[The end of 2025 means another Year in Review blog series, AmericanStudying a handful of the year’s biggest stories. I’d love your 2025 reflections in comments!]
Ten months
ago today, I said goodbye to my Dad. I had the chance to say a lot of what I’d most
want to say about him in this
obituary, this Saturday
Evening Post column, and this
blog anniversary tribute post, and would ask you all to check out all three of
those if you would. But I couldn’t write a Year in Review blog series and not
include him, and I want to do so through three relatively quick but very heartfelt
points that are quite distinct in both subject and tone:
1)
I’ll start with the saddest. As I wrote in
that hyperlinked Post column as well as this
prior one on my folks, my Dad both embodied and worked for the best of
America throughout his life and his career. It will never not be incredibly
frustrating and painful to me that he passed with Donald Motherfucking Trump as
president, and indeed that the November 2024 election was one of the last major
events he was able to really focus on. I thought I already appreciated all the
layers to the Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times,” but losing a
loved one in such times—and, again, a loved one who was so potently connected
to all things AmericanStudies, including of course every element of this
AmericanStudier—comprises another layer still. I don’t generally swear on this
blog, but when it’s warranted I will, so I’ll say it once more, with feeling:
Fuck Donald Motherfucking Trump.
2)
Now for the happiest (mostly). My Dad passed a
month and a bit before his
grandson Kyle made his college decision, so he didn’t get to find out that
Kyle was headed
to the University of Michigan. But he was well aware of and had a
significant role in Kyle’s college search, just as he did for his older
grandson Aidan’s journey to ending up at
Vanderbilt University. My wife Vaughn, who through schedule flexibility but
also and especially her incredible generosity and care was able to spend the
last couple weeks of my Dad’s life with him and my Mom, has noted many times
that he talked about nothing more frequently nor more happily in those
difficult times than his grandsons and their incredibly bright futures. I
believe it, and the thought has given me great pleasure over these last 10
months.
3)
Finally, the most relevant to this space.
Writing this blog day in and day out (well, I now write and schedule in batches
as I’ve discussed elsewhere in this space, but you know what I mean) is not
always easy, and I’ll admit that there have been moments where I’ve wondered if
I should wind it down. But as I noted in that hyperlinked anniversary post, my
Dad was this blog’s first and most loyal and responsive reader (yes, even more so
than my awesome colleague Irene
Martyniuk!). The thoughts he shared in response to so many of my posts
consistently inspired me to keep going—and even though I will never quite get
used to the idea that he’s not reading each one now, I’m also good with that
because that idea makes me even more committed to continuing to do and share
this kind of work. See you right here in the (continuing) New Year!
December
Recap this weekend,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? 2025 stories you’d highlight?
No comments:
Post a Comment