Reporting from Nowhere

A few stories from America

Photo by Katie Musial on Unsplash

I had dinner the other night with two farmers in rural Oregon. They were avowed Catholics, who believed in doing good in this world because of their faith, and had quotes from Pope Francis on signs in the bathroom. My partner’s mom had befriended the man 40-odd years ago – his parents had farmed the land then, and he and his wife and frequent guests farm it now. We talked about how people trade them goods for their eggs, meat, and other fruit of the land. They get credit at a bookstore, visits to their primary physician, and food for the work they put in. They also get a little money. Our dinner ended with a raspberry cheesecake that friends had traded to them recently.

I’m just in this part of Oregon briefly, and there’s a longer story to the current bouncing around the country that I’m engaged in. But that’s for another time. Today I just want to share a brief life update, more or less, and offer up one or two more stories with you from my time in the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest, along with maybe just a little analysis.