Which is a response I’ve written to a few folks myself, which isn’t an argument, Matthew, rather a validation. Every so often I get a poke that I should have included x, or for that matter y, and while yet at it, how 'bout z? Since we’re not in the biz of churning out War and Peace..look…

I’m trying very hard these days not to leap on popular bandwagons (that’s not directed at you, only to myself). While I get it that we as readers do, and we mostly see through a PoV, because of that I have been hoping to offer a different narrative when I write stuff that touches on these issues. My primary areas are about fitness after fifty, and ageism, which to my mind is just as evil fired at people a third my age as it is at seniors. It’s still hate by any other name. Or blame. Doesn’t matter.

And yes, if course, you can’t cover all of it, not what I either expect or ask. However I don’t know that I would agree that the issues exist only in the mind of the reader. If and when we promulgate or expand on white hot issues like this without also suggesting a different way of approaching it, are we not validating its reality in the zeitgeist (God I feel so fucking smart when I write that, give it a sec, this too shall pass)?

Just asking. I don’t have answers, Matthew, just lots of questions. Hopefully good ones for if we keep asking what our purpose is, what we hope to accomplish, maybe that can lead us down different and hopefully better roads. Again, that’s not a criticism of your piece, it’s just a general statement.

Thanks for the discussion. Pleasure to explore points of view rather than have folks toss shite in our windows during a drive-by.