Blazing the Middle Path
A story, a podcast, and a book: Three recommendations to guide us out of a world of conflict
I have a couple of irons in the Substack fire for the next few weeks that involve road trips. In the meantime, I wanted to pass along these recommendations I believe fall within the mission of this blog. Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments below.
In Praise of Porches
At some point early during Roadside’s run, we assembled something of a mission statement that a reader aptly called our “Recipe for an American Renaissance.” I expressed my hope that this recipe would find its way so deep into the national psyche, a candidate for office would use it in a stump speech. I’m still waiting.
One of those ingredients included having a house with a porch. Our house doesn’t have one, despite it being a pre-war colonial. Built in 1938, I suspect its omission had something to do with the cost and the lingering Depression.
I started Roadside in a rented house in Watertown, Massachusetts that had a spacious porch, and I spent every available moment on it. My roommates and friends and I often gathered there, and as porches do, it entertained us with people watching and brought cool breezes on warm summer days. Sunday mornings began on the front porch, with coffee, the paper, and with making plans large and small.
Orion Magazine recently published an excerpt from Charlie Hailey’s book The Porch: Meditations on the Edge of Nature. Hailey has the great fortune to have a porch overlooking a river where he can, “sit, write, sketch, and wait for things to happen.” He cites many of the joys of porch sitting that I’ve long preached, but in a bow to current zeitgeist and to the magazine’s focus on “nature and culture”, he invokes the specter of climate change.
My imagination runs wild like environmentalist Rachel Carson playing what she called the hunting game from porches. She would listen to nature’s sounds and then either go out and find the source of the sound or imagine what she was hearing. I like how a porch is the jumping off point for both. It makes room for reverie and action, just as it tells stories of joy and urgency—a bright patch of blue sky alongside the undeniable change of climate.
Can’t we just leave porches as respites from worry? Can’t I simply sit and watch the woodpeckers peck away the suet and the hummingbirds sip from my rose-of-sharons while I enjoy a frosty beverage and brush aside all that anxiety? How many extinction threats do I need to survive before I can simply enjoy the moment?
I have to agree with Hailey on this point, however: “To think like a porch is to begin repairing our relationship with nature.”
Never underestimate the power of the porch.
Grace is the New Ideal
In 2017, I reached out to a group in New Hampshire in hopes of finding a job in that state so my family and I could move there. I got a job tip, but it connected me with some guy in Ohio who needed help with his website. Jim Babka works in political advocacy, describing himself “as a writer by trade, and a nonprofit consultant.” I’ve yet to actually meet Jim, but I’ve since worked on several of his projects. Last year he launched a podcast called “Gracearchy” and serves as its host.
I cite Gracearchy as one of the inspirations for this blog. Though political in nature, Jim describes it as “a show about what rules us. Instead of conflict or force, we propose grace. Tolerance is good; forgiveness is better. But grace is ideal.”
Jim and moderator Bill Protzmann tackle the issues of the day, but I think the listener will appreciate the effort to find points of grace in the debate. In other words, Jim and Bill seek common ground within opposing positions so that its participants can walk away with respect for each other.
The podcast has so far covered a lot of ground, with some topics more controversial than others. Yes, Jim’s point-of-view springs not only from his libertarian leanings, but also his devout Christianity. I’m hardly a paragon of spirituality, but I appreciate learning new things, even about a faith in which I was originally raised but later walked away from.
I’ve since stopped listening to partisan podcasts and following incendiary personalities. Gracearchy has helped me extricate myself from what Jim calls the conflict machine, a term that aptly describes our current media environment.
For the uninitiated or the skeptical, I recommend the following episodes as your entry point:
Also:
EP26: What Nobody Said About Brittney Griner
EP32: What the Bible says about immigrants
I also recommend the latest Episode #45, because it taught me yet another term: galloping gish.
You can find Gracearchy wherever podcasts are downloaded.
The Best of Doug Smith
Long-time readers of Roadside Magazine will remember Doug Smith’s contributions that began with his feature story “Minors and Diners,” that took our readers on a grand road trip from Florida to their home on Grand Island, New York, stopping at minor league parks and their nearby diners. Doug along with his wife Polly, gave us a welcome home-spun charm as they described their experiences that largely centered on conversations with fellow fans and patrons.
Doug had a long career as a journalist, reporting for Niagara region papers and local TV and radio. Along the way, he also called baseball games for the Rochester Red Wings and with his wife Polly, authored a guide to local restaurants and its sequel that compiled their generally positive reviews of local restaurants in that area. Doug’s approach dovetailed nicely with Roadside, because of our focus on local businesses and our non-disparagement policy. If Doug didn’t like the place, he either didn’t review it or he found something to praise.
We planned to run “Route 62: Tales from the Other Road”, yet another one of Doug and Polly’s accounts of an epic road trip, this time along the length of US Route 62, which meanders down and across the eastern half of the country from Niagara Falls to El Paso, Texas. We should have rejected the idea, because weighing in at over 40,000 words, it forcefully resisted attempts to edit it down to a feature magazine story. That became moot when the magazine folded before the issue went to print, leaving the manuscript collecting dust in Doug’s file cabinet.
In 2017, Doug passed away after an illness, ending an illustrious career as a wordsmith and enthusiast of all-things-roadside, of trains, baseball, and of the working man and woman. To commemorate my dear friend and with Polly’s permission, I finally published the Route 62 story at RoadsideOnline in its original form. By that time, I left the site to idle, but for this I filled up the tank and took it out for another spin to share this lively account trekking along a road less considered.
Last year, his son Joseph Smith III compiled many of Doug’s stories, including “Tales”, into a single volume titled The Best of Doug Smith: Base Paths, Rocket Man, the Cheap Gourmet and Other Adventures in 68 Years of Buffalo-Area Journalism.
Reading it felt like riding shotgun with Doug through back roads I may never again or ever get to experience. Doug’s patent turns-of-phrase make him a master dad-jokester, but coming as they do from a dear friend I sorely miss, I could listen to them all day long.
Where do you go — online or in real life — to escape the conflict? Please share in the comments.
Tip of the cup to Teri Chace for the article by Charley Hailey.
I had Doug Smith's Book in my car for when I was waiting for others, or in a Dr. Office Waiting Room. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Don't know if you originally recommended it but it was a great read. It's been passed along to another reading friend.