July, Josey Wales, Frito Pies, and Parables

July, Josey Wales, Frito Pies, and Parables
By Bobby Neal Winters
It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... or death. It shall be life.
--Ten Bears in “The Outlaw Josey Wales”
Here we are in late July.  
For the last couple of years, we’ve had wet summers with rain on a sometimes shockingly regular basis. It had looked early on that might happen this year as well, but in June someone turned the faucet off and here we are.
I mowed my lawn last week out of boredom rather than any sense it needed it. When I was done I felt secure that I wouldn’t need to mow it again until late August or may September, after the start of school.
This time of year is traditionally very quiet in our sleepy college town, but the quiet is different this year.  It has been this quiet since mid-March.  Sure there have been some times during the past four month when it was more deeply quiet than others.  There were times when you could hear the crickets at noon, as it were.
The quiet you hear now is different from the quiet of any other late July.  
Late July most years is when many folks would take their last chance for a vacation.  I know that last year my family went to Colorado.  We rented an Airbnb up the mountains and revelled in the lack of electronic connection to anyone.  We lived on hotdogs and s’mores.  It was a good time.
Not this year.  While I’ve not canvased my fellow faculty, the impression I get is that this year is very different.
Do you remember that movie The Outlaw Josey Wales?  Near the end of the movie Josey and his ragtag group were holed up in a cabin believing the Comanches would be coming at them.  They were fortifying the cabin and loading their weapons and planning contingencies.   Then Josey went and talked with Ten Bears and everything was settled.
Well, it is like that at the university.  We are in our cabins getting ready for the Fall Semester.  The good news is that we have our equivalent of Josey Wales.  The bad news is there no equivalent to Ten Bears in COVID 19.
We have to be prepared for anything.
It has become clear to me over the course of my 32-year career at Pittsburg State that we have to make a place for more online courses.  It has also become clear that, while online courses have a place, in many cases there is just no substitute for being face-to-face.
Let me be like Jesus for a minute and explain it in a parable.  A comprehensive university is like unto the Coney Island on the Washington Street Strip in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Every Thursday, I would go with a group of companions to Coney Island.  They served hot dogs, of course, but they also sold Frito pies.  They had chili, onions, cheese, and mustard for the hot dogs, so all they needed for the Frito pies were Fritos.  And they probably had Fritos as a healthy side-dish anyway. Ye who have ears to hear, let them hear that online courses are like unto Frito pies: they can be made from things we have on hand and some people will buy them.  They are one of my favorite foods.
But we didn’t go to Coney Island for the food even though it was...filling. Coney Island had a pinball machine.  We took turns at the pinball machine and enjoyed each other’s company.  We could’ve gone to places with cheaper food; we could’ve gone to places with more nutritious food; we chose to go to Coney Island because we could play pinball with other young people of similar interests and start working on a life-long case of acid reflux.
But I digress.  
We are preparing a metaphorical meal for our students this Fall.  It has to be like a four-course banquet that is being held in the out-of-doors when there is a threat of rain.  There must be nutritious food of every type.  But we need to be able to disassemble it quickly so it can be eaten under the shelter of the trees should the storm come.  Maybe hot dogs or Frito pies would be a good choice.
In any case, I’ve never been prouder to be connected with any group of people ever.  They truly amaze me.
We are ready, Josey Wales.
Bobby Winters, a native of Harden City, Oklahoma, blogs at redneckmath.blogspot.com and okieinexile.blogspot.com. He invites you to “like” the National Association of Lawn Mowers on Facebook. )