K
This piece is about drystone walling, and about belonging. About building something solid before building something beautiful. About making a life, and a place in it, with your own hands.
https://kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/the-work-of-belonging
#Scotland #UK #Books #Book #Reading #Writing #WritingCommunity #Women #Land #Nature #Life
@acsawdey Haha. They do indeed look hulking in this photo but honestly, it's the light. Not so irl I'm afraid.
4/4
So here is a photograph taken by a daughter of her mother. That is all. I am trying to learn from that.
END
3/
We talked about it. I explained why I think and feel this way. The racism, the misogyny. I think I say it out loud because it feels safer to diminish myself than to risk being seen without doing so. It is a learned way of managing shame. I agreed with her that it is unhealthy, for me and for my daughters.
2/
She stopped me and told me how awful it is to hear. Not just to hear her mother speaking about herself like that, but because this is how habits are built and passed on.
THREAD
1/
My daughter took this photograph of me today, quickly, in my bedroom. We swept the mess off the table, moved the dirty clothes off the chair and tried to make things look presentable, including me.
I complained the entire time about how I looked. The light wasn’t good, my hair was greasy, I’m 42 on Sunday, I want to lose weight, I’m in perimenopause. But this is something I do. Saying it out loud has become a habit.
@chiffchaff I didn't enjoy it but I find how it sits within cultural memory really interesting.
The Wuthering Heights people remember is not the book Emily Brontë wrote.
I read it just in time for the release of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation. She has said Wuthering Heights left its greatest impression on her at 14. Here’s my interpretation at 41, feeling world weary & no longer susceptible to the charms of beautiful men who behave badly.
It turns out it isn’t really about love at all, but about inheritance, race & power.
@barrygoldman1 I hope the world gives me a reason to disagree.
@tompearce49 I fully agree.
@Lassielmr We're seeing a similar trend of emboldenment in the UK.
@energisch_ I hope for the same but I also worry so much for everyone putting themselves in harms way to protest and fight this.
Fascism needs to be stopped before it gets settled and in Europe we still have a small window of opportunity to do this. Maybe what's happening in the US will provide the motivation. I don't know if it's enough.
@xylophilist Also not a poppy type. I thought the whole point of memorialising was to remember. I feel constantly in shock.
Since the Second World War, we've said 'never again' like we were casting a spell of guarantee. But 'never again' was a commitment, and we did not keep it.
The world has witnessed the rise of fascism in the United States, and the most disturbing part is that almost nothing stood in its way.
Feeling deeply worried. For my kids. For us all.
@howlingeverett You've blown my mind! I had no idea BOC were Scottish!!!
@HighlandLawyer I don't!
@DavidTanner Don't know him either!
@onegeekarmy Once I start listening to it I listen to it a thousand times. I love it.