Most Sundays, reading the opinion pages of the paper is the quickest, dirtiest way to rain on my personal feel-good parade. Public debates have never interested me. Heated, public debates make me want to curl up in a corner and disappear. Political debates seem to be an exercise in futility, and considered by many as permission to engage in name-calling. And from what I’ve observed, name-calling never accomplished anything positive.
So why bother reading the opinion page at all?
Here are a couple reasons. First, to get a sense of prevailing thoughts on hot issues. Second, to become a more informed voter. Third, because our shrinking state daily rag sometimes includes book and art reviews, which I enjoy, in the opinion section. And fourth, because once in a while, the Iowa View column, written by guest writers, has something good.
Sunday, November 7 was one of those days. What first caught my eye was the photograph accompanying the column. A sucker for pictures of old farm guys in tractors, I started reading the article by Jennifer Dukes Lee, a former Des Moines Register staff writer and young farm wife.
A summary of the article can’t do justice to its themes of love for the land, grief and sorrow, hope and harvest. No more than a description of the photographs will bring the colors and expressions to life. Instead, go to this link and read the article for yourself. It will put you in the Thanksgiving mode. If you like the article, more of Jennifer’s writing can be found at her blog,http://gettingdownwithjesus.blogspot.com/. Her writing is thoughtful and illustrated with vibrant, and sometimes quirky photographs.
Editors include stories like Jennifer’s draw a certain group of readers – a large, quiet group who don’t like controversy and would never write a letter to the editor – to the Sunday opinion page. Those editors know what they’re doing.
Their ploy worked on me, a sucker for stories about old farm guys on tractors. Does it work on you?
