An Anniversary Nighthawk

Vol. 108, July 9th, 2024 Published a day early online

Talk Challenge

Consider This a Match to Strike

We’re building it. A community of folks discussing ideas, sending along articles, and saying hello. A year after the newspaper column, and over two after the launch of this newsletter, things continue to grow. Barbara up near DC sent me an article The Problem of Social Isolation (B.W. Kong, Ph.D.) the other day, written by a friend of hers. “Thought you could glean something.”

What a timely subject. We’re working on connecting folks through writing here, but what about in our daily walks? I’d be foolish to suggest the recipe for a fire to burn all of our troubles away, but I can offer a match to strike: a “Talk Challenge.”

If you need an excuse to talk to your neighbor, nurse, or barista, consider this it. (If they raise an eyebrow, blame me.) In the next week, see if you can engage someone with one (or all three) of the following prompts:

1. What do you consider the best piece of music ever ?

2. Would you go to Mars if Elon Musk offered you a trip?

3. How are you really doing today?

Maybe you’ll find a new pal, or learn something interesting. “But Josh, I’m not lonely” you might say. Yeah, but maybe they are. Be that light for ‘em, and see what happens!

Payday for Papa Bear

Last week yielded a decent harvest of honey from the new beehives. What a magical summer on the mountain!

Carol’s Appalachian Word of the Week

Light–sit. “Josh! Go over there and light right now!” (Sounds like a reasonable request.)

Rock Around The Clock is #1

Bill Haley & His Comets score a #1 on this day in 1955, and keeps on rockin’.

Quote of the Week

“I’m afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses

all of its meaning.”–Andy Warhol

Book of the Week: Man in Black

(Johnny Cash, 1975)

A mid-life autobiography by one of America’s biggest icons, it’s a telling, fascinating look backstage.

Write to Us!

The Nighthawk is a new old-fashioned way to connect, published weekly. You’re invited to write back, or just enjoy reading. Let’s have some fun! It’s a social paper! Send stories, etc to: PO Box 783, Rustburg, VA 24588 or Joshurban@protonmail.com

Letters from Josh

(A weekly update from Josh Urban’s adventures on the farm and in the city. #193)

Appearing in the Altavista Journal, etc: Brighten the Corner Where You Are

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to the show! I burned the instant rice last week. Boiled the water right down. The plastic bag melted to the pot. When my mother heard, she laughed so hard she spit her ice water right out.

Good thing writing is going better than cooking. Late Night Radio is 1 year old.

Thanks for giving me a year of your attention. And thanks to my editors for their patience–and not spewing their sweet tea across their computers.

If you’re just “tuning in”, I’m Josh, a real-life DJ for senior citizens, and host of this pretend show. It’s a newspaper version of what you might hear from a quirky overnight disc jockey in the wee hours: a friendly voice when it’s dark outside and only the whip poor will is singing.

Why? A few reasons. For starters, it’s fun. And then, Fred Chappell. When I was a young buck, my parents fell in love with his book. I always dug the title: Brighten the Corner Where You Are. Maybe I’ll get around to reading it one of these days. It’s a solid concept. It’s something that I can do. So, when I remember, I try.

And what a delight to get to try here. It’s a tickle to take a walk through spring hayfields, peer through a telescope across impossible distances, drive through forgotten towns, spin tales about kudzu giants, creep along mountain ridges, witness construction workers building America, nurses patching it up, and old folks being brave, and all the while think how can I put this into words for you?

While there’s always a million things to appreciate, why now, and why this? Well, I’ve got a bigger fish on the line than you might suspect.

Like you, I’m concerned–well, more like petrified–about the state of the world. I get wound up, I get angry, I want to do something. Good thing I don’t write a political column, because somebody would have to send me duct tape to shut me up. (After they spit their drink out from laughing.) There’s enough of that, and you don’t need to hear it from me. Still, the “head in the sand” way to deal seems dangerous, so I’m trying a third way: this brighten the corner idea. Doing little things, right here, right now. That’s what I’m up to with this column. The point is to remind everyone (especially me) of what matters. Not ignoring the big things, but highlighting the important things.

They say that patriotism is at a low. I’m off to buy a flag today for the new front porch. The music on the radio might be noisy, so I’ll spin some good ol’ Elvis records later. I might not be able to do anything about the drought here in “Dustburg”, but I can bring the plants a drink. The suspicion keeps creeping in, despite what the TV people would have us think: ordinary Americans built our nation. Perhaps our little choices keep it strong or weak. I plan on doing what I can in a million ways to brighten the corner where I am.

Won’t you join me?

Catch you on the flip side,

–Josh

Still creased from the shelf, the new American flag flies from my front porch.