Sunday Evening Reads
Why It's Important To Digress
“Oh, I don’t know. That digression business got on my nerves…The trouble with me is I like it when somebody digresses. It’s more interesting and all.”
Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye
I’ve always liked it when people digress from the main point when they’re talking or writing. It’s not only more interesting, it’s more creative, because you know someone’s mind is zig-zagging all over the place, and they just might make some connections that solve a problem in a creative way. And that is the importance of digression—to at least have the possibility of creative thinking and creative problem-solving. Linear and logical thinking, talking and writing can be, well, boring.
I fell for J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye when I first read it in high school, and to this day, I am known to suddenly proclaim that I feel closer to Holden Caulfield that most people I know. And I can tell you why. Holden had no problem sharing his deepest emotions, his fears, his guilt, his vulnerabilities and his love. That’s how you get to know and care for another human—they share their emotions with you—they make themselves vulnerable to you and to others.
“Shouldn’t everybody care about everybody else?”
Now what have the virtues of digression and vulnerability to do with the intersection of our country’s ever-increasing wealth gap, hideous racial injustice, and environmental degradation that has already led to catastrophic climate change? Maybe it’s the connection among people, realizing that we’re all a part of each other, and naturally, we all should care about every other person (and I’ll add all living species). It was stated more simply by Edie Doyle in On The Waterfront …
And Edie was right. But it’s not just individuals who should care about others, it’s our government, and our elected officials who attempt to govern. As I mentioned in a previous post, our government should work for “the common good”, and it, in fact, has no other purpose. Our government has shown glimpses of caring in the past and it is trying to do so again. I hope some of the readings I’ve chosen for this week reflect our need for creative thinking and caring at all levels of government.
— This recent New Yorker article has to be the most interesting I’ve read all year. I didn’t know that Roosevelt’s New Deal included a provision in the Work Projects Administration, “The Federal Writer’ Project”, that put thousands of unemployed writers, teachers and other white collar employees back to work in the late 1930’s… and it was a raging success. And reviving it today is being tossed about by some of our more creative elected officials. It’s OK to call on the past to solve some of today’s problems.
(Note: if you are blocked from reading this piece because you are not a New Yorker subscriber, please let me know.)
“This concept is to strengthen and fortify communities through food”.
— This August piece from The Guardian discusses the dearth of fresh, healthy foods in poor neighborhoods and the limitations of the SNAP (Food Stamp Program). One of the people featured, who has been working for over a decade to bring healthy food to corner markets in poor neighborhoods, says: “The concept is to strengthen and fortify communities through food”. As an aside, those receiving SNAP benefits can buy all the candy, chips and soda they want, but cannot purchase a hot rotisserie chicken from the supermarket for a weeknight, family dinner. “Cold Bar” yes, “Hot Bar” no. What creative thinking lies behind that decision?
— Speaking of food… (if you are one of the many who think fast food is food), read this article from The Guardian about fast food workers across the country who are protesting wages and poor working conditions. They finally have some leverage via their industry’s worker shortages and are using it!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/21/restaurant-industry-worker-shortage-pay-increase
— And finally for this evening, if you want to understand FDR’s New Deal and peer into a time when our government chose to be compassionate, read it from the man himself, sans political analysis. Here are a plethora of FDR speeches addressing his plans to revitalize our country.
https://publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu/academics/research/faculty-research/new-deal/roosevelt-speeches/
Let me know what you think in your comments below. I’d love to hear from you!
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Of course I meant Trump's base, but I'm not convinced there is much of any traditional republican base of poor people left.
Again I must state that republicans, who gave big fat tax cuts to the rich under trump, generally do not support any programs that benefit working people in general and poor people specifically. One would think that their "base", consisting mostly of the working poor would actually understand that, but as long as the repubs give them something (now mask mandates) or someone, usually a liberal, to hate, they are easily diverted from their own actual plight.