This post started out its life on Friday when it was—and still is—a follow up to what I wrote about being politically clinically depressed last week and what one can do about it.
Reading your post rekindles my desire to live a less judgemental and more open life Chip. Thank you for the timely reminder. I'm feeling grateful to have enjoyed a number of your classes at GMU some fifteen years ago, so I can hear your voice narrating your post :). Having recently moved to the countryside a couple hours outside of Chicago, I live in what was Adam Kinzinger's old district, and is now safely and solidly MAGA territory. This weekend my wife and I had some heartfelt conversations about our earnest desire to move yet again... this time out of the country and to some fabled greener pastures, somewhere. Having lived abroad for ten years, the transition back to 'merica has been nauseatingly jarring. This morning you helped remind me that the greener pastures we seek are (quite literally, since this is beautiful country) right under our noses, and the ability to connect with others is a power I do not want to give away in order to fit in some comfortable partisan clique. My son was born 11 weeks ago, and connecting in a healthy way with other parents and families here will necessitate an open, curious and inquisitive mind.... all the attributes I have wanted for my son and lost track of for ourselves as adults. Thanks again, and hope you're doing well :)
Eliott, Thoughtful words indeed. I didn't focus on Mason in this because it was harder to get know you all the way I did at Colby.
Congratulations on becoming a father--if I remember right, not for the first time?
I stay engaged in part because I don't want my grandkids to inherit a total mess.
As I'm sure you figured out from your time in Asia, there is no ideal places.
We can build what my friends at Australia reMADE call an ordinary paradise. At some point when you're feeling particularly down in the dumps, take a look at the video on their landing page. www.australiaremade.org
Reading your post rekindles my desire to live a less judgemental and more open life Chip. Thank you for the timely reminder. I'm feeling grateful to have enjoyed a number of your classes at GMU some fifteen years ago, so I can hear your voice narrating your post :). Having recently moved to the countryside a couple hours outside of Chicago, I live in what was Adam Kinzinger's old district, and is now safely and solidly MAGA territory. This weekend my wife and I had some heartfelt conversations about our earnest desire to move yet again... this time out of the country and to some fabled greener pastures, somewhere. Having lived abroad for ten years, the transition back to 'merica has been nauseatingly jarring. This morning you helped remind me that the greener pastures we seek are (quite literally, since this is beautiful country) right under our noses, and the ability to connect with others is a power I do not want to give away in order to fit in some comfortable partisan clique. My son was born 11 weeks ago, and connecting in a healthy way with other parents and families here will necessitate an open, curious and inquisitive mind.... all the attributes I have wanted for my son and lost track of for ourselves as adults. Thanks again, and hope you're doing well :)
Eliott, Thoughtful words indeed. I didn't focus on Mason in this because it was harder to get know you all the way I did at Colby.
Congratulations on becoming a father--if I remember right, not for the first time?
I stay engaged in part because I don't want my grandkids to inherit a total mess.
As I'm sure you figured out from your time in Asia, there is no ideal places.
We can build what my friends at Australia reMADE call an ordinary paradise. At some point when you're feeling particularly down in the dumps, take a look at the video on their landing page. www.australiaremade.org