Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Planting Moon<\/p>\n
Hard to believe we move out of spring and into Beltane, the start of the Celtic summer or growing season, this week. \u00a0We’ve only just got our cold weather crops in the ground. \u00a0Fortunately for the cold weather crops temps are gonna drop again and rains will come in the plenties.<\/p>\n
Finished reading a wonderful book by Nelson Algren, Chicago on the Make. \u00a0This 1951 work renders a picture of Chicago from its underbelly, sympathetically. \u00a0The writing reaches out from the page, grabs you by the lapel (if you have a lapel) and says, pay attention to this! \u00a0It’s important. \u00a0But also beautiful in the way a tractor coated with mud after a day in the field is beautiful, beautiful in the way a darkened coal miners face is to wife and children that night. \u00a0Quick to read, long to forget.<\/p>\n
Started another by Jack Cash, Mind of the South. \u00a0This 1941 book, of which I was unaware, gets credit for nailing much about the south in an honest, intelligent analysis. \u00a0The version I’m reading is a 50 year anniversary edition with a wonderful introduction, but no change to the main body of the text. \u00a0Cash committed suicide six months after its publication.<\/p>\n
Considering Chicago, as I have been for the trip I’d intended to take there in May, and now picking up Mind of the South, has left me wondering, again, about how to express the unique culture of the American Midwest, the Heartland of the world’s hegemon (for a few more months at least). \u00a0This is my culture, the one that has shaped me, in ways often invisible to my own eye. \u00a0What is our lederhosen and gingerbread cottage molding? \u00a0What is our calligraphy, poetry and painting style? \u00a0What is our wiener schnitzel? \u00a0Our chicory coffee and beignets? \u00a0How do we drive, compared to the biggest always wins philosophy of Mexico City? \u00a0What do we want for our children? \u00a0Ourselves? \u00a0What dreams propel us? \u00a0What fears haunt us? \u00a0Who are we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Planting Moon Hard to believe we move out of spring and into Beltane, the start of the Celtic summer or growing season, this week. \u00a0We’ve only just got … Continue reading Who Are We?<\/span>