Discussion about this post

User's avatar
lee's avatar

Woof, this really hits. I had to take my time and read it in small chunks, because I have so many feelings and vivid memories about this era, because of the age I was then.

It feels almost too on the nose, but I swear it's true: on March 20, 2003, I was 16 years old and at a youth retreat at the Quaker summer camp that I'd attended growing up. Since this was before most people had cell phones, at least anyone I knew, we found out when someone announced before dinner that the bombing had started, and we joined hands around the room. I remember crying, and feeling taken aback by having an emotional reaction instead of an intellectual one-- I was a fervent baby leftist and also hella traumatized and mainly pretty divorced from my feelings.

I think a lot about the type of naivety you describe of young white leftists in that era, having also been one! I'm sure a lot of people experience their own coming of age similarly, regardless of era, and map their own move from naivety into disillusionment or to more complicated forms of hope, onto the era writ large, but damn is it ever striking in that era.

For a while I flirted with the idea of writing a novel set in that era, since I would really really love to read an early 2000s period piece about what that was all like-- if anyone could recommend one, I'd be very interested!

Expand full comment
Sybil Baker's avatar

Thanks for sharing Garrett. I needed this today. I'm reminded of the quote (mis)attributed to Martin Luther but is lovely nonetheless: If I believed the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today.

Expand full comment
13 more comments...

No posts