We did get to hear some good singing today at the funeral. Hearing this today draws up out of my memory all those country folks, in their country churches, singing their songs in that “high lonesome sound.” We drove around the old stomping grounds in Springville after the burial, reminiscing.
Today I help carry to his grave a small and angry man. He abused his children when they were young, manipulated and demeaned them as adults. He was the pope of his own exacting and graceless religion, not having darkened the door of an actual church in a half-century. He would arrive in heaven believing it was his due, with a thing or two to say to God about the management of the universe.
May his ancestors work him over. May his children find peace.
As Rachel said, all the choices of his life led to the loneliness of his death. Live so as to be missed.
Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth:
Margaret has taken off her hat, and put on an apron over the clothes she wore to church. She looks around at Mat and smiles as he comes into the kitchen, and turns back to the stove. She is wearing her grey dress that so becomes her—a pretty woman. He takes that in. He comes into her presence as he would come into the pleasing shadow of a tree—drawn to her, comforted by her as he has been, usually, all his life.
I love portrayals of happy couples in long-term relationships; they’re rare enough, both the fictional and actual. So much fiction and film is taken up with young people in love and middle-aged people in hate.
The calm, steady knowing of long-term love—the gratitude of finding yourself in such a place—it’s a bones-deep feeling of home. I wish there was more of this in the world. I’m deeply grateful that I’m living it with Rachel.
Made an early Christmas present for Rachel today: an oak rolling pin. Started out square but with a saw, belt sander, draw knife, and some time, I got it functionally round.
Ralph, the garage cat
Meet Ralph, our garage cat. He started showing up a few months ago. His hair was terribly matted and had to be painful, so one day we caught him and shaved off the matted bits. He wasn’t happy about it, but maybe he appreciated it because he started showing up regularly, especially once we started feeding him. As winter approached, we set him up with a bed and heated mat in the (detached) garage, plus a cat door so he can come and go as he pleases.
ChatGPT has a TV ad showing a young farmer, working her multi-generational family farm, asking ChatGPT what’s wrong with her soybeans. But … but … sigh … never mind.
I somehow missed that Jesse Welles is on Bandcamp. Listening to Pilgrim now. One song features Sierra Ferrell! 🎵
A month of dumbing down my smartphone
Almost a month ago, I dumbed down my smartphone. Here’s my report. The immediate effect was about a one-third reduction in my overall screen time (my iPhone and iPad taken together), so even retaining some of the time-waster apps on my iPad made significant progress. This is because: The iPad cannot be used comfortably in bed, meaning I’m futzing around online less before going to sleep. The iPad cannot be used at work without raising, ummm, concerns with my boss.
One of the things I appreciate about Wendell Berry’s fiction is the quietness in it. It’s not comforting fiction (or cozy, as the marketers would have it) because there is real pain suffered by the characters. But that pain is endured rather than emoted.
A good article about the current penny shortage. It’s unsurprising, I suppose, that this administration simply stopped minting pennies without providing any guidance on how the shift should be handled.