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Preaching to The Choir, by Rebecca Solnit

harpers.org · 2,775 words · saved by 1 readers

We've recently updated our website to make signing in easier and more secure O nce, on a river-rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, I traveled with a charming, good-humored man who happened to run an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He liked to rail against Nancy Pelosi, who had recently become the Speaker of the House. One day I told him that I, too, disliked Pelosi, because she was well to my right on many issues. The man was staggered; he’d imagined that she defined the leftmost rim of the universe, beyond which nothing existed. When the oilman was on land he lived in Colorado Springs; I’m a San Franciscan. Geography alone made us exotic species to each other. And the river trip came during a period in 2009 when I frequently found myself telling strangers, in frustration, that people in my hometown could be as closed-minded as any right-wing community. We were all living in our respective bubbles, preaching to our respective choirs; I was looking for more substantive exchange. Yet w

November 2017 Issue [Easy Chair] Preaching to The Choir Adjust Share by Rebecca Solnit , O nce, on a river-rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, I traveled with a charming, good-humored man who happened to run an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He liked to rail against Nancy Pelosi, who had recently become the Speaker of the House. One day I told him that I, too, disliked Pelosi, because she was well to my right on many issues. The man was staggered; he’d imagined that she defined the leftmost rim of the universe, beyond which nothing existed. When the oilman was on land he lived in Colorado S

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