The Burden of History
I have a friend in Germany. We met on one of those language learning websites where you can submit your work and a native speaker will offer advice. H. and I haave been exchanging grammar exercises for five(?) six(?) years. Actually, it hasn't been all umlauts and giant Teutonic frankenwords. He found out I studied anthropology and he has a degree in sociology. We share interests in a few other things as well: human rights issues, environmental matters, ethnomusicology, and belief systems.
Through the magic of my phone, I have shown him what he wants to see of where I live: The Grand Ole Opry, The Parthenon, what's left of Nashville's honky tonk culture, and so on. I have seen the wild areas near where he lives. Germany is a beautiful place. That fact that the biggest German presence in American culture right now is Aldi and Trader Joe's amuses him. Phht! I love Aldi's hummus.
During our last conversation, he said he wanted to ask what might be a difficult question: Had I lost any friends or family because of the sense of division between the right and left?
I paused. This was tough. In 2016, I was ready to vote for Jeb Bush because I thought Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate. As someone who devote decades of my life to working with at-risk and special needs children, I thought I couldn't vote for someone who referred to the people I helped as "superpredators" who needed to be "brought to heel." Still, I did vote for her because what I saw of Donald Trump scared me.
Did I lose friends and family because of the Trump administration? I lost 44 friends, colleagues, former classmates, and family to COVID. (I went to a uni known for its nursing program in the 80s' and worked for a few years in hospitals.) There were also the people who would not toleratye questions or anything that looked like a disagreement. Questions were met with silence at times. Others took my lack of understanding as a personal affront. I was honestly trying to understand. It wore me down and I finally gave up trying to get people to talk to me in terms other than memes and platitudes. College friends, buddies from the press box at Bridgestone, neighbors, nearly everybody made me gun shy and I withdrew.
How could I explain this without sounding like an overly sensitive middle-schooler?
Through the magic of my phone, I have shown him what he wants to see of where I live: The Grand Ole Opry, The Parthenon, what's left of Nashville's honky tonk culture, and so on. I have seen the wild areas near where he lives. Germany is a beautiful place. That fact that the biggest German presence in American culture right now is Aldi and Trader Joe's amuses him. Phht! I love Aldi's hummus.
During our last conversation, he said he wanted to ask what might be a difficult question: Had I lost any friends or family because of the sense of division between the right and left?
I paused. This was tough. In 2016, I was ready to vote for Jeb Bush because I thought Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate. As someone who devote decades of my life to working with at-risk and special needs children, I thought I couldn't vote for someone who referred to the people I helped as "superpredators" who needed to be "brought to heel." Still, I did vote for her because what I saw of Donald Trump scared me.
Did I lose friends and family because of the Trump administration? I lost 44 friends, colleagues, former classmates, and family to COVID. (I went to a uni known for its nursing program in the 80s' and worked for a few years in hospitals.) There were also the people who would not toleratye questions or anything that looked like a disagreement. Questions were met with silence at times. Others took my lack of understanding as a personal affront. I was honestly trying to understand. It wore me down and I finally gave up trying to get people to talk to me in terms other than memes and platitudes. College friends, buddies from the press box at Bridgestone, neighbors, nearly everybody made me gun shy and I withdrew.
How could I explain this without sounding like an overly sensitive middle-schooler?