What a freaking year, eh?
@MLClark Evergreen post
From 2016 on especially - but yes!
@MLClark I refer to that year as a turning point in my life. I’m not the same person I was before then. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Just different.
Me too, Novels.
A couple weeks after the awful election, which hit Canadians hard too, I left my PhD program, dissertation twice-written but my committee unclear what it wanted from me, & me all out of money. The department's adjunct grad officer was intimidated by my tenured advisor, so she pushed for me to file for mental health leave instead of a proper withdrawal, making it "my fault" instead of a faculty problem to mediate. I started saving up to emigrate next.
Took a year of eating little more than rice and eggs and lentils (and discount apples when I could), plus some kind donations from friends, but I had enough to make the leap in early 2018.
And all that time (around the election) I saw the emboldened nastiness of so many people all around me. So many people I'd thought were kinder and wiser. So many attempts to help from within the system that failed.
I hope you've done what you needed to do for yourself since, too.
Oof. Yes! I used to devour lit, but it's hard these days to see it as a priority over immediate worldly presence. Ours was a culture that prided itself on education, the arts...
But where was all the self-awareness these were supposed to foster in us?
Every generation has its moment when it's smacked over the head by the knowledge that many will always prefer division instead, and care more about seeing others lose than working for the collective win.
2016 was that year for us. 🫂
@MLClark my experience in no way compares to yours…but we share the disappointment in people around us that we thought were as you said, “kinder and wiser.” One of the biggest change/regret I have is that I don’t read like I did before. I didn’t stop buying books though. I have a huge stack that I look at every day and think I need to get busy reading. But my mind tells me that I must keep up with “world events.” I hope that I can find a balance but after 7 years. 🤷🏼♀️
@killingfloorman