The place you love | LISB
A generous definition of beauty, Minnie the Moocher, and the beginning of Autumn.
Hey y’all,
One of my favorite things to do is to host out of town folks when they come through town.
A regional board I am a member of held their semi-annual meeting here this time, and while most of Friday was stuck in a room hashing out the important work that needed to be done, we spent Saturday driving around the state.
One man from Kansas said he was in sensory overload at how lush and green everything was. A college student, also from Kansas, remarked on the hills and the wildlife. A Minnesota man said that the land, as he walked around on it, felt welcoming, like his own Minnesota forests, but turned up to 11. Everyone was stricken by the food, and how good it was.
Mississippi felt like an accomplice in my efforts, with cool mornings and evenings, clear skies, and incredibly hospitable strangers they encountered. We had been invited by a Choctaw church to visit them, and as we stood in the early morning coolness in front of the sacred Nanih Waiya mound, an eagle screeched and swooped overhead, almost as if the set director commanded it.
Later that day, back in Jackson, I took them to a local restaurant that specializes in what some call soul food, and we talked about the ways food is tied to memory, and how during the great migration, when people found themselves detached from their people and traditions, restaurants opened in those far off cities that specialized in the food they had left behind, and thus became carriers of history and culture. Then we went to visit the home of Medger Evers, who died a martyr for Civil Rights after being gunned down in his driveway. It’s run by the National Park Service these days, and has rangers on site eager to answer questions and share the stories of that horrible occasion in our history.
It’s easy to be discouraged here - we are one of the poorest cities in the nation, in one of the poorest states in the nation. Our infrastructure is fragile, and our politicians do us no favors. But having the opportunity to show it off to strangers reminds me of all the things I love about this place - the abundance of nature, the hospitality of strangers, the resilience of its people, the determination of folks who have been betrayed so many time to not give in to cynicism and defeat but to build a better future.
At the end of the day, after our time together broke up and I headed for my house, the trees felt greener, the people I saw were kinder, the food even tasted better. Showing off this palace to others made me love it even more, sort of the way that joy shared increases the amount of joy.
Despite the tone, today’s letter has not been sponsored by the Mississippi board of tourism, but rather is a reminder that where you live is probably pretty awesome, too, and sometimes, it takes the eyes of other people to remind you of that. If you doubt it, imagine you were writing a letter, trying to convince someone to move there - what would you tell them? What are your favorite things about where you live? I would love to know - hit reply and tell me about it if you feel so inclined.
Five Beautiful Things
One of my rules is that if you ever feel down, go to YouTube and search for a video with Cab Calloway in it. This week’s effort resulted in this 1932 animated short film starring Betty Boop. It begins with live action of Calloway’s orchestra, then launches into a psychedelic fever dream with ghosts and dancing skeletons singing and dancing to Calloway’s hit Minnie the Moocher. Good times, y’all.
I’m generous with my definition of “beautiful” in these lists. Sometimes a thing makes the list if it just makes me laugh and laugh - because the world needs more laughter. So, I give you the New Age Bullshit Generator. Just hit the button at the top of the page to get a whole new serving of cosmic karmic double-speak.
Long-time reader Kelly hipped me to the Cotton Candy Guy on Instagram. Just wow.
It’s now autumn, at least celestially, and things are wrapping up for the year. Change is coming - you feel it in your bones, if not yet visible on the thermometer. So I give you Day In Autumn, a lovely poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.
The Library of Congress dropped over 2500 hi-resolution scans of Japanese woodcuts on their site. These are all pre-1915, and so give a unique view of pre-war Japan. Check out especially the woodcuts showing how they viewed Western visitors, including Americans.
In case you missed it
The most opened link last week was this list of 10 microadventures you can do to change up your life.
This week on the blog, I shared the story of that time a Christian publishing house changed my story when they published it, and I share the unedited version they did not use: A Harsh and Dreadful Love
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Take care,
HH
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Hugh L. Hollowell Jr
(he/him)
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@Chris - no doubt there were people at the time scandalized that he even starred with a white cartoon. We have come so far, and yet have so far to go.
Hello Hugh, I much enjoyed Minnie the Moocher, as you said I would. However, my racism antenna, which is on 24/7,, thinks it too bad that cab Callaway could not have done a duet with a white woman rather than white cartoon woman.