Gloom and the antidote to worry

It’s been a good week.

Last weekend, we were up at a friend’s family cottage, a 1960s log cabin built from a kit (the company’s still around!). In a sign of where we’re all at in life, Sunday morning saw us all blearily opening banking apps and e-transferring the September 1st rent (enabled by surprisingly good cell coverage) as we recalled our conversations of the day before, of the impossibility of owning a home and whether we really wanted to take on that responsibility anyway. What an age, what a time to be alive!

From Monday on, we stayed at T’s mom’s place, spoiled by a lake, a goofy, happy dog, plus good food and good company. Then we drove the backroads back down to Waterloo for a short visit with family and grandparents before making our way back home this week. A classic end-of-summer Ontario vacation, driving and visiting and driving and visiting. Going through cottage country, you see the aspiration and ambition of past eras, of middle-class abundance, thriving small towns, and the long, slow decline that’s accompanied urban migration.

These scenes feel symbolic of a politics of stability, comfort, and familiarity. Mandy Brown quoted Adam Greenfield on such politics this week, offering a warning for the future that stopped me in my tracks. Butler and brown incant on the inevitability, the necessity of change, trying to warn and equip us to deal with that change. But, as T has pointed out a few times recently, even good change is hard. The withering of the communities and institutions that support people through change will make that politics of stability—a false promise though it is—all the more appealing in the years and decades ahead.

Huh. Despite the gloom underlying those words, believe me that it has been a good week. Maybe because we’ve been lucky to be living one of the better antidotes to worry: a change of scene and responsibilities, the long, slow thoughts of travel through familiar landscapes, and, above all, quality time with people we love.

• Speaking of vacationing: Matt Webb on “the bureaucracy of going to the beach” need I quote more!?
• Sameer remembering his first day of school in Canada, reflecting on his daughter’s first day of school this week.
• Craig Mod’s latest Roden with a bucketload of good links.
• Money’s been on the mind lately, for various reasons. Everyone’s got their method (even “no method” is a method), but for day-to-day cash management, I continue to think YNAB’s four rules (however you implement them) are hard to beat. (Look, I managed to walk out of both Home Depot and Lee Valley today without spending any money, so you know something’s working.)
• Speaking of money (err, finance ooh fancy), you mean to tell me scraping is not merely a thing for open data nerds, but a way to make money!?
• Nicola Griffith on H5N1 bird flu simply has me going “hmm”.

H’oooookay. I hope you’re able to spend some good, quality time with loved ones, or however you feel best, sooner than later. All the best for the week ahead!

Lucas