Non Beltway

Taking up a challenge

I hope you all saw my amendment to use of terms on yesterday’s column. I am never good with English but failed to explain why I was using a particular term so I should have stuck to the common terminology rather than trying to make a point via terminology.

Additionally, because we were taking a flight late morning, I did not adequately run through the column three or four times as I normally do, hence I left you with typos for which I am deeply embarrassed. Poor but true excuse. Lesson to self: one read only too often misses errors.

I am taking up a challenge yesterday, today and tomorrow one of our readers offered me ten days ago. We are deep in the heart of the Ozarks for the weekend on a quick trip, to visit family sites I have not seen in decades.

I also intend to pay attention to my fullest ability to life far from the Beltway. Of course I am not going to understand completely. I may be aging but am not fully gaga that I can absorb all of their lives as that is absurd. But I can consciously, as the military often says, not be on transmit but on full receive.

Our flight last night from Charlotte to Bentonville, Arkansas was several hours’ delayed due to storms on the East Coast. Upon finally arriving, a beautiful moon welcomed us to this home of Walmart, including a brand-spanking new airport bigger than at least a couple of places I have lived over the years. The rental car guy not only assured me no air-conditioning issues after the fiasco a fortnight ago. (We’ll see as we landed at 2230) but offered a choice of about two dozen cars.

I will also remind myself of where my parents and grandparents began—and ended. I suspect it will conjure up far more memories than I expected when we booked this. I never lived here but generations of my mother’s family farmed this rocky, difficulty soil. How my grandfather on my dad’s side arrived in southern Missouri is somewhat a mystery and there is no one left to ask. I am deeply sorry I did not pursue it when I thought other things were more important but now …

My dad was always extremely sensitive to speaking with a southern Missouri drawl. He was sure it affected him professionally but one doesn’t change that characteristic if one hasn’t addressed it by the teens. At that point in life, his primary concern was simply seeing his younger sisters housed and taken care of after they lost their second parent before my father turned 16. In the Depression, addressing those tasks was no mean feat.

I hear voices in Bentonville this morning who are not from the Ozarks, a small indicator of influx of outsiders as Walmart’s global prominence grew. I look forward to what I will hear as we move up into Missouri as there are plenty of businesses but a lot of agricultural communities rather than global behemoths.

Thank you for reading Actions Create Consequences today and every day. I welcome your thoughts, rebuttals, questions, and anything else. I especially appreciate those subscribers who motivate me every day with your support.

The temperatures remain brutal. Keep that water bottle full, stay safe, and be well. FIN