The Prairie Panicle No. 2
A monthly roundup of interesting items from the prairie
Welcome to The Prairie Panicle! This is the second edition of my monthly “potpourri” newsletter. I was grateful for the positive response last month through a variety of channels, so if you have thoughts, comments, suggestions, or recommendations, by all means please comment, email, or send a carrier pigeon my direction!
Why “The Prairie Panicle”?
A panicle is a type of flowering seedhead with many branches. Several important prairie grasses (switchgrass, big bluestem, and others) bloom in this manner. The multi-branched inflorescence symbolizes the complexity and layers of life on the semi-arid grasslands. I hope this newsletter helps to illustrate that.
As an opening salvo, I have recently written of my desire to corral my social media consumption. I took the first step by turning off notifications on my Facebook app, so I would not be lured in by the alerts. I enjoyed this so much that I deleted the Facebook app entirely. I still check Facebook several times a day, but it must occur via the web. Scrolling is minimal and posting/commenting/liking requires more intentional effort. I recommend this step if you have a similar goal with social media.
Things I’ve Written
Let’s kick off with a quick summary of my writing over the last month:
“Considering the Front Porch”: High school football is a community’s front porch, which can be both a positive and a negative. I explore this idea through the prism of our memorable 2023 Stamford Bulldogs season, with some help from Ted Lasso.
“The Local Holiday Economy”: we live in a consumerist-obsessed society, but there are ways to tackle the holidays in a manner that is healthy individually and for our local community. If we all trade just a few purchases for a small or local option, the collective impact will matter in a big way.
“Of Death and Tomatoes”: contemplating the worthy life and death of plants, as we wrapped up the garden season on the eve of the first freeze.
“A Community of Neighbors”: on building community through Halloween trick-or-treating. As a follow-up, we served almost 200 hot dogs at our house! It was a hit with children and adults alike and it was an incredibly joyful evening. At one point, I had probably 30 people standing in line at my grill. I’m already looking forward to next year!
“Courage of the Parochial, Parts One and Two”: this two-part essay discussed my mental journey away from having an opinion on every topic in the world and focusing inward on the local things that I can control and influence.
Books I’m Reading
I received “Demon Copperhead” last year for Christmas, but I only recently tackled it. It’s incredible, one of the best books I have ever read. It rightly won the Pulitzer Prize, but I cannot overemphasize the gripping nature of this book. It adapts Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” to modern rural Appalachia, exploring themes of rural economic decline, family dysfunction, drug abuse, and the multi-generational unraveling of communities. Barbara Kingsolver is a brilliant writer, but successfully adapting a Victorian social commentary to a modern era is a reminder of the universality of so many social problems. Whether you’re a rural revitalizer or a fan of good fiction, you should read this book. You’ll be angry but hopeful.
I’ve been reading and re-reading Wendell Berry’s “The Mad Farmer Poems” on my Sunday morning kayak trips. These are some of Berry’s best and boldest poems. “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” is probably the most famous of the series (and probably my favorite Berry poem), but this collection explores more work from the angry, reform-minded character that Berry calls “The Mad Farmer.”
I just finished the audio book of Douglas Brinkley’s “The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960”. Brinkley’s other histories of conservation (“Wilderness Warrior,” “Rightful Heritage,” “Silent Spring Revolution”) are superb and this one is no different. If you have any fascination with Alaska, and especially if you have visited, you’ll be a fan of this book and the heroes who kept Alaska from being destroyed by short-sighted greed and deluded bureaucrats. It also gives lengthy treatment to one of my heroes, the great Aldo Leopold, and his work in creating the modern conservation movement.
Online Reads
I highly recommend this deeply thoughtful and personal essay on a veteran’s experience returning from war, working in the garden, and facing his struggles: "How Tomatoes Saved My Marriage"
I’ve read this several times for a reason: the great Lenny Wells contemplates technology in “The Barn Fox”. Side note: if there’s no other reason to stay on Twitter/X/whatever, I’d still keep my account for Lenny’s Sunday morning Sabbath poems from Wendell Berry.
Myles Werntz (more on him below) penned a deeply thoughtful essay at Christianity Today on the Christian pacifist response to war and the inherent difficulty of loving one’s enemies: “This Is the Violent World in Which Christ Commands Peace”.
Listening Recs
My friend Dan Stewart and I released Episode 003 of the "Rural Church & State Podcast” with Dr. Myles Werntz, author and professor at Abilene Christian University. Myles wrote a book called “From Isolation to Community” which called on the wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to contemplate the Church’s perilous response to the COVID—19 pandemic. Spoiler: his concerns are not what you’d expect from a mainstream conversation about church and COVID, they are much deeper and more concerning.
I was not able to attend the Front Porch Republic Conference last month (maybe one day!) but Irish author and localist icon Paul Kingsnorth was the featured speaker. His talks are available via FPR’s “The Brass Spittoon” podcast and I highly recommend both talks:
Kingsnorth is both deeply funny and deadly serious, entertaining and inspiring. I am trying to read as much of his work as I can.
Things to Watch
Netflix removed “Road House,” “Smokey and the Bandit,” and “The Hunt for Red October” in the last year, so I am not sure why they even bother having a company. Just watch Ted Lasso. I’ve got a longform essay on Ted coming in the near future.
That’s all! What would you like to see in an upcoming edition of The Prairie Panicle? Let me know!
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.
Thanks for the recommendations James. I just got roped into reading through "How Tomatoes Saved My Marriage" piece and signed up to his newsletter. Also as a tremendous Dickens fan, "Demon Copperhead" sounds up my alley. We watched the first free episode of Ted Lasso, but in Canada the show is only available on Apple (not Netflix) .. Thanks again :)