Sometimes When Jerzey Rides..

 

A Nicaraguan farmer we saw three years ago near San Juan del Sur, back before the political violence in Nica forced out anyone with means and money. I often wonder if this man is still alive between the protests, the shootings, and now the unchecked Coronavirus killing many in Nicaragua where there is no available treatment or testing. We hear it's out of control there. It's not the only out of control in my life.

Last year Jim and I were tooling around the Tama area in our four wheel drive bomber when we spotting a guy we knew slightly, Jerzey. How to describe Jerzey? He's in his sixties, like Jim, he is brilliantly smart with an analytical mind. He is also what I would technically term "Bat Shit Crazy" plus he seems like he's not acquainted with personal hygiene. Don't stand downwind, even if he is fascinating.

We stopped and offered him a ride. Jerzey climbed in, and away we went, with Jerzey going right into some very long convoluted conspiracy theory. And he smelled to the high heavens. Thankfully we weren't going far.

As Jerzey ranted about Martians, or Molemen or whatever Jim and I exchanged amused looks. Neither of us was buying the codswallop he was shoveling hard, but neither of us was about to start pointing out the enormous flawed holes in his logic. We dropped Jerzey off at his house, near ours and waited until we were a good block away before we broke out in brays of laughter and had a crazy discussion about his allegations.

Last night, a few hours after I got back from San Jose, Jim's surgery, my crazy long bout of stomach flu making me in turns throwing up or dizzy I participated in a YouTube live video of another vlogger I like and enjoy the content of. I knew I was not on top of my game, even if I had stopped puking. I was greasy from the road, and sweaty from all the vomiting, with my hair up in a bun. Not my best moment, or best look. 

I was curious to go on because I knew one of the other guests had met the Duggars, lived right there in Springdale. Curious to her thoughts. Particularly after having met them myself and forming a few opinions.

Keep in mind over the course of the last so many years they've been on television I've heard it all about them. Particularly quite a bit from the locals that is not positive or nice. Things like there are restaurants in Springdale area that have had to change their policies on 'kids eat free' because of the Duggars exploiting that. Tales of the shady as heck business dealings of one Jim Bob Duggar. So many things I don't even have time to list here. From locals.

This lady, who seemed nice enough, toed the Evangelical line about the Duggars, just like everyone else living in the Bible Belt Buckle who is part of very conservative quasi-Baptist Calvinism that thrives there. That the Duggars are awesome great people that the unGodly need to stop picking on because so what if they have ten zillion kids they are 'Good Christians' that everyone there loves. 

She made one very telling remark, explaining that in small Southern towns church people and good Southerners tend to overlook those pesky rumors about folks like Josh, and it's all 'well bless your heart.'

I don't buy it. Why not? Here's what I know, from a lifetime lived in small Southern towns and fifteen years after leaving Quiverfull. Small Southern towns are hotbeds of gossip. They talk literal excrement about everyone. From behind lace curtains, and in whispered honeyed tones. There are some places I've seen where the local entertainment is monitoring the police radio. But while it is said in the community, but you had better not say it if you are not from that community, like in the larger world abroad. To quote Randy Newman from his masterwork "Rednecks" 'He may be a fool, but he's our fool..' Small Southern towns are cliquish and as rigidly held to class and caste as any ancient society.

The other part is something that Vyckie Garrison, myself and many others leaving Quiverfull have remarked upon. One of the things about Quiverfull is that you are not talking about people with education or money, well mostly, not everyone. Many of these families have mega children and minimal bucks, even if Dad does manage to have a good job. Think back about those early Duggar specials where the family was renting a very old three bedroom two bath small house. Clearly the Duggars struggled financially before they hit the jackpot that is a TLC contract. Look at the Rodrigues family in the same leaky old boat, all shoved in the what is literally a converted barn.  So many times in these Quiverfull families money is so tight that they start going to some really creative ways to save money. Sometimes with awful, rude and tacky tactics. Like showing up with all zillion children to a place that offers 'kids eat free' and really abusing that rule until the restaurant is forced to change it because it's impacting their bottom line.

Add in a religion that tells you that you are special, one of the few elite and that God so approves of you that you should receive God's blessing on your finances as well. I have seen people act on this so many times, demand discounts, or freebies, and whine, cry and claim that they have 'God's Favor' so this needs to happen for them.

Knowing these things about Quiverfull theology and small Southern towns makes me not believe much of what this other lady was saying in the YouTube live stream to me. I've spoken to five different social workers in that area during my time at the social work licensing agency and other contacts who confirm a lot of what I've heard. I keep getting contacted about the overweening controlling behavior of the family patriarch, the scams, the schemes, the crazy penny pinching. I believe it.

Just like Jerzey I have to discount much of what she's said because I know better than to believe his babble about aliens reading our brain waves, or serious and seriously crazy coronavirus denial I keep hearing from the former members of Anderson's old church. It just does not compute with what I know to be true, scientific and medical.

Just like Jerzey it's not my job to fight with her, or try to convince her she's wrong. I cannot do that with religious folks. They just double down on their most ridiculous indefensible theology, dig in harder. It's kinder to not fight with them, but to wait, and gently indicate the way out. Plus it takes energy I just do not have right now. They have to wake up and smell that sweet sweet Tarrazu dark roast themselves. 

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On the upside the surgery Jim had was a super success. He has feeling in the numb thumb (numb thumb! Say that three times fast!), the thumb on his left hand that has been largely numb since the surgery to repair the  bone breaks. It looks likely that the screws were pressing on nerves. He's recovering way faster from his surgery than I have been from the flu. However I now get to tease him about having a few loose screws.

I managed the drive back after getting a phentergan injection. We took backroads back here from San Jose. No traffic, nice weather, and beautiful countryside. I'm happy to be back sleeping on my oh so comfortable California king water bed instead of the ancient leatherette cracked sofa for two nights. It's just so hard to sleep in a hospital without adding in the constant noise level of street traffic in the downtown area of the nation's capital.