The Messiness of Being Human: A Father-Daughter Performative Dialogue

The following conversation was enacted by email and text message (with the occasional inner monologue by Mark). Mark had been invited to reflect on this issue’s theme and thought a dialogue with his daughter Aidyn, an aspiring writer, would be apropos. Given separation, given all the complications of the parent–child dynamic (guilt, resentment, longing, umbrage, etc.) what better way to dive into “the messiness of being human”? Aidyn was travelling in Central America; Mark was at home in Sydney, Nova Scotia, anxiously trying to prompt her comments, while also trying to wrap up his time at Cape Breton University, with plans to move at the end of the term.