The true state of every nation is the state of common life. The manners of the people are not to be found in the schools of learning, or the palaces of greatness, where the national character is obscured or obliterated by travel or instruction, by philosophy or vanity; nor is public happiness to be estimated by assemblies of the gay, or the banquets of the rich. The great mass of nations is neither rich nor gay: they whose aggregate constitutes the people, are found in the streets, and the villages, in the shops and farms; and from them collectively considered, must the measure of a general prosperity be taken.
Samuel Johnson, Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, 1775
In his journey to the Hebrides with James Boswell, Dr Johnson saw that the lives and conditions of ordinary people revealed far more about a nation than the machinations of government or ‘the banquets of the rich’. Indeed, understanding the ‘common life’ and focusing on the everyday, he argued, could prevent elitist myopia.
A career in journalism has taught me that though we read the world through big events, journalists are better able to tell grand narratives through the smaller details of the everyday. For example, Johnson’s universal treatise above riffs off his observation of the glazing on a cottage in rural Aberdeenshire.
For the past month, I have travelled the highways and byways of the United States, from Tennessee to Alabama to Missouri to California. I have spoken about heavenly cities and common things to large audiences and in one-to-one conversations. Often, the divine has been in the detail.
During my brief time here, there have been thirty-seven mass shootings*, a political assassination, government troop deployments to major cities and another ultimatum in the Middle East. But I also encountered deep dramas of ‘the common life’ that reveal the universal. A mother’s fears for her teenage boys as her marriage falls apart. A dad driving me through a leafy Nashville suburb and telling me about crossing the Darién Gap with his wife and children, then about the upcoming review date for his visa. A crisis call from a young man with learning difficulties needing reassurance he wouldn’t be arrested if he asked police to help after being defrauded. There were happy moments too: kids hopping with excitement as their NFL heroes, the Philadelphia Eagles, gave out autographs. Or a birthday dinner table set with candles, Murano glass and hearty food served with thankfulness for long years and steadfast friends.
Everyday life is significant in its own sake. I have said before that an antidote to feeling weighed down by global events we cannot control is to turn off the feed: indeed it is one of my 20 rules for professional life. But another counterbalance is to focus more on the everyday in front of our eyes. Through the small windows of home, the wider world is framed, and in the dignity of lives lived in the here and now, the true state of a nation is revealed.
*a mass shooting is define as an incident where several people are shot.