Kate Beattie is a teacher and a lifelong resident of the Macedon Ranges. Her poem, Validation, was written as a reflection on our collective experience of the hardship inflicted by the pandemic. She spoke with Oliver Lees.
Q1. What is your connection to Sunbury and the Macedon Ranges?
I have lived in the Macedon Ranges for 25 years. My husband and I moved to Riddells Creek seven years ago and have been working on renovating our forever house ever since. The Macedon Ranges is a part of who I am and I could not imagine raising a family anywhere else. However, I teach the first grade in Goonawarra and my daughters are in childcare in Sunbury. I feel very connected to both communities.
Q2. Tell me about your poem Validation. What compelled you to pen this piece?
My inspiration came from so many places. I am one of the fortunate people in my poem. My job is safe and I live regionally, and yet, I still have trying days. My four year old daughter stopped eating her breakfast one morning in lockdown and said, “I am so angry about the virus. I want to go back to dancing“. It was the first time I had heard her use the word angry to express herself. Our community has suffered more hardships than missing dance classes, but saying that, her emotions are valid. Everyone has been impacted in ways big and small, everyone has a voice and each story is important.
Validation – by Kate Beattie
I glance up into the fog in my glasses from the mask on my face,
And I wonder how we got to this place.
It is weird to think how quickly we forget how life was before.
I can’t remember what consumed every conversation anymore.
I look across at my pantry door,
And the invites to cancelled or postponed events are hard to ignore.
I call to check in on my friend who has built a local business that thrives,
And listen to her tears as she relays her hope that it survives.
Birthdays are spent indoors waiting for drive by visits and a wave,
We are barred from the social outings that we crave.
I watched my father sit in an empty pew and say a lonely goodbye to his old man,
On a screen from my couch due to the current funeral ban.
It made me wonder about the intergenerational effect the virus has had,
the loss of childhood naivety and of essential experience as a grad.
Newborn babies are not receiving the welcome they deserve,
With grandparents in lockdown trying to flatten the curve.
Increased mental health and infection is killing members of our community,
And creating a country without state-to-state unity.
Last year I believed that children were resilient and that it wouldn’t make an impact,
But now I think they are falling into a future in which the odds are already stacked.
There are people whose major change was simply working behind their screen,
Those who kept their jobs, but work from home and have a change in their routine.
There are others who have suffered immense financial loss,
And have had to request stress leave from their boss.
Some people are locked inside a ‘broken’ state unable to cross the border,
And visit their hometown that seems to still be in order.
The hardships have been large and small,
But there are real feelings behind them all.
The message that I am trying to convey,
Even where someone else’s pain seems worse, but you cannot get through the day,
Is that however you are feeling, it is okay.
