I started this blog a couple of years ago to help people find ways to adventure off the beaten path without an RV or 4WD vehicle. I’ll probably still write about that some (in many ways, a traveling lifestyle is more in line with my values), but my writing and priorities have shifted and evolved over the last year.
With the evolution of one’s values comes the evolution of the content they produce. I’ve struggled to find the best way to use writing as a tool for good, but I’ve had several moments of clarity this year that have given me the right inspiration.
I’ve worked in various branches of financial services for many years. I’ve been a personal banker, worked for a payday loan company, did bookkeeping and accounting for a large church, developed a credit model for lease-to-own technology to both consumers and small businesses, and now work for a fintech company at the intersections of money management and investing.
So much of my career has been in financial services that being a capitalist feels inevitable. And I used to be very staunchly capitalist. Then I was a “conscious capitalist”, then a socialist. Today I fall pretty firmly under the umbrella term “collectivist”, which is much of what this blog will be about.
Who is this blog for? Well, the “target audience”, if you will, is other white people with some disposable income and a strong desire to dismantle systems of oppression. Even as we are forced to live within the constraints of capitalism, with our end goal being something that isn’t that, we can still live our values and cultivate change within our communities.
We’ll look at how white supremacy, the patriarchy, and capitalism work together, and we might even dive into how Christianity has been weaponized against the masses. But most of what we’ll talk about are ways we, as middle class white Americans, can reinvest the wealth our privilege affords us into the communities we have taken advantage of for centuries. We’ll also talk about how we can divest from capitalism in impactful ways (Land Back), and how we can put together personal reparations plans.
There will be less heavy stuff, too! We’ll talk about ways we can use what’s around us to give new life to things we already own, how to reduce environmental impacts, and different tools for connecting and building a community of people who support one another.
A lot of the concepts come from Black and Brown communities, and I’ll be connecting y’all with people who are real changemakers in their communities, people who have been putting in the work for years.
There’s still a lot to build here, and it will take me some time, but I’m really excited about the direction and can’t wait to see what this evolves into. 🙂
Miranda Writes 