I was born in the 1970s in a country that no longer exists — the USSR, but have been living in the US for many years. Having grown up under totalitarianism has primed me to be very sensitive towards simplistic reasoning around complex topics and a short-cut approaches to life. I currently reside in San Francisco. I feel quite isolated here at the moment, as this beautiful city descends into slogan-like solutions to many problems ranging from homelessness and racism to public health.
I received an American college education from a small liberal arts college on the East coast in the late 1990s and hold a PhD in Anthropology from a prestigious West coast university. I have also worked in international development and am a mother to two biracial children. While these credentials should make my stay in San Francisco comfortable, I have over the last two years become increasingly more alienated in an environment that is too uniform and does not tolerate varied points of views.
I have started this blog to find like-minded people as I am attempting to counter black-and-white way of thinking that condenses messy truths into sound-bite-size dogmas. I have picked the purple flower of the common sage as my totem because of my inclination to favor natural ways of healing, but also because to me it is a color that in the American context signals an openness to unifying contrary positions - red and blue.
I don’t like Donald J. Trump. I cannot understand how any woman could, with an even minimalistic insight into his views on women, if nothing else. I hold multi-layered views on communism and find it distasteful and uneducated when that is used as a slur. I feel the same when “anti-vaxer” is used to denigrate. I also identify and always will as a feminist. Yet, I also do not believe that science should be operationalized to convince everyone that certain medical treatments are “safe and effective” and Covid19 “vaccines” should be mandated to anybody, but especially to children. I avoid most media at the moment and mostly read headlines and scientific papers on SARS-CoV-2 and other immunity related subjects.
I have chosen to not get vaccinated against Covid19 which has severely impacted my capacity to interact with people outside of my home or work in San Francisco. This is where I feel like I am totally swimming against the main-stream current at the moment. I fear for my children’s futures in the Bay area on daily basis.
While it is quite evident that the sense of community has eroded since March 2020 everywhere, I feel like for me this uprooting has been disproportionally monumental, as I do not feel like there is a “side” to which I belong at all, as I hope this description has ascertained. Anyone out there feeling similarly?
Since February 24th, when Russian Federation continued its military advent that it started in 2014 into the territory of Ukraine, I have found myself in the unique position to be able to narrate this conflict in a way that is as balanced as possible for someone whose country too is under threat.