“How to Get on a Horse,” by Mel Ruder, Hungry Horse News. Photo courtesy of Mansfield Library, Archives & Special Collections, University of Montana-Missoula.
It seems so serendipitous how two thoughts or ideas can come together. Maybe “collide” would be a stronger suggestion.
A friend recently sent me a link to a Timothy Snyder’s discussion at youtube.com/live/hEaf1k…
I almost didn’t listen because the title didn’t sound like something that would make my day. But I waited and came away with a compelling thought…Snyder’s point that we too often overlook that there is a double edge to any idea. We often find ourselves in a fight for freedom from something like a wall that can be a reality to escape from as it was with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
(Sidenote: If that topic interests you, take a moment to find a dissertation, “’And the People Let Out a Loud Shout’: The Impact of the Historical, Geographical, and Cultural Context on the 9-10 November 1989 Berlin Revolution” by Dr. Stephen Paul Forrest, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, London, UK, September 2001.)
Dr. Snyder also points out that we may find it easier to fight to escape from instead of fighting for freedom to something. He pointed out the double duty of a wall — A wall does far more than confine. When a wall supports a building, it works for the benefit of becoming a shelter.
At that point, I happened to glance over to my computer screen and saw the photo accompanying these thoughts …a photo of one of my cherished writing mentors. Mel Ruder (of The Hungry Horse News) captured this photo of an iconic Montana author who enjoyed riding horseback even as she aged. This image of Dorothy Johnson getting on her horse was one of her favorite photos.
I think she liked it because if she were asked why, she probably would have paused, to carefully study the questioner through her thick glasses, before asking, “And how else would you expect me to get up on a horse?” (If an expletive were made vocal, it would have been in the same manner as the message on her headstone, “Paid in Full.”)
Now, the question becomes how this photo relates to Snyder’s statement that fighting one’s way from the barriers erected to prevent freedom may be easier than fighting one’s way to freedom.
For me, when we are acting to separate from something, we know what we are experiencing. It is real. We see it. We feel it. We know it as the reason to act. In many ways it is like how the demolition of the East Wing of the White House has become a symbol of the ruin that threatens our country, the chaos that undermines our freedom. It becomes clear what we need to move from.
However, if we are asked what do we want the future to look like, we need to be able to describe more clearly than mumbling, “We need to thrive,” or “I don’t like all the chaos.” What specifically do we want to work toward? Not a generality…but a view of how to rebuild better.
Dorothy Johnson and her lifetime of creative work make for an example of what I mean. I don’t think she wrote to escape Montana. She wanted to make a living. I don’t think she expected to write stories in which the famous male actors of the time, men like Gary Cooper, Richard Harris, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Lee Marvin wanted to star. Nor did she expect her stories to spawn movies like “A Man Called Horse,” “The Hanging Tree,” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” I know from a conversation with her that she was stunned to see in Japan a theatre marquee lit for the premier showing of one of her stories.
And I also don’t think she ever expected to become an early and important factor in an emerging change of perceptions and ultimately the definition of the western genre.
So how does that kind of success begin? How does one get on a horse for the ride to tomorrow…?
Perhaps the beginning of the effort is not so beautiful. And definitely there won’t be any guarantees that the horse will stand still. And, maybe we need to ask someone to supply a step stool. But if Tim Snyder is correct, the forward step take to action allows movement and holds far more opportunity than hesitating in mid-air.
