Place, Patriotism, Politics (and The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency)

Note: Yes, I edited this one. I think when I wrote it I was fed up with simplistic politics. I feel more generous now, so I've removed the potentially offensive bit. 1-12-09

When my book club met recently to discuss The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency I enjoyed hearing from my friend S., whose roots are in Kansas but who spent much of her adult life in Texas (a place she never cared for much, she mentions). For all her down-to-earth Midwesterner-ness, S. has traveled the world. She’s been many more places than I have. All 50 of the United States, for example. And at least six continents, now that she made it to Antarctica. I may not share her love of travel but I love to hear her stories. And one of the themes in our book which S. pointed out was that of patriotism and “home.” S. has a strong sense of roots, of home.

I may not be a huge patriot, but I have fond feelings towards my homeland - particularly, Mom and Mount Rainier and blackberry brambles and Puget Sound. And, like S., I can appreciate these sentiments from Obed Ramotswe (the late father of our hero, Precious):

“Why should I want to go to Zululand? Why should I ever want anything but to live in Botswana, and to marry a Tswana girl? I said to him that Zululand sounded fine, but that every man has a map in his heart of his own country, and that the heart will never allow you to forget this map. I told him that in Botswana we did not have the green hills that he had in his place, nor the sea, but we had the Kalahari and land that stretched farther than one could imagine. I told him that if a man is born in a dry place, then although he may dream of rain, he does not want too much, that that he will not mind the sun that beats down and down. So I never went with him to Zululand and I never saw the sea, ever. But that has not made me unhappy, not once.” (TNOLDA, p. 18)

And how about this sly dig on politics:

“…The British ran our country, to protect us from the Boers (or that is what they said.) There was a Commissioner down in Mafikent, over the border into South Africa, and he would come up the road and ask to speak to the chiefs. He would say, ‘You do this thing; you do that thing.’ And all the chiefs obeyed him because they knew that if they did not he would have them deposed. But some of them were clever, and while the British said, ‘You do this,’ they would say, ‘Yes, yes, sir, I will do that’ and all the time, behind their backs, they did the other thing or they just pretend to do something. So for many years, nothing at all happened. It was a good system of government, because most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle.” (TNOLDA, pp. 20-21)

Do you think that’s true? I suppose it depends. I found myself wondering, reading the (much less palatable) voter’s guide this afternoon, what things really should be legislated, and what things shouldn’t? How much government would I choose to have? How much (or how little) would I consider dangerous or disastrous, should the balance of the electorate choose differently than I do?

Well, if I do not know what is best, at least I can pray for and try to love my fellow American taxpayers (an amusing way to think of ourselves, I think) and, as possible, the many others with whom we share this planet.

Obed’s daughter, our hero Mma Ramotswe, says,

“I love all the people whom God made, but I especially know how to love the people who live in this place. They are my people, my brothers and sisters. It is my duty to help them to solve the mysteries in their lives. That is what I am called to do.” (TNOLDA, p. 4)