Lucky

One of Nashville’s greatest charms, which is hard to explain without sounding corny and probably not that unusual, even though it has been in my life, is just how much people are willing to chip in and help.

I am overwhelmed at the people who have contacted me and offered to bring stuff or clean stuff or supply fresh beans to the workers or just come and hold open a bag.

These aren’t people I go to church with–since, obviously, I don’t go to church. They’re not people who owe me money or favors. They’re not people who think I’m so powerful that currying favor with me is going to get them something. And they’re not related to me.

They aren’t, in essence, people who feel obligated to help or think they’re going to get something out of helping.

And yet, here they come.

What kind of place is this where so many people are so very generous?

I’m feeling a little emotional about it, frankly.

The Plan

I’m going to go get what I need to get started right…now. The Butcher has a shop vac and is getting one of those bag dumpster things. I’ll be at the house today and tomorrow if you’d like to stop by and help or keep me company or distract me.

I think our big push is going to be on Saturday. We need to get the debris out of the living room and then, obviously, we need to get the stuff that isn’t broken–whatever that might be–also out of the living room so that the drywall can go up.

We’re going to pay to have the drywall put up. Many people have said “Oh, I know how to do that” but the thing is that we need someone who can also secure the rest of the ceilings and it seems like it’d just be easier to say “Please handle the whole house.”

Also, as much as I love you guys, my ceiling tried to kill me. If it falls again, I want it to be the fault of a professional, not because regular people put my ceiling up.

If you’d like to help, and perhaps you have supplies left over from the flood, we’re going to need masks and gloves and rags for cleaning. I’m not sure what else. But that’s where I’m starting.

If you have any of that stuff and can drop it off, that’d be great. If you have any of that stuff and I can come get it, like I said, I’ll be around today and tomorrow, just let me know.

Steve Gill Should Keep in Mind that Chronos Ate His Children, Too

There’s so much about Jeff Woods’ story that’s just jaw-dropping. It goes back a little bit to what we’ve been talking about with the Tea Partiers really seeming to have an expectation that their enemies will suffer and not being able to handle the fact that their enemies just lost and are really sad and disappointed.

But it’s more the blatant “We will eat our own now that we’re done eating our enemies” mindset I find amazing. Here are a bunch of people who either clearly don’t understand the American project or have given up on it but still want to be elected into office in order to spread their obviously unconstitutional chaos.

And Steve Gill can knock Frank Cagle all he wants, but Cagle is right:

“My main thesis is that they’ve kind of made an industry out of being indignant, and they’ve got followers and contributors and a radio audience,” Cagle says. “Now that they’re in charge, what are they going to do? You still need money and ratings and you need to keep everybody ginned up. So what do you do? Well, you just get even more radical.”

And not just because I’ve been pointing this out in their efforts to make abortion and gay marriage double super secret illegal. They are motivated by outrage and a desire for suffering. And the fact that the people they want to see suffer are not outrages them.

The truth is that you can forget Democrats here for a second. Conservatives deserve better than this. But if they don’t find a way to wrestle their party back from the people who have no interest in the American project, they’re not going to get it.

It is ironic, though, isn’t it? The very people who claim to love America more than anyone hate how we’ve decided to govern ourselves.