Hi, I’m Marcy McKay from Amarillo, author of the award-winning novel, Pennies from Burger Heaven. I’m excited to be a Radio Reader for High Plains Public Radio’s Book Club.
Our fall read – Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson, was sadly a no go for me, so I stopped reading it. Even though I adore short stories woven together to tell a bigger story – this book from 1919 was just too bleak.
I understand why it was chosen. The small town represents the isolation and loneliness of the past few years, but tales like the man accused of molesting the young boy, so he flees. Or the doctor who marries a woman too young for him, then she dies a few months later. No, thank you.
I’m not even afraid of intense subject matters because my own novels are dark since I believe the world is both broken AND beautiful. However, I always temper my writing with humor and hope. Give me even the tiniest sliver of light, and I’ll follow you anywhere through the darkness.
So, I’m going to tell you a different story with the same style. Separate lives that don’t seem to connect, or do they? In August 2017, there may or may not have been a woman named Marcy McKay who sat home alone on a Friday afternoon, working on her second novel when her family had a house fire.
Long story short, they lost their home of 17 years due to smoke-and-water damage. Even though the house did not burn to the ground, and most of their belongings were saved, the event was still traumatic. It was the only home their now two teenagers had ever known.
While displaced, the couple moved to a nearby small town. Let’s call it Canyon, Texas. The man and woman often passed a small church on their way to the local coffee shop. There were churches on almost every street corner, but this one was different. It had a marquee outside with new messages each week, like:
When Christians Can’t Agree on How to Treat
Kids at the Border: The World Notices
Or this one:
WWJD?
He Wouldn’t Teargas People for a Photo Op
The man reached out to the pastor for coffee. The man was so impressed by their conversation that the couple began attending a weekly Centering Prayer group at that church on Saturday mornings.
Even though they had their own church they loved in Amarillo, for 75 minutes each Saturday, they would sit with a group of strangers would in a circle in a small, darkened room with a tiny candle flickering in the center. They would sit in silence to pray, to quiet the week’s mental chatter, or whatever each person did during those moments of solitude.
Besides the couple, there was the yoga teacher who grew up in a shaming religion, and she was deconstructing her faith. The retired schoolteacher had moved to the small town to be closer to her son but also searched for something more. The college student from the local university struggled to find peers who cared about the social justice causes important to him. The pastor himself still nursed wounds from a divorce he never anticipated, so he had moved to the small town to start a new life.
Strangers brought together to find light in the darkness. This story may or may not be true. Regardless, smile at someone today. Buy them a cup of coffee. Forgive somebody who cuts you off in traffic. We’re all so much more alike than different.
To me, the only cure for isolation and loneliness is kindness and connection because the world is both broken and beautiful Those are my thoughts on small town life.
This is Marcy McKay, local author from Amarillo and Radio Reader from High Plains Public Radio. For more information, go to HPPR.org.
