Three black and white pictures sit in one of the windowsills of my cottage, one is of my father and the other two are of my grandfathers. They have all been dead for nearly half my life, but still the pictures have unfailing power. Noticing them as I walk past is like gently pressing on a bruise, the soft pain that warns against more prodding. Like everyone else lucky enough to reach middle age, I know mourning never ends.
Referred here by Paul Kingsnorth. Great piece - so achingly, beautifully sad.
Thanks also for your characterization of the woke. I needed that - they were becoming a little too much of a cartoon that was easy to hate/resent. Your recognition of the mourning at the root of their angst really helps me better humanize and sympathize. We all do evil, but for most of us, it starts with something very human and broken. Doesn't make it less evil, but can make it easier to be merciful.
Thank you, a very interesting piece of writing. I am slowly trying to understand the fractured stories of my parents’ families and cultures. I spent a lot of my life ignoring those stories because they didn’t seem to offer me what I needed at the time. But I’ve slowly come to the understanding that “you can run but you can’t hide.” (And it wasn’t only me running and hiding: in many ways my parents were too.) Also I agree with you that senseless, unmoored grief that attaches where it will is dangerous. It’s complicated to even begin to understand the upheaval from which I come. I desire stability and tradition and in their way my parents certainly provided that but the bigger picture is quite terrifying. However I do think it is possible to heal the past (I cannot give a rational reason for this belief).
Thank you for your interesting thoughts. I am also referred by Paul Kingsnorth and very grateful that I was. I look forward to reading more of your writings.
I particularly agree with what you say about how people tend to think (or not think) and react to death. One thing that upsets me quite a lot is when i hear people not even use the word 'death' when someone now dies. In fact it has got so exaggerated now that 'passed way' has been replaced with just 'passed' which lacks the truth, gravitas and solemnity the occasion deserves.
On woke, I like your theory but do not know if I agree that it is a grief for a liberal paradise that has not arrived (I hope I interpret you correctly). Many of them do not appear to be liberal at all and seem the kind of people who in another era would have joined the Hitler youth or Mao's cultural revolution. Am I being too harsh?
Your piece gives much food for thought, thank you.
Wonderful post. As someone whose childhood memories are all from Yorkshire, where I was born and bred, I find your words especially poignant. (Came here after Paul Kingsnorth mentioned you in his latest piece.)
This is a really terrific piece of writing, and spot on.
Referred here by Paul Kingsnorth. Great piece - so achingly, beautifully sad.
Thanks also for your characterization of the woke. I needed that - they were becoming a little too much of a cartoon that was easy to hate/resent. Your recognition of the mourning at the root of their angst really helps me better humanize and sympathize. We all do evil, but for most of us, it starts with something very human and broken. Doesn't make it less evil, but can make it easier to be merciful.
Makes me think of a line from a Herman Melville poem: "Beware the people weeping/When they bare the iron hand."
Thank you, a very interesting piece of writing. I am slowly trying to understand the fractured stories of my parents’ families and cultures. I spent a lot of my life ignoring those stories because they didn’t seem to offer me what I needed at the time. But I’ve slowly come to the understanding that “you can run but you can’t hide.” (And it wasn’t only me running and hiding: in many ways my parents were too.) Also I agree with you that senseless, unmoored grief that attaches where it will is dangerous. It’s complicated to even begin to understand the upheaval from which I come. I desire stability and tradition and in their way my parents certainly provided that but the bigger picture is quite terrifying. However I do think it is possible to heal the past (I cannot give a rational reason for this belief).
Thank you for your interesting thoughts. I am also referred by Paul Kingsnorth and very grateful that I was. I look forward to reading more of your writings.
I particularly agree with what you say about how people tend to think (or not think) and react to death. One thing that upsets me quite a lot is when i hear people not even use the word 'death' when someone now dies. In fact it has got so exaggerated now that 'passed way' has been replaced with just 'passed' which lacks the truth, gravitas and solemnity the occasion deserves.
On woke, I like your theory but do not know if I agree that it is a grief for a liberal paradise that has not arrived (I hope I interpret you correctly). Many of them do not appear to be liberal at all and seem the kind of people who in another era would have joined the Hitler youth or Mao's cultural revolution. Am I being too harsh?
Your piece gives much food for thought, thank you.
"The dry stone walls, always slowly collapsing, call each generation to raise their rocks again."
This is beautiful imagery, and really speaks to me both metaphorically and literally having recently rebuilt dry stone walls on our property!
So glad I stopped by to read such a thought provoking essay. Thank you.
Evocative, haunting and prophetic. Thank you.
Thank you
This was glorious.
Wonderful post. As someone whose childhood memories are all from Yorkshire, where I was born and bred, I find your words especially poignant. (Came here after Paul Kingsnorth mentioned you in his latest piece.)