Solastalgia

By JOHN ROTH

Apparently I suffer from solastalgia. I had no idea. I recently went to my doctor for my annual check-up and he gave me a clean bill of health. He never mentioned solastalgia. It wasn’t until about a week later that I was delivered the news. Thumbing through the May/June Adbusters, I came across a short article by Andy Fisher called “The Budding New Science of Ecopsychology.”* Basically, ecopsychology studies the relationship between the exterior world of nature and the interior world of the mind and emotions. For personal wellbeing, the needs of one are relevant to the other. The attached sidebar stated that, out of this science, new language has developed to capture this emerging class of human experience.

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My dad’s wedding

I cannot remember the last time I have seen my father look as happy as he did last weekend at his wedding, and I have definitely never seen him in a tuxedo.

“When is the last time you wore a tux?” I asked him over the phone.

He laughed. “I’m not sure. A long time ago. Probably in high school.”

Anyone who knows the history of this newspaper (or my own personal history) will know that my dad’s wedding is a fairly ironic thing for me to be writing about in this space. (For a hint one needs only consult my byline.) But it is an occasion so momentous that to not write about it would seem to me to be strange.

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“Bent:” between a rock and a hard place

Considering the weather over the last few days, I feel lucky that I was able to get out of the house at all. Even though I had several destinations scheduled for the weekend, the “hurricane warning” coupled with a “severe storm watch” kept me from venturing too far from home.

Fortunately, I did make it to the current production of the Sulllivan County Dramatic Workshop (SCDW, scdw.net ) at the Rivoli Theatre on Route 42 in South Fallsburg, NY. The SCDW has an eclectic season scheduled and “Bent,” a powerful drama that takes place in and around Berlin during the Nazi occupation, is difficult and often disturbing material that is not for the faint of heart.

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From highlands to highlands

“Pilgrimage” probably wouldn’t be quite the right word—but it comes close.

Over Memorial Day weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a training session about “Popular Economics Education”—i.e., using the “popular education” methods pioneered by Paolo Freire to raise awareness of economic issues. This session was organized by the folks at United for a Fair Economy ( faireconomy.org ), and took place at a very special location: the Highlander Research and Education Center, nestled on a scenic hilltop not far from Knoxville.

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