I apologize for my long silence. As my therapist tells me—I’ve never been here before; never been widowed—two years today. Sometimes I bury myself in fiction (especially familiar stories) rather than ponder indecision and unanswered questions such as Where do I go from here?
So, where thoughts and books are concerned, it came as a pleasant surprise to discover energy in exploring and pondering topics found in not one but four non-fiction books simultaneously.
The first showed up in the library box at my neighborhood park. Goddesses in Older Women; Archetypes in Women over Fifty,by Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD. 2001, which highlights the wisdom and understanding gained over the years that now can enrich our lives. The book reminds me of my readings on goddess religions decades ago, which inspired the backgrounds of my as-yet-unpublished fairytale retellings.
Then there’s a title mentioned by a friend. I began reading a library copy and ended up purchasing my own, which fully intend to return to reading soon. Goliath’s Curse; The History and Future of Societal Collapse, by Luke Kemp, 2025, explores, as far back as the Stone Age, the rise and fall of societies. The more we are on an equal footing with each other, the longer our societies last. The curse in the title relates to the accumulation of goods by a few. Beginning in agricultural times, certain crops lent themselves to storage and plunder. Societies, watch out!
The only book I’ve completely read (and returned to the library) was for a class on climate change. Bill McKibben’s Here Comes the Sun, 2025. Though McKibben doesn’t ignore the problems in store, he writes glowingly of where we’re headed, but—like the top dogs in Goliath’s Curse—today’s holders of petrochemicals are fighting hard to retain their “wealth” in the face of solar and wind energy freely available worldwide. We really have a lot of work to do in a very short window of time!
And finally, from the public library’s new book shelf, I grabbed up The Last American President; A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink, by Thom Hartman. It makes for grim reading, as he details the many decades long course of actions that has brought our country to the extreme wealth-gap of today.
I need to get back to reading. What happens when societies collapse? How are we to get past this tug of war between renewable energies and petrochemical oligarchs? And how will we tackle the long struggle ahead?
***
Fifty years ago, a brain child of mine appeared with the picture of a teenager standing on a strange planet. Over the years, that vision has grown to a saga, the Pawn Quest trilogy plus one. The final volume is currently in the hands of a copyeditor. I mention it because its conclusion is dependent on the cooperation of teens and adults and even former adversaries.
We’re all in this together.
Kate Harrington 