Lost Someone to MAGA?
By Steve Watkins
We’ve all had relationships strained, damaged, or even lost as loved ones tumbled down the MAGA hole, or, god help them and us, fell over the QAnon cliff. We’d like to read and publish your story about someone you love (or once loved)–something about them you remember fondly, or that you miss, or that you always appreciated, something about who they were before: an anecdote, a moment, a description. You don’t need to go into what turned them into whatever and whoever they’ve become, or that infuriating MAGA thing they just said or did, or how disappointed or frustrated or even betrayed you feel about them now. It’s more complicated than that, of course, this growing apart that happens in families and among friends. It’s always more complicated than that. This is about that other time, that previous life, that aspect of a missing or distant loved one you still cherish, and that you’d like to hang onto–and share with the rest of us as we contemplate those people in our own lives who seem to be out of reach, standing way over there with their MAGA and their conspiracy theories and their fierce resentments on the other side of this great divide.
Try to keep your stories to under 200 words, though we won’t be persnickety about length. It’s OK to keep your loved ones anonymous, and to keep yourself anonymous, too. That might even be for the best. We’ll need to have your real name and contact information with whatever you send us in case we need to confirm it’s really you, but we’re OK including just your initials when we publish your submission, hopefully in our January issue. Email us at [email protected] with your story, or just click on the “Only Connect” button in the PIE & CHAI header.
Life is complicated. People are, too.
