Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand made it on the recommended book list I had requested from Breetel last winter, and when I made an off-hand comment to Davi about being surprised to see the infamous capitalist on her list, Davi defended her little sister by saying that everyone in her family has read Ayn Rand and that I would actually probably get a lot out of reading her. Then she disappeared into her bedroom and came back with the tattered paperback copy of Atlas Shrugged that she had pulled off of her mom's shelf and devoured while in high school.

I started reading it in May, on the porch of the little one-bedroom Chicago apartment that I shared with Davi for two years. In June, I moved home to Wisconsin to be near my family and Davi moved to NYC to be closer to hers. At home I would read a chapter or so with my coffee in the morning and then mull it over as I pruned and weeded in the blueberry rows of my family's farm. I took it with me on a trip out west and read it on the train from Eugene to Seattle, marking my place with my ticket stub. I don't get cell phone service on the farm, so where I once shared daily conversation with Davi, I now was lucky to catch up with her a couple times a month. But reading Atlas, contemplating the themes of the novel, taking notice of the purple pen underlinings and hand-written notes in the margins, and imagining the conversations that will surface when we share space again, has helped me get used to not having my best friend within shouting distance anymore.

It was especially intersting to be absorbed in the final chapters of the book as the stock market fell and our country prepared to vote in a new leader. I often found myself asking, "Who would Ayn Rand vote for?" Although I can't imagine she would be in favor of his plans to tax the rich, I have to believe that Obama's message and the way he has run his campaign would strike a chord with her. I have to believe that while their politics may differ, she would be persuaded to vote for him based on the values they share.

From Obama's election night speech: "Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, 'We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.'"

On Monday I caned raspberries. Dad joined me in the field for the last couple hours of daylight. We caught up on the events of our weeks. I told him I had finally finished reading Atlas and he said he noticed that Hannah Coulter had been sitting out and asked if that would be my next read (which it will be). He was excited for me to read it. He said he enjoys Wendell Berry's work, not because he shares the experience of the characters (farming blueberries in Wisconsin is a lot different than farming tobacco in Kentucky) but because he shares their values.

"Like me and Davi." I replied.