Re-post from yesterday, for weekend crew. And thank you specifically to the 2 or 3 that contributed yesterday, seems to help Stewart's stability.
Posted by
landbeck
Aug 17 '19, 09:49
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Over the past ten years, you have collectively been a critically important part of my coping process in managing a range of trials and issues. Work changes, addiction, family loss, and most recently traumatic brain injury, have all-together made it a pretty dramatic set of chapters. Man, trying to winnow the list down to an easy-to-read list is stressful.
One of the most profoundly disconcerting items I've been managing these past two years (I am deliberately calculating that in the context of having to learn to walk and talk again) is trying to understand the process of parenting adult children, who themselves are coping with personal trials or burdens. They lost their Brother suddenly, after a five-plus year nightmare of frustrating behavioral and addiction issues before-hand, with all the lingering anger and survivor guilt stemming from that.
I worry about each of them individually on almost a constant basis. They are juggling taxes, jobs, stable relationships, their own physical/mental health, the growing animosity of politics/culture, chores. Another list to winnow.
For the past five years, my oldest son has struggled to be stable, level, happy. School was a nightmare that he tried to restart 6 times before retreating to a dead-end job that itself was dragging him down. He moved back home just after my car accident, and has established a pattern of mostly avoiding contact and conversation with any of us, anyone else as well, coming to see us a few times a week (usually for a meal) while living in my parent's basement, doing occasional one-off chores or rebuilding computers when he's not recovering from a crippling migraine or an anxiety attack. A polite and incredibly talented hermit.
I was surprised in June when he and my youngest shared their plan that he was going to be driving my youngest daughter 2000 miles to college in August. My son further surprised me when he indicated that he would then be traveling to some other relatives in the West, and would probably be gone for a couple more months.
And then surprised me this week a final time, when he told me he was actually going to linger in California indefinitely.
I am hoping, infinitely, that he connect in good ways with some of the people he knows in his journey. He has a talent and skill for problem-solving coding and crafting that would be a perfect fit at one of the businesses or programming he'll encounter as he's away.
So in addition to the funds we'd already agreed to provide him, he's raising funds himself. The text copied below is from the fundraiser he's organized on Libera Pay, a French site he found through his own research, comparing Patreon, GoFundMe, and Kickstarter. He found this one to be the most non-profit.
He gave me permission to share the site, and his story, so I am trying to reach out to some of the people I know who have helped me personally. If you are interested in the story, or feel like lending a hand to the friend of an on-line friend, click through and leave him some funds. I would note the Liberapay site is designed for long-term stable funding, and only supports recurring gifts, so you have to sign up for a schedule of on-going gifting. But if you want to do a one-time only fund, or a limited process, it is simple to sign up, donate, and then cancel the donation on your account's "Giving" page by clicking on the red minus sign next to the item.
*******copied text********
After struggling with employment and social related anxiety for a number of years, I've decided to try something different for the last few months of the year. I will be wandering across the United States. At the beginning I'll be funded by my parents as a way to get my little sister to college and my big sister a babysitter, but if I am going to continue past the first few months I'll need more than just an initial lump sum.
I will be traveling in a simple 4 door sedan, and I anticipate many nights finding camping spots and cold canned vegetables. But I also plan on taking advantage of the many different kinds of nature parks available across the country, trying regional food (as my funds allow), and figuring out the best way to use local public resources to their fullest.
So here I am, asking for donations to allow me to wander the nation with more freedom. I will use the funds to eat and travel, with a promise of at least weekly status updates (using free public wifi). These updates will range from family phone calls and emails (as long as my donors remain related to me) to a new blog if demand exists (measured by amount of donors).
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