Welcome to Cry, Beloved Country, a blog about contemporary culture: what it means, how it got here, where it’s headed, and how we shape it. Pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee and join the conversation.
What, you wanted me to say more?
Well, I’m trying to be:
- Charitable
The U.S. is locked in a War of the World(view)s. It’s not the first time. (Think, e.g., 1850-1865.) But, sadly, much of what should be dialogue consists, on both sides, of little more than name-calling.
Remember Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address? It ends:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Is it possible to create a conversation without malice, without name-calling, and with the goal of achieving a just and lasting peace among ourselves? I don’t know, but I think it’s worth the effort.
So I’m trying to keep CBC a no-snark zone. For me, one of the easiest ways to do that is to assume that the person I’m disagreeing with will read what I’ve written while in a state of despair. Because our enemies are always ideas, never people.
- Honest
Pretty self-explanatory. I’m trying to tell the truth as best I can. I’m trying to fact check my references, and to point out the weaknesses in my position.
- Hopeful
This place we live is, as Frederick Buechner has said,
. . . a world of magic and mystery, of deep darkness and flickering starlight. It is a world where terrible things happen and wonderful things too. It is a world where goodness is pitted against evil, love against hate, order against chaos, in a great struggle where often it is hard to be sure who belongs to which side because appearances are endlessly deceptive.
It’s often a very scary place. And, when the foundations are destroyed, well, it’s easy to crawl into a cave and howl. Or hide. But I’m betting the farm (again, with Buechner) that,
. . . for all its confusion and wildness, it is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name. . . . That is the fairy tale of the Gospel with, of course, one crucial difference from all other fairy tales, which is that the claim made for it is that it is true, that it not only happened once upon a time but has kept on happening ever since and is happening still.
Once you put all your chips on that number, then what can you do but to practice being hopeful on the inside and cheerful on the outside?
So when you notice me getting crotchety, poke me, will you?
- Passionate
We only go around once (Shirley MacLaine notwithstanding). So I want to live with passionate intensity (Yeats credits that to “the worst,” but let’s prove him wrong, shall we?) based on the conviction that the things we’re talking about matter.
- Thoughtful
Life is busy. It’s easy to read an article, or watch a talking head, and be convinced. It’s hard to find the time to listen to, and read, and watch, both sides, all sides, and then think about the information flowing out of the firehose and into our faces on a daily/hourly/momently basis. But I’m trying. (I kinda like momently. Whaddya think?)
- Accessible
I’m trying for a simple, informal, conversational, easy-to-follow blog that doesn’t talk down or dumb down.
- Human
This blog isn’t written by a committee. So why should it sound as if it is?
It’s written by me, Carolyn Schultz-Rathbun. I live in the U.S., in Southwest Washington, in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, at 1100 feet, in a log house my husband and I built long ago with our own four hands and a lot of help from friends and relations. (We’re kind of like Pooh’s friend, Rabbit–we have a bunch of friends-and-relations. And we’re glad we do.)
I’ve been in fifty states and lived in seven. I have a high school sweetheart-turned-husband, six kids, a son-by-marriage (my daughter’s marriage to him, that is) and three grandkids; also two elderly horses, three cats, a dog, and a dove-grey top hat with a scarlet hat band that I absolutely adore. (Although it’s a hard choice between it and the navy blue fedora.)
I’m a quirky person. Why shouldn’t CBC be quirky and personal?
So that’s what I’m shooting for. When I fail to hit it, please point that out. –But please try to do it with charity, honesty, hope, passion, thoughtfulness and accessible humanity. Just in case I’m in despair that day. Thanks.
……and I am proud to claim CSR as a friend and fount of wisdom.
Glad I found your site!
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for your comments following my post on Lew’s blog. I didn’t know you had a blog until then. I’ll be spending more time here now that I know. I have really liked what I’ve seen so far. You are doing a great job!
Please send me an email–I’d like to talk to you further about Blogging and Forum activities. Got a couple ideas I’d like to run by you.
Right now we are in Arizona visiting family, etc..hope to back in time to attend the GOP county convention on the 31st.
SWM
As a Christian, I believe I’m to be ereparpd to meet my Maker at any moment, not that I’m a pessimist. As a Minister of the Gospel, in your personal beliefs, do you believe that the end of the world is coming in 2012 and that we Christians should prepare for the true ‘end’ rather than be seeking places to “ride out the storm” as lots of other folks seem to be doing? The consensus seems to be that the end of the world, ‘as we know it’ is coming, but we just need to survive it and adjust. Do you believe we’re going to have any options?
Life being what it is, everyone, Christian or no, had better be prepared to meet his or her Maker at any moment!
I have no idea if the end of the world as we know it will occur in 2012. It could, certainly. We are on the edge of catastrophe in so many areas–economic, ecologic, military, social, etc., etc.–and if even two or three of them collapsed at the same time, we would have the perfect storm. As for preparing for the end, riding out the storm, etc. I think the Bible makes it clear that I don’t need to try to head for a physical, geographic “safe place” to ride out the storm. The psalmist says (Psalm 55):
But within a few verses he has worked through to this conclusion:
And Psalm 11:
The principle is seen all through Scripture: The only safe place on earth is not a geographic location; it is, as Paul said, being “hidden with Christ in God.”
Does that mean that if I trust in God, nothing bad, as we usually understand the term, will happen to me? Of course not! Luke’s Gospel (chapter 21) records these words of Jesus:
Some of you will die–but nobody’s gonna get hurt (not a hair of your head will perish). That’s the paradoxical claim Jesus makes (and one I’m banking on!) His promise is that if I remain with him (as he tells us to do in John 15) bad things may happen externally, but the real, true “I” will come through unscathed, and indeed strengthened and purified. What a deal!
Actually found time to browse your site. Like it. I look to contribute when I can. Blessings.
While I appreciated your article on Michael Salman, and was directed here by the CARM post on Facebook, I must say that it troubles me to see our flag upside down in your blog banner. We served as missionaries for 11 years in Okinawa, Japan where we pastored our US military families stationed there during very troubled times as they served and died for our freedoms. While I understand your symbolism, I think your message may be dimmed by this overt disrespect. Is there perhaps another image you could use to represent your concern for the broken state of our nation which does not serve as a slap in the face to those who defend and pray for the USA?
Dan, thank you for your thoughtful note. I am sorry my flag troubles you.
I’m part of a military family. My father was a veteran of WWII, my husband flew combat search and rescue for 26 years, my son-in-law is an Army combat medic, and my eldest son is at West Point. And my family doesn’t find the symbolism offensive.
I do believe that our country is going under. And desperate times call for desperate warnings. Thus the upside down flag.
Might I ask what CARM stands for? And what they said? I’ve gotten quite a bit of traffic from the CARM post, I think, but have no idea where it’s coming from!
I love your blog.
Please do an expose on the postal service. With the August 1st default and the closures, the powers that be behind the scene are quite troubling, and seemingly scandalous.
Thank you.
Thanks, Elaine. I’m glad you like it, and thanks for the tip. I’ll see what I can do.
Great! Try PostalReporter.com
I could not find a place on the article that you wrote about me to comment. So, I came over to this page just to say thank you. You are one of the few religious people who did not tell me to go abort myself. Your thoughtfulness and kindness is very much appreciated and it reaffirms my faith.
Dear Carolyn
Once again, I stumbled on your work after the comments had closed. Thanks for explaining why I couldn’t comment. I was feeling a bit like the little geek that couldn’t.
I am sorry that I did not check back. A friend of mine had tried to get in touch with you to reprint your article, and when she didn’t hear back from you I made an assumption. I know how hard it can be to be the reasonable Christian, the one who wants to have a reasonable discussion and the one who talks to the “sinners” as people not as objects for conversion. (http://goodmenproject.com/good-feed-blog/was-brian-presley-actually-trying-to-convert-melissa-stetten/) Given the fact that you were treating me as a human being, I thought that you would get a lot of pressure and need to distance yourself. I didn’t blame you, but I was sad for you.
I like the idea of a public conversation. I think that we need to recover the ability to have a dialogue about meaningful things. Three things we will need to consider: I am a contributing writer at Role/Reboot, so I will need to run our plan by them to be sure that there is no conflict. Second: I do work a lot, so I am not sure how often I could contribute. Third: I assume that by a public space you mean online in some sort of open forum. I don’t do public appearances or compromise my identity. This is not because of cowardice. Well, actually it is. When it comes to danger to my family I am a coward. The last time I spoke my truth in a public way, a nice Christian man took it upon himself to defend God by threatening to put his gun (can’t remember if it was a riffle or a shot-gun) into my daughter’s vagina and blow her butt into her brains. I was a bit confused by his take on anatomy, but the threat frightened me enough to stop leaving a trail back to my family.
I am glad that you liked the article about parenting while introverted. I got in some trouble for that one. Evidently, if I were just a better mother…blah, blah, blah.
You are right. I am looking for ways to understand conservatives. My comment about conservatives in the Maddow article (another one that got me in trouble) was based on some research which seems to indicate that conservatives are less bothered by social injustice. The theory is that they believe God has a plan for each person’s life that includes only good things (Jer. 29:11), and that if they are experiencing social injustice (poverty, false imprisonment etc.) they are either “not right with God” or it is all a part of God’s plan to “work things together for good” (Rom. 8:28). As for the comments about you, I would have to go back and find the specific passages. I will if you really want me to. Or, we can just move on and talk about healthcare and other issues of social justice.
So, I accept your offer in the same spirit of kindness and humility with which you extended it to me.
Hi Carolyn, I greatly appreciate your thoughtfulness, passion and care, and for sharing it with the rest of us. I look forward to following this blog, and appreciate the articles I’ve perused thus far. God bless.
Thank you, Luke. And welcome!