When I used to hear the expression “As American as apple pie,” I used to think it was a good thing. Honestly, I still do.

American as Apple Pie For Some of Us

It may be difficult for non-U.S. folks to understand. But there are a lot of us here in this country who are as horrified as you at the state of our government. Here are just a few thoughts.

The first time that Hair Füror was elected was a real gut-punch for many of us. We knew exactly what it meant for this country and it wasn’t good. It was infuriating to hear perfectly sane neighbors say things about Secretary of State Clinton like, “There’s just something about her I don’t like.” The thinly veiled misogyny was disturbing.

I honestly didn’t think we’d recover from the first term of the Orange Menace. I kept thinking, “Who the hell would want to pick up this mess?” So it was an amazing surprise that President Biden and his team were able to not just fix much of the mess, but actually make things better.

That’s why it was an even worse gut-punch when they put him back in office in 2024. Again, we knew exactly what it meant and it was going to be way worse than his first term. We weren’t wrong.

Apple Pie is Good, No?

Because the country isn’t just the current government. It’s the neighbors (yes, even the ones I disagree with), the communities that show up for each other, the guys who travel hours every year to knit together in the woods, the friend who calls to say the Hen of the Woods is back on his property. It’s the stubborn, messy, self-correcting thing that lives underneath the politics.

There’s a line from the recovery program I’m familiar with, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. And to be clear, this is my personal opinion, not the opinion of any 12-step program. Writing about why each group gets to run its own affairs, Bill W. put it simply: “Every group had the right to be wrong.” (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Tradition Four, p. 147)

My faith is in the process of trial and error, the belief that a group, or a country, survives its own mistakes because the people in it are committed to working them out. We got President Biden after the first term. We’ll get something after this one. The arc is long and it lurches badly, but I still believe in the correcting, and in the people doing it.

That’s the America I mean when I say apple pie. Not whoever’s in office on a given day. The people who keep showing up to bake the pie.

Current Knitting

You’ll note from the feature image that I’ve made a bit of progress on my current sock.

I’ve only just begun turning the heel. I’ll try to do less philosophizing and more knitting this week.