Let Go, Brandon!
Sometimes you just need a break from the cold and the hate.
While some are celebrating the outcome of the 2024 U.S. Election, some of us are feeling bruised and hopeless. Here’s an essay from the Ring Around the Basin Archive that, I hope, will calm our nerves and get us moving on.
Let Go, Brandon!
Chilled by the Storm of '23 and a non-working furnace, our house was so frigid, butter froze on the counter near the toaster. We escaped to a local casino coffee shop, a Nevada town's warm-up shelter with full menu. A few others had the same idea. We all ventured out on ice-clogged streets to find a couple of hours of relief.
In that space that usually thunders against the ears at dinnertime, voices were muted. Coffee cups brought back feeling to numbed fingers. The waitress was grateful we came out to eat that night. She'd been holed up for a week, sick with the latest bug and a rambunctious toddler.
"I need the money and it's hard to tell who will show up so it's worthwhile enough to come in to work."
As our hot soup arrived, the elderly couple rose from the next booth. We nodded hello and they came over, started to chat as if they hadn't seen humans in a long time. In red letters, Let's Go Brandon blazed across the old man's cap. I was surprised at how little I cared. Usually my whole body clenches, anticipating a surly discussion to follow.
He told us about family history in the valley, about his mother moving from down south and seeing snow for the first time. How the snow built up around their house, the ordeal of digging out that we all shared this week. How they'd been using an old percolating coffee pot on a Coleman camp stove since their power went out days ago. I remember how hypnotizing it was to watch the water bubble into the glass knob on top of the pot, slowly turning from clear to coffee.
We were able to get in a word here and there that we shared the same problems. For the first time in the years since moving off the hill, we needed to shovel two feet of snow from the driveway that morning. At least our gas stove worked, but the furnace and gas fireplace failed at the same time. Why now, we will never understand. Just a little thump from the gods to remind us we've enjoyed prosperity long enough.
Then we ran out of things say. They nodded goodbye and shuffled toward the door. It was the first conversation we'd had in three years that didn't cause my glasses to fog up. Maybe the storms were putting a damper on tempers as well as filling up the aquifers. Maybe people were getting weary of suspecting their neighbors of evil intent. Maybe, after a year of isolation and political fear-mongering, the people in our little slice of America just wanted to get out of the house and connect with other people. Enjoy the flashing lights and clamor of the casino instead of the blather on television.
It was only the first week in January and more storms were predicted. It would be one of those winters. It's good to know that, despite the political rage of recent years, there is still a cafe that's always open and safe and warm.
If you enjoyed this post feel free to explore other poems, essays, and stories in the Ring Around the Basin Archive. I also love to read your comments, so please share your thoughts. Let’s start a conversation. And if you wish to support my writings, please consider subscribing or upgrading to a paid subscription. It’s now only $50/year. Even better, I would appreciate it if you could share Ring Around the Basin with your friends. Thank you!
All my books, Paradise Ridge, When the Horses Come and Go, and Ghost in the Forest are currently available on Kindle.
Ghost in the Forest, is also available in paperback for ten bucks. Paradise Ridge is out-of-print, but the Kindle version is re-edited and better quality. Hard copies of “When the Horses Come and Go” are gone unless that dusty box in the corner still has some.
Book Review of Ghost in the Forest:
"Ghost in The Forest" is a great read! Take note People. If you love stories about environmentalism and nature, its clash with urban mindsets, as well as personal transformation, this is the book for you!
"Ghost in The Forest" is a quick 126-page read. It's the story of Dori, a woman trapped in a mix of grief over parental loss and refusing to accept how her hometown and her friends have changed over the years. Because of this, Dori has become a recluse and a self-imposed misanthrope who finds more comfort amongst the hiking trails around her hometown of Morristown than in her dealings with the raw reality of other humans.
The book, in some ways, resembled Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” in that the story follows a protagonist's love of nature and angst about humans encroaching on it. In this case, it’s how Morristown is transforming into a mountain biking destination where cyclists run rampant on trails and nature.
However, a tragedy involving said mountain biking becomes a major pivot point for Dori, leading to a series of events that eventually bring about personal evolution and discovery.
If you're a nature lover, this book is a must-read. It beautifully portrays the clash between environmentalism and urban mindsets and the journey of personal transformation. The book's vivid descriptions of nature and the protagonist's love for it will surely intrigue you.
Paradise Ridge Review by western author D. B. Jackson:
If you draw circle roughly around an area that includes northern Nevada, southern Oregon, and southern Idaho, within that circle exists a culture and people who live a lifestyle largely untouched by modern values. These are the "buckaroos" and Basque characters author Sue Cauhape brings to life in her literary novel, "Paradise Ridge".
Leandro, the illegitimate seventh son of patriarch Xavier Arriaga and his mistress, Gisela, is at the center of this intriguing story that travels exceedingly successfully at both the personal level of the characters, as well as the compelling level where the story is told.
Cauhape writes in a literary style that reminds me of Annie Poulx. Paradise Ridge, on the surface, appears to be an upscale Western novel...once inside the pages, you will soon discover a potential classic waiting to be discovered.
I rated this book a 5...because that's all the stars there were.
"Maybe, after a year of isolation and political fear-mongering, the people in our little slice of America just wanted to get out of the house and connect with other people." Yes. I have only seen six people since the election. We could not speak, but we clung to each other like lifelines.
I have a politic allergy, and the angry back and forth is a trigger for me. I lived too long where the game is a blood sport and this election season edged in that direction. Now we can get back into the real community sports, such as complaining about the weather. We survived another election, as we have for almost 250 years. I hope we can keep it together long enough to celebrate another 250 years of elections.