CMER 2022: A Man’s A Man For A’ That

Folksong for 2022 CMER

The Industrial Revolution impacted small communities such as the ones that author Thomas Hardy reimagined in his novel, Far From the Madding Crowd. It disrupted the local narrative that united the “eccentric individualities” that inhabit any locale. Communities were increasingly composed of those who had less and less in common. Less common history; less common legend and folk-lore. Less community.

Sharing something in common—beliefs, practices, history, a way of living, for example—shape us into a community.  We’ve all experienced how “bent leather” (Ourselves, p.75) can suddenly familiarize the unfamiliar and welcome the alien. It is an act of imagination and hospitality; an act of hope.

In February, we will kick-off our time together at CMER 2022 with a rousing celebration of the ordinary man—Robbie Burns’ folksong A Man’s A Man For A’ That.