Well I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Prob’ly die in a small town
Oh, those small – communities
I don’t know if Waupun is considered a small town now that we have a Taco Bell, not to mention a McDonalds, a Subway and a Culvers (and three prisons). Probably not. But maybe we’re close, and I like to imagine at least that I live in a relatively small community. You see, unlike John Mellancamp, I was not born in a small town, but as the saying goes, I got to one as soon as possible.
Mellancamp’s song is on my mind as I think about Wendell Berry’s book, Jayber Crow, which I finished just yesterday. Jayber is the nickname of the first person character of the book, a bachelor barber named Jonah, who was orphaned as a young boy and given the name “J” by his caregivers at a local orphanage. J becomes “Jaybird” and gets shortened to “Jayber”, as life has it. The story was…delightful…and all about life in a small town named Port William. This was my first read by Wendell Berry, but as I understand it, most all of his books take place in Port William, Kentucky, and the characters overlap throughout.
Educated in a small town
Taught to fear Jesus in a small town
Used to daydream in that small town
Another born romantic that’s meNo I cannot forget where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be
I suppose that Jayber the barber could have written Mellencamp’s song, for he certainly finds some of the heretofore mentioned blessings from the throne of the barber’s chair on Main Street. I myself have found such bounties, and if my children and my children’s children do as well some day, all the better.
That said, I have to admit that some days I feel the romance of the big city, and beyond romance, the need of the multitudes, the cry of the crowds. I know demographers say that small town life is slowly disappearing, that the world is going to the cities. But for me…for now, as they say, “It’s a nice place to visit…”
Well I was born in a small town
And I can breathe in a small town
Gonna die in a small town
Ah, that’s prob’ly where they’ll bury me– John Mellencamp, Small Town
Entrusted with the Gospel 