Sallie Bingham

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You are here: Home / Politics / Cache

Cache

June 16th, 2016 by Sallie Bingham in Politics 1 Comment

CacheCache—a collection of similar things, hidden, as an arms cache. We don’t need to know anything more about an arms cache today. There’s another kind of cache, as I discovered on my hike yesterday morning: a waterproof box with a glass top, placed on a picnic table at the bottom of the trail.

It holds an assortment of objects picked up on the trail: a yellow rubber duck, pencils, bits of metal—and now the bright pink earplug I added. Next to the cache, a nice little leather notebook invited the scrawls of hikers, celebrating the trail, friends, dogs, under the caption “rite something.”

I added a bit of praise.

CacheIn the agony of the past few days, I find some relief in the fact that a stranger bought the box and the notebook and left them both intentionally on the picnic table.

There is still goodness in this world, and often it seems to be the goodness of strangers, as Blanche DuBois proclaimed at the end of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

There is still goodness in this world, and often it seems to be the goodness of strangers, as Blanche DuBois proclaimed at the end of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Relationships fail, children grow up and desert, our beautiful places are overrun with traffic, pollution and sprawl, and criminals and mad men can buy assault rifles everywhere, and do so with greater and greater frequency.

I heard the despair in President Obama’s voice when he pleaded, “Something must be done to stop this,” after listing the horrible incidents of mass murder that have marred his presidency. He has tried so hard, and so frequently, but he has been balked by the irresponsibility of Congress.

And I was heartened that the congressman from Connecticut is not going to participate in the traditional “Moment of Silence” with which the members attempt to honor the dead and wounded in Orlando. As he cried out, in the voice of a prophet, “Silence is not what this country needs!”

Instead, letters, phone calls, petitions, and the sooner-or-later ousting of this Congress, which must take responsibility for the continuing slaughter.

And now I think about the cache, and the simple things therein, and the hope and faith of the stranger who placed it on the picnic table, and the hope and faith of those of us who add our bits and pieces.

Cache

[For more on the Orlando Pulse shooting, please read my post, Mother’s Sons. I also invite you to sign a petition to ban military-grade assault weapons now.]

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In Politics Santa Fe

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. James Voyles on Facebook says

    June 16th, 2016 at 8:28 am

    Thanks, Sallie, we need to be reminded of the goodness in people in this world, the simple gifts. Praise God, it seems the NRA is agreeing to some gun control, a break in the grandstanding, I hope. Sad that so many lives had to be sacrificed to even begin to move the fear-based gun lobby. Dare we hope? Let’s be sure to vote every candidate out who disagrees with gun control.

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Taken By The Shawnee

Taken By The Shawnee

July 6th, 2025
Sallie Bingham introduces and reads from her latest work, Taken by the Shawnee.
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Visiting Linda Stein

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Back on October 28th, 2008, I visited artist Linda Stein's studio in New York City and tried on a few of her handmade suits of armor.

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Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

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