Selected articles

FROM THE TOP The Delta: An Introduction By Will Long If you can read Tennessee Williams with some detachment, then you will not understand the relationship of the Delta to myth. It’s our myth that sustains us and that has made us insular. It is as deep as religion and as instructive. It is very much like a medicament that in measured does is an anodyne, but used in excess is toxic or even lethal. All the great ideas that govern moral behavior for the rest of the world are filtered and rarified for the Delta cannon. God decreed it so. Had the chosen people wandered here in the Delta for forty years, Moses would have come down from an Indian mound, probably, with some flexible commandments; amendable, like the constitution, so there would be no danger of obsolescence. “Generally speaking, thou shalt not kill”, leaves room for some legal debate; which, of course, we need. I have seen some extreme cases where virginity has been reinstated. Although, there isn’t as much demand for that now as there used to be. However, there are certain absolutes; unarguable, accepted universally. Will Long “Thou shalt not be common.” Conduct so described will mark one, even unto the third generation, and it is to be avoided at all costs. And the worst form of commonness is the gentrified type that confuses sumptuousness, which is OK, with ostentation, which isn’t. The only way to fully comprehend the structure is to come of age here, and go through the educational system. All societies owe a debt to their institutions of learning. Ours has been enriched by Parchman, Gartley-Ramsey, Whitfield, and Mississippi State University. Most marriage decisions are made at Ole Miss and the sanctity of those unions rivals apostolic election. There are a few Vanderbilt types around, recognizable by their superior attitude and unkempt hair. Sewanee has staffed us with our ecclesiastics, both frocked and unfrocked. Hair shirts were voted out long ago, over the loud objection of Presbyterians. Actually, religion and the vernacular myth owe a great deal to agriculture and except for a few tugboats and the Viking problem, agriculture feeds the multitudes. (Gambling is just an antiseptic for of farming.) Those of us, whose birth antedates WW II, have seen agriculture move from a technology developed by the Egyptians, to a space age, satellite based modus operandi. Now a planter must know how to farm, a farmer must be technically literate; which is a doctrinal difference from the hoe and cotton sack days, when hi-tech was owning a welder. But any introduction to Delta ethos would be inaccurate absent comment about its women. It, first of all, is a sub rosa matriarchate. The women control it under a patina of feminine deference. Most of the good land is owned by women, and what isn’t–will be. In times (or generations) of economic hardship, it is the women who not only provide for the family, but also maintain the social structure. They guide the strong men and compensate for the weak. They are the keepers of the myth. You may enter the Delta on US 61, 82, or 49. But you can never truly leave. There is a part of you that will remain captive, altered forever. Will Long, a life-long Delta resident, lives in Teoc, MS. <...HOME...>