Solastalgia

In this personal essay for Salvation South, Tracy Thompson reflects on the deep sense of loss she feels from watching the land she grew up on irrevocably transformed by modern development. Drawing from her own upbringing on rural farmland near Atlanta, she introduces the concept of solastalgia, a term coined by environmentalist and philosopher Glenn Albrecht, which describes “a longing for a very real place that has been rendered alien by the encroachment of industry, the ravages of war, fire, flood, or environmental degradation.” Take the time to sit with and absorb Thompson’s vivid recollections of her grandfather Paw Paw’s farm, which no longer exists. This is a poignant personal piece on memory, environmental grief, and our connection to land.

The landscape of my childhood was swapped for this dystopia. And what did we get in exchange? Some consequential things. A higher standard of living, for one: the house we moved into when I was sixteen was a mansion compared to the house my parents built. The same air traffic that interrupted my algebra studies has taken me to places that broadened my horizons, expanded my understanding of the world, and allowed me to see places of breathtaking beauty. The airline industry that employed my father paid for college educations for my sister and me and allowed my mother to live a comfortable old age after our father died. The airport itself provides stable jobs for tens of thousands of people. My hometown of Atlanta has grown into a thriving international city and a mecca for Black artists. All of these are good things, and maybe they were even worth the obliteration of every lovely thing I grew up with as a child, and the disappearance of the means by which a gentle man named J.K. Derrick could live lightly on the earth.