A friend of Salvation South editor Chuck Reece had a hard year because of things that were out of his control. Chuck didn’t have any answers to the hand that life dealt his friend, but he did have a few ideas about certain uniquely Southern constants we can turn to when the rough patches come, as they inevitably do.

Biscuits

Biscuits

Credit: Adobe Stock

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Chuck Reece: I have a good friend who celebrated a milestone birthday this year. But the year didn’t exactly turn out like he wanted it to. An important relationship in his life fell apart. Some of his friends and neighbors lost nearly everything they had during hurricane season. The year, he said, was pretty much a brokenhearted trip around the sun.

Life brings periods like that to all of us. We try to do all the right things, and we work as hard as we can, but sometimes the outcome is not at all what we had hoped for.

Now if you’re listening to this hoping that I have THE ANSWER, in all capital letters, I’ll tell you straight up I have no prescription for how to eliminate the rough patches of life. And if anyone tells you they have one, they are lying. I’ve taken enough of my own spins around the sun—and tried enough cockamamie ideas—to know that.

So I don’t look for prescriptions anymore. What I look for, in my own rough patches, are constants. Certain things that endure. Things that you can always count on—not to solve your problems necessarily, but to bring you some comfort while you continue your good and worthwhile work.

In the South, I believe, we have certain constants that are unique to our people and our region. 

Number one: biscuits. I am not talking about fast-food biscuits. I am talking about the whole experience of the biscuit. The smell of them while they’re baking in your oven. The beauty of the way the dough comes together in the hands of the biscuit maker. It’s amazing to me that somebody can take a little bit of flour and buttermilk and lard and love and put them in a bowl and produce something that can fill your house with the most beautiful aroma and your belly with satisfaction. 

Number two: books. The literature of our region is grand and diverse. It has, through the centuries, captured our weirdness, our humor, and our hopes. And when I open up one of my favorite Southern books, I am always delighted to find that, even though I have changed, the words inside have not. Life doesn’t work that way. But art does.

Maybe the most important constant I turn to is the way that I have been loved by Southern people. When a Southerner loves you, when they love you a lot, they tend to leave you artifacts of that love. On the sofa in my home, there is a quilt that my mother made. It’s not particularly beautiful. Not the sort of quilt that you would hang on the wall like a painting. Not even lovely enough to win a ribbon in a county fair. It’s been many years since I felt my mother’s arms around me. But I can wrap myself in that quilt, and magically, she is there.

Y’all love one another. Make each other biscuits. Share books and talk about them. You can visit us anytime at SalvationSouth.com for stories and poems about this confounding region we call home.

 

Salvation South editor Chuck Reece comments on Southern culture and values in a weekly segment that airs Fridays at 7:45 a.m. during Morning Edition and 4:44 p.m. during All Things Considered on GPB Radio. Salvation South Deluxe is a series of longer Salvation South episodes which tell deeper stories of the Southern experience through the unique voices that live it. You can also find them here at GPB.org/Salvation-South and wherever you get your podcasts.