Why The Connective?
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about ideas of connection in all of its forms. Whether it’s building connections between friends as we manage a significant loneliness epidemic in our country, building connections within our community to support each other, or even strengthening connections between coworkers to ensure better work-life balance, it all feels so incredibly important yet also so incredibly nebulous to me.
Join me in some of these musings and maybe we can all figure out ways to establish and strengthen the connections we and our communities need. The intention is to post weekly musings for the foreseeable future.
Who am I?
Hey there! My name is Shayne Bell and I’m a thinker and muser and champion of all things connection-related. I love discussing and learning about connection and community. You can find me geeking out over ideas of communal living, the best teambuilding tools, Buy Nothing Facebook Groups, the ways pop culture connects us all, and ideas of mutual aid.
In a past life, I spent my days (and sometimes nights and weekends…ahem) working for international aid organizations and got to travel all over the world, witnessing communities and connection in all of its beautiful and varied forms.
Outside of these connective musings, I can be found fangirling out over queer media in all its forms, the Portland Thorns and USWNT, how to dismantle the white, hetero, cis-normative patriarchy, good food and drink in Portland, liberatory aid, self compassion, anticapitalism, and podcasts… so many podcasts.
Land Acknowledgement
I reside in Portland, Oregon - the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Clackamas, Cascades, Stl’pulmsh (Cowlitz), Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes, and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and Grand Ronde. This land was not ceded but was taken from these tribes through imperial colonization on the part of settlers, resulting in genocide, seizure of land, slavery, subjugation, relocation and government displacement, family separation, forced colonial education, religious indoctrination, spread of disease, and embedded, long-lasting generational trauma.
Learn more about the land you reside on and the various groups who are committed to returning the land to its rightful stewards.
Join the Connective Crew
Be part of The Connective community! Participate in the comments section, or share a post with a friend.
