To Save the World, or to Savor the World?

This choice makes it hard to plan the day.

E.B. White was born 125 years ago, on July 11, 1899. Yes, he wrote three beloved children's book, but it was his skill as a personal essayist that has wowed adult readers since he began writing for the New Yorker in 1929 (later also for The Atlantic, and Harpers). His quirky observations--about dogs, about daily life in Manhattan and on his farm in Maine, and about politics--made him a writer other writers study. 

I have three dog-eared books of his essays, in various stages of coming apart from overuse. One of his most famous, the delightful "Death of a Pig," presaged Charlotte's Web. [Enjoy... it's a gift link.] 

White hated publicity, but on the occasion of his 70th birthday a New York Timesreporter came to Maine to interview him. The reporter asked, “What bothers you about the world?” 

White replied, “Its seductiveness and its challenge.” He continued:
If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy.
If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem.
But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world
and a desire to savor the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day.

Save the world or savor it? 

This is the question I struggle with every day--and it’s reflected in how this newsletter has evolved since March 2020. Suddenly we were in the middle of a deadly global pandemic. I changed the name of the newsletter to “Alive! With Joy.” “Alive!” (i.e. NOT DEAD YET) and “with Joy” (because we need joy more than ever–-and, well, that’s my name). However, the elephant in the room could not be ignored. Which is how politics crept into many of my posts. [White went thru a similar shift in his essays in 1940 due his concerns about America's seeming nonchalance about the rise of Hitler and fascism in Europe.] 

A cartoon by Jim Benton…

Disarray? or Ducks in a Row...

Disarray. No one likes uncertainty. The Democratic party was hanging in limbo for three weeks after Biden’s disastrous debate performance. Would he stay or would he be willing to step aside? Is this disarray, or is it a healthy discussion among adults who have different opinions about the best path forward in a fraught election? Turns out he stepped aside, endorsed Kamala Harris, and the world heaved a huge sigh of relief. No one was shamed or booted from the party, and we are excited to move forward together. This is how we do things in a democracy. 

Ducks in a Row. That's what’s happened with the GOP. It has consolidated (congealed?) around ONE man, Donald Trump. Republicans who once called him morally corrupt, ignorant, unfit for the office, Hitler wannabe (and behind closed doors many still do) are now singing his praises. They tout his line that the election was stolen, that Biden is corrupt, and migrants are murderous vermin. Disagree with him at your peril. Moderate Republicans have left the party (you'll find many articulate ones at The Bulwark. Recommended.) He's installed his people at the Republican National Committee, now co-chaired by his daughter-in-law. And if he's elected and enacts his wet dream, outlined in Project 2025, he'll have an army of vetted civil servants, vengeful prosecutors and kowtowing judges to keep those ducks in a row. That's how things are done in an autocracy. 

As E.B. White once wrote to a reader who said he'd lost faith in humanity: "Hang onto your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day."

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Put yourself in the way of beauty*

Yeah, it's been HOT HOT HOT. And yet, this bouquet at the office of my acupuncturist has its own wilted beauty. A reminder of the impermanence of all things. This too will pass. Breeeeathe...

* “Put yourself in the way of beauty.” This was the advice Cheryl Strayed’s mother, who was dying of cancer, gave to her distraught daughter. It’s the one piece of advice I try to practice every day. It always makes me feel better. This newsletter, “Alive! with Joy,” always ends with at least one photo of something I found beautiful. What I consider “beautiful” is sometimes just something that makes me smile… like this arrangement of pipes I happened on in Cupertino recently.

or this neighborhood play space for kids on a Portland street corner:

I welcome your contributions: you can post photos and/or comments below.