Just Like Us

Edgar Lee Masters. I saw that name on a sign in the yard of a very small white house in Petersburg, Illinois today and I couldn't quite place him. My friend reminded me that he wrote the Spoon River Anthologies, but I still wasn't convinced. It turns out she was correct.

He had some of the very same problems I do with the quaint little villages in this world, or at least with the ones in western Illinois. These idyllic places filled with store fronts from the past and cozy little homes are not all filled with ever loving tolerant people just waiting to clasp their arms around those seeking their way.

They are often as self righteous and spiritually moribund as the fading print upon the forced and artificial signs above their shops. Behind the crisp white creases and smiling faces can be some of the most judgemental characters around.

Still, they are the descendants of our fore fathers who once settled in other small towns and founded a government of the people, by the people, for the people. As long as they are just like us.