We are squarely in the post-pandemic world now. The weirdness of the economy right now hasn’t found its unified theory. The constant thrum (and unease of not knowing what it means for us individually) of AI news is almost white noise. This is the summer of climate emergency digging its claws into our collective psyche and promising to not be shooed away anytime soon.
I could hand-wave it all into an ‘uncertainty’ bromide, but it’s deeper than that. It’s not just that we don’t know what to do, it’s that the ground beneath us seems mushier - and it’s the mild fear of whether we’ll correctly identify, in time, whether its just mud or quicksand.
As a couple, Veena and I have shared this feeling for as long we can remember. And our response has been to never stay in that spot long enough to find out. We drove towards momentum, and in turn momentum drove us. We moved around 3 continents in a span of 5 years. We’ve quit ‘lucrative’ jobs, thought moving countries while also expecting our first child while one of us is still job hunting is A-OK. We liked to think of it as a healthy appetite for risk, but I now think it’s just the compulsive migrant in us - sometimes it’s geographic, sometimes it’s just our minds that need it.
I came across this term ‘snowbird’ on Atmos’s insta - and it was instant recognition.
snowbird • \SNOH-berd\ • noun. 1 : any of several birds (as a junco or fieldfare) seen chiefly in winter 2 : one who travels to warm climes for the winter.
A snowbird used to refer to people who travel south during winter. Seasonal travelers. But only now, it’s hard to predict what season it is and when the next one will come. With the polycrises at hand - and I include mental, moral and social ones here as well - we’ll all need to be snowbirds. The truths of the past decade will need to shift. The way we did work yesterday probably won’t be how it be will be done 5 years from now. And of course, the places and climes we’ve taken for granted as forever stable won’t be so.
We’ve also become seasonal travellers when it comes to culture. We’re incredibly curious about the world and find ourselves taking up short term obsessions instead of long term hobbies. And we’re now raising a small curious person. As we forage the venn diagram of culture, society and tech - from making sense of modern parenting advice to the loneliness epidemic in east Asia - we try to make sense why something is, and what it might become.
And one of the best ways of making sense of something is to write about it. And one of the best ways of finding out if you’re on to something or just senile is to share your writing. That’s the ambition of snowbird.
We aim to send 2-3 posts a week coming from both of us. One will be a list of links that’s keeping us curious that week. One will be a view on a topic that one of us needs to write to think. We’ll also add what we’re consuming in culture. And we can’t wait to hear from you. Come be snowbirds with us.
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