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Growing up in the military life, dad was gone a lot and I saw the rest of the family once or twice a year tops https://t.co/65sCKJDX5p
In college I began to notice this lack of community and loneliness, but didn't know what to do with it https://t.co/U3V7poOjcP
Once I moved to the Bay Area, lots of folks were thinking very deeply about community, interpersonal relations, friendship and family: I found myself eventually among the coop scene and met wonderful folks! And read lots of papers and books on making connections 😛
I've never been great at digital communication of depth, and so, I was talking the talk and not walking it with my own family: hence my decision to go back home. https://t.co/6ErcdJLwHa
@ColbySerpa Social media has lowered barriers to making connections but our attention spans have not increased, so the depth of the connections become diluted. An army brat childhood of constant uprooting has crystallized the importance of relationship depth over quantity for me
My idea was to start by interviewing my grandmothers, to record oral histories with them both to get a full picture of their lives and selves. https://t.co/Hwc8qVLuLx
Spending time with my mom's mom over the past few months has been wonderful. She's a firecracker. 60 years in real estate, sharp as a tack, strong-willed and forceful. Died her hair red till the end, and was always proud she gave me my red beard 😛
We had a blast. We ate good food. Walked around in the snow. I held her hand a lot. We took our time, enjoyed the frantic energy of Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza. She looks forward to that trip every year, and always invites the kids but we never go.
And she asked me, "These recordings you're doing? Are you thinking about an obituary?" I said not specifically, just documenting her life and stories while she remembers. She said she'd just read a lovely obituary and wanted to make sure hers was good too
She always reads the obituaries and wasn't shy about pointing out when folks had lackluster writeups. Her opinions were known and voiced 😆 So I pulled out my phone, we recorded a few minutes while she listed the organizations she'd been part of, the community work she'd done
A few hours later, I got a phone call: https://t.co/pjEzqjtuxU
Call your parents. Your friends. Write that email, that letter, that text. Reach out, all directions, to those you care for 💕 There is no bad time to build bridges, to send love, you don't know what it might mean to who. And you don't know when you'll get to do it again 💫