I’m heartened by the reception that Lone Dog Road is receiving. Like all my books, it enters into the world with little fanfare and then either quietly finds its way or quietly disappears. Lone Dog Road appears to be finding its way.
Some folks have asked me why I no longer do political posts, since people enjoyed them and they had a strong following. My answer is that I am doing political posts — folks just don’t see them as such. I have no interest in letting the cruel monster in charge of this country live inside my head any longer. He has been there for far too long. He thrives on the poison of our hate and anger and derives his strength and meaning from it. At some point he will be gone and we will have to pick up the pieces. My political stance at this point is that I need to point a direction by which those pieces can be picked up when the time comes, and it will.
Lone Dog Road is about picking up those pieces. It is a story of redemption and hope, and how the small part each of us plays in life’s drama has importance and meaning, far more than we understand. Yes, it is a road book. Yes, it is the story of two young Lakota boys on the run. But it is also the story of the good people who from their own struggles and isolation, reach out to help, and in doing so, add to the goodness and hope in the world. Each of them has importance; each has meaning.
We each have an important role to play in these dark times. Some of us need to thunder like prophets. Some need to pick up the spears and pitchforks. Some need to keep the home fires burning and teach the children. Some need to plan and reshape and envision a better way.
I once wrote in one of my more homiletic books that it is not our task to judge the worthiness of our path. Our task is to walk our path with worthiness. Lone Dog Road is about people walking their paths and doing what is asked of them by such lights as they have. Do they know the outcome? No. Do they know if they are doing the right thing? No. But they each lean toward the light in the best way they can. And in the end, there may indeed be a meaning far greater than any of them understands.
That is the political stance of Lone Dog Road, and that is the political stance I choose to take as a writer at this time in my and America’s life.
I hope you will read Lone Dog Road with this in mind. It should be a good beach read, a good “summer on the porch” read. But it also should be, as all my books are, a teaching story. Sometimes the most important thing we can do is try to see the world closely and intimately through the eyes of people different from ourselves, and to teach our children that openness to the richness of life is a better route to meaning than closing down around anger and bitterness.
Keep reading Lone Dog Road (or listening on audible) and writing your reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. If this book is important for the understanding of the human heart, and I think it is, we need to keep it alive and pass it from hand to hand as a reminder that even in dark times the pursuit of the light is the only true route of redemption and hope.
I hope your summer is going well. I value and appreciate you all.
My husband is reading this at this very moment. I told him a month ago that it was a must read. Now, 120 pages into it, he enthusiastically agrees. Everyone I have recommended it to in my circle completely agrees. I hope folks are reading my reviews so they too can get relief from our current political situation and get some relief to see a path forward.
Really enjoyed the book, Kent, and indeed read much of it sitting on my porch! Thanks for such an uplifting story!
Probably one of your best posts overall! As always, thank you Kent.
IT WAS SUPERB!!It showed use what can happen when we are open to our Creators redemption.
Thank you!
I lent the book to a coworker. He really enjoyed it. I just lent him Neither Wolf nor Dog to read next. I think you’ve got a new reader.
I’m not one to stand on the roof tops and shout the Gospel, but…………….and here I lose it because I want to shout something, something very close to this post, but I lose it because what he has written and the way he has pointed us is certainly a parallel universe to the Bible and so, I guess, I should go to the roof tops and start shouting. Especially today, wherein we find our national leaders feeding on hate and separation and mistrust and fears and lies, we all need to find a path for all of us and our goodness. LDR is a purposeful motorboat ride, a development of character that carries us to the warm fuzzy feelings that I assume we all want in life, ie, the goodness in life and peoples around us. And these warm feelings are not fantasies, but yearnings that we all should have if we allow ourselves to be touched by the Holy One, the Great One, God, whatever name you want to give your spiritual magnet. After reading this book, my prayer is that we allow ourselves to be open and to be touched by the good inner spirit that is inside of all of us somewhere. God bless.
I love “…lean toward the light…” And that’s a great photo.
I’ve adored all your previous books, and will read the newest one. However, this post feels like a political post, even though it’s claimed to be other than. I’m guessing we get our news from different sources, but don’t agree with your assessment of the country’s power structure. Maybe your media sources have a similiar bias?
I make no apologies for my biases, which I do not attempt to hide. It is why I have decided not to post political pieces, but to try to speak to a way forward when this period of animosity, in which both you and I are obviously participants, comes to an end. Read LDR as a spiritual roadmap for a model of healing, which our entire nation will need soon enough.
“I have no interest in letting the cruel monster in charge of this country live inside my head any longer.” I absolutely agree. Well put. This too will pass, and, yes, we’ll pick up the pieces and go on trying to build a better world for our children, and their children. Be well, Kent. Keep writing. Yours is a voice that needs to be heard in the world, today and tomorrow.
Thank you for this, Kent. I printed it and am putting in on the fridge for when I need a boost and to be reminded “this too shall pass.”
Thank you, Ken, for writing Lone Dog Road. I just finished reading it today. As I was approaching the end of the written story, I didn’t want it to come to a close because I really enjoyed spending time with all of the characters in it. I laughed out loud while reading some scenes and quietly sighed during others. Your story is a healing balm that is much needed in these chaotic, modern times. Blessings to you on your journey. Keep telling your stories, brother.