You’re reading Wanderland, Kevin D. Williamson’s weekly newsletter on America’s rapidly changing political, economic, and social norms.
The world is full of complexity and nuance, but sometimes you need the moral clarity of a children’s book. Of course you need to read The Federalist Papers, but save some time for The Once and Future King, Watership Down, and The Wind in the Willows.
Kevin D. Williamson is national correspondent at The Dispatch and is based in Virginia. Prior to joining the company in 2022, he spent 15 years as a writer and editor at National Review, worked as the theater critic at the New Criterion, and had a long career in local newspapers. He is also a writer in residence at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. When Kevin is not reporting on the world outside Washington for his Wanderland newsletter, you can find him at the rifle range or reading a book about literally almost anything other than politics.
This is one of your best and the pic of your kids is priceless!
My own dad’s swimming story parallels the baby otter‘s. He was a poor farm kid and his dad took him and his three brothers (one older, two younger) out to the creek one summer day and just tossed them in, then jumped in himself. While keeping the other three afloat he neglected to notice my dad had swum off by himself! He got the other boys out and a search was instituted for dad (who was about 6 years old at the time), but darkness fell before he could be found. The minister was called and funeral plans were being made when my dad, happy and buck naked, walked back onto the farm porch. Dad was a “born fish”, who’d deeply enjoyed swimming underwater and seeing all the fish and frogs. His natural water ability served him well in WWII, where he was required to pass a test of swimming under water that had flames on the top. Despite the jeers of his city bred comrades who’d had swimming lessons, he succeeded.
What if the children’s book was written by KA$H Patel?
As someone who has not yet struggled with depression, but who lives with a gentle soul who bears it as a near-chronic affliction, I was greatly touched by your illuminating (!) meditation. Thank you for being so unreservedly human in front of ... well, maybe not "strangers," but let's say a wide and mostly-distant audience.
From children's books, to Tolkein, to Thomas Harris and then to...Vance? Goodness, what a ride a few paragraphs can make.
Trump sneers at those sailors suffering aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on a nine month deployment without rest or sufficient supplies or shore leave who are engaged in fight his war of choice. He laughs at the rising costs of his wars and the pains of consumers paying ever higher prices for food and fuel. He's a privileged rich boy who dodged military service and never wanted for comfort or security, and he will never understand those who served or those in need.
My favorite aptronym, here in the great state of Rhode Island, is that the man responsible for ensuring the accuracy of gas pumps (as stickers on each pump proclaim) is Anthony Goes. Guessing he is Portuguese and it is pronouneed GO-es, but it gives me a chuckle every time I’m filling up.
Poop-poop!
Thanks Kevin, it's not often that written commentary can bring self-reflective tears to my eyes, but your piece just that. Beautiful.
Maybe not an aptronym but what would you call this example? At my first job I worked with a young man whose name was Warren Peace. He had neither read the book nor heard of it. Turns out, his parents didn’t know either. They didn’t understand why it was funny.
It would be an aptronym is he were Secretary of State. Let’s start a campaign.
I believe Click and Clack used to have him on staff as their Tolstoy Biographer.
I was very lucky as a child in that my parents fed my hunger for reading and adventures with a multi volume anthology of beautifully written adventure stories and fables called The Childrens Classics (I believe), published by Colliers Encyclopedia. The stories began with Greek mythology and progressed through Bible adventures of the Ark, Moses, and young David, then the Medieval heros of Camelot, El Cid, and Roland, followed by American folklore including Rip Van Winkle, Paul Bunyon, and Pecos Bill. These stories emphasized qualities of courage, honesty, duty, and faith, plus they were beautifully written and illustrated. I hope those volumes are still in publication though I doubt it, but if I ever run across a set, I will buy it for my grandchildren.
On aptronyms, I had a French horn teacher named Amy Horn.
My father was a small town businessman who had a keen insight into who was a reliable and competent employee, who was a profitable farmer, who paid their bills and who didn't. Often after a meeting of some community committee or organization with lots of opinions and ideas voiced, on the ride home, my father would comment “I’d like to buy him for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth”. He knew whose opinions were worth considering based on his knowledge of the speakers.
Impressed by your kids. I consider my two year old to be ahead of the pack and I only get the meat and potatoes of sentences. Dada, waffles please is how he asks for them
When I was raising my three girls, I found a children's book full of adult messages as well. E.B. White's 1952 classic "Charlotte's Web" explores the precious nature of friendship, the inevitability of the life cycle, and the power of selflessness. My favorite line comes from the spider explaining the words that she spins in her web, saying in effect that when humans see things in writings, they tend to uncritically accept them.
You bet i missed last week's column. Picture of the boys makes up for that.
As per comments on the remnant, a fine looking brood. Congrats Kevin, thank you for your words.
A recommendation... Watch the new Cape Fear series on Apple. Javier Bardem's presentation of Max Cady seems to make him a much more complex, and even maybe justified, character than other versions I've seen. I really think you might like it. This piece made me think of it. Some monsters are indeed made...
I don't know how you tell the difference among your triplets. It's time for color coded t-shirts.
Kevin, you were already a good writer, but it obviously evident that being a dad has made you into an even better writer and person. Caring about the welfare of kids really does change one's perspective. I can only imagine the increasing fun (and chaos) throughout the years ahead with 4 boys. I'm already fantasizing about the random stuff I'm going to get our kids into when they hopefully come some day.
Yup. As someone who has struggled with mental health issues what you wrote about depression is pretty accurate. I think that there is more to psychotherapy than some think even though Freud poisoned it pretty back. The mind has a lot of plasticity and encouraging the mind to walk in brighter places as a discipline can help mitigate the pain of mental illness. It's not a cure but ERP and CBT do have some value as methods of managing the effects alongside medication. The way I think of it-as someone unmedicated but who has been on SSRIs and other drugs-is that the medication helps to loosen the brain out of a bad pathway enough that it's possible for ERP and CBT to have an impact.
It's still not perfect-our brains are strange things and relapses into a bad rut are a thing but the idea is to try to give someone a toolbox they can use to stave off the flames and window ledge.
Does it always work? Alas, no, but it works well enough for enough people to make it worthwhile to try.
Thank you -- may our Friend and Helper continue to direct your wanderings and may you continue to share these with all of us!
I do a few puzzles (NYT Crossword, KenKen, and the like) each morning to warm up my mind and hope to keep it sharp. But dressing young boy triplets the same is some next-level stuff.
What a sweet article-thanks for writing this, Kevin!
Looking at those boys makes my heart light and brings tears to my eyes. Beautiful. Beautiful and life affirming.
This column is a gift, or at least a vindication of my subscription. Thank you, Kevin. I have no doubt that every man with some interior life and a smidge of self-honesty struggles similarly, but fatherhood distills humility like nothing else.
In the words of David himself, ”All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (Ps. 14:3, and Romans 3 for good measure).” Thankfully, our “Presence” saved us knowing every time we would be Toad, or worse.