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Heartbreaking and galvanizing

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Two things happened this week, both of historic proportions.

On Tuesday night during a special election, Raphael Warnock was chosen by the voters of Georgia to be the first African-American to represent the state in the U.S. Senate and the first African-American Democrat elected to a senate seat by a former state of the Confederacy. His victory was shared with Jon Ossoff, who will become the first Jewish Senator elected from Georgia. The wins by Warnock and Ossoff mean that with a 50-50 tie in the Senate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s vote will give Democrats the effective majority. It was an uplifting moment for democracy after a bitter 2020 election season.

On Wednesday, a mob of white supporters of Donald Trump, incited by the sitting president, marched and overran the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt government and overturn the certification of the presidential election by Congress. Writing in the New York Times, the historian of fascism Timothy Snyder outlined how we got here:

“In November 2020, reaching millions of lonely minds through social media, Trump told a lie that was dangerously ambitious: that he had won an election that in fact he had lost. This lie was big in every pertinent respect: not as big as “Jews run the world,” but big enough. The significance of the matter at hand was great: the right to rule the most powerful country in the world and the efficacy and trustworthiness of its succession procedures. The level of mendacity was profound. The claim was not only wrong, but it was also made in bad faith, amid unreliable sources. It challenged not just evidence but logic: Just how could (and why would) an election have been rigged against a Republican president but not against Republican senators and representatives? Trump had to speak, absurdly, of a ‘Rigged (for President) Election.’”

Those lonely minds on social media took him up on his request to come to Washington on January 6th for a “wild time” that would stop the certification of the election of President-elect Biden and VP-elect Harris. And they did stop if for a few hours. We all watched in horror as the Capitol was overrun for only the second time in history, the first being in 1814 by the British army. Within minutes of realizing how bad this riot at the capitol was playing to the country and world at large, Republican politicians and their media enablers were saying this attack on U.S. democracy was infiltrated by Antifa (the right’s boogeyman of choice these days) and other left-wing radical groups.

No. That did not happen. In fact, many of the mob were upset that they were not getting credit for their attempted coup. At least they were upset until the F.B.I. came calling with arrest warrants, due to the stupidity of live-streaming the coup attempt on social media.

Some Trump-appointed officials at the Pentagon have decided that what happened on Wednesday was not an insurrection, assault, or even attempted overthrow of the American government by white supremacist forces organized, inspired, and directed by Donald Trump. So now the Pentagon is calling Wednesday’s events “First Amendment Protests.”

No. At least five people died in those “First Amendment Protests” which were ginned up by baseless claims of election fraud.

Mark Juergensmeyer, Professor of Sociology and Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, describes the three qualities marking the capitol assault as terrorism:

  • symbolic empowerment (people without power asserting that they have it),
  • performance violence (the intention of terrorism is to terrorize), and
  • cosmic war (warfare provides an alternative worldview to normal public order).

Historian Snyder notes that twisting the truth with different names like “First Amendment Protests” is one step on the road to fascism.

“Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves.”

I have thought a great deal all week about these two historical events. Like most of you, I am still processing what it means for our country. I have also written, and rewritten, and rewritten again about those thoughts. But for now I will turn to a long-time favorite, critic Frank Rich, who wrote a stirring essay in New York magazine entitled The Trashing of the Republic. He closed it with the following:

“As the old saw has it, it can take a century (or two) to build an institution, but only a day to raze it to the ground. That’s what America flirted with this week. It was heartbreaking, but it should be galvanizing. Let’s be clearheaded: Those who were part of the problem are not part of the solution. Most of them are traitors. Let’s join hands with Senator-elect Warnock and those of good will like him to try to save a country that has for some time now been on the brink of its second civil war.”

Heartbreaking and galvanizing. That certainly describes the emotions of so many Americans at this moment. We have now seen — in stark relief — that a large segment of one party is not serious about democracy and has stopped caring about good governance. Instead the leaders of that party are focused on holding onto power using whatever means necessary. Including, now it seems for some of them, armed insurrection, following the delusions of a farcically transparent con man. Heartbreaking.

But when the Black voters of Georgia — people who have been denied so much of what comes without question to whites in America — turned out in droves to ensure that democracy worked, now that was galvanizing. These were people who didn’t throw away their chance to change the world. Now it is up to the rest of us to make sure we’ll have that democracy and that country those voters, and their children, and their children’s children deserve.

More to come…

DJB

Image: “The Bridge” cartoon by Mike Luckovich that hangs in the office of Senator-elect Jon Ossoff of Georgia.

The darkest hour is just before dawn

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After the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th — in which there was a riot incited by our sitting president — there is great despair for our country. Despair and concern that is appropriate. We face many dangers to our democracy, especially over the last two weeks of his term, if he makes it that long.

But there was also hope that the winds of change were blowing. Hope grounded in the memory of what those ordinary citizens who came before have shown us is possible. Hope as attempts at voter suppression failed, and the people used their voice to stand up for democracy, walking across the bridges built by past heroes like John Lewis.

“The Bridge” cartoon by Mike Luckovich that hangs in the office of Senator-elect Jon Ossoff

In considering what to feature on this week’s Saturday Soundtrack, a simple country refrain from a gospel song written by the great Ralph Stanley in 1960 kept playing on a loop in my head. The first line of the chorus is pure country poetry: The darkest hour is just before dawn.

“The sun is slowly sinking
The day is almost gone
Still darkness falls around us
And we must journey on

The darkest hour is just before dawn…”

One doesn’t have to believe in the gospel context of the song to understand and appreciate the meaning of trial, loss, and rebirth. This week we saw the inevitable culmination of our trial of four years; a period of lies, hatred, and division. As we came face-to-face with the fact of the fragility of the American ideal, our loss was clear. But in the special elections in Georgia, in the coming back of Congress after the insurrection to certify the will of the people, and in the beginning of the difficult discussions around what American democracy means, we see the glimmer of dawn and rebirth.

The definitive version of The Darkest Hour is undoubtedly by Emmylou Harris, with Ricky Skaggs singing harmony, from her 1980 Roses in the Snow album. When Skaggs comes in at the 2:00 mark to take the lead, it sends chills down your back.

Emmylou Harris, with Sam Bush on fiddle, at Merlefest.

This live version from 2007 by Emmylou is a treasure in many ways, not the least of which is the band. The late Mike Auldridge is on the dobro, while his former Seldom Scene bandmate Tom Gray is playing bass.* Ricky Simpkins on the fiddle and Keith Little on the mandolin round out the players. Plus her heartfelt introduction about how there is a comfort in the grim fact of loss that makes us embrace life even more is a reminder, if we needed one, that Harris can both choose and sing the most meaningful songs from the country music canon like nobody else.

There is also a lovely live version by the band I’m With Her. Sara Watkins takes the lead, but the harmonies are what make this worth a listen.

And because the last line of the first verse speaks to the fact that even while darkness falls we must journey on, this 1997 version of Bob Dylan’s classic The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bruce Springsteen, with his moving introduction of the times in the 1960s when the song was written, and the times in 1997 when he sang this tribute, and — I’m sure he would agree — the times in 2021 when we face challenges to all that is best about America, seems oh so appropriate.

Keep journeying forward, with hope and work for a better world.

More to come…
DJB

*Personal Note: Tom Gray is a friend that I came to know from his years where he was helping out his daughter Julie at the Silver Spring farmers market. Tom was always ready to stop selling the best eggs on the planet to talk some music, so I had to make sure I wasn’t taking him away when Julie was busy. Since she has scaled down her operation, we don’t see Tom in person anymore, although he has a robust online friends group. A member of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame for his work with the Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene, Tom is one of the kindest “stars” you’ll ever want to meet. It is great to see him in this video.

Another day that will live in infamy

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It is the end of a long and historic day. One that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer likened to December 7, 1941 when he said that January 6th — the day American citizens attacked their own Capitol — “will live forever in infamy.”

Yes, January 6, 2021 has been a day that will be well known for the horrible deed perpetrated by a group of thugs, goons, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists, and rioters. A deed by a mob that was incited by the sitting president of the United States due to this selfish man’s injured pride. A president who was enabled in his lies about a stolen election by a large segment of a political party that has put power above democracy, a media network that has put the convenient lie above the hard truth, and wealthy oligarchs who have put the maintenance and growth of their personal wealth above all other considerations.

Field of Blood
Field of Blood by Joanne B. Freeman

It is one more day when the fragility of our democracy and democratic institutions was showcased for all the world to see.

It is a good day to recall that violence and paranoia are part of the American character. Both were on full display today. If you want to see what can happen when those traits get out of hand, it may be a good week to read Joanne B. Freeman’s Field of Blood.

As I wrote in 2019, you will soon be absorbed…

“,,, in the riveting tales of mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests…and that’s just on the floor of Congress! During the turbulent and violent three decades leading up to the Civil War, bowie knives and pistols were regularly drawn on members by other members.  Duels happened with alarming frequency, including one that led to the death of one representative at the hand of another. All involved, with the exception of the poor victim, were handily re-elected.  Slavery, and its future in America, was the key issue that led to this bullying, fighting, and total breakdown of civil discourse.

The book tells the story of:

  • Extreme polarization
  • Fundamental disagreements about what kind of nation the United States would be
  • Splintering political parties
  • New technologies skewing and scattering the news, and complicating politics in the process
  • Conspiracy theories being spread, North and South, as the nation’s crisis unfolds
  • Panic about the impact of free speech in that fraught environment
  • Rampant distrust in national political institutions as well as rampant distrust of Americans in each other

Seeing the Confederate and Trump flags in the hands of the mob walking through the rotunda was one more painful reminder that we haven’t worked through our racial issues in this country. Watching the Capitol police’s restraint in handling the insurrectionists breaking down the doors of our “citadel of democracy” was a reminder that white privilege extends even to the handling of thugs…as long as they are not black.

It was a sad day, and we have much work to do.

Watching the Senate debate on the baseless objections to Arizona’s electoral slate by Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley — who inconceivably put out fundraising appeals in the middle of the siege — was one reason I have some hope. After the Capitol was cleared and order restored, some of the senators who enabled this president for four years or more seemed to understand that not only the president, but they had crossed a line. History is what told them to take a step back. Lindsey Graham reminded those objecting that the 1877 compromise — which Cruz, Hawley, and others cited as precedent for their objections — led to the trading of the presidency for the end of Reconstruction in the South and the institution of Jim Crow. And Lindsey, of all people, noted that this was a bad incident to cite as your precedent.

Will miracles never cease?

Three other things give me hope. First, the outcome of the special elections in Georgia that will end for a while the stranglehold Mitch McConnell has had on our government. Second, the fact that in the early morning hours of January 7th, Congress returned, did its business, and certified the 2020 election victories of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And finally, the belief that this could be the wake-up call we have been needing to take back our democracy.

But there is no way to put lipstick on this pig; this was a bad day for America. And Donald Trump was only the instigator today. He had plenty of enablers as part of a project that is built on inequality and is now four decades old. As Duke historian Nancy MacLean wrote in her Democracy in Chains, “the extremity of our current situation is in good part due to the outsized power of corporations and wealthy donors over our politics and public policy.” In other words, individuals who put wealth and power over democracy and people.

January 20th cannot come soon enough.

More to come…

DJB

Image by forcal35 from Pixabay

Weekly Reader: It really wasn’t your fault 2020, but good riddance

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This Weekly Reader features links to articles that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy at the beginning of the New Year. Here’s hoping you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.

We talk about 2020 being a dumpster fire as if the year itself was responsible. Nope. This one is on us. All of us.*

Writing in Musing About Law, Books, and Politics, Teri Kanefield has seen enough in Goodbye 2020, and Good Riddance…but she has plans for 2021 and ways that all of us can join the fight to save democracy.

“2021 will be the year to Make Democracy Cool Again.

If the universe is unfolding as it should, Trump awakened enough people from complacency and spurred us to treasure our democracy and take the necessary steps to preserve it.“

Kanefield has ten suggestions for how to make that happen. They include a call to “Run for something (or help someone else run for something),” and thoughts on how to stand up for our institutions.

I would add an 11th suggestion to Kanefield’s list: Understand your history. The relevance of history is never so obvious than in times of turmoil, and 2020 more than exceeds that bar. David Smith in The Guardian interviews my friend and former colleague, Dr. Anthea Hartig, in People see how relevant history is: Smithsonian tackles Covid challenge.

This has been a year unlike any other for the museums that are dedicated to telling our history. Museums like the one where Dr. Hartig is the director.

“The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, boasting more than 1.8m objects over 800,000 square feet, can draw 10,000 visitors on a good day and usually closes only on 25 December. But this year a museum dedicated to preserving history found itself living that history.

Given its location on the National Mall, the museum’s curators were also within touching distance of protests, violence and mourning that shook the nation’s capital this summer. They faced the real-time challenge of collecting artefacts and testimonies that will help future generations make sense of a year like no other.“

As Anthea notes, more people are interested in history this year than at any other point in her three-decade career. “I think people understand how relevant it is,” she notes. “I often joke that I wish I had a context wand, like a magic wand, and I could just pat people on the head and say, ‘I have thus gifted you context.’”

She’s right: understanding context matters.

One of the challenges when you don’t know your history is that delusions and myth take the place of facts, with often horrific results. The U.S. isn’t the only place that happens. In Bloomberg, British historian Max Hastings writes How Delusions About World War II Fed Brexit Mania.

Hastings begins his “rumination on the British character, rather than on our government” by quoting Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, who — in Hasting’s telling — “possesses the fiercely contested distinction of being the least impressive member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet.” After Williamson attributes the speed in which Britain developed a Covid-19 vaccine to the fact that, “We’re a much better country than every single one of them, aren’t we?” Hastings continues:

“Underpinning almost everything Britain has done since 1945 is a belief among most of its people that we are special, different, important. Many middle-sized nations cherish this conceit in some degree — think of France — but few allow it to influence their political courses as doggedly as do Winston Churchill’s inheritors. 

World War II still dominates British self-image. As a historian of the conflict, I am sometimes driven to despair by my fellow-countrymen’s determination to preserve nationalistic myths about it, rather than to acknowledge harsh realities.“

In an insightful essay, Hastings points out that the myth of British superiority continues to drive public policy some 80 years after World War II. He mentions briefly the similarities to Donald Trump’s America.

“The great political success of the Brexiteers is that they have convinced a narrow majority of the British people that most of their woes, even the weather, derive from Europe. In truth, scarcely any do, but foreigners make convenient scapegoats. There are close similarities between the tribal attitude of President Donald Trump’s supporters in the U.S. and Johnson supporters in Britain. Both see themselves, above all, as patriots.“

Jon Henley, also writing in The Guardian, gives the European take on Brexit in View from the EU: Britain ‘taken over by gamblers, liars, clowns, and their cheerleaders.

“For us, the UK has always been seen as like-minded: economically progressive, politically stable, respect for the rule of law – a beacon of western liberal democracy,” said Rem Korteweg, of the Clingendael Institute thinktank in the Netherlands.

“I’m afraid that’s been seriously hit by the past four years. The Dutch have seen a country in a deep identity crisis; it’s been like watching a close friend go through a really, really difficult time. Brexit is an exercise in emotion, not rationality; in choosing your own facts. And it’s not clear how it will end.”

Sound familiar?

Eric Boehlert in Press Run wonders why the media cannot find the voice to call Donald Trump’s actions by their real name. In Trump plots martial law from White House — the press shrugs, he notes,

“In a West Wing meeting that would seem more fitting for a nation with a long history of authoritarian rule, Trump recently met with deranged, conspiracy-peddling advisers and discussed the possibility of using the U.S. military to seize voting machines across the country, declare martial law, and re-do the election in an effort to overturn this year’s contest, which Trump lost by seven million votes. The meeting reportedly unraveled into a shouting match, with Trump’s unhinged “election fraud” advisers condemning his staffers as “quitters.”

“…Incredibly though, the Times did not run its martial law story on page one on Sunday. Instead it was tucked inside on page 28. (It was also buried on the paper’s website.) Additionally, the military coup aspect of the report — the fact the President of the United States might want to enlist armed players to destroy free and fair elections — wasn’t even included in the Times headline, or in the lede of the story.“

We need to name things as they are to understand them.

Pep Talk by Niklas Göke in Medium is a reminder of all the things we can do every single day for our own mental health and for that of those around us.

Even in a pandemic, we are asked to recall that:

You can smile. You can laugh….You’re allowed to have flaws….You can let go. You can hit pause….You mean something to someone…Someone misses you.

It is an uplifting read of personal resilience.

Finally, Fretboard Journal editor Jason Verlindie penned a heartfelt tribute to a great innovator in Tony Rice: 1951 – 2020.

“Rice died in his North Carolina home on Christmas morning, 2020. The worst news imaginable to acoustic guitar fans around the world on what has been pretty much the worst year ever for everyone.

Just two months earlier, our other guitar deity, Eddie Van Halen, passed away. For a lot of us, EVH and Tony Rice were the giants bookending the Mount Rushmore of Guitar (throw B.B., Django, Segovia and Jimi in the middle and call it a day). Just like Van Halen, Rice influenced thousands of future players with his imaginative solos. Also like EVH: Rice made everything seem effortless and fluid, even when it clearly wasn’t.“

Since Fretboard Journal is a guitar magazine with a fixation of gear, Verlindie goes into some detail about Rice’s famous Martin D-28 guitar.

Rice was mostly about one guitar, his often-copied 1935 Martin D-28, serial number 58957. (Talk about famous: Can you even think of any other guitars simply by their serial number?) Formerly owned by Clarence White of the Byrds / Kentucky Colonels, the “Antique” has been played-to-death, abused, driven over, shot at, highly-modified and, by at least a few accounts, only sounded truly great when Tony was playing it. Its enlarged soundhole is now an option from at least a handful of guitar companies, including Bourgeois, Huss & Dalton, Collings, Martin (of course), and the Santa Cruz Guitar Company, who for decades have produced a Tony Rice signature model. Rumors abound around who did what to the Martin over the years, if that striking tortoiseshell pickguard is from an actual tortoise, on-and-on…

While the guitar gets some glory in the article, this is primarily a beautiful and warm remembrance of an exceptional musician who will be sorely missed.

“Broken windows and empty hallways

A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray

Human kindness is overflowing

And I think it’s going to rain today”

Randy Newman, “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”

More to come…

DJB

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

* Who could have suspected that when I wrote “2020: Bring it on!” a little more than 365 days ago, the year would respond with what my friend Anthea Hartig calls “cascading crises.” 2020 is what happens when…

  • we decide to give up on democracy because we lack the courage to face the unknown and in doing so succumb to the fear that seeks shelter in the authoritarian lie;
  • we don’t do the boring and hard work of democracy, and we don’t even do the easy things like vote in midterm, or state, or local elections;
  • we traffic in insane conspiracy theories that could easily be seen as untrue if we gave them even a modicum of thought;
  • we primarily talk with those who believe just as we do, while we disparage those who are not like us;
  • we bypass one of the key rules of empathetic listening — seek first to understand — in order to make, and score, our points;
  • we allow corporations and oligarchs to sustain a four-decade war against democratic government in order to secure their power over us, because we’ve confused unbridled capitalism with freedom;
  • we try and explain away authoritarianism and sedition by a major political party; and
  • we allow our nation’s greatest enemies to meddle in our elections, without any serious pushback.

So no, this isn’t 2020’s fault.

The discipline of gratitude

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The Dutch priest and theologian Henri J.M. Nouwen, writing in The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, had the following to say about gratitude:

Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. I can choose to be grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart responds in bitterness. I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly. I can choose to listen to the voices that forgive and to look at the faces that smile, even while I still hear words of revenge and see grimaces of hatred.”

Anticipating the rancor and resentment to come this week when we will certainly “hear words of revenge and see grimaces of hatred,” we can make a conscious choice. We all have the responsibility — which means the ability to respond — with words and actions that build up rather than tear down.

Real leaders are those who recognize the fragility of moments like the one we are in and lead with affirmative words and actions that build us up. True and authentic leaders — recognizing the power and strength of gratitude — make that conscious choice.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Couleur from Pixabay

Reminders

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Each morning since 2013, alongside pictures from work, travel, musical moments, and family, a list of eight simple reminders shows up on my computer screen. These rules of how I want to live day-to-day are the result of a more intentional focus on life’s journey rather than relying on a changing list of annual resolutions. As one blogger noted in outlining a similar set of what he called “cardinal rules,” these are not quite principles, but are rules which — for the user — have lasted over time.

In thinking of the work before us in 2021 as we look to regain our equilibrium after a tumultuous year, we can all return to our own set of reminders. Though I often miss my personal marks, I return each day to be prompted about the things that matter to me and to focus on ways to live with compassion, grace, insight, integrity, and love.

We are all looking for our way through and beyond the difficulties of 2020. I’ve written — in one way or another — about each of my personal reminders over the past twelve months. Here are eight of those stories from More to Come, given in the hope that they will help you think about your cardinal rules in this new year.

Rule #1. Be Grateful. Be Thankful. Be Compassionate. Every Day. 

Making time for gratitude (December 28) is my story of a practice that didn’t begin as a pandemic project. But as the weeks passed and turned into months, the realization deepened that the specific action of writing one or more thank you letters each week — not in a reflexive way but in a more thoughtful and intentional fashion — was a perfect antidote to the poison that seemed to permeate our lives in 2020. It was, for me, an ideal pandemic project.

Rule #2. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life. 

Journeys that move us toward justice never end (October 20) begins with a walk through Brookside Gardens. There were small signs of “Garden Mindfulness” along the path with reminders to “feel the air moving across your skin” and to “bring awareness to those parts of the body where you could feel the wind.” Upon discovering a labyrinth, I began to walk its path and recalled Rebecca Solnit’s words about the rules and morals of the practice:

“…sometimes you have to turn your back on your goal to get there, sometimes you’re farthest away when you’re closest, sometimes the only way is the long one.  After the careful walking and looking down, the stillness of arrival was deeply moving.”

In troubled times it was a good reminder that your grandmother was right: A walk will do you good.

Rule #3. Listen more than you talk.

Listen, learn, love…and act (June 8) was written after the horrific murder of George Floyd and as the nation reached an important inflection point in our 400-year-old history with race and racism. A number of smart commentators noted that while we should stand up in the moment for an end to racism, white people like me need to listen, listen, and then listen some more, followed by work to educate ourselves about the systemic nature of racism, the ties to implicit bias, and how we can train ourselves to be anti-racist. But listening and learning, without action, will not change history. As the first African American presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, counsels, our actions should come as we walk a path of love.

Rule #4. Spend less than you make. 

Be there (December 7) focuses on how you never know when someone needs you to be your best. It may be as you write a note or pour a cup of coffee. It fits with this reminder about money in that it contains the story of Lene and Abeba Tsegaye who left Ethiopia in the 1980s to move to the U.S. and set up a coffee shop in our town. On a recent visit to Kefa Cafe, Abeba told me these were challenging times, but that she and her sister have seen challenges before. I was able to tell her how much the café meant to us, and how much I appreciated the sign they had placed in their window which read, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” She replied that it was the way they tried to live. This is a good year for all of us to be grateful for what we have and to resist the urge to try and satisfy ourselves with more stuff.

Rule #5. Quit eating crap! Eat less of everything else. 

Reflect. Reconsider. Reset. (March 23) was written early in the pandemic as we were each learning that navigating through difficult times is both a personal and communal journey. One of the ways to reset was my suggestion that we could use this time to straighten out our mental house. “Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits,” according to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Oftentimes the way I eat — and eat too much — is simply a habit. It was easier to reset this habit during 2020, since we stopped eating out and I benefited from thoughtful, well-prepared meals.

Rule #6. Play music. 

Saturday Soundtrack: Doc Watson’s Deep River Blues (November 21) relates to a life rule that works for me but may not be important to you. Virtually any time I pull out one of my guitars, I end up playing Deep River Blues in the style of the late Doc Watson. In this post, I thought it would be fun to see what real guitar players do with this tune.

Rule #7. Connect and commit. 

Remembrance, not regret (March 2) was written as I approached my 65th birthday. It has a similar focus to the first cardinal rule referenced in Niklas Göke‘s blog: “Make peace with your past so it won’t mess with your present.” In this post I thank the many family, friends, colleagues, and even strangers who have been there for me over 65 years. Their support has led me to a place where I now move quickly past feelings of regret to memories that provide a solid foundation on which to connect and commit anew. And while they may, or may not, remember what they did to lift me up, I remember.

Rule #8. Don’t be a Grumpy Old Man. Enjoy life! 

Finding your potential: Aging in a time of turmoil (June 15) contained thoughts on two books I read this year after recognizing that one can’t claim to be middle age when no one lives to be 130 years old. Times of turmoil give us the chance to “change the status quo” about many things, including how we see the roles older people play in daily life and how we, as we age, can move past grumpiness into full enjoyment.

What did I learn from those who have successfully navigated the next third of life? To find the power and potential of our lives, we should:

  • Maintain a future orientation that provides the ability to anticipate, plan, and hope. Learn something new every day.
  • Stay engaged with meaningful work.
  • Exercise, but don’t worry about getting a gym membership.
  • Spend time with younger people.
  • Build the capacity for gratitude and forgiveness and focus your perspective around empathy for how others see the world.
  • Get enough sleep.
  • Do things with people, as opposed to doing things to people.

Oh, and as neuroscientist Daniel Levitin reminds us at the end of his book, don’t forget to laugh. “Whatever’s going on around you, remember to laugh.”

Here’s to a better 2021.

More to come…

DJB

Image: My computer wallpaper with DJB’s Life Rules as a daily reminder of what matters.

Bulleit bourbon (photo credit: The Adventures of Sarah & Derrick)

New Year’s Eve brings songs for Jack, Jim, and all of their friends

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This special Thursday edition of Saturday Soundtrack is timed for December 31st, when, for some reason, you may have a drink in your hand.

You may be drinking to celebrate the New Year and to welcome President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Or you may be lifting a glass to say goodbye to a year that has been horrid in almost every way possible. You may be toasting the soon-to-be end of an administration that has tried to kill democracy in America. Perhaps you are anticipating a Dry January and have decided to load up before the calendar turns over.

No matter the reason, here are a few songs for Jack, Jim, and all of their friends to get you in the mood, beginning with a couple from one of my old favorites, David Bromberg. The first, with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, is Keep on Drinkin’ — not the last time we’ll hear someone disregard the advice of their doctor.

The second Bromberg tune is a long-time favorite of fans — as you can tell by the sing-along nature of the chorus — I Like to Sleep Late in the Morning.

Norah Jones doesn’t normally go off on benders, but her “alternative” band, The Little Willies, get drunk singing a song written by the inspiration for the group’s name, Willie Nelson.

“I gotta get drunk I can’t stay sober
There’s a lot of good people in town
Who’d like to hear me holler
See me spend my dollars
And I wouldn’t think of lettin’ ’em down

There’s a lot of doctors that tell me
That I’d better start to slowin’ it down
But there’s more old drunkers
Than there are old doctors
So I guess we’d better have another round“

Even though the quality of the video isn’t great, the guitar solos by Jim Campilongo are amazing and worth the trouble.

The Watkins Family Hour with Sean and Sara Watkins calls up one of the saddest drinking songs around, The King of the 12 Ounce Bottle, on their debut album.

We don’t know how long we’re here for, do we?

So much beer, and so little time.

Chris Stapleton has sung his share of drinking songs. Here he is with his old band The Steeldrivers Drinking Dark Whiskey, Telling White Lies followed by the beautiful solo acoustic version of Whiskey and You.

And just because Stapleton left the Steeldrivers to begin his solo career, it doesn’t mean the band forgot how to drink.

“I’m drinking like a fish and dancing like a mule
Fighting like a chicken and talking like a fool
And I will ’till I don’t have to honkey-tonk my blues
‘Cause anything’s better than thinking about you
Sitting at home, knowing your gone
Watching the phone, drinking alone“

I don’t know, drinkin’ alone sounds so 2020.

Seriously, folks, don’t drink and drive. At all. Be safe. Enjoy yourself. And goodbye 2020…you’ve been a helluva year (and that’s a nice way to put it).

Welcome 2021.

More to come…
DJB

Image: Bourbon (Photo Credit: The Adventures of Sarah and Derrick)

Bonus: And here’s one of many references in song to being with Jack (Daniels), Jim (Beam), and all of their friends, from the 2015 CMA Awards show.

“I can’t drink you away
I’ve tried Jack, I’ve tried Jim
I’ve tried all of their friends
But I can’t drink you away“

Weekly Reader: What was missing on your 2020 bingo card?

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This Weekly Reader features links to articles that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy as we approached the end of 2020. Here’s hoping you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.

Kimberly Harrington takes on this crazy year at McSweeney’s with Things I Didn’t Have on My 2020 Bingo Card Bingo.

Click through to check out her full card and have a hearty laugh (or a moist eye). Here are three to whet your appetite:

  • Dumbest. Coup. Ever.
  • Quitting royal family: An option
  • U.S. Postal Service: White hot center of drama and intrigue

In a similar vein of looking back with a combination of laughter and horror, the Washington Post recently published 2020 in editorial cartoons from all over the country.

With everything that happened, editorial cartoonists more than made their money this year. Have you forgotten that we impeached a president in 2020? That seems like history from another era.

Speaking of history, two recent pieces by historians are worth your consideration. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Northwestern University’s Daniel Immerwahr writes that History isn’t just for patriots: We teach students how to understand the U.S., not love it — or hate it.

Immerwahr wrote one of the best works of history I read this year. His ability to illuminate complex issues comes through again in this piece in the Post, where he outlines the contours of the battle over patriotism in the classroom. He explains that the study of history isn’t based on how we feel, but what we learn, and provides two reasons why the question over patriotism in the classroom is an odd one.

“The aim of a geometry class is not for students to love or hate triangles but to learn the Pythagorean theorem. Similarly, the point of U.S. history isn’t to have students revere or reject the country but to help them understand it.

The second reason is that, by imagining history class as a pep rally or a gripe session, we squeeze the history out of it. The United States becomes a fixed entity with static principles, inviting approval or scorn. And that makes it hard to see how the country has changed with time.“

A good history class, writes Immerwahr, “doesn’t treat the United States as an unvarying force for freedom or oppression but as an arena where worldviews compete. Students learn that different people had irreconcilable dreams, clashing understandings of what made their country ‘great.’ They learn that history is messy.”

In the second piece, historian, CEO of New American History, and president emeritus at the University of Richmond Edward Ayers, writing in Medium, tackles The Deep History of the 2020 Election.

Ed takes the reader on a fascinating look, with an insightful assemblage of maps, at how two centuries of black migration in the U.S. shaped today’s political parties.

“In many ways…the broad outlines of the election of 2020 — like the elections of the last half-century — are products of the 1820s and 1920s. Fundamental contours of the electorate were defined by the migrations of Black Americans, first in the forced movements of enslavement and then in the bold movements of the Great Migration and succeeding generations.“

Eight years before the 2020 election the changing nature of the suburbs in the South (from white to black) and gerrymandering by Republicans in more rural states had crystallized voting patterns at the congressional level. If you want to understand more about how the election played out, take a look at Ed’s history of black migration over the past 200 years.

Writing in Mother Jones, Tim Murphy hits the ball out of the park with Monsters of 2020: The People Who Gutted Minor League Baseball.

In one of the under-reported stories of the year (perhaps the press should get a pass just this once, given everything on their plate), the brains who run Major League Baseball decided that this was the time to gut another of America’s beloved institutions.

“There will be 40 fewer minor leagues farm teams next year than there were in 2019….The minor leagues—which rely on in-person interactions like concessions and ticket sales—were hit hard when the pandemic forced the cancellation of their 2020 seasons, but that’s not why these franchises got kicked to the curb. Plans to dramatically reduce the number of minor league franchises and players were in the works long before that, because Major League Baseball is filled with insufferable ghouls.“

Of course, the cheating Houston Astros with their ex-McKinsey general manager were among the leaders of this drive to “optimize” baseball and save costs.

“It’s a testament to the almost religious levels of self-absorption among Major League owners and executives that they didn’t think (or perhaps just did not care) about just how awful it sounds to tell people, publicly, that baseball games are a wasteful byproduct of professional baseball, as opposed to the entire point of professional baseball.

“Even as other sports produce better highlights or cooler players, baseball’s great asset is that it’s there. A game is a nice place to be, with friends or family, reasonably close to where you live…Most people who go to these games will not particularly care if a pitcher throws 90 miles per hour instead of 93. They might not even be able to tell you what happened on the field at all. Getting rid of the ubiquity that’s sustained its popularity for 150 years gets sold as streamlining. It’s really just strip-mining.“

This is not just a baseball story, notes Murphy.

“By this point in the 21st century, you should know enough to run full speed away from people who talk about optimization—people who take over beloved institutions with little appreciation for what those institutions actually do, who talk about getting better by getting leaner, about rooting out inefficiencies and pivoting into a new ‘space.’ These people buy newspapers and gut them. They buy your company and make you build a stage for the announcement where they lay you off. They take over the post office and, well, you know.“

Yes, we do. As I said, Murphy hits a home run with this piece. Go read the entire aticle.

The Angry Grammarian, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, has some advice for those of us who write in I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you need to stop using these 13 phrases right now.

Jeffrey Barg notes that there are so many things we should leave behind as the calendar turns — “including far too many words and phrases that 2020 wrung dry.” Here are three of the 13 he features in a funny and insightful piece:

  • “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but …” Stop lying. You know exactly who needs to hear it. Grow some stones and confront them.
  • “Asking for a friend.” Stop lying. You don’t have friends.
  • “This is so me.” Grammatically, this one is interesting. So is a remarkably versatile word, having legitimate uses in five different parts of speech: It can be an adverb, adjective, conjunction, noun, or pronoun. In this sentence, me, which would typically be a pronoun, is functioning as an adjective, following the linking verb is. So that makes so an adverb modifying an erstwhile pronoun functioning as an adjective. But being grammatically interesting doesn’t make your overused sentence interesting itself.

Moving to a musical theme, for those who like their songs with a Southern twang, check out the 30 Best Southern Albums of 2020 from The Bitter Southerner.

The list is wide and eclectic, just like the South. Some are from old musical friends, such as Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and The Chicks. Others were new to my ears. All are interesting and many are worth repeated listenings.

The 2021 Reading Challenge from Anne Bogel at Modern Mrs. Darcy is designed to put more intentionality into your reading list next year.

“Haven’t we all spent the year examining myriad aspects of our lives, reflecting on what works and what doesn’t? And even more than before, we’re turning to reading with wildly different purposes in mind.“

Bogel has structured her challenge around these questions:

  • What do you want more of in your reading life?
  • What do you want to be different in your reading life? 
  • What are you looking for in your reading life right now?  

For those who want to “read harder” in 2021, you might also want to check out this challenge.

Enjoy these writers and artists, and we’ll see what the first week of 2021 brings in the next Weekly Reader.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Nina Garman from Pixabay

Making time for gratitude

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It did not begin as a pandemic project.

In early March, when the thought of how best to express my gratitude first arose, it was near the milestone of a 65th birthday. But as the weeks passed and turned into months, the realization deepened that the specific action of writing one or more thank you letters each week was a perfect antidote to the poison that seemed to permeate our lives in 2020. It was, for me, an ideal pandemic project.

“I turned sixty-five in 2020,” each letter began…

“,,,which certainly falls in the “time flies by quickly” category. In ways that I never could have imagined, I have had a fortunate life. In wanting to recognize this milestone, I found some inspiration in two very different places. First, I was taken with the powerful scene in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood when Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers asks a reporter to take a minute of silence in the middle of a Chinese restaurant to consider the people who’ve loved him into being. The second is writer Nancy Davis Kho’s Thank You Project. Both have motivated me to write thank you notes over the course of this year to the people that have enriched my life. This week I want to thank you.

What followed was several paragraphs that described the reasons I was grateful to have that particular person in my life. The letters generally ended with the complimentary close, “With much gratefulness and admiration” sometimes augmented with “and love.”

When making the decision to begin this year of gratitude, my journal quickly filled with the names of siblings, in-laws, former bosses, teachers, and long-time friends. But as the weeks passed and I thought more and more about the people who had really been there in times of need — benefactors in one way or another — the list expanded to include a range of colleagues over four decades, spiritual and secular mentors, people in positions of power who demonstrated how I should support others when given similar levels of responsibility, and those who guided and stretched my intellect.

By December 20th, 52 individuals had received a letter, one for each week of the year. Those who would have been on the list had they lived included my parents and grandparents, of course; a board chairman who called every single morning during his two-year term to check my temperature and see how he could be of help; and an influential college professor and his wife, who became good friends over three decades.

Early in life I was taught the importance of saying thank you, to the point that it entered my DNA. However, real appreciation for the act of gratitude and the kindness that is conveyed through that action has come only in recent years. It can mean a great deal when people remember you with a short but pithy note, send a generous and unexpected recognition, or reach out across decades to recall long-ago friendships. I have been the recipient of each of those gifts in my lifetime and know their power.

This year of gratitude has provided an abundance of life lessons. By focusing on how to articulate what it is about someone else that has proven so beneficial in our lives, we are led to the realization of how much our thoughts, words, and deeds are shaped by others. Community, in all its meanings, is key to a fuller existence.

The first boss who truly shaped my career served as a role model in how to support staff by recognizing their individual needs. She also encouraged my professional growth, even when it meant leaving her office for new opportunities. Bosses and other mentors who followed her taught lessons in how to listen, in generosity that leads to sharing as opposed to hoarding, in ways to build and reward initiative, in the value of a wide and curious perspective, in the need for clarity in thought, and in the benefits that come in welcoming a stranger with a figurative embrace as people move into new and different circumstances.

So many mentors believed in me, providing affirmation that was there at critical times. They had a willingness to share work, decisions, credit, and praise; encouraged engagement and empowerment with boards and other leadership groups; and placed me in situations where I could learn, succeed, occasionally fail, and ultimately grow. It is a good lesson to keep front and center as the opportunities arise to support those in earlier phases of their life and careers.

It became clear over the year that many of my benefactors were vulnerable and human, revealing ways to open up to others that did not come naturally to me. So many have an uncanny ability to listen with empathy. Knowing how to laugh came through time and again. Abundant good humor — often of the self-deprecating variety — can help make suggestions easier to digest. I thought of friends, co-workers, and loved ones whose lives demonstrated the value of generosity, a positive outlook on life, forbearance, and simple kindness. A choral director changed my life when, through her patience and skill, she showed me the transformative nature of music. There were two individuals in particular who will forever be important in my life, as they taught me how to work through troubles and handle loss.

And some of the earliest and most enduring benefactors were my siblings, who challenged, nurtured, and supported me throughout childhood and beyond. From them I learned the warmth that comes from a spirit of hospitality, the fearlessness that makes life worth living, and the love that overcomes differences.

Writing weekly letters of gratitude did not begin as a pandemic project, but the intentionality of articulating what others have brought to my life could not have come at a better time. Besides recognizing the good fortune we have in those who shaped us, a benefit of giving is what comes back in return. I received dozens of kind and thoughtful responses, some several pages long, that spoke of the effect of the gratitude on the recipient and the depth of our relationship from their perspective. These are emails, notes, and letters that I will always treasure.

To all who have touched and supported my life, thank you. I cannot begin to truly express how grateful I am for you, but I am enriched beyond measure in making the time to try.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Tony Rice, R.I.P.

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The world lost one of the greatest and most influential acoustic guitarists of the last 50 years when Tony Rice passed away on Christmas morning at the age of 69.

In the 1970s at the tender age of 21, David Anthony Rice — known to everyone as Tony — redefined bluegrass guitar when he joined banjoist J.D. Crowe’s New South and began playing guitar leads that referenced flatpicking greats Clarence White and Doc Watson, but were nonetheless uniquely Tony Rice’s music. Crowe’s band came to include Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas, both of whom had long associations in various musical combinations with Rice. It was with the New South that Rice also began to make his mark as one of the new breed of vocalists in bluegrass, who owed as much to Gordon Lightfoot as he did to Bill Monroe. The New South’s self-titled album, known among aficionados by its catalog number 0044, is considered a classic in bluegrass. This 1975 video showcases the band — with Rice’s lead singing and guitar playing — at the height of their time together.

In the mid-1970s Rice left the New South to join with mandolinist David Grisman to create what became known as Dawg Music or, more broadly, New Acoustic Music. The group’s debut album, The David Grisman Quintet, remains as one of the most influential of its time. Grisman, Rice, and violinist Darol Anger — taking the leads — were playing a type of string jazz influenced by gypsy, blues, and bluegrass music that had a beauty and clarity that was unique for its time and jaw dropping in its inspiration.  Now, 40+ years later every acoustic musician worth his or her salt can work their way through similar tunes, but the originality of Grisman’s vision in the 1970s reminds me of the breakthrough of bluegrass when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys in the 1940s and a whole new American music was created. The opening tune on the album, E.M.D. — seen here played by Grisman, Rice, violinist Mark O’Connor and longtime Grisman bassist Rob Wasserman — set the tone for what was to come. Rice’s dazzling guitar break begins at the 1:10 mark.

When Rice left Grisman’s band, he continued with the jazzy sounds of DGQ through his own Tony Rice Unit — featured here with Mar West — but he also began returning to his bluegrass roots with albums such as his tribute to country brother duets with Ricky Skaggs, captured here with The Soul of Man Never Dies, and the Bluegrass Album Band, seen in a 1991 performance at the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards show with fiddler Vassar Clements.

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Rice played with a number of musical collaborators, as he was the guitarist of choice for many musicians. Some of the best of those bands were the super-groups often consisting of Rice, banjoist Bela Fleck, mandolinist Sam Bush, dobroist Jerry Douglas, fiddler Mark O’Connor, and bassist Mark Schatz. Whitewater, a Bela Fleck tune played by the group at an early Merlefest, is a great example of these collaborations. Rice’s first guitar solo begins at the :50 mark and his second one begins around 2:45.

UPDATE: Since writing this appreciation on Sunday, I’ve listened to hours of Tony Rice on YouTube, and I have to add in another song from this wonderful Merlefest set with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Mark O’Connor, and Mark Schatz. Freeborn Man is just the coolest of the cool from what is arguably the best bluegrass supergroup ever assembled. Don’t take my word for it, listen to what Tony said:

“Have you heard any of the stuff that was done by the group of myself and Sam, and Bela and Flux, and Mark O’Connor? Have you heard any of that stuff? It was back at MerleFest, there’s quite a bit of footage of us playing live. There’s tunes like Freeborn Man and Nine Pound Hammer, were – you talk about an ensemble. And uh – I don’t know – Mark O’Connor playing that bluegrass fiddle like that was just absolutely mind-blowing. I’ll go and get on my computer and listen to that stuff and listen to him paying the solos in Freeborn Man and Nine Pound Hammer – listen to Jerry Douglas’s solos and I think Jesus, this is just amazing shit.” –Tony Rice (taken from “A Conversation with Tony Rice directed by Jan Johansson, in 2019)

And if to prove my point, my younger brother sent me this video of a guitar teacher breaking down this song. His mind is blown, as every solo in here is just amazing in its complexity and in the way the ensemble interacts.

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST: Rice continued to honor others who made the acoustic flatpicked guitar such a force in roots music through his collaborations with Watson and Norman Blake, among others.

Manzanita was a signature tune for Rice, that he played and replayed on various albums and with different musical collaborators throughout the years. Here is a version from Tony’s 2000 album Unit of Measure.

As an obituary in Rolling Stone notes,

In the Nineties, Rice was diagnosed with dysphonia, an affliction of the vocal cords that all but robbed him of his singing voice. Rice also battled arthritis and elbow issues that affected his playing. He gave his last public performance on guitar during his 2013 induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and delivered an emotional acceptance speech.

The obituary also quoted numerous musicians and acolytes who noted Rice’s influence.

“’The list of guitarists who reinvented the most played instrument in the world is very short. Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix… a few others. Tony Rice is on that list,’ Charlie Worsham told Rolling Stone in an email. ‘Hang out long enough with a couple guitar players, and you’ll hear phrases like ‘Manzanita, or ‘Cold on the Shoulder,’ dropped into the conversation like code, like a test to see how much you know about the good shit. Anyone who strives to flat pick a guitar with a solid right hand, to meld raw physical power with the grace and precision of a hummingbird’s wings owes a debt of gratitude to Tony Rice.’”

I first heard Tony live with the David Grisman Quintet in Atlanta around 1978, and I last heard him with the Tony Rice Unit at Merlefest in 2009 and again in 2012, a year before he stopped playing in public. He was always inventive, thoughtful, and stretching boundaries in ways that pointed paths for others.

My personal copy, inscribed “To my old pickin pal, David – Tony Rice”

UPDATE NUMBER 2: In 2010, I reviewed Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story on More to Come. It was part of a blog where I looked at several books, and you can find the full review by clicking on the link above, but this is the bulk of what I wrote:

“Rice is — in my humble opinion — the best acoustic guitarist on the planet, and this work covers his entire life’s story and musical development.  Much of it is written in Tony’s own words or comes from remembrances from fellow musicians and friends.  The section on the development of David Grisman’s Dawg music, when Rice left his bluegrass roots and joined the seminal David Grisman Quintet in 1975, is worth the price of the book.  As Tony says, there are now at least 10 guitarists who can play circles around him while playing Rice’s own music, but none have the tone and touch…and none came up with the beautiful combination of roots, bluegrass, jazz, and even classical influences that makes the best of Dawg music still fresh some 30+ years later.  After reading the book, I recalled all those great Rice albums that I had listened to on vinyl and immediately went online and downloaded several CDs worth of music from Tony’s four decades of music.  Backwaters is Tony’s favorite, and with fresh listening I can see why.

The best part of Still Inside?  My copy of the book is inscribed “To my old pickin’ pal, David – Tony Rice.”  Now, there’s not a shred of truth in that, but my grandchildren (should I ever have any) will never know!  Thanks to my friend Leti, who stood in line at Merlefest when I couldn’t go this year and snared the best inscription ever for a guitar lover.”

BACK AGAIN TO THE ORIGINAL POST: Tony Rice’s music was part of the 2004 documentary film Bluegrass Journey, and a fitting place to end this tribute is with his haunting solo version of Shenandoah, which — with a short commentary on art at the end by Tim O’Brien — puts a coda on Tony’s life and work.

Rest in peace, Tony Rice. Your music influenced generations and will live on in those whom you have touched and blessed.

More to come…

DJB

Image: Tony Rice with his younger brother Wyatt at Merlefest 2012 by DJB