Hello everyone,
This week I received a check for $1.56 from a company that owed me precisely that much money. I returned one thing, ordered another, and they did the math. They found that I was owed that much. So they printed a check, paid the postage, and mailed it to me.
God bless the ever-excellent customer service at LL Bean.
Not an ad. Just a loyal New Englander.
The Part Where There’s an Essay:
When Paul Simon was making his farewell tour back in 2018, David and I were fortunate enough to be able to get tickets to his Greensboro, NC show. It was an amazing night -- three hours of songs that spanned his decades-long catalog.
When you look at the list of cities they visited, Greensboro was the furthest south the tour came. This was the mid-term for President Trump; political animosity was running high in the country, as per usual.
I remember one point in the concert when Paul approached the microphone at center stage and confessed that he hadn’t been to North Carolina before. And then, in a surprised tone, he said, “You guys are really good people down here. I should have come down here earlier.” He basically confessed to the arena that he had believed the worst of Southerners, stayed in the North, and wrote off an entire area of the country for decades.
What was the remedy? Going there and realizing that actual humans live there.
As another election year approaches, I am reminded of a map I saw on someone’s Facebook page a few years back. It showed how easy it would be for the northern states to “disown” the southern ones. It may not surprise you to know that this was posted by a northern friend, dissatisfied with the South’s support of Trump. I guess she wanted me to need my passport to visit my family.
I sat in a cafeteria on Tuesday and worked a small local election. There were three races -- Democratic primaries -- and turnout was, in the words of some local news reports -- “abysmal.” About 5% of eligible voters turned out to vote that day.
The precinct where I worked had the best turnout in the city: we served two hundred and two voters. Fourteen of us sat in an elementary school cafeteria, shivering from the overactive air conditioning, waiting to see if anyone would come through the door. As the students ate lunch on the other side of the room, we could hear their hushed conversations through the sturdy room divider. We could smell their lunch.
We will have another election in two months’ time, and turnout will probably be low for that one also because it’s not the presidential election. The truth is, that local politics affect our lives far more than we’re willing to admit, and we don’t show up for them1. National politics affect us far less, but we tie ourselves in knots over that arena.
We’re willing to get mad at people three or four states away and formulate an opinion of them. This prejudice might last for decades -- a lifetime, even. It is neater and cleaner than learning how we differ from the person down the street. It is easier than trying to parse out the complications of our localities.
Next year, as we’re all reading the national headlines, forming portraits of men and women who are on the stage, I wonder if we could spare a moment for some ideas closer to home. I wonder if that could help us regain some perspective. I wish it would.
For the Anglophiles
The Rest is History podcast covered the Victorian schools of England which served as models for so many books we love, including the Harry Potter series. I found this fascinating — there’s a bit that’s not safe for children’s ears. The Real Harry Potter: Magic, Empire, and Beastly Bullies.
Reads & Listens of the Week
I’ve been really blessed by watching this approach at my workplace, and it seems wise for churches as well: How 360-Degree Reviews Help Leaders Grow in Grace.
I have appreciated Ashley Hales’ thoughts on the therapeutic age, and this most recent entry hit pretty close to home: When Wellness Comes to Church. “So there are two kinds of wellness (probably more): one is something to be bought and sold, something to earn, available only to a few (either through purchasing power or ‘enlightenment’); the other is one that is freely given, lavish and offensive to those of us used to earning our keep.”
I always enjoy Jonathan’s little trips into linguistics. Here’s one on the Italian word “Prego!”
I don’t think this got enough attention, but maybe that’s because people like me are pessimistic that it will have any effect: Strengthening our Democracy. “By signing this statement, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles of democracy undergirding this great nation, protecting our freedom, and respecting our fellow citizens. When united by these convictions, America is stronger as a country and an inspiration for others.”
The modern ignorance is in people’s assumption that they can outsmart their own nature. It is in the arrogance that will believe nothing it cannot prove, and respect nothing it cannot understand, and value nothing it cannot sell. ― Wendell Berry, The Memory of Old Jack
I’m including myself here.
Near Bar Harbor we drove past a Mexican restaurant that was called--for real--“El El Frijoles.”