Letters to My Son & Road Angels: author Kent Nerburn

She sat looking at me, keeping the pad turned to the page with the evidence on it. I didn’t have a retort. I looked back at her with a ‘So, go on’ face. She did.

“There is another contemporary author, Kent Nerburn, a theologian, and he points out the fact that no one wants to sit next to the person in the theater who points out the guy wires that make Peter Pan fly. You, Joe, are that person.”

That passage is from Attachment, my first novel published in 2006. I just had occasion to re-read it because it is as true today as it was then. Which led me to revisit Nerburn’s work as well. Oh my. Let’s get into it.

Kent Nerburn

is a writer, still alive, born in 1946 and is four years older than me. Re-reading my work and his, I can see how much of an influence he had on my thinking. Additionally, my writing. Which is ironic because Nerburn is steadfast in his belief that humans are “believing creatures, not thinking creatures.” Nevertheless, he’s not shy about “teaching” others to write. Which I think is the highest form of thinking.

Preaching

is more accurate. He can’t help himself, that’s who he is. Among other things.

Kent Nerburn 2013. https://video.pbs12.org/video/legacy-documentaries-sculpting-wood-and-words-art-kent-nerburn/

After re-reading the books he wrote in the 90’s – that had such an impact on me – I see things differently. Subsequently, I checked him out on YouTube. He’s still writing, and preaching. His latest post was on the election just past. Nerburn is preaching “resistance” to Trump. Whom he views as bad, even evil. A “maniacal madman.”

Kent Nerburn is an elitist intellectual, an idealist humanist. He believes we are not really of this world; but something akin to stardust, or spirit. He borrowed his philosophy from the first americans. Specifically, the Ojibwe of northern Minnesota. Nerburn doesn’t know much; but preaches as if he does. He believes birth, life, death, love and sex are all “mysteries”.

My take

is that Kent Nerburn is a product of the then emerging “New Age” postmodernism of the Boomer counter culture. As was I. Therefore, when I read his work? it resonated with me. Now? I’d call him a neurotic introvert, ensconced in white-male guilt. Or a talented artist who is stuck in the past. A dreamer with unrealistic expectations.

I see Letters To My Son (1994/98/o8) as the work of a second-order narcissist (= a person ignorant of his self-aggrandizing), who is confused about the material, real world. His advice to his then three year-old son is slanted and half-baked at best. It’s often contradictory and inconsistent. For example: In one letter he advises his son to “be careful” about the decisions he makes; and in another to “take risks”.

Nerburn is against ownership of things, denouncing possessions, but loves to dress up as Santa Claus and give gifts to strangers. There is just contradiction after contradiction. Moreover, Kent is oblivious to his own confusion! He is pompous.

The Liberal in me

bought what Nerburn was selling hook, line, and sinker. Twenty some years ago. However, my curiosity and open mind kept me, well, curious and open to different thoughts and feelings. Notwithstanding, he and I are not dissimilar in all ways. We are both outside the mainstream–writers and woodworkers. We prefer rural life over urban.

However, he went on to get his PhD (= piled high and deep) from Berkeley; whereas I dropped out of graduate school in Denver, seeing it for what it was in the late 90’s–captured by political correctness. Or Woke-ism.

“All their [liberal Democrats] education has narrowed their worldview [and] they live in a bubble with which to hide from reality.” June Nicole Lapine, aka ShoeOnHead.

Liberalism 

has turned into some thing that is askance to reality. Furthermore, the roots of this are evident in Nerburn’s writing. For instance, in Letters he tells his son that police are thugs, cowards, and racist (p. 18). Which leads eventually to the Left political demand: Defund the Police.

Moreover, Nerburn begins the implementation of “concept creep”, which leads to redefining words, meanings, and perceptions. Taking us finally to an assault on men and masculinity. What it means to be a man. Consequently, today there is a mental health crisis, loneliness epidemic, and an end to romance. Additionally, millions of men without work.

Society in America is collapsing before our eyes. I think because of well-meaning, liberal intellectuals like Kent Nerburn. These folks, for a host of complicated, nuanced reasons, took on the “Myth of the Nobel Savage” and began believing in Disney-like fantasy, and fairy tales. Such as trees have feelings and all things have spirit. In other words, Peter Pan can fly. Moreover, all things exist in a ethereal, timeless, connected world.

If Only …

the good people could rid the world of the Evil White Man–like Trump.

In Road Angels [where I, and Nerburn, took the idea of people not wanting to know the reality of the theater they live in as make believe, as character (p. 289)] the irony is thick.

 

Nerburn takes a road trip back to where he grew up and went to school. The Pacific Coast from Canada down to San Luis Obispo. He talks to old acquaintances and strangers looking to find himself, and the ‘Soul of America’? He encounters many would-be, Trump-like supporters. He’s baffled/confused then, as he is now. Finally, unsatisfied, he returns to northern Minnesota, his wife, and young son. Then writes a book about his journey. It’s 2001, pre 9/11.

Kent Nerburn believes it’s his right and calling to speak for the first americans. Most of his books are about that. He believes that he is giving “voice to the voiceless.” What! For an educated intellectual did he not research his subject? There are many books written by and about the first americans. Such as:

Black Elk Speaks (1932) John G. Neihardt

Sun Chief  (1942) Don C. Talayesva

At Home in the Wilderness (1968) Sun Bear

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (1970) Dee Brown

Seven Arrows (1972) Hyemeyohsts Storm

Mankiller ((1993) Wilma Mankiller

Election 2024

was a shock to many educated liberals, the Democrat base. It should not have been. The outcome was predictable. If one were to get outside of one’s own bubble and talk to the deciders–those voters in the middle in the battleground states. One reporter did, Mark Halperin.

He live-streamed his conversations with professionals and regular voters.

It was apparent that many, many voters were swinging to Trump. For a number of different reasons. Foremost of which was the blatant lying of the Democrats. (More irony. Also known as hypocrisy. and projection.)

Peter Pan 

is a fairy tale (1902). A story, play, and movie. But it’s of some comfort, especially for young children.

Let’s visit Nerburn’s use of the play as metaphor for his personality. In Road Angels page 289:

The dour flatlander who looks at this mess and sees infrastructure failure, unbridled population growth, and individual selfishness simply doesn’t get it. He’s refusing to give himself over to the play, and the play’s the thing. It’s why I don’t belong here anymore: no one’s interested in sitting in the theater next to someone who points out the guywires by which Peter Pan is able to fly.

Nerburn was reflecting on what he saw as “circus” in SanFrancisco, in 2000. He is the “dour flatlander”. And he still doesn’t get it. It being the human condition.