Time for a Bit of Bedevilment

"I wonder if you might like to participate in a bit of bedevilment.”

These words are driving my thoughts as I'm making arrangements to be present for the vital elections in Hungary and Bulgaria while the latest acts of aggression and cynicism accelerate the acceleration of cynical destruction. What a lot of were led to believe was quality journalism didn't work (or at least was not fully effective), and it is hard to make sense of the füstercluck so many of us find the world in.

Perhaps it is time to consider responding to the moment in different ways.

Several years ago, my wife’s uncle Tom called me out of the blue. This was unusual. I was very fond of Tom and conversations with him felt like cinematic journeys through a life foreign to me. "¿Tom? ¿Is everything alright?,” my worry brain stepped forward to say. For those who knew Tom, this was a particularly odd statement. Even the trickiest moments seemed not to faze him (spoiler alert: they would later, and they might have always, though his manners, and mannerism, would hide moments of stress and anxiety to anyone outside his immediate family). Tom chuckled and said “Of course. Never better.”

And then in his Charleston accent (in the hopeful key of B-flat Major), he said “I wonder if you might like to participate in a bit of [suave pause] buh-DEV-il-ment.” ¿Who can decline such an invitation? Not this New Englander. Turns out, Tom was scheming (as was his wont). This scheme involved setting up an organization with the WASPyest name imaginable: The Society for the Preservation of Anglican Heritage. SPAH, Tom told me, was designed to provoke, surprise, recognize, and remember. 

At the time he was literally and figuratively litigating "heritage," as the attorney for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina in its fight against some churches and church members who were breaking from the church. Those breakaway forces, let's be polite, were not okay with having gay clergy. Tom wanted to define the "heritage" of the church in South Carolina more fully. That meant honoring people who had pushed for social justice and expansion of the church community.

He helped get a statue of Justice Julius Waites Waring erected at the federal courthouse (where Waring's dissenting opinion in Brown v Board of Education at the South Carolina Supreme Court, in coordination with US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, led to the US's de jeure end of segregated schools). Tom wrote a play called Truth in Cold Blood, about William Guerry, an Episcopal Bishop of who ordained the first black clergy member ( was assassinated for this act). 

Tom wanted SPAH to decorate Charleston with historical markers that might remind the city's elite of the actions of some of their ancestors that ran counter to their/our misinformed narratives. I briefly felt fragility as a journalist. I worried about being tied to these actions. Thankfully, this was a wake-up call. ¿Is this not a creative act of journalism?  Indeed. Yes. For sure.

"I'm in for this bedevilment Tom."

It seems as though many news organizations have lost the courage to commit acts of journalism when we need them more than ever, and this once again in what Tom was modeling. In my work with Ukrainians, most conversations are full of clever ideas. The more I read articles that simplify and blind readers rather than activate curiosity, the more I'm ready to participate in a little bedevilment....or at least try some new approaches. Some new words and phrasing. Less fear of awkwardness and more bold (well-meaning) annoyance.

Tom died just over a year ago. While the world could really use him now, I'm glad he missed the last year. Readers of Notes from New Europe in its past Substack phase will appreciate that our approach here is designed to frame difficult issues in ways that are more truthful (and often somewhat surprising). In 2026 we need to experiment even more. This work will now be a part of Effervescence.World, an effervescence collective inspired by people like Tom and colleagues in the Black Sea region who are not waiting for others to sort out how to be more effective. The world calls on us to create, to experiment, and lean into possibility. I'd love your help. Get in touch with ideas and notions--no matter how off-center they feel.