The Prairie Panicle No. 13
The Prairie Panicle No. 13
A new monthly report of thoughts, links, and reads
The Prairie Panicle is slightly delayed from its scheduled delivery on the 15th of the month. A portion of our household was unexpectedly waylaid this week by a stomach bug. Everyone is improved now, but as we get into the sick season, take care of yourself and your people!
Oops!…I Did It Again
No, this not a new feature where I opine on various Britney Spears songs. That’s always a future option for #content, though. You might recall that I took a platinum blonde turn this summer to support our high school baseball team (see here and here). During that adventure, many people in Stamford asked when I would dye my hair Bulldog blue. Well, the answer is now. Our Bulldog football team is ranked #1 in the state in Class 2A Division I, so I added some blue highlights to kick off their district schedule. They promptly dispatched the Cisco Loboes by a 44-14 margin, so I’ll be adding more blue this week and hopefully for many weeks to come.
You can check out the video on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
What I’ve Written
Stamford relaunched our homecoming bonfire tradition, thanks to the idea of a friend and my inability to not volunteer for things. I shared about that experience, why it matters, and how we plan to keep it alive in “Afterglow.”
The core meaning of West of 98 was on display in “A Restatement” in which I outlined the principles behind the name, what I believed, and the experiences that have shaped my views of life, politics, and community in a very non-mainstream sort of way.
In “Recalibrating,” I shared some of my plans to refresh the West of 98 website and organize my monthly essay schedule around four core topics.
Last year, I cooked almost 200 hot dogs for trick-or-treaters on Halloween. It’s one of my favorite community things I’ve ever done. This year, I’ll be cooking 300 or more and I wrote about the idea in “Hot Dogs and Community.”
In early September, I wrote about the importance of suicide prevention. Some specific events and a nagging inner voice propelled me to expand that conversation and share some of my own mental health experiences in “Leading From the Front.” This essay and the outpouring of feedback across platforms and in private conversations led me to launch a new “Mental Health” tab on the West of 98 website and a short Friday newsletter called the Mental Health Minute, with a learned-and-lived tip for mental wellness. You can read #1, #2, and #3 and send me your own tips!
Online Reading
This has been a bountiful month for reading recs, so I’ll be brief with each:
The great
underscores the fundamental importance of Christian community in a new Christianity Today piece headlined, “You Don’t Need a Rule of Life.”Stamford has one of four remaining Carnegie Libraries in Texas and we’re working on a transformative renovation. After more than a century, the keepers of the Carnegie fortune are returning to library funding.
“Weeds” are a natural part of ecosystem cycles. Why not work with that, rather than fight it?
“Progressive urbanism” once transformed local government in America, but it has died under the weight of its own nannying. That’s a shame, says Ross Barkan at Compact and I agree.
This was published in 2021, but
discussing his Christian conversion and more with Jeff Bilbro at Front Porch Republic is worth your time.“What happened to the Christian tradition of supporting workers’ rights?” is a great question posed by
at Plough.Finally,
has written a soliloquy at on keeping your leaves and growing potatoes in them. We always repurpose our leaves as compost rather than discard them, but this is a project we’ll be adopting at the Decker Homestead. He has a good reminder on just how valuable the potato can be in a limited diet, which is worth considering.Events(!)
The Texas Tribune is hosting “Small Towns, Big Possibilities: a Symposium on the Future of Rural Texas” in San Antonio on November 13 and 14. Stay tuned to their event agenda.
Books I’ve Read
Wendell Berry has referenced J. Russell Smith’s “Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture” as one of the most important agricultural texts he has read over the decades. I finally got around to re-reading it and it is a splendid work from 1929 on soil conservation and ideas like “permaculture” and “sustainable agriculture” that are timeless ideas long before they became trendy buzz words.
“The Man From the Broken Hills” is one of my favorite Louis L’Amour books. It is one of L’Amour’s few books that centers around cowboys actually working cattle on the range. It also takes place in Texas, with a rugged setting south of San Angelo in the late 19th century. It’s a fun one.
Listening Recs
Ashley and Nate from the Doomer Optimism podcast recently interviewed me about life as a small town mayor and the future of rural America. My episode is not up yet, but subscribe to them now for always-interesting interviews.
The West of 98 podcast rolls on with audio versions of my weekly essays. I’ve gotten good feedback on the voiceovers on Substack, so I hope the podcast side is beneficial as well.
The Rural Church and State podcast is discussing how to view politics through the prism of the Gospel. We just released a new episode: “The Privilege to NOT Vote”. I called out the blasphemy of determining religious salvation by political views. I’m not sorry.
West of 98 Store
The West of 98 bookstore at Bookshop.org has three lists: my Top Texas Books, all the books referenced on the Rural Church and State podcast, and a catch-all Essential West of 98 reads. The commission on these purchases go towards towards the West of 98 project. Even if you never buy my recommendations, do your online book shopping at Bookshop! Their profits support independent bookstores. Amazon doesn’t need more money.
As always, thanks for reading along and supporting my work! Your feedback is always welcomed and appreciated.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the Rural Church and State and West of 98 podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found.