ive decided.

im going to be a damn good writer. im going through a new book every couple days it seems. today i was bored at work so i made a four page long reading list. public health will make a good profession-but writing nonfiction should always be in there. my friend Ups' sister works in the public health field and does international health consulting and workshops in mostly rural areas. ive decided consulting and assistance is really what i want to do. something botton up. my superviser does that, science and technical assistance. holds workshops and presentations to town hall meetings, consults via phone and email. helps interpret technical documents.

but he says that the organizing and the politics always comes above the science. the science can strengthen your argument and give some sharp evidence, but in the end its the organizing that matters.

im collecting narratives of health workers and of impacted bodies and impacted landscapes and will try and start shaping some narrative of a senior project. ive been researching dioxin through and ecosystem ecology lens in Alaska and Canada and Siberia. dioxin gets absorbed by plantkon and such, which, following the food webs and trophic interactions penetrates into the diet and collective body of fish, into seals, into whales, into birds. the ecosystem becomes saturated with dioxin. humans too, native communities that still rely on traditional food supplies of seal and whale blubber not only for diet but also for cultural legacy. and then dioxin penetrates too into their fatty tissue, into breasts, into breastmilk, contaminating the bodies of newborns and generations to come. its the landscape and the physical bodies that become toxic. its the fish, the birds, the water, the flora, the fauna, the social, tudo.

i have two classes on ecosystem ecology and too many on anthropology and so it seems to be a topic close enough to home. close indeed. studies warn not to drink non-organic milk or meat products due to the presence of dioxin. all this talk is making me think of becoming a vegetarian again. if not just for the reason Antonetta asks, "What does my body consist of?"

good question.

but so im trying to read more memoirs-that-present-themselves-in-context-of-the-landscapes-and-time. again, i have a list. its too long. but i cant get enough of it.

ok ok now enough. ive already read 1/2 of Invisible Cities by Calvino today. time to finish the rest on the porch downstairs.