Remembering how to be neighbors

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, May 2019; written by Michelle Lampton.

Combine the Library’s Summer Reading Program theme “A Universe of Stories” with our country’s acrimonious political culture and what do you find? Answer: Two enjoyable books that remind us to value each other as people even when we don’t agree! Even better, this combination of ‘road-trip sci-fi’ novel and quick-read non-fiction book on politics helps check two boxes off your Summer Reading Program challenge!

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers is fun, cute, interesting, and endearing. It offers a leisurely tempo with quick appeal as it follows the shipcrew of a wormhole-digging spaceship. Think roguish charm of Firefly combined with the introspection of Star Trek, while also satisfying the “read a science fiction novel” challenge on the Summer Reading program’s grand-prize entry list.

What shines about Chambers’ universe is that the author weaves political- and social-hot point issues into the plot, while addressing counter-viewpoints and often even middle-viewpoints, and does so through characters you mostly like. The effect is to illustrate reasons why their/our views differ, rather than the obvious how. Chambers, where possible, treats each of these viewpoints with simple honesty and respect, even where you can infer she may personally disagree with them. And she doesn't dumb things down! Instead, she reduces them to building-block metaphors that really work, always with this driving theme: 'What makes us alike as humans (in the book, "sentients") is greater than what makes us different.'

Next, check off “read a nonfiction book about your least favorite subject in school” (Government? Poli-sci?) with I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations. Often today we listen to respond, but not to understand. And certainly, we’re guilty too-frequently of demonizing each other and feeling the ‘other’ has nothing of value to offer in terms of ideas or, sadly, even personal worth.

In this newly released book, opposite-sides political duo Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers challenge that paradigm. Distilled from their popular podcast, Pantsuit Politics, their book discusses how to communicate constructively with people we love as well as those we barely know, how to find value in each other, and how to be open enough to benefit from one other rather than treating each other as caricatures or mindless zealots.

The co-authors tackle the ‘us-versus-them’ attitude by laying out strategies for escaping the echo chamber and relearning to hear what those who disagree with us might be actually saying, instead of what the toxic political environment deceives us into assuming they are thinking. In a short, easy read, their use of well-known examples like Obamacare, or pulling anecdotes from sources as far apart as Sarah Palin and the Tonight Show, illustrate how divisive issues may be addressed with grace if we will take the time to disarm our own fuses and invest in the inherent worth of each other.

On a related note, don’t miss the Library’s “Celebration of Independence” Day events on Tuesday! We’ll have a presentation on flag etiquette, a boat on display from the Coast Guard, play the movie 1776, have crafts & a colonial photobooth set up for kids, and end the day with a bang by hosting a Square Dance with live music by The Free Radicals!