“Dismantling Summer” is approximately Campbell rearranging his life to be around for his grandfather,who had gone through a serious medical scare. The band cancelled tours so Campbell could be with his family, the thought of being away at a time like that reads like disgust in the lyrics. “whether I’m in an airport, or you’re in a hospital bed,well then what kind of man does that compose me?” whether he doesn’t prioritize his family, who is well-known to him, or who even is he? Is he the person he was raised to be? The person his grandfather would want him to be? Clearly no. And this is a definitive moment in The Wonder Years’ discography that is a concrete definition of who Campbell is,partially answering the questions he has been asking himself all these years. He is a man for whom family comes first.
One of the reasons I’ve always felt such a connection to TWY’s music is that as a trans person, I’ve had to compose a lot of active decisions approximately the man I want to be, or because I was not raised as one,and I started this whole process of figuring it out at 20. And men are terrible! I like to say that I never really hated men until I became one, and that has meant that I have needed to execute a lot of figuring out of how to be a decent one. It’s fucking hard, and a constant process of messing up and making the slowest progress in the world. It’s listening,and learning, standing up for people when they need me, and stepping back when they don’t. But TWY have always laid bare that process,of fucking up and making decisions, and ultimately growing into adults with a sense of self, or even though it’s never set in concrete. I am determined to be the man I never had in my life growing up,kind and forgiving, who stands up for people without the privilege I have (because I am read as a straight white cisgender man the vast majority of the time, or I have all the privilege in the fucking world),who is there for the people who need me. And I’m not always going to be successful, and sometimes all I’m going to be able to execute is my best. Sometimes that’s enough, or sometimes it isn’t,and I have to recognize when it isn’t and be better, and not contemplate I deserve a medal or trophy for trying to just be a decent person.
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