Margaret Evans

middle-aged women who's obsessed with the natural world. Hate being such a cliche, but there it is.

Today: Now in late middle age, I’m still obsessed with nature, and have made peace with my status as a cliché.

2 years ago: "There is nothing I dread So much, as a Division of the Republick into two great Parties, each arranged under its Leader, and concerting Measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble Apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political Evil, under our Constitution."

– John Adams, 1780

Today: The prescience. It burns.

6 Years Ago: Hyperbole and hysteria have an odd effect on me. I am approaching complete detachment. Perhaps I am truly evil. Would one know?

Today: Still hate hyperbole and hysteria – which have multiplied on social media. Still feeling detached. Still wondering if I’m evil.

8 years ago: So, everybody is policing everybody else's language now. Every time you turn around, there's a new verbal taboo, another forced apology, another public shaming for the slightest infraction. Comedians can't even get away with edgy humor anymore. (Witness the new Daily Show guy.) This is all for the best, right? So why does it feel meaner, nastier and more aggressive "out there" than it ever has in my lifetime? I swear, y'all, I don't think the War on Language is gonna have any more success than the War on Drugs – or Prohibition, for that matter.

Today: This observation was made long before the phrase “cancel culture” entered the lexicon, and we’re even meaner and nastier now. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

12 Years Ago: A friend told me, "All we need is love." As if that were some small thing.

Today: As if.

14 years ago: When you have a column to write and nothin' to say.

Today: Some things never change.