Is This A Thing? Am I Starting This Thing?

I have so many projects I'm constantly working to promote, and so much of it is writing, that I have no idea if this will become a thing. However, I have things on my mind that don't quite help me sell anything, and I'm thinking maybe I'll put them here.

Today I'm overwhelmed with gratitude because of two things I saw on Twitter.

One was H&R Block posting a question from a stripper, advertising themselves to strippers. I have never seen anything like this. I'm used to businesses trying to distance themselves from any taint that might come from associating with the likes of strippers.

The other was Jessica Ramos, a New York senator, being interviewed on The Cut. When I read the article, she not only supported sex workers as if they were some vague group of people on the margins of decent society, but called them her neighbors. I've been in some version of sex work my entire adult life, nearly four decades, and I've never seen anyone call sex workers "their neighbors." I can't even believe it.

I may or may not have more to say on this, but for now, let's just say, in the midst of so many horrors going on (check the headlines), many of which I've been mourning today but which seems so eloquently addressed by so many others, I am also having this weird little experience all alone. I am rejoicing a day I thought would never come.

This didn't seem remotely possible when I was young so I'm thinking maybe ... maybe there's hope in general. Maybe. I don't know. It feels like something.