Quick extension of yesterday’s post. Reading deeper into Matthew J. Crawford’s Why We Drive, I’m reminded of Annie Dillard’s observation that the way you spend the hours of your life is the way you’re spending your life. Crawford writes, in a dozen different ways, that the things we do become the things we are; our choices shape our brain and train our mind. I just told Miss Teenager about the just absolutely horrible
Your family is very unreasonable, not immediately jumping into the auto and driving to Kansas... or the Dakotas... or where ever. I think it's time for an intervention...of something, by someone, to explain to them why they are so lucky to have the opportunities of seeing our great but fading empire. But I'm certain they love you anyway. Thanks for sharing about the hotel. I hope they make it. The federal government pays twice the normal rate for illegals to stay in hotels here in Texas. Maybe they can get that deal. Great money maker.
I've grown to despise the psychology and psychiatry business, for different reasons, but the worst is the batshit experimentation. They torture humans and animals for no purpose other than "just to see." How is that "understanding" (derived from a batshit experiment) supposed to be applied? Because frankly, our own common sense achieves good results in most cases. Do we need to study children growing up in violent streets to know it's undesirable?
I type this from my backyard. Mostly clear skies and 60˚ which is absolutely GLORIOUS for us pasty-white, shriveled PNWers. I have to spray my Mac off with compressed air constantly because of all the pollen falling on my computer.
This alone makes reading the news (Iran seizing container ship in Straits of Hormuz!?!?!?--PRAY FOR PEACE!) much more palatable. It is truly amazing how much environment influences behavior, mood, cognition--just wanted to echo Chris's counsel to get out and touch grass.
I won't make it to Kansas--but nearly all of the Johnson/Nelson extended clan is in SD, ND, MN.
Minnesota joke: Wanna know why the Mississippi River runs south?
Cuz Iowa sucks!
My brother and I drove cross country back in 99. He finished sub school in Groton Connecticut, and was assigned to Bangor, WA. So I flew out and we drove here.
My dad was one of five, mom one of two. We are the only kooks who moved out West. Dad died when I was 4.5, and we've never really met the larger family. Step dad interference, and the new step-in-laws became extended family.
So brother and I drive into this small town in western Minnesota to meet one of our Aunt/Uncles we'd only seen 20+ years before when our Dad died.
We'd been driving all morning, so pulled into a small corner store to get snacked up before meeting everyone. The clerk was a woman in her 60s. She looked at us and said, "You must be the Nelson boys."
How small is a town that everyone knows when two nephews are planning to drop by?
This is a long post to say that when we went to dinner with all of our cousins/aunts/uncles in Sioux Falls, we felt like aliens. Both Alan and I had been all over the world, had advanced degrees, fancied ourselves as 'cosmopolitan'.
We may have been cosmopolitan, but we were tribe-less. No anchor. Our small town extended family members were/are, in many ways standing on much more solid ground than those of us who moved away.
I think of this often. Popular culture has disdain for the simple. The quaint. The small. Middle America.
Thank you Chris for reminding us of the places most of us or at least most of our parents actually came from. A simpler time...and yet they have an Orchestra.
Ah, I love your optimism..."I immediately ran around the house and announced that....." it put a grin on my face. We will be heading to the Minack Theatre in Cornwall in the summer, to see whatever is playing. It's an unusual and iconic venue, carved out of a sheer cliff face with views out over the Atlantic ocean. I can't wait.
It's great to hear the regeneration of Humboldt is going well, that certainly makes a welcome change.
I love this post. Thank you, Chris. You brought value to my day.
I have been drawn into thinking more and more about the fundamental importance of the Arts in terms of the health and well-being of culture within a society. And I think about what is considered to be artful, and what is not; although there will and should always be varying opinions in that regard.
Iain McGilchrist speaks beautifully and passionately about the sacred nature of art and science, and life in-general. He has a lot of videos out on YouTube now if anyone prefers watching him and hearing him instead of trying to make it through his epic two-volume work of genius entitled The Matter With Things.
The ancient Greeks had it right in so many ways. Pythagoras had another big theory besides his mathematical equations; he had a theory regarding the sacredness of harmony in music and how it represents a fundamental civilizational truth beyond the music, yet it is contained within the music. We need a little Pythagorean wisdom to resurface right about now. I will keep striving to trust for good things ahead while appreciating the simple glories of each day.
First of all, Chris, thanks for reporting good news. It's great that people are trying to do human (not digital) things. But I am surprised that liberal arts, even in South Dakota, are not full of diversity. Cf. "Rethinking Blind Auditions" (https://symphony.org/features/rethinking-blind-auditions/). Whenever we bend over backward to be fair, it's never enough. Remember: IT's NEVER ENOUGH, and it never will be.
p.s. From a "10 best list":
RZA, known primarily for his influential role in hip hop as a founding member and the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan, extends his artistic prowess into classical music with the composition A Ballet Through Mud.
A town near me has held “downtown revitalization” sessions, complete with flip charts and stenographers, for nearly 40 years. All they have to show are wire bound reports in a dusty bin somewhere, while outside developers cut the town in two with an ever widening throughway, and a cookie-cutter shopping center that siphons off business to corporations and is now half-vacant. Pathetic, in a place with so much to offer and so much energy from the imaginative population, and all the geographic and demographic ingredients for success, utterly lacking the political will to lift a finger and fight.
It made me smile to hear about Humbolt again. I'm very happy they got their hotel open and pray they are able to make it. Small businesses have such a hard time of it in most places. I so wish it was the 60s/early 70s again. America is so generic now. (Most) Everyone speaks Valley Girl (Up speak). Everywhere has the same stores and eateries. Each place has the same products. Only the small local businesses will have different or one of a kind items, always at much higher prices, because of the cost of business.
I actually prefer antique shops/malls, Goodwill, other local thrift shops, and flea markets. Most things are different than the norm and still have intrinsic value.
Thank-you so much for this article today! Plop your wife and kids in the car today and DRIVE somewhere. (I love to drive.) Enjoy!
Meanwhile, my town, your insular city of the Manhattoes, is engaged in a multi-pronged, public/private initiative to get people to not want to visit. Ironic
The Marxist- Democrat destruction of the economy and civil society WILL eventually make a lot of not-insane, not-masochistic people leave the Deep Blue Prison Cities/States. And other places will flourish because people and capital go where they are treated well. Sure we all want modern amenities. But at what cost? Your mental and physical health? Your children’s well being? I mean it’s coming to a head. And a lot of places are better than you think they’ll be. In surgery, there is an old saying: The solution to pollution is dilution. Translated into political terms, this means get away from Marxist mind control (the pollution). Leaving (the dilution) will break their budgets and tax rolls. When nobody can do anything any more, they will give up. Like the Russians did. At a certain point, they realized they sucked and they couldn’t muster the energy to keep up the charade. Speaking of which, there’s a very timely and well done show on Prime right now - A Gentleman in Moscow, with Ewan McGregor as a dispossessed Count living in the aftermath of the Revolution under Lenin and then Stalin. It has a number of themes that should resonate with people in Comrade Mannequin Biden’s America.
You’re not fooling anyone, Mr. Bray, I know what you’re up to! You’re planning these trips to Kansas, and South Dakota in the hopes that in your absence, someone will come and steal the cat… or maybe it will just opt to go mooch somewhere else where the food is better. Good luck with that!
Your family is very unreasonable, not immediately jumping into the auto and driving to Kansas... or the Dakotas... or where ever. I think it's time for an intervention...of something, by someone, to explain to them why they are so lucky to have the opportunities of seeing our great but fading empire. But I'm certain they love you anyway. Thanks for sharing about the hotel. I hope they make it. The federal government pays twice the normal rate for illegals to stay in hotels here in Texas. Maybe they can get that deal. Great money maker.
Danny Huckabee
I've grown to despise the psychology and psychiatry business, for different reasons, but the worst is the batshit experimentation. They torture humans and animals for no purpose other than "just to see." How is that "understanding" (derived from a batshit experiment) supposed to be applied? Because frankly, our own common sense achieves good results in most cases. Do we need to study children growing up in violent streets to know it's undesirable?
I type this from my backyard. Mostly clear skies and 60˚ which is absolutely GLORIOUS for us pasty-white, shriveled PNWers. I have to spray my Mac off with compressed air constantly because of all the pollen falling on my computer.
This alone makes reading the news (Iran seizing container ship in Straits of Hormuz!?!?!?--PRAY FOR PEACE!) much more palatable. It is truly amazing how much environment influences behavior, mood, cognition--just wanted to echo Chris's counsel to get out and touch grass.
I won't make it to Kansas--but nearly all of the Johnson/Nelson extended clan is in SD, ND, MN.
Minnesota joke: Wanna know why the Mississippi River runs south?
Cuz Iowa sucks!
My brother and I drove cross country back in 99. He finished sub school in Groton Connecticut, and was assigned to Bangor, WA. So I flew out and we drove here.
My dad was one of five, mom one of two. We are the only kooks who moved out West. Dad died when I was 4.5, and we've never really met the larger family. Step dad interference, and the new step-in-laws became extended family.
So brother and I drive into this small town in western Minnesota to meet one of our Aunt/Uncles we'd only seen 20+ years before when our Dad died.
We'd been driving all morning, so pulled into a small corner store to get snacked up before meeting everyone. The clerk was a woman in her 60s. She looked at us and said, "You must be the Nelson boys."
How small is a town that everyone knows when two nephews are planning to drop by?
This is a long post to say that when we went to dinner with all of our cousins/aunts/uncles in Sioux Falls, we felt like aliens. Both Alan and I had been all over the world, had advanced degrees, fancied ourselves as 'cosmopolitan'.
We may have been cosmopolitan, but we were tribe-less. No anchor. Our small town extended family members were/are, in many ways standing on much more solid ground than those of us who moved away.
I think of this often. Popular culture has disdain for the simple. The quaint. The small. Middle America.
Thank you Chris for reminding us of the places most of us or at least most of our parents actually came from. A simpler time...and yet they have an Orchestra.
bsn
Ah, I love your optimism..."I immediately ran around the house and announced that....." it put a grin on my face. We will be heading to the Minack Theatre in Cornwall in the summer, to see whatever is playing. It's an unusual and iconic venue, carved out of a sheer cliff face with views out over the Atlantic ocean. I can't wait.
It's great to hear the regeneration of Humboldt is going well, that certainly makes a welcome change.
I love this post. Thank you, Chris. You brought value to my day.
I have been drawn into thinking more and more about the fundamental importance of the Arts in terms of the health and well-being of culture within a society. And I think about what is considered to be artful, and what is not; although there will and should always be varying opinions in that regard.
Iain McGilchrist speaks beautifully and passionately about the sacred nature of art and science, and life in-general. He has a lot of videos out on YouTube now if anyone prefers watching him and hearing him instead of trying to make it through his epic two-volume work of genius entitled The Matter With Things.
The ancient Greeks had it right in so many ways. Pythagoras had another big theory besides his mathematical equations; he had a theory regarding the sacredness of harmony in music and how it represents a fundamental civilizational truth beyond the music, yet it is contained within the music. We need a little Pythagorean wisdom to resurface right about now. I will keep striving to trust for good things ahead while appreciating the simple glories of each day.
I love these posts about Humboldt KS. Nice to see this follow-up!
First of all, Chris, thanks for reporting good news. It's great that people are trying to do human (not digital) things. But I am surprised that liberal arts, even in South Dakota, are not full of diversity. Cf. "Rethinking Blind Auditions" (https://symphony.org/features/rethinking-blind-auditions/). Whenever we bend over backward to be fair, it's never enough. Remember: IT's NEVER ENOUGH, and it never will be.
p.s. From a "10 best list":
RZA, known primarily for his influential role in hip hop as a founding member and the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan, extends his artistic prowess into classical music with the composition A Ballet Through Mud.
Hopefully that cruel kitten experiment would not be approved today. The kittens could be replaced with graduate students.
A town near me has held “downtown revitalization” sessions, complete with flip charts and stenographers, for nearly 40 years. All they have to show are wire bound reports in a dusty bin somewhere, while outside developers cut the town in two with an ever widening throughway, and a cookie-cutter shopping center that siphons off business to corporations and is now half-vacant. Pathetic, in a place with so much to offer and so much energy from the imaginative population, and all the geographic and demographic ingredients for success, utterly lacking the political will to lift a finger and fight.
It made me smile to hear about Humbolt again. I'm very happy they got their hotel open and pray they are able to make it. Small businesses have such a hard time of it in most places. I so wish it was the 60s/early 70s again. America is so generic now. (Most) Everyone speaks Valley Girl (Up speak). Everywhere has the same stores and eateries. Each place has the same products. Only the small local businesses will have different or one of a kind items, always at much higher prices, because of the cost of business.
I actually prefer antique shops/malls, Goodwill, other local thrift shops, and flea markets. Most things are different than the norm and still have intrinsic value.
Thank-you so much for this article today! Plop your wife and kids in the car today and DRIVE somewhere. (I love to drive.) Enjoy!
I’m only 100 miles from Humboldt. I can be there is less than two hours. As soon as the spring rush is over, I’ll report back.
Meanwhile, my town, your insular city of the Manhattoes, is engaged in a multi-pronged, public/private initiative to get people to not want to visit. Ironic
"the way you spend the hours of your life is the way you’re spending your life."
That's what Aaron Bushnell said: you are already doing what you are going to do.
The Marxist- Democrat destruction of the economy and civil society WILL eventually make a lot of not-insane, not-masochistic people leave the Deep Blue Prison Cities/States. And other places will flourish because people and capital go where they are treated well. Sure we all want modern amenities. But at what cost? Your mental and physical health? Your children’s well being? I mean it’s coming to a head. And a lot of places are better than you think they’ll be. In surgery, there is an old saying: The solution to pollution is dilution. Translated into political terms, this means get away from Marxist mind control (the pollution). Leaving (the dilution) will break their budgets and tax rolls. When nobody can do anything any more, they will give up. Like the Russians did. At a certain point, they realized they sucked and they couldn’t muster the energy to keep up the charade. Speaking of which, there’s a very timely and well done show on Prime right now - A Gentleman in Moscow, with Ewan McGregor as a dispossessed Count living in the aftermath of the Revolution under Lenin and then Stalin. It has a number of themes that should resonate with people in Comrade Mannequin Biden’s America.
Oh, I so wish I could go.
You’re not fooling anyone, Mr. Bray, I know what you’re up to! You’re planning these trips to Kansas, and South Dakota in the hopes that in your absence, someone will come and steal the cat… or maybe it will just opt to go mooch somewhere else where the food is better. Good luck with that!