Changed

Wrong Turn Lit/March 31, 2023

Leaving my Ron was not a hasty decision. It took me years to get to that point. Years of talking, my words hanging in space with no one to catch them. Years of sitting at the table surrounded by three bent heads, not in prayer, but in fixation on little screens cradled in their hands. Complaining and making rules to ban them did not work. My family considered me a malcontent, a party-pooper, a luddite.

Ron,

I’m leaving. I accept that I cannot hold your attention. You are free to focus on your more powerful distraction. I give up. I’m going to live at my parents’ house.

-Joanna