What We're Reading Now
Be Rebellious
31 March 2026
Rachel was inspired by David Gate’s words in A Rebellion of Care: Poems and Essays and started noticing more opportunities for quiet rebellion in everyday life.
Tags: balance, happiness, poetry, rachel read
Over the past year, I’ve been in countless conversations about the pace of change, the polarization of communities, the challenges of ambiguity, and the perils of daily life. While I count myself lucky to be safe and warm and privileged, it’s exhausting. Since staying under the covers seems like a poor strategy, I’ve found myself seeking (and sometimes finding) things that bring solace and direct energy more constructively. Little spots of light that enable resilience and action.
In the introduction of A Rebellion of Care, Gate wrote: “...the most important thing is for us to care for the world, ourselves, and each other. And more, to do so is a radical position... I am interested in radicalizing us into a different kind of life—a life of unrelenting care.” When I first saw a snippet of his work last year (on Instagram, of all places), a poem stopped me in my tracks. I found Gate’s website and subsequently his book has found a home on my desk. (I’ve even traveled with it, and if you know how little I like carrying stuff, you know that’s saying something.)
As much as the individual writings and poems, this notion that the very act of caring amid and in spite of a sometimes mixed-up world is in itself rebellious feels almost liberating. I didn't know that I needed a “permission slip” to rediscover that care is an ethical and often courageous act. At times when things feel “too much,” I appreciate Gate’s reminders of human idiosyncracy, and the reflection that sometimes power resides in nuance rather than proclamation. And that, sometimes, two opposing things can both be true.
from David Gate, A Rebellion of Care, page 187
Despite all those conversations I’m part of, I don’t know that I’ve found or revealed any clear answers. The world might swirl, but I still show up. I still try to listen with curiosity and compassion. I still work to make each day a little bit better. And now, I get the satisfaction of feeling just the slightest bit rebellious while I do it.
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