SPEAK UP: When the world changes you

We're living in an era of dramatic upheaval. How have you coped?

Yesterday, we shared this essay about the importance, and the difficulty, of addressing the psychological unmooring, the threat to identity, that can come with progress.

It got us thinking about how you, our readers, have lived through and with change, and how you’ve seen it affect those around you. We’re wondering how you have experienced everything from dramatic changes in gender roles, to demographic shifts in your neighborhood, to economic and technological changes that upend your work, to new social obligations like needing to pay attention to pronouns or avoid ableist language, to understanding the new and unfamiliar ideas reaching your children when they go to school.

When have you been unsettled by these changes? If you weren’t unsettled by them, why not? What gave you the confidence to get to the other side? What do you think causes some people to take changes like these in stride — and others to lose their grip?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below. And check out the essay in case you missed it. As always, this is a safe and generative space for our subscribers, and we expect you all, as always, to treat each other with openness, kindness, and curiosity.

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Elementary school students join hands as they walk in honor of Ruby Bridges, a civil rights activist who was the first Black child to attend an all-white school in the 60s (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)