Our Newspaper is Coming to Substack!
Yes! The Vashon Loop is launching its Substack Presence, bringing high quality, community-owned & supported journalism TO YOU!
Wednesday, December 21st, 2022
Dear Freedom Friends,
It’s been almost a month since I posted. If you’ve been subscribed to my Substack for awhile, you know why. If not, now’s a perfect time to subscribe!
After a blissful month of research for my novel series, traveling solo throughout Southern England, Ireland and Scotland, I returned home for my 50th birthday celebration with friends and family. It was a lovely day, filled with the people who mean so much to me, and delicious mixed drinks made with luscious and rare gins and cream-blended vodka, brought home from my time abroad. I felt strong, healthy and ready for the rest of my life to begin! It was that time of year when wood must be cut, split and stacked, and for the first time in my life - I learned how to use a chain saw! Like a hand gun, it was way less scary, once I got over my trepidation and accepted the full responsibility for my safety and those around me. Strong, I was!
A week later, on our “wood splitting day,” as I was stacking wood under the back deck, my cell phone rang. It was my Mom. She had just been diagnosed with Stage 2 cancer of the tongue, had wisely refused the only allopathic option (radical surgery), and she was preparing for her transition to the next life. She wanted to stay in Scotland, so as to “not be a burden.” To my great relief, she changed her mind and flew home a couple weeks later. My son, who had just visited her and was finishing his travels in Paris, cut his travels short, and we bought him a return ticket on the same flight. She arrived, tired but alive, travel-weary but loved, in pain but supported by a family that is grateful for the time we yet have.
And so began the final stage of our relationships, as mother and daughter, grandmother and grandsons, mother-in-law and son-in-law, elder and young women stepping into the fullness of their adult lives. To say I have been absent on almost all other fronts, is to say the obvious.
Where I have not been absent is in my role as co-owner of The Vashon Loop! We, the Editorial Team, are overjoyed to have this exceptional opportunity to support our community by providing a platform for many voices and eyeballs!
And now…we have a gift for you and yours!
In January, The Vashon Loop will officially launch a Substack Version of our excellent example of True Community Journalism!
What do I mean by “true?” I will elaborate on that soon enough. For now, let me just say, “it is with great horror that I discover the mournful state of American Media being gobbled up by powerful families and media giants, with two goals in mind: economic resource extraction & narrative control.”
Between now and January 1st, I will be sharing Vashon Loop articles written since our inaugural September 2022 Issue.
These articles will give you a taste of what is possible when normal, everyday people in a community do the important work of co-creating a Truly Community-Owned Newspaper. And, we hope you will be inspired to support both me AND our locally created (and now globally offered) community paper! More on that, later.
FOR NOW, A WORD TO THE WISE:
If we can do it, so can you.
Thank you Lady Twisdale!