Twelve years and COVID kills us in less than four months.
Twelve years ago our book club was launched with the great help of library staff. Over the years, four library staff members guided our book club, suggested books, assisted us in borrowing books from book club sets. We were going great guns for many, many years.
Membership changed over the years. People moved away, job relocation impacted, lives changed. However, one thing never changed. Intelligent, enthusiastic and passionate book readers devoted to a past time that was fun and developmental for each of us.
Curiously, one factor never changed. The book club membership sustained more than one male. A second male member joined for a year or so but abandoned the club surprisingly soon. The other male remains from the inception to the club to this very day. An amazingly dedicated and devoted reader.
But troubles sprouted. Coincidentally, these troubles germinated the same year as COVID.
Book discussions occasionally became overheated. Polarizations split the club, often the single male countered by the member balance, all females. As the year progressed, the polarization became more heated, more impassioned, but thankfully still restrained from becoming personal.
Then, months later, the most dynamic female members began to become more outspoken, maybe more defensive, more assertive. The discussions became more impassioned and much less objective. What caused this intensification of the club member spirit must be based on either of two things. Either, female psyches need reassertion, female confidence felt assaulted and needed defending. The defence took the form of offensive assaults on the lone male. Perhaps these defences were a response to the male machismo as the lone male asserted himself.
The other consideration in what may have led to the breaking down of club cohesion and bonds might have been COVID. Meetings now became ZOOM meetings.
