A Fistful of Ways that Heat Creates Light

People around here aren’t afraid to fight. It even seems to come highly recommended on occasion.

It could be the pleasant release of a street (fight) dance in Hinsdale, as I experienced on a fine July evening a few Fridays back. Or it could be the calm but spirited discourse that seems to be unfolding between Virgil Vaupel and an anonymous reader right here on this page. Take your pick.

In either instance, a counterintuitive truth about living the good life in America is on full display: Namely, the idea that mutual understanding frequently comes from conflict. Provided, of course, that everyone involved behaves in something like a sensible manner while they’re putting up their real or figurative fists.

Another case of discord ringing true revealed itself in the form of skepticism regarding my plans to make something out of a quasi-historical landmark in Park Grove.

On the way to the Stampede in Wolf Point this last weekend, one passenger along for an evening of fun let fly with some scorn when she realized that I was in fact the same jerk responsible for scrapping two of the cool old railcars out on Hwy 117.

“Guilty as charged,” says I, more or less, and we proceeded to go a few rounds about the pros and cons for the community of restoring what I'm able to fix while sacrificing the rest for the cause (i.e., a third and genuinely historic railcar).

That’s how I put it. She put it like this: “Those cars have been there as long as I can remember. They’re part of my history.” I won’t say she changed my mind, but she certainly softened me up on the point. Understanding can come from insults.

Finally, after last week’s issue hit the streets containing a letter with an attack on V.V., I was participant to a sort of miracle involving an angry reader who came into the office to voice his support for our columnist. Once I explained that Virgil would be able indefinitely to sound off on any subject that he likes, criticism or no, the reader renewed his annual subscription early. If that’s not an example of light coming from heat, I don’t know what is.