From the pages of Business Insider, more progressive-woman-lifestyle news:

I knew I didn’t want to live in the US anymore. Not only did I feel empowered abroad, but I also felt that the US no longer aligned with my values.

What those values might be will, perhaps, become clear, if only by implication.

I quit my job, divorced my husband, and moved to Italy to retire.

That’s the article’s headline. The star of this drama is Ms Cindy Sheahan, a former real-estate agent. Judging by the tone and triumphant photograph, I’m guessing we’re supposed to regard Ms Sheahan as some kind of inspirational figure. No explanation is offered for Ms Sheahan divorcing her husband and then putting half a planet between her family and herself. There are no mutterings of neglect or infidelity. No hardships of any kind.

The nearest we come to a justification is,

I didn’t want just to walk the dog, play pickleball, and tend a garden. I wanted a bigger life.

And, er, so,

Once I stepped out the door and visited places I had only dreamed of and ate food I had only read about, it was ridiculous to think I was going to go back to my “normal life.”

Again, the whys and wherefores of this radical uprooting remain oddly nebulous. Beyond, that is, the intrigue of unfamiliar food. We are, however, informed,

I wasn’t into the US’s overconsumption. With the divisive political climate and the ridiculous gun culture, there was no way in hell I’d live there after experiencing a more peaceful life in so many other countries.

So says our woman of high progressive principle – the woman who abandoned her husband and family, and her job, seemingly forever, despite promising to return:

My company was kind enough to let me take a sabbatical while I sorted out my world. It turned out to be a mistake for them, because I decided I wasn’t coming back.

Quite what Ms Sheahan’s employers made of this, or indeed her husband and four children, is, alas, not disclosed. Evidently they were deemed of no importance in this tale of progressive empowerment. And so, Ms Sheahan went searching for herself in Cambodia, and in Vietnam. And Laos. And Madagascar. And Turkey and Cyprus. And France and Spain and Portugal and Greece. Indeed, this quest for self – this attempt to find an alignment of values – spanned “nearly fifty countries.”

Before – presumably thwarted – trying Italy:

I moved to [Palermo] in October 2024. I didn’t want to live in the suburbs – though living in the outer areas will always be less expensive and, in some ways, more authentic.

And as you can imagine, Ms Sheahan is so into authenticity.

So, I chose to live in the city centre.

And being so authentic, so attuned to higher matters, her days are now spent eating alone in restaurants:

Eating… when you want to is nice. You can go back to the same restaurant twice… You have no one to apologise to or explain yourself to.

Oh, and grocery shopping. Specifically,

tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes,

Ah, the inexhaustible romance of buying tomatoes. It’s all about personal growth, you see:

I feel like I outgrew a lot of people and places in the US.

For some reason, the abandoned husband and four distant children come to mind.

Don’t get me wrong, I desperately miss my friends and family, especially my kids.

Ah.

But they’re all able to travel,

So screw those guys. Madam has tomatoes to buy.

If the above sounds vaguely familiar, you may be thinking of this.

Via Dicentra.




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