We've decided that September 30 will be the last day for Raw Data. That will make six months of posts - a half year of responses, retorts, reflections, and a few rants. Poems, prose, and photos. Chronicles of Instacart, the search for toilet paper, sourdough experiments, and introvert manifestos. New ways of shopping, of mourning, of having a party. The people who have written posts for the blog have expressed the fears and anger and sadness and frustration that we've all been feeling and have managed to find some satisfactions and joys as well.
Six months seems like a good place to stop, even though the pandemic is not over.
I think that maybe when we started this we thought that things would be back to normal by now. That's what we all hoped, isn't it? But it seems clear now that things aren't going to snap back to the default of 2019. Things may get better (oh, we so hope that they get better), but the world, and all of us, are going to be changed.
We're hoping to do something further with all this wonderful material, possibly an archive, possibly a reading or a series of readings. When we decide what to do, we'll let you know. Thanks for posting, dear contributors, and thanks for reading, dear readers. This blog was one of the ways that we coped with uncertainty and sadness, and we hope that it has been, and still is, helpful to you all as well.
What a wonderful collective project. There is so much talent in our community. It was all so rich, unique, and touching. Thank you, Mary and Susan. I am honored to be one of the archival voices.
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Thanks so much for this project.
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