The South is a Place

The South is a place. East, west, and north are nothing but directions.

— Letter to the editor, Richmond Times Dispatch, 1995

I am reading the delightful book Confederates in the Attic. The quote above opens the second chapter.

When I lived in Colorado I took every opportunity to explore the magnificent hiking trails and striking mountain vistas offered by the Rocky Mountains. When I lived in Albuquerque I breathed deep to absorb the Native American spirit still alive in The Land of Enchantment. And when I lived in Princeton, NJ, I savored Washington’s Crossing and then immersed myself in the local history surrounding the Revolutionary War.

Wine makers and coffee growers talk about concept called terroir. It can be loosely translated as “a sense of place.” It means that the wine and the coffee beans take on flavors from the ground and the climate and the local environment. It seems to me that this is an entirely human phenomena as well. I have been as deeply influenced by the grandeur of the Rockies, as I have by the Native American spirit in New Mexico or the power of the determination wrought by General George Washington those fateful nights in Trenton and Princeton, NJ.

I live in North Carolina now and it is ostensibly The South. The history and the terroir here tell of a place different from anywhere I have ever lived. It is definitely a place and not just a direction. I am doing what I can to take on the flavors of the ground, the climate and the local environment. Stay tuned . . .


Skeptic

A skeptic is not one who doubts, but one who examines.

— Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, French literary critic and historian


Questioning the Value of Old Rules

We have to see, I think, that questioning the value of old rules is different from simply breaking them.

— Elizabeth Janeway, Between Myth & Morning: Women Awakening


Doubt

My hosannahs have all be forged in the crucible of doubt.

— Fyodor Dostoyevski


Chihuahuas Make Great Leaders

I hope if dogs ever take over the world, and they choose a king, they don’t just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with some good ideas.

— Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts


Power

All power corrupts, but we need the electricity.

— Unknown


Damn the Torpedos

Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

— David Farragut, Union Admiral during the American Civil War

On this date in 1862, David Farragut commanded a Union flotilla past two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River on his way to capture New Orleans. It wouldn’t be until more than two years later, at the Battle of Mobile Bay, when he would utter his famous phrase.


Competition

If you cannot win, make the one ahead of you break the record.

— Jan McKeithen


Commonplaces of Existence

My life is spent in one long effort to escape the commonplaces of existence.

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, spoken by Sherlock Holmes in The Red-Headed League

Ditto.


Individuality

There is in American society a mad rush to distinguish oneself, and, as soon as something has been accepted as distinguishing, to package it in such a way that everyone can feel included.

— Alan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind


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