Taking the time to look at the unique connections to baseball found throughout all fifty states.
As the baseball season reaches its traditional midpoint—the All Star Game—MLB.com has been running an entertaining series of stories that highlight the game’s place as the national pastime. In celebration of our 250th anniversary the writers and editors have been featuring one baseball story from every state. There are unique connections to the sport, many unrelated to the big leagues.
“Take the Legion Collegiate Academy Lancers as an example, a high school team in Rock Hill, S.C., a suburb just down I-77 from Charlotte, N.C. Their Senior Night is an especially poignant one, with players taking on-field batting practice thrown by their fathers, and then running the bases one final time with a message playing over the speakers narrated by their mothers, who await them for a warm embrace at home plate. They call it ‘the last childhood lap before college and adulthood starts.’”
As the editors at MLB.com noted, it’s stories like these that might otherwise go undetected. These are the ones this project is attempting to highlight.
“That also means digging deep into the past, sometimes traveling all the way back to the 1800s for what is widely recognized as the first baseball game ever played, taking place in New Jersey. Or honoring the many Negro Leaguers who barnstormed their way across the country in the 1930s and ’40s to places like Miami’s Dorsey Park, where legends like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson took the field.”
And there are plenty of other great stories in this ongoing series.
I was taken with the high noon at midnight classic in Fairbanks, Alaska, having once visited the area near the summer solstice.
Snowshoe baseball in Alaska
Alaska has a long history with baseball. “Whalers and prospectors from the contiguous U.S., Asia and other parts of the world—holed up in the area for months—passed the time playing hardball on fields of ice and heavy snow . . . Snowshoe baseball was a fairly common activity.”
“And back on June 21, 1906, the area’s most famous baseball event, and one of the more unusual on Earth, began its inaugural foray into sports history. Two local bar teams in the gold-rich town of Fairbanks agreed to play each other in a game that would run through midnight because, well, they could: For 70 days, from about mid-May through mid-July, this part of Alaska sees about 24 hours of daylight—with the summer solstice on June 21 remaining the longest under the sun’s beams. So much so that no stadium light is needed to catch a pop-up or hit a curveball.”
Since 1960 the Alaska Goldpanners—a collegiate summer team based in Fairbanks—have hosted the event at Growden Memorial Park. They typically play local amateur teams or other summer college squads from around the country.
“The ‘Panners, as lovingly abbreviated by Fairbanksans, have popped in and out of the Alaskan Baseball League over the years—a summer circuit that, since its inception, has hosted some of the best college players and future pros in America. It’s toned down recently, but during certain time periods, it rivaled the Cape Cod League for collegiate summer league prominence.
Mark McGwire and Randy Johnson played for the Glacier Pilots. Jeff Kent and Paul Goldschmidt appeared for the Anchorage Bucs. Aaron Judge scouted moose by day and pitchers by night during the endless Alaskan summer.”
From Utah, there is another connection between snowy fields and baseball.
BYU Baseball field (credit: BYU Athletics)
The writers note that the baseball field at BYU, with snow-capped mountains rising beyond the wall, was made to be put on a postcard. But the state-of-the-art heating coils beneath the field can clear off the snow from the all-too-frequent blizzard to ensure that the games go on.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards by Jerry Reuss – 1996 via Wikimedia
The south end of Eutaw Street is a pedestrian walkway. Located inside of Camden Yards it serves as a primary entrance/exit but also as a gathering spot for fans to socialize and “to dine on ballpark fare, most notably at Boog’s BBQ—the famous barbeque stand named after longtime O’s slugger Boog Powell.”
“But watch where you step. Much of the southern half of the walkway is littered with bronzed plaques designed like baseballs, and at any time of day—before, during or after games—there may be somebody squatting down or hunching over to read one.
And there are a lot of them—134 on the ground for every in-game home run that landed there from 1992-2025, as well as two temporary markings for the pair hit so far in ‘26. There’s also an honorary plaque on the B&O Warehouse that runs parallel to Eutaw Street, marking the only ball to hit the historic brick building, which came off the bat of Ken Griffey Jr. in the 1993 Home Run Derby.”
Sometimes in the midst of the uncertainty and turmoil of life in America today, I search for a book that helps me remember what is good about our country. This year I went back to what was an instant classic, an intimate and very personal look at baseball history through the lives of the 100 greatest players of all time.
The Baseball 100 (2021) by Joe Posnanski—the self-described “writer of sports and other nonsense”—is characterized by the publisher as “a magnum opus . . . an audacious, singular, and masterly book that took a lifetime to write.” It is pure baseball bliss. Posnanski originally wrote this over a 100-day stretch for the web pages of The Athletic. But the compendium is much more satisfying. First, the rankings are important—and instantly give the reader a chance to argue with Joe, which he encourages. But they serve the larger purpose of providing this talented writer and lifelong fan with a chance to explore baseball’s rich, deep, diverse, and at times challenging history. A history that—like all history—is under construction.
Since early May I’ve been re-reading this work on what is, in some instances, my fourth pass through this work. Truth in advertising, I did not go back and read every one of the 827 pages but that’s the joy of this book. You can dip in and out whenever you want. Chances are very good that you’ll find one or more of your favorites included. Number 1—in Joe’s book and mine—is Willie Mays. “The greatest baseball player is the one who lifts you higher and makes you feel exactly like you did when you fell in love with this crazy game in the first place.” Rest in Peace, the Say Hey Kid.
On the night before the midsummer classic, enjoy this little bit of baseball history for everyone.
Living in the past doesn’t honor the lives of those we have loved.
Candice and I attended a celebration of the life of Elizabeth Fisher late last month. We were both friends with this brilliant woman who was Professor Emerita and the long-time Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at The George Washington University. However various ties—including their work together on the healing ministry and a mutual fondness for long conversations over leisurely lunches—meant that Candice and Elizabeth had a special bond.
At the service I read a remembrance written by her cousin Bill Fawcett, who could not attend. Elizabeth’s parents passed away when she was a teenager and she went to live with her aunt and uncle, Bill’s parents. While Elizabeth went on to have a distinguished academic career as a classics scholar, Bill wanted us to know about her childhood. Of trips taken to hunting camps and lodges. Of her beloved parrots.
Bill Fawcett wrote a lovely piece about growing up with the person he knew as “Sister Betty” and he ended it with the David Harkins’ poem She is Gone.
You can shed tears that she is gone Or you can smile because she has lived
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her Or you can be full of the love that you shared
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday
You can remember her and only that she is gone Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.
I love so much about this poem, but I’m especially drawn to the line that calls us to be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
Elizabeth was a long-time member of the choir at St. Alban’s so it is appropriate to also remember her with a song. The St. Olaf Choir’s acapella version of Wondrous Love from the old Southern Harmony hymnal is a beautiful version that touches the soul.
Five books at a minimum. Every month. A variety of topics from different genres. Here is the list from June 2026.
American Visions: The United States, 1800 – 1860 (2023) by Edward L. Ayers is an illuminating synthesis of the six decades leading to the Civil War, showing how a broad cast of characters came together to shape the volatile new nation. Ayers interests and scholarship are so wide—with subjects including “authors, reformers, pseudoscientists, mystics, showmen, and more”—that any listing of the people and voices found in this work will be inadequate. But one never loses the thread and readers are brought along by Ayers skill at weaving these many pieces into one fascinating, mind-expanding, and enlightening fabric. It was a time when “bold men and women in the new United States spoke without permission and often in defiance of those who held power . . . Their visions remain powerful—and necessary—generations later.”
The Gardens of Emily Dickinson (2004) by Judith Farr joins “both poet and gardener in one creative personality.” Dickinson’s passion for gardening was intrinsic “both to her personality and to a much larger movement in American culture,” especially in nineteenth century literature and painting. In this deftly written and beautifully illustrated work, Farr takes the reader into the various “gardens” of Dickinson’s life: the wildflowers in the nearby woods, the blossoms from the cultivated plot at her father’s home, the exotic species from the conservatory that allowed her year round pleasure, and finally the gardens in her mind which served as “a summary synonym of life itself.” Dickinson said that her garden was her church. Judith Farr, with impressive scholarship but even greater love and affection, opens this world to those of us fortunate enough to discover this timeless work.
Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (2026) by John Garrison Marks takes a deep and insightful look into how we as a country have wrestled with Washington’s conflicted status as one of the nation’s most prolific enslavers and the architect of one of its largest private emancipations. It is a debate that began days after his death in 1799 and continues to 2026. In the first two decades following his passing the American public created a myth of an infallible father and erased slavery’s centrality to Washington’s life. The time leading up to the Civil War and the 1932 Washington Bicentennial—celebrated during an era of rapid and often unsettling change—were other milestones that brought the issue to a head. Marks brings this thoughtful and revelatory work to a close by studying the way Washington and slavery were taught in the American classrooms of the 20th century and how the issue was treated by the stewards of his home at Mount Vernon. “Commentary about Washington and slavery—denouncing his slave owning, praising his emancipation, or silencing the issue altogether—is always about much more” than a simple debate or conversation.
Levels of the Game (1969) by John McPhee is a masterpiece of the writing craft. The precision that is at the heart of McPhee’s writing shines through in the choice of words, the form, the shifts in tense, the images he creates, the poetry in his prose. The frame of the book is the 1968 U.S. Open semifinal match between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner. There is the description of four sets of tennis, played in bright sunlight before 14,000 spectators. On one level it is sportswriting. On another it is a joint profile, complete with backstories and long flashbacks and interludes, of two players from very different backgrounds at the top of their game. On yet another it is a time capsule of an America recently torn apart by the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. Finally, it is also “a highly original way of looking at human behavior.” The writing comes to life with the style and verve of a well-placed backhand return of a scorching serve. It is, as so many have said, a remarkable performance.
The Man Who Died Twice (2021) by Richard Osman returns us to Coopers Chase, a high-end peaceful British retirement village where four residents turned septuagenarian sleuths meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes from old police files. Ex-spy Elizabeth Best; Joyce Meadowcroft, who retired after a career in nursing; the tattooed former union organizer Ron Ritchie; and Ibrahim Arif, an Egyptian-born semi-retired psychiatrist call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. The story begins as Douglas Middlemiss, Elizabeth’s second husband, asks for her help with a case. The bodies pile up quickly and it is clear that the murderer has no qualms about killing more, including our Murder Club members. There are twists and turns throughout that are as surprising as the final outcome in this book that will lead you to laugh, tear up, think, and ultimately compel you to turn page-after-page. Getting to the conclusion is just as much fun and pleasurable as in the debut of this series.
The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change (2026) by Rebecca Solnit is the eighth in a series of Haymarket Books by the longtime climate and human rights activist, historian, and writer. Solnit takes the reader back to times when those pushing for change appeared to be swimming upstream. We discover how seeds are planted and nourished even in dark, difficult times. The fierce backlash that comes against the future is made by enemies who “believe in us even when we don’t believe in ourselves.” Those who believe in an interconnected, mutually supportive, and more open world have been far more successful than we believe. For those who take the time to stop and consider where we’ve come from, we see the old orders that have fallen apart, the systems that no longer work, the assumptions that no longer fit. It is easier to see the old world dying than the new world being born. Solnit wants us to not only see that new world, but to work together to hasten its coming.
Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (2014) by Rowan Williams is a clear, accessible, and thought-provoking work; simple to read and yet profound in its approach to what it means to be a Christian in today’s world. As the title suggests, Williams looks at four elements that cut across almost every part of Christendom beginning with baptism, the act that brings us into full membership in the church. Christians read the Bible and gather to share bread and wine in memory of the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Finally, Christians pray, with many incorporating the prayer passed along by Jesus into their worship service. Some traditions of the church have other elements that are important to them to varying degrees but Williams wants to focus on what brings us together, not what divides. As one reviewer notes, Williams entices us all to go deeper by reviewing the basics. “It takes a theologian of depth to write a simple book about complex concerns.”
WHAT’S ON THE NIGHTSTAND FOR JULY (Subject to change at the whims of the reader)
The world showed up, fell in love with ordinary America and reminded us why this country is still worth fighting for.
In today’s America of culture wars, obscene wealth, endless scams, masked terrorists riding public transit, rampant racism, corrupt justices, and feckless office holders, it is easy to hate what one sees and transfer that to others. Or worse, to our country.
When the man at the top of this thumb on the scale, finger in your eye type of public life inserts himself into everything—and I mean everything—and then day-after-day consistently proves that he is incapable of even throwing a decent anniversary party, we too often want to scream. Shut out those who we perceive as supporters of this type of ineptitude and polarization. Assume that the whole thing is not worth saving.
They want you to hate, because in their mind it justifies their hatred. It also takes your eyes away from the corruption.
Just when you thought we’d lost everything, who could have known that a world full of football fans would invade America and help us see what’s right, what’s beautiful, what’s crazy quirky, and most importantly what’s loveable about this country of ours.
Jessica Craven recently posted a link to a piece in The American Pamphleteer newsletter which she introduced by saying “This piece will delight you.” It certainly delighted me. The piece is titled I Was Wrong About the World Cup and I urge you to read the whole thing. As another commentator suggested, have a tissue nearby, because it winds up hitting you in the heart.
After confessing that she thought “the whole spectacle would be a five-week humiliation reel,” the author admits she was wrong:
“. . . what has unfolded instead is one of the sweetest, strangest, most culture-affirming things I have seen in a long time.
It has not felt like an invasion. It has felt like a great big international sleepover where everybody brought a flag, learned one another’s songs, got sunburned, ate too much, cried at midfield and discovered that America is not only the place they see in disaster clips, shooting headlines, political horror shows and social media sneer-posts . . .
We need to see the world come here and find joy in us. We need to see strangers fall in love with our ordinary. We need to see our cities become meeting places instead of battlegrounds. We need to hear other people sing our songs badly and beautifully. We need to watch them eat our ridiculous food and call it wonderful. We need to remember that culture is not just museums and monuments . . .
This World Cup has not fixed America . . . But it has done something I did not expect.It has let us see America loved from the outside.
And sometimes, when you are tired, furious and half-convinced the whole thing is beyond saving, that matters. Sometimes you need to watch a crowd go still for the national anthem and remember why your throat tightens. Sometimes you need to see visitors cheer for our cities, laugh with our people, eat our food and sing our songs before you can feel, again, that this place is not only what has been done to it.
It is also what is still alive in it.
And that’s why we fight.”
In spite of everything we’ve been through since 2016, what the World Cup fans discovered was that the better America still exists. Yes, Donald Trump inserted himself into our lives and instantly killed some of the vibe. As Heather Cox Richardson noted, “a world in which playing fields are level is not the world Trump wants. He wants one in which people in power can ignore the rule of law for their own ends.” He called his friend, another corrupt authoritarian, and worked to get a suspended U.S. player reinstated.
Irony of ironies is that the player he got reinstated, striker Folarin Balogun, is a birthright citizen. Yep, those people that Trump, Stephen Miller, and four justices on the Supreme Court love to hate. Balogun’s Nigerian parents were living in London when they took a trip to New York in the summer of 2001.
“The trip proved fateful. Balogun’s mum was not allowed on the flight home when airline attendants realized she was heavily pregnant, and instead of being born in the English capital, he arrived into the world in Brooklyn, New York on July 3, 2001.
Being born in Brooklyn meant Balogun was automatically granted US citizenship under the country’s birthright citizenship laws—based on the 14th amendment to the US Constitution.”
Consistency of thought is not our president’s strong suit. In this instance Trump acted to make it clear that America’s birthright citizens are crucial to U.S. success. Journalist and lawyer Marcy Wheeler wrote that “If I were Stephen Miller, I would resign on what other people call principle.”
But we can see our way through. Just look to the New York Knicks. Donald Trump showed up at Madison Square Garden during the NBA Finals, turned the mood sour, and the Knicks lost their only game in an amazing playoff run. But they recovered—thanks to an otherworldly OG Anunoby tip heard ’round the world—restored the vibe and went on to become NBA champions.
Yes, the world’s going to hate what Trump did in our name to try and rewrite the rules. Those who thrive on hate, from all political perspectives, will tell us that the vibe is lost. But that will pass unless we let it eat us up.
Instead let’s remember that the world has reminded us that there’s still plenty worth fighting for in this country. As Lady Libertie wrote in her post quoted above, love for the promise of our country still matters.
“It matters because Americans have been force-fed contempt for ourselves for years. Some of it we earned. Let’s not get precious. We have real violence here, real poverty, real cruelty, real corruption, real democratic danger. Nobody needs to put a doily over the rot and call it patriotism. That is not love.
But the opposite is just as dangerous.”
Love trumps hate. Always.
More to come . . .
DJB
Photo of DR Congo vs Uzbekistan World Cup Match in Atlanta by Olympic.uz CC via Wikimedia Commons
Laila Lalami’s debut novel takes us into the hopes and fears of modern Morocco with subtlety and grace.
Installment #8 in my series on the region’s independent bookshops.
Our recent trip to Morocco led me to want to know more than could be seen through the eyes of well-trained guides. I mentioned my interest and a friend recommended a novel by a Moroccan-American writer that was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize in 2014. When I stopped in a bookstore as part of my 2026 quest to visit all 29 DC-area independent bookshops the helpful clerk said that particular book was sold out but . . . they happened to have the author’s first work as well as her most recent. Would I be interested?
Of course! Which is how I came to read this compelling work of fiction that introduced the world to a talented voice who writes about her home country “without the expatriate’s self-indulgent and often condescending nostalgia,” as Pankaj Mishra noted inThe New York Review of Books.
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005) by Laila Lalami is a story of dreams, determination, displacement, heartbreak, and perseverance. It captivates the reader and leads us to care about these four characters who find themselves on a small, inflatable boat headed for Spain. With spare prose, sharp insight, and a sympathetic gaze, Lalami begins with the harrowing crossing of the Mediterranean by illegal migrants after paying large sums of money they really couldn’t afford. Crowded into the boat, they are taken only to where they could swim to shore before being deposited in the rough waters to fend for themselves. Some are met by Spanish Coast Guards. Others slip away. Lalami then returns to the time before the trip, to help us see what would drive them to such desperate measures. The book’s second half picks up their journey after they reach the Spanish coast.
There is a vibrancy in Lalami’s storytelling. And a sympathetic ear.
The author describes how she read article after article in 2001 about arrests of illegal immigrants by the coast guards on either side of the Mediterranean.
“[T]here was even a slang term in Moroccan Arabic for these migrants—harragas, meaning ‘those who burn.’ Whether they were burning their papers, their lives, or their futures, I couldn’t tell.”
As she researched the subject, Lalami turned to fiction to help her understand their motivations.
“I had been writing fiction for many years, and I thought that the answers to my questions might lie in creating a story about a group of harragas. I set the action on a lifeboat, at sea, in the middle of the night. The characters grew over the course of several months. There was Murad, an unemployed young man who feels emasculated by his sister’s ability to provide for the family; Faten, a fanatically religious girl on the run from the law; Halima, a mother who takes her children with her on the boat; and Aziz, a mechanic who leaves his wife behind to try and find a job.”
In setting the context for their perilous journey, and then in showing us how their subsequent lives differed from their dreams, Lalami has provided us with a thoughtful, timely, and empathetic look into people—not very different from you and me except for the circumstances of their birth—who dared to hope. These characters have stayed with me even after I finished the book. And Lalami’s novel has me eager to read the other works she has completed since her debut.
I bought the book at Bol; a worker-owned cafe, bookstore, and event space in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington DC. After a short ride down from Silver Spring on the Metro, I walked into the store on a busy Friday afternoon. The staff was setting up for an event but they stopped to help me when I explained my bookstore quest and asked for assistance.
“The word Bol means speak in Urdu and Hindi. Bol Cafe will set itself apart from other bookstore cafes by adopting the worker-owned cooperative business model and is based on the ideals of racial justice and economic democracy. We aim to serve as a model for creating wealth in the community by becoming a destination for DC residents who are interested in social justice, engaging conversations, reading groups, and stimulating talks in a relaxing atmosphere.”
The shop is small but inviting, and it features a table in the middle for group discussions. The Coop’s booklist is diverse and comes with the promise that you will find at least one title that you have never seen before. A quick scan shows books from or about Iran, Bolivia, Venezuela, Palestine, Black Women, Native Americans and much more.
One of the DC region’s newest bookshop, Bol fills an important niche, reminding us to expand beyond what we think we know to hear other voices and perspectives.
On the 250th anniversary of its signing, remembering that the Declaration of Independence was the original NO KINGS document. Three iconic songs from our past bring that point home.
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
THE RADICAL IDEA THAT SET THE STAGE FOR A STRUGGLE LASTING 250 YEARS
Until the extreme heat that has settled over the Mid-Atlantic region this weekend caused its cancellation, we would have been doing what we do each July 4th: attending the Takoma Park Independence Day Parade. So I’ll probably take a stroll through past posts and pictures—like the one above of Congressman Jamie Raskin at the 2022 parade—that ended up in the New York Times.
The Founders who signed the Declaration understood “men” to mean “white men.” I get that. Black and indigenous men and women of all races were not included at the time. Nonetheless, in an era of monarchies it was pretty radical to suggest that everyone from the king down to the lowliest farmer was created equal. That self-evident truth set the stage for a struggle that has now endured for 250 years. A struggle, as Abraham Lincoln so memorably phrased it at Gettysburg 87 years later, to see “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
America survived the attempt by Southern oligarchs during the Civil War to restructure the nation so that some people would be seen as better than others. Rights were expanded over time to include Black men, other men of color, and women. Two steps forward were often followed by one (or more) steps back.
This July 4th we are still fighting battles with people who believe they are superior to their fellow citizens and should be allowed to live with a different set of laws. Or above the law. But basic decency tells me that we must push back against those who want to rule as tyrants or kings.
My new t-shirt, just in time for July 4th!
To me, July 4th is about battling oppression and tyranny while honoring the truth that all people are created equal.
MAKING STATEMENTS IN A WAY OUR OFFICIAL ANTHEM NEVER CAN
Mississippi Freedom Singers from the 1960s
To my mind three songs exemplify the higher ideals that animate the Declaration of Independence. The first was written at the beginning of the Civil War. The second is a classic written by an American folk singer who fought tyranny through music. The third is a stirring anthem that came out of a time of deep oppression. All touch my heart in different ways.
Jake Lundberg writes in the cover story for the current issue of The Atlantic that Julia Ward Howe’s poem The Battle Hymn of the Republic—first published in the magazine in 1862—is both an explication of the promise of America and an exhortation to persevere on behalf of the country. The magazine’s editor picks up the story:
“The ‘Battle Hymn,’ Lundberg argues, is our unofficial national anthem, one more relevant through the ages than the actual anthem, the difficult-to-sing by-product of a minor war. ‘By the time of the Great Depression,; he writes, ‘the Battle Hymn had achieved a truly national character. The song’s stature is such that it can be used to make a statement in a way that the official anthem never can.’”
As opposed to the Star Spangled Banner, which opens with a question, when we sing the Battle Hymn “we don’t ask a question. We testify.”
“’Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,’ we proclaim, before working through four more stanzas of earnest witness—seeing, hearing, and feeling God’s wrath on the way to service in a great national cause.
Andersonville National Cemetery, Andersonville, GA (Photo by Scott Dressel on Unsplash)
The difference between the two songs is more than a matter of syntax. Though notoriously difficult for vocalists, The Star-Spangled Banner . . . is not a challenging text. The ‘Battle Hymn’ “is easier to sing, but harder to reckon with.” Especially when the final verse is unaltered from Howe’s original version.
“In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.”
It is one of three songs that far outpace The Star Spangled Banner in honoring the promise of America.
I happen to believe that the Woody Guthrie 1940 classic This Land is Your Land should be the national anthem. It makes a powerful point but avoids the Christian imagery—moving as I find it—in the Battle Hymn. No less an authority than Bruce Springsteen has said, This Land is “one of the most beautiful songs ever written about America.”
Guthrie was hitchhiking his way to New York City when he became upset over hearing the Kate Smith version of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America over and over again during the trip. Guthrie sat down and wrote a song in anger, but his revisions over time turned it into one of the most shared and beloved songs in our nation’s history. I’ve posted various versions before, including the unvarnished recording from Woody and terrific live versions from Sharon Jones and Bruce Springsteen.
Today, for a number of reasons, I want to feature folk icon Pete Seeger and Springsteen singing this at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, looking out over the beautiful Reflecting Pool, with tens of thousands at the Obama Inauguration in 2008.
The third song I want to celebrate on this 250th anniversary is known as the “Black National Anthem”—none other than the soul-stirring Lift Every Voice and Sing.
Sanitation Workers in March 1968 outside Clayborn Temple (photo credit: Ernest C. Withers/Withers Family Trust)
With words by James Weldon Johnson and music by his brother John, Lift Every Voice and Sing was written at the turn of the 20th century, a time when Jim Crow laws were beginning to take hold across the South and Blacks were looking for an identity. In a way that was both gloriously uplifting and starkly realistic, it spoke to the history of the dark journey of African Americans. “It allows us to acknowledge all of the brutalities and inhumanities and dispossession that came with enslavement, that came with Jim Crow, that comes still today with disenfranchisement, police brutality, dispossession of education and resources,” Shana Redmond—author of Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora—says. “It continues to announce that we see this brighter future, that we believe that something will change.”
The version I learned was from the hymnal that you hear in churches and concerts and seen here from late November 2016—an especially auspicious time—at Abyssinian Baptist Church.
On the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, yes let’s celebrate. But let’s also resolve to keep working, as so many have done before us, to claim the true promise of America, a country where all are created equal and have a voice in our government, not just the wealthy, the white, the privileged.
More to come . . .
DJB
Photo of University of Virginia copy of the Declaration of Independence by Dan Addison, University Communications
Short takes on topics delightful, powerful, destructive and dumb from posts that had been drafted but weren’t ready as stand-alone pieces in prime time. (Now with a few updates.)
Opinions are just like noses. Everybody has them. Here are a few of mine.
GOOOOOOOOOOOAL
Netherlands vs Tunisia at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City by CNC33 via Wikimedia Commons
Let’s begin with something that’s right with the world.
I, too, have become a fan of Telemundo’s World Cup coverage without understanding a word the announcers are saying. Andrew, who speaks pretty fluent Spanish, had to admit that the announcers’ diction was flawless but they spoke so fast that he only picked up about half of what they were saying. And that’s Hay’s point when he cites “one of the best discoveries of my trip to the 2026 World Cup: Telemundo’s television match commentary.”
“I’ve been hooked on it ever since, flying blind without the faintest idea of what is going on in the commentary booth. I can’t recommend the mystery enough.
Conversely, in this scenario, not speaking Spanish is a bonus because it turns Telemundo into a theme-park ride where you’re in the dark and unable to see where the tracks are going next. The enthusiasm of the commentators is unrivalled and scary, bordering on cardiac arrest. I could take them to Peterhead versus Arbroath, north coast of Scotland, middle of December, midweek night with a crowd of 345, and they’d turn it into Lionel Messi’s finest hour. We’re about 40 matches into the World Cup, and I haven’t heard them phone it in once. Every day is a fresh start.“
Hay notes that they talk incessantly, and that’s great.
“Listening to it is like being at the lights with a Mustang next to you, revving its engine. Sometimes it’s roaring, sometimes it’s purring, but it’s always ticking over.”
UPDATE #1: Right on cue, legendary announcer Andrés Cantor calls the amazing goal by USMT member Malik Tillman against Bosnia—Herzegovina in the World Cup Knockout Round of 32. It just reinforces Hay’s point. One commentator said, “It’s perfect. It’s hysterical. Maybe the best call ever.” I don’t disagree.
FEED THE HUNGRY. CLOTHE THE POOR. LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. HOW VERY RADICAL.
Pope Leo XIV greets Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, who led the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople sent by Patriarch Bartholomew, during the Mass for Saints Peter and Paul at St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, 2026 (from Letters from Leo)
I have become a big fan of Christopher Hale’s Substack Letters from Leo. As I wrote a few days ago, Hale is from my hometown, growing up in Murfreesboro’s St. Rose of Lima Catholic Parish with “the kind of Southern Catholic upbringing where you learn early that your faith puts you at odds with polite company.”
While there is zero chance I’ll be converting, I am enjoying watching and listening to this pope carry forward the work of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Leo is working from a conviction that it is important, as he said recently, to “resist the commodification of basic human needs. Food, water and healthcare cannot be subordinated to market considerations or geopolitical interests. Access to adequate food is a fundamental human right grounded in the dignity of every person.”
Feed the hungry. Clothe the poor. Love your neighbor. How very radical.
“[It] was, in its quiet way, beautiful. He turned to the keys of Peter, the symbol stamped on every image of the first pope, and refused the obvious reading of them.
‘A key does not break down doors,’ he said. ‘Rather, it opens and closes them by finding the proper levers within and guiding their movements, so that locks may release, bolts withdraw, and doors turn freely on their hinges, thereby joining rooms together and transforming many isolated spaces into one welcoming home.’”
Imagine leaders who listen, who work to build up rather than tear down.
LET’S TALK ABOUT AI
Some people—I am even close friends with a few—love AI and what it promises.
I learned from a recent piece by Eve Fairbanks in The Atlantic—The Biggest Tell That Something Was Written by AI—that the sentence in the paragraph above is one that tutorials on how to strip the telltale signs of AI use from your writing would hate. Those tutorials tell you to “get rid of em dashes” and colons. I LOVE em dashes AND I’m pretty fond of colons as well, sometimes even in the same sentence. I’ve been using them for years. But I suspect that no one believes I use AI to write these posts.
Leonard Pitts, Jr.—who I have long admired as a deep thinker and terrific writer—also has a piece I commend to you entitled This Was Written by a Human Being. I would love it for this sentence alone:
“I am a worshiper at the First Church of the Written Word, a lover of language, a student of its rhythm, its music, its violence and its power.”
There are all sorts of reasons to be very wary about AI. Let’s begin with the folks who are behind it and what they are doing to build artificial intelligence. Actually, I’ll just let Naomi Klein say it for me.
Naomi Klein writes a great deal about the dangers of AI. If you want to go deeper, watch the video where she is joined by tech analyst, journalist, and author Paris Marx to break down the dangers behind Silicon Valley’s push for an AI-centered world, including for the environment, education, and democracy.
Finally, Pope Leo also weighed in on AI with his Magnifica Humanitas encyclical (read it here). As John Sarvay writes:
What Pope Leo did with Magnifica Humanitas is reclaim something the tech industry has quietly seized: the moral authority to decide what these tools are for, who they serve, and what we owe each other in their wake. And beneath that political claim, a deeper one: that while AI models “may imitate language, behavior… or even simulate empathy,” they are fundamentally empty of what makes us human.”
Christopher Hale has, as you would expect, written thoughtfully and extensively about Magnifica Humanitas. Here are four essays that you may find of interest.
As Pitts says, stories are how we explain ourselves to ourselves. That requires us to think. If we turn everything over to AI we stop thinking.
CARS AND TRUCKS ARE TOO D**N BIG
This is an appropriate size for a pickup truck. Photo by Anthony Wright via Pixabay.
I hate large SUVs. They take up way more space on the road than they need to. The drivers can’t see pedestrians (so pedestrian and cyclist deaths are up). And for me, their lights shine right in my eyes, blinding me as I drive.
“For decades, American roads were steadily getting safer for pedestrians. But around 2009, the trend reversed. Since then, the number of pedestrians killed each year has risen by about 75 percent.
The surge in pedestrian deaths has baffled researchers. Most other wealthy countries haven’t seen similar increases, suggesting that possible culprits like smartphones don’t tell the whole story . . . the trend toward ever-larger vehicles has received much less scrutiny, even after federal researchers in 2022 cautioned regulators that it was endangering pedestrians.
After analyzing federal and industry records, including never-before-examined data on vehicle dimensions, we found that the rise of large pickups and S.U.V.s is an important factor.”
“IT IS THE JUDICIARY’S DUTY TO CHECK LAWLESSNESS, NOT EXPEDITE IT”*
The fact that the birthright decision was not a 9-0 vote based on the very clear text of the 14th Amendment shows how corrupt this bunch is. As one commentator noted, “Sam, Clarence and Neil voted against the original text of the 14th amendment because, well, you need to pretext the original text to understand how they really feel about it, see?”
This cartoon from the decision to gut the Voting Rights Act in 2023 still stands.
There are too many decisions where the court has decided that it knows better than the founders, the Constitution, and 250 years of political practice to list them all, but the Slaughter decision this week—allowing the President the power to fire the members of independent regulatory agencies, thus granting the office even more power—is worth noting. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing:
“Today, this Court undoes centuries of political practice and concludes that all three branches of Government have been acting in open defiance of the Constitution all this time. Its conclusion is wrong…. [T]he Court gives the President a power unknown even to the English Crown against which the Founders revolted, elevating him above his once-coequal branches by transforming a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed into a license to act in defiance of those very laws.”
Justice Elena Kagan succinctly spelled out so many of the problems with this current court in her 2023 dissent to Biden v. Nebraska:
“…the Court, by deciding this case, exercises authority it does not have. It violates the Constitution.”
John Roberts is the worst Chief Justice since Roger Taney, and all six of the conservative justices lied about their respect for precedent at their confirmation hearings to gain a seat on the high court. What’s 90 years of precedent, as in the Slaughter case, when you have an ideology to impose on the nation?
Justin Briley writing in Liberal Currents, considers why Greenwatergate has stuck when so many other incidents have not in a post entitled Let Us Reflect.
“Call it Greenwatergate. In the ruined ripples of the Reflecting Pool, between the lines of his panicked attempts to backfill excuses and deflect blame, in the swirling foam of hydrogen peroxide and algal blooms, perhaps here, through the fog of whatever ails him, he begins too late to confront the true and complete shape of the man in the mirror.”
Have a wonderful day.
More to come . . .
DJB
*A quote from Justice Sotomayor’s dissent in last year’s case permitting the dismantling of the Department of Education.
Photo from 2026 World Cup by Omar David Sandoval Sida via Wikimedia Commons
In his recent 39 (Or So) Lessons On The Way To 39, author and independent bookstore owner Ryan Holiday had this as one of his lessons learned:
“I think most people should consume less news and read more books. Less news, more books. More history. More poetry. More literature. More philosophy. More myths. Because you know what those stories are about? They’re about what’s happening now!”
I’m right there with him. To help me with that goal, regular readers know that in 2026 I have two reading-related challenges underway (and a third one on the horizon . . . check below the fold, as they say):
The second is the result of a gift from my friend and Brilliant Reader Margit who slipped a note and a piece of paper into a book she loaned me. The paper had the look and feel of an old library card. Instead of a library card, however, it was a Reading Challenge 2026 list from Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, MT, near where she visits a family home. I was hooked and immediately accepted the challenge.
At this mid-point in the year, I thought I’d provide an update on my progress!
INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOPS VISITED AND REVIEWED
As an update, here are the seven independent bookstores I’ve visited so far in 2026 where I have posted reviews of the shop and the book I purchased there:
Wonderland Books, Bethesda (see my review of Death in the Strike Zone: The Mystery of America’s First Baseball Hero)*
INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOPS VISITED BUT NOT YET REVIEWED
Here are the nine independent bookstores I’ve visited so far in 2026 where I have purchased a book but still need to post a review.
Bergstrom Press & Books, Kensington (review of Karl Schlögel’s Ukraine: A Nation on the Borderland to come)
Bol Coop Bookstore, Brookland (review of Laila Lalami’s Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits to come next Monday)
Bold Forks Books, Mt. Pleasant (review of Jane Bertch’s The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time; A Memoir to come)
JF Books, Dupont Circle (review of Yiyun Li’s Things in Nature Merely Grow to come)
Kensington Row Bookshop, Kensington (review of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s to come)
Kramers, Dupont Circle (review of Megan Kate Nelson’s The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier to come)
Laurel Leaf, Takoma Park (review of Charles King’s Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreamsor Christopher Oldstone-Moore’s Of Beards and Men: The Revealing History of Facial Hair to come)
Lost City Books, Adams Morgan (review of Molly Crabapple’s Here Where We Live is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund to come)
Second Story Books, Dupont Circle (review of Daniel James Brown’s The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics to come)
BOOKSHOPS THAT REMAIN ON MY TO-BE-VISITED LIST
And here are the thirteen independent bookshops I’ve yet to visit in 2026.
If one of these shops is among your favorites and you’d like to show it to me, reach out and let me know. Lunch or coffee and a bookstore visit with a friend is a great way to spend a day!
So I’m a little more than halfway home with my independent bookshop visits and I’m four-fifths of the way to completing my Chapter One reading challenge. That pace seems just about right.
Keep reading!
More to come . . .
DJB
*It just so happens that Wonderland Books—one of our DC area independent bookshops—has a summer reading challenge! Complete all ten and win a great Wonderland tote bag! What’s not to like!?! I’ve already read 8 books in the ten categories, so I’m jumping in on this one as well. I’ll update you after Labor Day.
Photo of Desperate Literature bookshop sign in Madrid by César Viteri on Unsplash
A summary of the June posts from the MORE TO COME newsletter.
Later this week we’ll celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Much will be said and written about our past, present, and future as a country. About promises kept and promises broken.
Too often we perceive history as a linear path leading to the present day. But in a post this month reviewing the most recent book by historian and activist Rebecca Solnit, I use her words to remind us that we are Standing in a present that had once been an unimaginable future. Change is all around us, she writes. “If you don’t see time on the scale of change,” however, “you don’t see change; if you don’t remember how things use to be, you don’t know they’re different than they were and how that unfolded.” A well-known metamorphosis from nature is her metaphor for the transformation of society.
“A chrysalis is the beginning of a butterfly, but in that chrysalis is no elegant transition. The caterpillar falls apart—it turns to goo, and something profoundly different reconstitutes from it . . . A butterfly is the end of a caterpillar. The beginning—the next era—comes after the end of the last one, and in between comes a lot of falling apart.”
At the time of our 250th anniversary, we may be in the time of goo.
In June I’ve been reading, thinking, and writing about beginnings and ends. Paths taken and not taken. Visions delayed. Intercultural dialogues that produce unexpected treasures. Harder truths avoided in favor of easy-to-digest myths. Compelling storytelling, solid scholarship, and diverse perspectives have a way of opening our eyes to the messy complexity of our past as well as to the broader possibilities for our future.
Historian and University of Richmond president emeritus Edward L. Ayers—whose book American Visions: 1800-1860 I reviewed this month in Possibility and promise have long been contested—describes himself as “an optimistic person who has written and taught about the worst wrongs in American history.” Ed does so because he believes that “by addressing these evils we can perceive and counter their insidious legacies.” That can seem difficult in our present age, especially when nativists, racists, and those who politicize religious faith claim the sanction of history.
“But we can choose to remember a fuller American history, one that is more truly patriotic, one that evokes the nation’s highest ideals of equality and mutual respect in the face of the nation’s failings.”
This month’s MORE TO COME newsletter looks at a range of topics, subjects, and issues that help us think more broadly about past, present, and future. Let’s jump in.
READER FAVORITES
Two posts topped the list of reader favorites in June.
Exploring intercultural dialogues where Europe and Africa meet is the final installment from my accounts of our recent trip to Morocco and Andalusia. The history, architecture, and landscape of this part of the world—where Africa meets Europe—help us understand the possibilities and challenges of intercultural connection.
Napping is in the news these days as our president is caught snoozing on camera. It first came to my attention during his 2024 Manhattan criminal trial. In late May he came back from his third “annual” physical in 13 months at Walter Reed Military Medical Center and promptly fell asleep at a Cabinet meeting. I used that event to kick off the post Our country has a lot of problems. Napping isn’t one of them. Naps. Billionaires. Corruption. Misdirection. I promise there’s a thread here.
TALKING WITH AUTHORS
A view on Mount Vernon with the Washington family on the terrace by Benjamin Henry Latrobe
When history, myth, and memory clash is the latest in my Author Q&A series. John Garrison Marks takes an insightful look into how we as a country have wrestled with George Washington’s conflicted status as one of the nation’s most prolific enslavers and the architect of one of its largest private emancipations. It is a debate that began days after his death in 1799 and continues to 2026. I was delighted when John agreed to chat with me about this timely book on the eve of the 250th anniversary.
Next month I’ll be chatting with Wright Thompson about his 2024 book The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi, named the #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year by TIME, and a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Slate, Vanity Fair, Buzzfeed, Smithsonian, BookPage, KCUR, Kirkus, and Boston Globe. I’m looking forward to sharing that conversation with you.
CONNECTING THE DOTS
Four posts this month were about connections and finding out about the person we are meant to be.
First off, who knew that a NBA finals could excite an entire country and make us think differently about sports, cities, and life in America today? Several writers took different approaches to the wonder that was the 2026 New York Knicks which I chronicle in A Saturday grab bag: The Summer Solstice edition. I especially liked this quote from Anand Giridharadas:
“In cheering for New York’s Knicks, we were also cheering for the Knicks’ New York. Rooting for a team that staged jaw-dropping comebacks is also rooting for a city whose raison d’etre is comebacks—second chances in a new nation, reinventions of the self, overcomings of odds. In relishing a team whose superpower is instinctual mutual knowledge, who know each other like kin even though they are not, we saw a reflection of the chosen families so many of us forge in New York. And in celebrating a team built not on the superstar model but that of the orchestra, we were standing up for the power of what emerges spontaneously from diverse groups, no matter what the autocrats will tell you.”
Next, to stay on the sport theme, I posted Oedipus, Odysseus and the Baltimore Orioles: Sharing a story which is simply a link to the essay where the classics scholar Elizabeth Bobrick and I became friends. I posted this so that you would click on this link to Elizabeth’s Substack and read about how Eddie Murray and the rest of the Baltimore Orioles helped change the life of a miserable 23-year-old graduate student who had never shown any interest in baseball.
“As I followed the team more intently, something mysterious happened, something that seems unbelievable to me now even a little nuts. I began to take on the players as role models. They seemed to have exactly the strengths that I lacked, and I was desperate for inspiration and a sense of belonging. The men I read about in the papers somehow provided me with both. What I knew of them through the written word—ever my guide to life—was enough to change my idea of heroism, and of myself.”
It is a wonderful mini memoir and a marvelous piece of writing. Do yourself a favor and read it.
Finally, two posts are about music and Pride month. You may be surprised to learn about the LGBTQ+ presence in traditional music. Yes, Virginia, there is a Bluegrass Pride group that not only exists but its members play great music. And they are not afraid to widen the boundaries of what has traditionally been a fairly conservative music community, as I write in Bluegrass is for everyone.
Music at Emmanuel is both a look back (at a recent performance of the three-part fusion oratorio Considering Matthew Shepard) and a look forward at the 2026-2027 season for one of Baltimore’s leading centers for music and the arts.
LEARN TO THINK AS OTHER PEOPLE WRITE
I was at a funeral in 2021 that forever changed how I live. I knew the author, teacher, and poet Judith Farr and her husband George on a pretty cursory basis, but it was in listening to the eulogies and remembrances that I began to truly appreciate Judith’s depth of scholarship into Emily Dickinson’s life and literary canon.
That realization set me on a path to build what has become a life-enriching friendship with Judith’s beloved husband George, to reach out to others in meaningful ways so that I’m not just finding out about their amazing lives at their funerals, and—finally—to return to a poet I had not considered in any seriousness since my high school English class. Judith Farr’s intimate study of Emily Dickinson as poet and gardener—which I reviewed this month in Consider the lilies—is, to put it simply, a delight.
In addition to my takes on the works by Ayers, Marks, Solnit, and Farr you’ll also find reviews of the following in this month’s MTC:
A brilliant and timeless classic that is about so much more than a game — John McPhee wrote one of the great tennis books of all time. On one level it is sportswriting; on another a joint profile; on yet another a time capsule of an America recently torn apart by the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. Finally, it is also “a highly original way of looking at human behavior.”
A constant movement into an endless mystery — Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams explores the essential elements of the Christian life in a post where I also remember the life of my mother-in-law, Irene Ann Holsey Colando.
I am always surprised at the number of fans of detective fiction. Regular readers know that I didn’t get into this genre until the pandemic, and now I find that all sorts of regulars here at MORE TO COME not only read the genre but have great recommendations. Who knew?!
Brilliant Reader Charity, who I recently saw at a memorial service for her mother, commented on my most recent post about the Thursday Murder Club.
“I will definitely be reading your mystery recommendations. I wanted to share 2 mystery writers I have enjoyed—Martin Walker, writing a mystery series based in the Dordogne, and Abir Mukherjee who has written a small (5-6) series that take place around the early 1900’s in India. Both might interest you.”
That was followed by this comment by Brilliant Reader Bluestocking:
“I had seen Richard Osman as a panelist on the quiz show ‘QI’ and liked his intelligence and quiet sense of humor, and so was intrigued when I heard that he’d written a mystery novel—I was not disappointed! I’ve really enjoyed all of the Thursday Murder Club books now, especially for the characters and their interactions. The casting of the movie was superb, and I could perfectly picture the actors when I read the next books, though I have to say that the Netflix version was far too short, and left out too much of both the plot and the interplay between the Murder Club members to be quite enjoyable.
I’ve also liked reading the Bruno series by Martin Walker—again, as much for the characters, perhaps more, than for the plot!”
When two Brilliant Readers join up to make a recommendation, I pay attention. Looks like Walker and Mukherjee are real possibilities for the TBR pile!
DON’T POSTPONE JOY
Thanks, as always, for reading. Your friendship, support and feedback mean more than I can ever express.
As you travel life’s highways be open to love; thirst for wonder; undertake some mindful, transformative walking every day. Recognize the incredible privilege that most of us have and think about how to put that privilege to use for good. Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, public servants, and others can feel especially vulnerable . . . because they are. Work hard for justice and democracy as the fight never ends.
But also keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. Take time to dawdle and dream. Let yourself be bewildered!
Leave enough empty space to feel and experience life. Those gaps are where the magic begins. When times get rough, let your memories wander back to some wonderful place with remembrances of family and friends. But don’t be too hard on yourself if a few of the facts slip. Just get the poetry right.
Be comfortable in the mystery. Seek the uplifting spirit that leads to a life of grace and wonder.
Grace to help us remember that we can do hard things. “Grace to never sell yourself short; Grace to risk something big for something good; and Grace to remember the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth and too small for anything but love . . .”
Wonder to help us remember that “we are here to keep watch, not to keep.” Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. And bash into some joy along the way.
You can subscribe to MORE TO COME by going to the small “Follow” box that is on the right-hand column of the site (on the desktop version) or at the bottom right on your mobile device. It is great to hear from readers, and if you like them feel free to share these posts on your own social media platforms.
Photo: Marchers support voting rights for all Americans at the 1963 March on Washington. Photo by Marion S. Trikosko (Library of Congress, via Unsplash).
At a recent performance of Considering Matthew Shepard, I was reminded once again that Emmanuel Church is one of Baltimore’s leading centers for music and the arts.
Earlier this month we took the short train ride to Baltimore to hear Andrew sing as part of Emmanuel Episcopal Church’s special performance of the Craig Hella Johnson oratorio Considering Matthew Shepard. The acclaimed choral piece—performed for Baltimore’s Pride month—honors the legacy of the gay college student whose 1998 murder became a defining moment for LGBTQ+ rights. The moving concert featured the Emmanuel Choir alongside special guest Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in a major Christian denomination.
This promo from the local CBS station provides background on this composition and the performance.
“The three-part fusion oratorio speaks with a fresh and bold voice, incorporating a variety of musical styles seamlessly woven into a unified whole. Johnson sets a wide range of poetic and soulful texts by poets including Michael Dennis Browne, Lesléa Newman, Hildegard of Bingen and Rumi. Passages from Matt’s personal journal, interviews and writings from his parents Judy and Dennis Shepard, newspaper reports, and additional texts by Johnson and Browne are poignantly appointed throughout the work.”
We’ve heard Andrew sing the moving aria In Need of Breath several times. It always brings me to tears. In a solo setting, such as in his performance at Carnegie Hall, it is powerful but misses the context of the full piece. At Emmanuel Andrew was a member of the twenty-voice choir, singing the entire oratorio including this aria, with full orchestration. The tears flowed even more effusively.
Andrew in performance at Carnegie Hall
Andrew singing the aria “In Need of Breath” at Emmanuel Church, Baltimore
There were highlights throughout, but the Epilogue was especially powerful. Soprano Julie Bosworth led a gospel-infused Meet Me Here and was soon after joined by soprano Bonnie Lander and mezzo Alexis Tantau in the stirring All of Us.
The video of Johnson’s choir singing highlights from Considering Matthew Shepard gives you a flavor of the music and drama.
If you have a chance to see this work at some point in the future, take it. You will not be disappointed.
MUSIC AT EMMANUEL
Music at Emmanuel is a wonderful series developed under the direction of Christian Lane and held in the heart of the historic Mt. Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. It features a full season of concerts and special liturgies with The Emmanuel Choir, a happy-hour chamber music series, Tuesdays at Six, and programs featuring the church’s ensemble-in-residence, Mount Vernon Virtuosi.
I want to highlight two concerts for the upcoming 2026-2027 season to whet your appetite.
VOCES8
VOCES8 (credit: Andy Staples)
This October, on Sunday the 18th, the acclaimed vocal group VOCES8 will perform at Emmanuel.
“Their program, Give Me Your Stars, is a journey through centuries of choral music united by themes of wonder, human connection, and the places we call home: from the jubilant brilliance of Orlando Gibbons and the polyphonic splendor of John Sheppard to Eric Whitacre, Nat King Cole, Simon & Garfunkel, and New York, New York — with Lucy Walker‘s eponymous commission for VOCES8 at the evening’s heart.”
I also want to include videos of the group singing Morten Lauridsen’s setting of O Nata Lux as well as John Tavener’s The Lamb, a setting of a William Blake poem. Both are exquisite.
Next May, Music at Emmanuel will present the Richard Strauss setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson‘s poem Enoch Arden, “weaving music and spoken word into a single, unbroken emotional arc.” This performance presents Strauss’ work in a new transcription for string trio by cellist Molly von Gutzeit, “whose arrangement draws the music into closer conversation with the verse.”
This video of von Gutzeit’s solo cello arrangement of Purcell’s Dido’s Lament provides an introduction to the artist. She writes of the performance,
“There are moments in life where it’s brevity, fragility, and temporariness come to the forefront of thought. This work, from the closing aria of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas known as Dido’s Lament or ‘When I am Laid in Earth,’ evokes a desperate reflection of the inevitable.
I worked on this video and recordings while grappling with some of these ideas in my own life. I think this was a way in which I could, through music, film, and nature better understand what Dido sang in the original opera.”
The second video is a live 2024 performance at St. David’s in Baltimore of Have You Seen but a White Lily Grow by Robert Johnson (c. 1583 – 1633) arranged for solo cello by von Gutzeit.
There are many other treats to be found throughout the Music at Emmanuel season. If you live in or near Baltimore, take the time to discover this vibrant congregation in their beautiful historic building and sample one or more of these musical gems.
More to come . . .
DJB
Main exterior and interior photos of Emmanuel credit Andrew Nigl. Photos of stained glass windows and artists signing in Considering Matthew Shepard by DJB. Photo of Andrew Bearden Brown at Carnegie Hall credit Boston University.
MORE TO COME... 