in the POD - stray thoughts

First Presbyterian Church 

Natchez, MS

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Having left the Gulf coast last Friday we have woken to a new time zone and new bird sounds. We have stood (and slept) 20 feet from the banks of the lower Mississippi River and watched the sun set and the morning fog rise over that majestic river. A constant flow heading south - out into the Gulf. Mixing with the rest of the world.

We have met and shared stories with so many interesting people - from the Louisana beekeepers ( a 10th (?) generation Massachusetts Pilgrim married to a Creole with Oklahoma Shawnee grandchildren) who we met at the Visitors Center in Natchez and kindly shared so much local history,  the bikers we stood outside and drank with along the banks of the Mississippi including Lynn, who worked for the US Forest Service until his retirement returned him home to the south, and the young people that brought their energy and soul into giving tours to iconic American cultural institutions such as Sun Studio and Gibson Guitars. Each and everyone has a story and a dream.

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I have been thinking a lot about that on this trip. We have not talked "politics" with anyone - except for our friends on Pine Island and one couple from Orlando we met while in the Panhandle (only because they brought it up first... and, luckily, were of similar views). Yet in talking with so many people recently - here in the South - I have to say that on the most basic level the "divide" is not as wide as reported. 

Yes, my sample is extremely small but just chatting with dozens of people about their lives, their needs, passions, and hopes - I felt connected to them. We all want the same thing - happiness, family/close friends, security, kindness, and to be free to make our own choices. 

I think the real propaganda (fake news) is to make us feel more divided than we actually are. I agree that each "side" has a different idea about what each of those words mean to them and how to get to there ...... but that is what this "commonwealth" is supposed to work out through compromise. A word that has lost its meaning and importance in our current political mud-fest.

We need to change the dialogue - change the words that we use. We need to come up with a new inclusive vernacular. Frame it all differently - make it about all of us, all of our shared and best interests. 

Common ground. 

Ground up. 

We have to start again.

just after sunrise along the Mississippi River

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