It Can Go Right for A While 🙂

"Kentuckians for the Commonwealth" and the long way home.

From my early school days in Mount Sterling KY, I was never much for clubs or really any kind of formal group associations. I was born into a baby-boomer peer neighborhood clique that I really did enjoy (I remain a loose part of what remains of it to this day) and where we certainly had a lot of fun while committing our fair share of boyish (and otherwise) mischief. I went to a small, close-knit ‘city’ high school with the same crowd. I attended the same church where we maintain active membership after moving to Lexington seven years ago.

Debbie and I have led a quiet life for the most part. We were childless (somewhat by loose choice) and this gradually narrowed many avenues in a small, family-oriented community. We had our hobbies and our pastimes; mostly things we could do more-or-less by ourselves or as a couple. I worked out-of-town in Georgetown for fifteen years. We went out for events (with or without others) on occasion, but we were never aggressive about promoting ourselves or pushing ourselves onto other groups. Our extended family associations carried certain uneasy baggage and unresolved grudges. I think in hindsight, we were a little inhibited by that in a place where there are few secrets and long memories.

As with many people, the holiday season has not been an especially happy one for me in many years: Too many people gone, too many haunting old memories, too many half-recalled impressions of seasonal strife and anxious turmoil. But the wonder of life is that exceptions can occasionally present themselves and happiness can for a time bloom anew.

The one time in my recent history that I got close to something different for a moment was in 2017. I actually felt for a brief instant the same warm and secure comfortable glow that I could only dimly recall from my childhood holiday celebrations in Mount Sterling (That’s another way of saying that was before reality had begun to impose its implacable will, and things began to erode).

This is the one I want to talk about.

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It came about in an unlikely way and an unlikely place:

KFTC Lexington Chapter Christmas Meeting Christmas 2017 (Photo Beth Howard)

When Trump was elected in 2016, I was as flabbergasted as the rest of those of common decency and good sense everywhere. I was sort of floundering for some way of becoming active in the anti-Trump movement (it was immediately obvious to me that he would be a disaster as president… in 2016!). I found myself eventually in Lexington (No such broad activity was available in Mount Sterling, and it still isn’t so far as I know🥴). Someone had referred me to a chapter meeting of the Central Kentucky Chapter of KFTC*. They meet once a month. I found my way over there by impulse in mid-2017 after a trip to Keeneland Racetrack one day in the spring.

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*(For a bit of background, KFTC is a progressive grassroots social-services organization that has been active in Kentucky for over forty years. It’s one of the national pioneers in those many community-based activities it supports and sustains. It has numerous local chapters around Kentucky. Check the link. Give them a call if there’s anything there that might be of interest).

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I was quietly impressed at my first meeting, and frankly somewhat surprised that Trump’s name barely came up (!) I had expected loud and overt antagonism about MAGA. As it happened, most of the low-key discussion was about what I would regard as ‘smaller’ local issues: rent, voter registration, city council, local racial issues, etc. I was told that in fact, many new people had come in after the 2016 election expecting an exclusively anti-Trump platform. Some had departed when these hopes weren’t immediately realized.

It took me a while to get used to that, but I found that I liked the people there, I enjoyed the sense of community (me😳? ), I felt seen and appreciated, and I began to see the value in (as an old expression goes) “…set(ting) your bucket down where you’re at…”. I never once had that familiar awkward feeling 😟 of trying to force yourself in where you aren’t entirely sure you belong.

Still in Mount Sterling at the time, I continued to attend monthly meetings and began to involve myself in some of KFTC’s grassroots campaigns. Before long, I was doing door-to-door and telephone canvassing actions. I attended informal social gatherings now-and-again. I became deeply involved in voter registration efforts, among other KFTC local activities. I have to say that in those days, I had a lot of physical energy when I was really committed to a course of action. I used every bit of it.

That year culminated in the KFTC Central KY Chapter Christmas Party (picture above). I really enjoyed this event. I had the feeling I was finally settling into a new and permanent place after a long time in a kind of scattered and isolated wilderness. For a moment (to be completely fair, for some longer period of time thereafter), I had the feeling of a second chance. I had captured lightning in a bottle.

I spent the next seven years in regular participation with KFTC. People came and people went (If I might interject a personal observation, today’s younger people are generally less tethered to anything or to anyone than my generation tended to be. Maybe that’s a good thing, and it may even be necessary in today’s world. I must say that it sometimes feels hollow to me. Among other things, these constant transitions made it harder for me to maintain my idealized notions. It gradually became difficult to completely avoid the idea that at the staff level, KFTC was just another career-opportunity to be abandoned when something better came along 🤔).

I had my ups-and-downs with the organization. I can be prideful 😠. Nevertheless, I did my work (what I call “…choppin’ wood… 🪓” ) thru good times and bad. I served the best I could for as long as I could. I’ve now more-or-less passed the burden off to new blood and a younger generation. I still do occasional small projects for KFTC or other local progressive political organizations (Progress Kentucky comes to mind, among others).

The memories remain.

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I’m eternally grateful for the opportunities KFTC provided to me. It gave me a chance to transfer my narrow anti-Trump anger into broader constructive action. I met people in situations and in places that I would never have otherwise encountered. KFTC expanded my horizons. I learned to be more tolerant of others (even to some degree in serious political disputes). I learned not to judge by outward appearances. I learned to be a better listener. I learned to keep trying. I learned patience.

I’m not sure at our place in life in 2019 that we would have ever relocated without their influence. My hometown was a wonderful place to grow up, and it retains many wonderful qualities. It’s not an easy thing to make dramatic changes so late in life. If we had not done that, we would not have had the chance (as aging small-town retired people with minimal deep social and familial connections) to experience a more stimulating autumn (winter?) of our lives.

We find ourselves thankful for all of it, then and now. It’s brought us home. 🙂