By Nancy Layton
Note from Dave: Nancy shared this essay for a post five months ago. I asked her for pictures then we both forgot about it. Now her birthday is coming up so I’m posting her essay and including pics from Charlie’s archives, some of which are a little silly. Charlie was a master at taking compromising pics of his siblings. So, Nancy I hope you understand that the pics could have been worse. 🙂 Also, since Nancy wrote her essay, the Friends of Salem Library PAC succeeded in getting the levy passed that will preserve both the library and lovely parks in Salem. Kudos Big Sis!
I have started a new journal for this New Year, 2025. This one isn’t pretty on the outside but has bigger writing lines and pages, so for my increasingly achy hands, it works better. Plus, it opens up a whole new vista for this New Year.
A lot of stuff is happening in my life right now. Toward the end of 2024, I decided to become more politically involved in stuff happening within this city that we moved to three years ago. In early 2022, Rick and I moved from Southern California, where we lived (in various places) over the previous 45 years.
The how and why of that move makes for an entirely different story than what I want to tell here and now. The short version is we bought a house here in Salem, Oregon, that began life in 1948 as a single-family home on what I believe was a small “farmette” – a parcel subdivided off from what was the Ewald Fruit Farms from the mid-1800’s until 1904, when the subdivision began.
The house had already been used as a rental and the former owner had done some work toward further dividing it into smaller rental units, which we pulled a city permit to complete. That renovation is done, and we now have the ability to generate significant rental income from this property, which was our long-term goal. A couple more minor projects and some maintenance inside the house, then landscaping outside and we’ll have a truly lovely place that provides us with plenty of “honey-do” projects going forward but mainly a comfortable, manageable place to live and work.
Back, now, to my journal and my entry for Sunday, January 12th. Skipping over the first couple paragraphs of drivel, here’s what I wrote –
“So now, what trouble am I trying to start? Funny you should ask. Looks like I’m heading for President of the Friends of Library (Salem Public Library). Am already deep into the probable formation of a Community Service PAC (Political Action Committee promoting a new tax levy) that, for me, began with concern for the city cutting funding to the library yet again.
“Salem, as with many large and small cities & towns, is caught in a trap of political morass wherein people are rebelling against more & more governmental invasion of their lives at the same time our entire country is suffocating from runaway inflation.
“There’s no easy or quick fix, but I am hoping that the new political ‘climate’ that seems to be happening in Washington with the Feds will not trickle down, but flow out and down to each State and thence further to counties, cities, & towns.
“Three generations of life have followed my own (life) and I’ve watched the ebb and flow of rhetoric and SO hope what we’re seeing and hearing WILL take root and grow into a true NEW TREND. All across the country you hear and read the same complaints. The causes are many but for the most part, we are a nation of forward thinkers who also look back and see what often seems like better times behind us – and sometimes it’s true. But upon closer analysis and taking off the rose-colored glasses, we realize yesterday was not so very different than today. Some elements of life are worse, sure, but not all. And not everywhere, and not all the time. Again, ebb & flow!
“A few minutes ago, I read through a long chat on FB (FaceBook) about how bad things are in MC (Mason City, IA). I almost chimed in, thinking back to that conversation I had with Mr. Major (Harvey Major, a long-time family friends who owned the Major-Erickson Funeral Home in Mason City) SO many years ago – more than 40. He talked about when he was a young man in MC, learning to be an undertaker. Many times, as a young man, he worked on young Greek men killed in knife fights in the ‘Greek Ghetto’ in SW part of town, around the brick yards. What an eye opener that conversation was! (NOTE: Many of those same Greek families became leading citizens of Mason City, owning popular restaurants and other businesses that contributed to the wealth and joy of living there.)
“So , what IS the truth. Is it really so much worse now or are the problems essentially the same, but yet different? I’m inclined toward that dichotomy of thought.
“We humans tend to become focused intently on the ‘here & now’ and don’t look up and around enough to see the larger, longer view. Are my classmates from MCHS in the 60’s voicing anything NEW or just different editions of the same ole shit that’s been a part of humanity since we climbed down, out of the trees?
“Not to be a Pollyanna here, but I do know that for each of us, the answers and solutions are within us. How to live well lies within each of us.
“Did Charlie (our youngest brother, recently deceased) have a positive, perhaps even profound, effect on some people’s lives? I know he did, if only through his quiet, patient demeanor. When all around him was chaos and unhappiness is when he showed his true leadership. Isn’t that one important example of a life well lived? I know that it is. And I know he has gone on to another existence wherein he will be able to iron out some of the wrinkles he felt were NOT his best Self during this life story. Isn’t that really one way to visualize ‘heaven’? I know it is.”
That was the end of that day’s entry.
As you can see, what began with some personal introspection rolled into a small political rant and ended with an idea of how to live a good life, in spite of it all. Or, because of it all. Or, in the face of great adversity. And, what does this have to do with fungi?
Absolutely nothing, except….
In walking outside to clear my mind after that journal entry and before I went upstairs to my tiny office to do some bookkeeping work, I saw lots of new mushrooms sprouting from what I thought was pretty barren soil around our house. It’s already been a very wet late autumn / early winter here in Salem and fungi have emerged all around out house. In places and quantities I haven’t seen since we moved here.
It’s almost as though they were determined to show me that even this heavy, wet clay soil has value. Oh, what an analogy THAT represents! Yes, Faith & Fungi can coexist even in what appears to be the barest of soils…. and lives. Now that’s something to keep in mind as we navigate the highways and byways of our lives, isn’t it?
