If I say everyone should have access to food, clothing and shelter and your first response is "But..." Then our worldviews are irreconcilable and further engagement is wholly unnecessary.
The end.
My stepdad, Greg, never said 'I love you.' He was a hard man. Worked construction. Came home, ate, slept. He paid for my college. He paid for my car. But he never hugged me. I always thought he resented me. I wasn't his real son. Greg died of a heart attack last week. I was cleaning out his truck. In the glove box, I found a worn-out notebook. It was a diary. Entry 1: Met a woman with a boy today. The boy looks sad. I want to make him smile. Entry 50: The boy needs braces. Picking up extra shifts. Entry 200: He graduated today. I stayed in the back so I wouldn't embarrass him with my dirty work clothes. I've never been prouder. Entry 500: I wish I knew how to talk to him. I just hope he knows I’d die for him. I sat in the driver's seat of his dusty truck and cried until I couldn't breathe. He didn't say it. He did it. Every single day. Love isn't always words. Sometimes, it’s calloused hands and a tired back.
Anonymous
Hot take, and this one is for my close friends.
I know some of you haven’t forgotten that I lost my dad. But I also feel like, after a while, people forget to remember. The check-ins reduce. The awareness fades. Life moves on for everyone else, which is fair tbh. It’s not a personal thing so that’s normal.
But whe I decline invites and people ask, “Why aren’t you coming? What happened?” I’m always a bit stunned. Like… take a wild guess? Everything is still fresh. I lost a parent. Someone actually died in my life this year.
It may not feel that deep to you, but it is to me.
Sometimes I’m just not in the mood. Sometimes I don’t have the capacity. And yes, in an ideal world, you’d still be checking in, because grief doesn’t expire (mine isn’t even up to 8 months). 💀
And when people say things like, “You carry grief well,” I honestly don’t know what that means. How exactly am I supposed to carry it? Loudly? Quietly? Performatively?
Just because I’m not always talking about it or posting about it doesn’t mean it’s not heavy. This wasn’t a random loss. This was my dad. A parent. My person.
So, yeah. 🫠
What I find so hilarious is that Adolescene became a huge cultural moment in Q1 of this year, white men re-evaluating how they and their kids become radicalised in schools only for them to continue getting radicalised anyway and forming xenophobic “reclamations” of England in Q3