Over the Hills and Through the Walls…

There was a “great age” of working class guys who ended up in politics, back before politics became a dirty word. Growing up I knew a few of these guys, and my first few jobs were as aides / glorified errand boys, in their offices. And, man, despite my low totem rank, these were great jobs, as the guys you worked for were the real deal and got real things done. They’d say, “Let’s go.” And off you’d go, hopping between Union Halls, diners, churches, and the State House with its nearby bars. One expression that always stuck withe me was, “Let’s take a walk.” It meant that there was some problem, which rather than getting solved, was in fact getting worse. And that we needed to wander around a bit, to talk to people, to look for clues, mull some ideas and essentially go see real people, in real places, and end up “wherever” the real problem was. And more times than not, after that walk, not only was the problem solved, but we found smiles, handshakes, new ideas and unexpected perks like coffee, pastry, a meal, or just great folks and conversations. And everything leading up to the problem, be it angry phone calls, threatening letters, tense meetings, standoffs or rancor, all evaporated. Because the moment had come to drop all that stuff, and go see people, stand across from them, see their faces, hear their voices, shake their hands, enjoy a laugh, and pay homage to live human contact, an ever-maligned tool we’re either trying to improve upon or discard, only to discover it ain’t so bad, having worked pretty well, for at least a few thousand years.