Creating your creed

Why it matters to have a code, plus treasured archives from a gay bar; a delightful sign painter; and a documentary to prep you for college football season

Not this Creed (although he was awesome)

I’ve been reading a preview copy of Jay Busbee’s excellent book IRON IN THE BLOOD, a history of the Alabama-Auburn football rivalry. It comes out on Aug. 26 (although you can and should preorder!) and we’ll have more to say about it then. For today I wanted to mention something Jay writes a little about in the book … the Auburn Creed.

The creed was written by George Petrie, who was Auburn’s first football coach and served as a professor and administrator there for 53 years. In 1943, four years before his death, he tried to reflect the spirit of the place he loved:

I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.

I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully.

I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.

I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities.

I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.

I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all.

I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God."

And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it.

Now, as a diehard Georgia fan, I have to trim off that last line. But otherwise this feels like a solid way to live a life.

I don’t intend, in this newsletter, to spend much time dwelling on the negative. I’ll just say that I think one reason we are going through such trials in our country right now is that so many of our leaders lack a creed—or, if they have one, it is far more about serving themselves instead of others.

From time to time over the years I’ve toyed with the idea of doing a little book called THE ONLY 100 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW. It would be small but meaningful bits of advice, little habits I’ve picked up over the years that might add up to make the world better if we all tried them.

Always pay the street musician.

Keep your oil changed.

Call your mama once a week.

Overtip your server.

Jason Isbell’s “Outfit” does something similar: Don't call what you’re wearing an outfit / Don’t ever say your car is broke … But it’s turned a little more inward. I think most of us could stand to turn a little more outward.

So here’s my Question of the Week: What’s something that would be part of your personal creed? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

10 things I wanted to share this week:

1. My earlier post this week was about the death of AOL dial-up, and nostalgia for a time when the internet was slower and weirder.

2. This is behind a paywall, but I’m including it in case you have a Wall Street Journal subscription or a workaround: I’m quoted in a story by Pamela Paul on how Ozempic and related drugs have changed the language and culture around obesity. Worth a read.

3. A more bittersweet nostalgia: My friend Nick de la Canal did a beautiful piece for WFAE on a treasure of old VHS tapes from Oleens, a gay bar in Charlotte that saw joy and tragedy in the AIDS era.

4. Trevor Quirk’s story on life in Asheville right after Hurricane Helene is not just one of the best things I’ve read on what the hurricane was like, but also a meditation on what happens when all the modern means of communication—from cellphones to roads—are washed away. (NYT)

5. A delightful Q&A: Kate Bingaman-Burt noticed brightly painted signs all over Portland for a roof cleaner. So she called the number on the signs. It turns out the roof cleaner and the sign painter are the same guy. (KBBBlog)

6. Remember Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and U.S. energy secretary? His new mission is evangelizing for the psychotropic drug ibogaine, which he says changed his life. (NYT)

7. Euro mystery update: One of our favorite shows, PROFESSOR T, is back for its fourth season. It’s a fairly normal premise for one of these shows—a criminology professor helps the police solve murders while struggling with his own psychological issues. But the actors lift it beyond a gimmick, and the plots are especially well-crafted—I rarely guess both who did it and why. We stream it on PBS and I think it’ll be on over-the-air PBS soon.

8. ANY GIVEN SATURDAY, the Netflix doc on the 2024 SEC football season, got me primed for college football season (which starts next weekend!) They didn’t get all the teams, but they got plenty of great moments and characters. My favorite was Diego Pavia, the undersized Vanderbilt QB who led the Commodores to a monumental upset of no. 1 Alabama.

9. As a palate cleanser for all the murder shows we watch, we’ve been enjoying WILD ISLES, Sir David Attenborough’s documentary series on the wildlife of Great Britain. Breathtaking footage, and they take the last few minutes of each episode to explain how they got it.

10. Most mornings I wake up with a song in my head. It could be anything from Van Halen to Rick James to a long-forgotten TV theme. I’ve started playing the songs on the stereo or over my earbuds when I get up, just to see if that leads anywhere creatively. Not yet, as far as I can tell. But I did have a pleasurable five minutes Friday morning listening to Phil Collins and Philip Bailey’s “Easy Lover,” and I thought you might as well have the pleasure, too. (The video is one of those overproduced ‘80s made-for-MTV jobs—it distracts from the song. So here’s just the audio and Phil’s mug.)
    

Have a great weekend, everybody…

—TT