoR community is NOT reparations). One character worried that white folks would see reparations as hush money, that once the check cleared, Black people would never be allowed – tolerated – to speak of racism again. Sometimes that power dynamic shows up in our community. People engage financially so they don’t engage relationally. People engage financially so Lace owes them in some way. Those entitlements of power are violent and enforce the economics of racism. I engage in all aspects regularly not because of entitlement or even expectation but because I – and this community – am a garden. I need watering, weeding, fresh soil… Only then can I bloom toward the North Star. I engaged financially on the 1st and am also using the Dimes exercise to be able to offer more at the end of the month.
July 8, 2021 at 10:13 pm #10611

Rebecca McClinton
Member

In reading Catherine’s gardening analogy I was thinking about my own gardening struggles and how they relate to my interactions and financial engagement in this space. I love planting and nurturing little seedlings along, but I struggle when plants are in full bloom with over water, under watering, and even picking the produce off the vines before it goes bad (eeek! Such a waste after all that waiting!). Similarly, I can see where I’m consistent with engaging at the beginning of the month, but not so good at the end of the month looking where, as Christin references above with the dimes exercise, I can give a bit more. Tending my garden and this garden here in this space require the same consistent attentiveness throughout.
July 9, 2021 at 4:07 pm #10612

Christina Sonas
Member

Antiracism is a state of doing. If my antiracism is in my head, in my self-concept, and not also in all of my doings, then I am not antiracist at all. I am in denial.

I have engaged for July. I have overplanted my (literal) garden to deliver into an urban food-denied community. I am thinking of the North Star of antiracism work as I prepare a small business for a big expansion. Doing, doing, doing.
July 9, 2021 at 9:11 pm #10617

Jen Scaggs
Member

I have never been good at gardening, as my attention and enthusiasm fades as the work becomes difficult, and I let the weeds take over. Unfortunately, I’ve let my garden here at LoR grow weedy this last month due to lots of personal stuff and I need to get it back under control! I just engaged financially and now it’s back to work.
July 11, 2021 at 4:43 pm #10652

Laura Berwick
Member

I want to affirm that I’ve engaged financially this month. It’s important to me that this community continue, and it’s my responsibility to be the sustenance that it thrives on.
July 14, 2021 at 6:02 pm #10683

Shara Cody
Member

*cross posted from FB*

Engaging consistently to pull the weeds and tend to the new growth includes financial engagement to get at the root of racism as an economic construct. I have financially engaged for July and hope as a community we will reach July’s goal.
July 19, 2021 at 3:35 pm #10745

Julia Tayler
Member

I have engaged financially and like Christin mentioned I will be looking at my Dimes. I like to garden but on my terms. It can’t be too hot (this year has been a bust) and not too early or too late. I realize that I need to garden and engage consistently and not just when conditions are perfect.
July 31, 2021 at 5:25 pm #10956

Rhonda Freeman
Member

As I read this on the very last day of the month, knowing that I will engage in the morning, I am reminded that the only way that I keep any plant alive is by setting myself reminders to water the plants and how much to water them. So, I set myself reminders to engage financially with LoR and I don’t feel the least bit bad about it. I want to keep this plant alive. Thanks for the analogy Catherine.
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