Oh! Oh! What expansive pleasure in the un/re-learnings of October.
Octavia E Butler coined the term Positive Obsession (PO) and used it to describe the relationship she had with her writing. Octavia’s life was defined by this ‘unwavering determination’. She said, “Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because you’re afraid and full of doubts. Positive obsession is…about not being able to stop at all. Positive obsession means arranging your whole life around what matters most to you.”
While reading the new phenomenal biography about Octavia by Susana Morris, I noticed examples of Positive Obsession in my own life and the beLoved community around me. I also practiced noting the felt sense of power that comes with Positive Obsession (both power with and power over).
Simultaneously, I was introduced to the Blackfoot tribe’s ideas of Cultural Perpetuity and Community Actualization during a talk given by the brilliant Indigenous author Anton Treuer. I’ll write more in November after doing further research and spending time with the cognitive dissonance reverberating through my body (and community- even the queerest of us are impacted by racialized capitalism + white supremacist perfectionisms aka western culture’s institutionalized notions of personal success) as we try to meet individual and collective needs with mutual aid.