About Me — @dunelair: Sue Moran Thole
Stability and Change — My Life’s Constants
I was born and raised in a small rural town in West Virginia. Most of the kids in my first-grade class of 30 were still together when we graduated twelve years later in a class of 70 in our recently consolidated high school.
Several of us started the ’60s at West Virginia University in nearby Morgantown. The student union was tucked under a bridge spanning a narrow gully. It was called Mountain Lair. These many years later I live on a sand dune overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and I refer to my home as Dune Lair.
Much has happened to me in the intervening years, but I still regularly return to my home place to see my dad and other relatives and friends. As much as I love California, I have deep ties to West Virginia.
In a few days I will be starting my 80th year on this planet. Having grown up in the ’50s with high aspirations and the expectation that our world would only get better, I now struggle to understand what happened to those dreams and what we can do to avert impending disasters due to climate change, power politics, and cultural developments run amok. Hindsight reveals many mistakes that will be difficult to overcome.
Until recently, I felt that the worst will happen after my time here, but it seems we have already passed more than one tipping point, and that with each tip we rush ever faster to more serious problems than most experts had forecast. I am a realist and I find it hard to remain upbeat, but I am grateful for every report of every person who is working to protect our democracy and the health of our planet. I am especially encouraged whenever that person is a young millennial or gen z. Our future lies in their hands.
While I have little stamina to join physical protests, there are some steps I can take to identify and support needed changes. Even though I am old, I can still hone my writing and photography skills so I can help make a difference. One reality of today’s politics is that we must show up.
As I begin my journey on Medium, I plan to share photos and essays with insights I have had over the years. These will be the tracks I leave behind.
Note on my iPhone selfies: For years I thought selfies were narcissistic nonsense, but once I tried them, I found their appeal: they are fun!
Some of my photography can be found at Morey (smugmug.com)
