A Thank-you Note a Day

A unique blog -- a young woman who writes a thank-you note a day.

I Must Look Old

Made a trip to the spring yesterday to get water and met this nice young couple who were there to fill up their jugs.

They arrived with a dozen gallon jugs threaded onto the handle of a broom -- cool idea. They weren't aware of the need to try to find jugs made from the "better" plastic via the number in the triangle on the bottom of the jugs (numbers 1, 2, 4, 5 = "good" while 3, 6, and 7 = "bad"). Fortunately, their jugs were a "2". They were appreciative of that information and I was appreciative of their friendliness.

I so enjoy meeting people in rural environments -- nice and easy to talk to. (Okay -- there are nice people everywhere. Maybe the unhurried rural environment lends itself more to conversation.) I think this polite, pony-tailed, young man thought I looked a little old to be hauling water up the stairs from the spring, so as I filled my five-gallon containers he would carry them up to my car. Getting old is great!

Memorial Day: Thanks to Those Who Served and Serve

I'm currently reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, the moving story of Louis Zamperini's harrowing life as a B-24 bombardier during World War II and his miraculous survival after weeks adrift in a rubber raft in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, followed by months of brutal existence and torture in Japanese POW camps. (A #1 New York Times bestseller by Laura Hillenbrand, the author of Seabiscuit.) Reading about what these flight crews went through makes it seem a miracle that any survived. I just finished reading about how Zamperini's B-24, after a bombing run over a Japanese held island in the south Pacific, limped home with most of the eight-man crew shot up, the plane barely flyable having been ripped to shreds by Japanese Zeros and anti-aircraft fire from below. When they finally landed (with no brakes or hydraulics after 16 hours in the air), the ground crew counted 594 bullet and flak holes in the body of the plane!

On this Memorial Day I was reminded afresh of the sacrifice made by so many in wars past and present. When fanatics like Hitler and Hirohito come on the world stage, something must be done. I'm thankful for those who served and sacrificed then and do so today—and the spouses who kept the home fires burning in their loved ones' absence.

My father was one of those World War II pilots, one of the few to be awarded pilots wings from three different air forces: United States, Great Britain, and China. (In the picture below, American wings on his left breast; Royal Air Force on right breast, upper; Chinese wings on right breast lower.)

In this image, Daddy is in the back row, fourth from left. Taken in China where he was training Chinese pilots to fight against the Japanese. My sister still has the leather A-1 flight jacket he's wearing in this picture, and I have the blood chits that were sewn on the inside—messages written in Chinese that would identify American pilots to the Chinese as an ally in case they went down over China, which Daddy did on one occasion, pancaking his P-40 Tomahawk in a rice paddy, but walking away.

May the day come soon when men will learn war no more, spears having become pruning hooks and swords made into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3).

Thought for the Day 8.0

On fixing things in life when they go wrong:

"When going back makes sense, you are going ahead."

Wendell Berry

"I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, 'with backward mutters of dissevering power'—or else not."

C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

"The wrong road never turns into the right road. You must go back to the fork, get off the wrong road, and get on the right road."

WK -- a conclusion I have come to over the years, fed by many springs.

Greek metanoia: to change one's mind; to repent.

Thought for the Day 7.0

My prayers, my God, flow from what I am not;

I think thy answers make me what I am.

Like weary waves thought follows upon thought,

But the still depth beneath is all thine own,

And there thou mov'st in paths to us unknown.

Out of strange strife thy peace is strangely wrought;

If the lion in us pray—thou answerest the lamb.

(From May 26, today's daily devotional in George MacDonald's Diary of an Old Soul,

all 365 devotionals composed in perfect seven-line poems.)

Oops!

I referenced the timeless British guitarist/singer/songwriter Richard Thompson in a post (below) a few days ago. I had to include this song which I'll conceal the name of and let you hear it yourself -- it's part of the fun.

In 1999, an American magazine asked a group of artists to submit their list of the most representative songs of the millennium. He took them seriously and with his background in music was well qualified, beginning his list with an eleventh-century piece and working his way up to the year 2000. The magazine didn't publish his list, but he decided to create a tour and DVD/CD album of the songs he had chosen. The range of songs is amazingly wide, and his ability to interpret them is awe inspiring.

Which leads us to this piece. The above background will help you understand his introductory comments. What amazes me most is that so many people in this upscale audience (mostly women, it sounds like) were able to sing the words to this song!

Another great interpretation from the same concert, this one of 1985:

Black Cab Sessions

Thanks to Smart People I Know for the link to the Black Cab Sessions -- a series of indie artists/bands singing and playing from the back seat of a classic London black cab while riding around London, New York, SXSW, and other locales. There are scores of videos, most of them of groups/artists I've never heard of. But check it out -- you'll find Fleet Foxes (one of the few I knew) and perhaps others of your favorites.

Here's Brian Wilson and his band (okay, not exactly an indie artist -- yes, the Brian Wilson) doing "Lucky Old Sun" and "California Girls:"

Brian Wilson from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

I also liked the videos of Mumford and Sons (akin to the Avett Brothers) and the legendary British guitarist, singer, and songwriter Richard Thompson and friends -- (his official site here and career retrospective boxed-set here -- the best of his 40 [!] albums) but "these artists haven't given permission to embed [their] videos on this domain" -- (que the Bronx Cheer) -- c'mon guys -- what happened to the indie music spirit? (Thompson is legendary in England -- his first song has some powerful spiritual lyrics; the second he seems to make up on the spot (not sure about that -- oops! just discovered this tune, "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" is on Clapton's latest album -- is this a traditional English tune?) -- a pleasure to watch his deft guitar handling -- after a lifetime of playing, the guitar seems to be an extension of his two hands.)

New Twist on Oatmeal

The oatmeal I eat almost daily is a mix of steel cut oats and 7-grain rolled cereal from Wheat Montana. Traditional oatmeal is rolled in presses to flatten out the groats (oat seeds) and therefore they cook more quickly. Steel-cut oats are the the groats cut in 2-3 pieces with sharp knives, which take a bit longer to cook. Oats are such a healthful food that I mix about two-thirds of oats with one-third of the 7-grain rolled cereal when I cook oatmeal. In this picture you can see the difference between the rolled (flattened) pieces of cereal grain and the cut oat groats:

The Happy Healthy Librarian posted a recipe for oatmeal that is a different twist on the traditional. It consists of oatmeal, nutritional yeast, turmeric, mushrooms (shitake, crimini, whatever), spinach (kale, chard, whatever greens), and sun-dried (dehydrated) tomatoes. It is one of the heartiest breakfasts I've ever eaten. The only thing I add is a small dollop of maple syrup in the middle of the bowl to cut the "savory" flavor of the other ingredients. (Get her full article and recipe here.)

In the pot:

And in the bowl (missing the maple syrple):

Plans for Saturday?

There is a Christian group that, for months now, has been spreading the word that the Rapture will occur and Judgment Day will begin this coming Saturday, May 21, 2011, at 6:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. because a gigantic earthquake will begin at 6:00 p.m. on the international date line and work its way westward through the time zones, an hour at a time. So it will hit the eastern time zone in America at 6:00 p.m. this Saturday night.)

I'm not planning on it for two reasons: The gentleman making this prediction made a similar prediction a number of years ago and he was wrong then. But more importantly, Jesus said He didn't even know when the end would come:

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels

in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32)

I'm not a scoffer—I definitely believe Jesus is going to return to earth. I just don't think it's going to be this Saturday. If it does happen, and you see a post on this blog from me on Sunday, then we're both in a bunch of trouble.

(You can read a CNN article and watch a video report here.)

Thought for the Day 6.0

From Chuck Swindoll in an interview article in Leadership Journal:

We're tempted to think of the church as a business with a cross stuck on top (if it has a cross at all). "We really shouldnt look like a church." I've heard that so much I want to vomit. "Why?" I ask. Do you want your bank to look like a bank? Do you want your doctor's office to look like a doctor's office, or would you prefer your doctor to dress like a clown? Would you be comfortable if your attorney dressed like a surfer and showed movies in his office? Then why do you want your churchs worship center to look like a talk show set?

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "When the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first."

Some time ago a group of church leaders decided that they didn't want to be hated. They focused just on attracting more and more people.

But if we're here to offer something the world can't provide, why would I want to copy the world? There is plenty of television. There are plenty of talk shows. There are plenty of comedians. But there is not plenty of worship of the true and living God.

Thought for the Day 5.0

From Kathy Freston's Veganist:

A few years ago, the environmental journalist Paul Hawken challenged students from the University of Portland with a thought experiment:

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

Re: Freston's book -- I was amused by the cover blurb provided by U2's Bono:

Kathy Freston writes so beautifully and convincingly that even this most carnivorous of rock stars finds himself staring at his bleeding protein with new eyes.

Thought for the Day 4.0

Let the words of my mouth and

the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.

(Psalm 19:14, NASB)

These are the words in my mouth;

these are what I chew on and pray.

Accept them when I place them

on the morning altar,

O God, my Altar-Rock,

God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

(Psalm 19:14, The Message)

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Three "service calls" in the last 24 hours, both of which were exemplary -- so hats off to . . .

AMAZON

Ordered a coffee/seed grinder recently -- stopped working on the second use. Amazon's return system is so easy. Printed out a mailing label last night, boxed it up, ready to leave for the mailman on Monday. Within a few minutes of setting up the return on their web site received a personal email from an agent explaining everything that would happen. This morning, before the mailman picked up the return package, I got an Amazon email saying my replacement item had been shipped. If Amazon can do this so efficiently, why can't everyone? Amazing. I remain an Amazon fan.

TIME WARNER CABLE

That's right -- Time Warner. It's rare that anyone has anything good to say about their cable company, including me. But my TV signal has been off-and-on fuzzy the last couple of weeks so I set up a service call. The TW technician arrived on time this morning, replaced a bunch of outdated wiring outside, fixed the problem inside, explained a bunch of stuff to me about my Internet service that was very helpful, checked my modem, download speeds, replaced an older cable connector going to my modem, was cheerful, polite, fast (but not rushed), considerate (shoe covers in the house) -- the whole deal. Time Warner got this one right. And "Billy," the technician deserves a promotion and a raise. There's still not much worth watching on TV, but at least the junk is nice and clear now.

WNCW Radio

WNCW is an NPR affiliate radio station on the campus of Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC, that plays terrific rotations of mountain, indie, and roots music with live, knowledgeable DJs all day, with breaks for NPR news updates. A great radio station! They have a re-transmitter in north Charlotte but the signal is too weak for me to pick up in south Charlotte -- so I listen on the Internet. But their streaming Internet feed was missing Saturday so I sent an email asking "Whassup?" This morning got a nice email reply from Dave Kester, Director of Programming and Operations, explaining the outage over the weekend. Sure enough the signal is back on loud and clear this morning. Nice to get personal emails from folks in charge who have good answers. [FLASH: I just heard from Dave Kester again with news that WNCW has a new transmitter in Charlotte at 99.1 which I can pick up using an FM antenna I strung in my attic a few years ago. Woo-hoo! Thanks Dave!)

Spring Has Sprung

Signs of spring are everywhere in the yard.

Brussels sprouts budding:

New avocado tree leaves:

Baby blueberries:

Buckwheat flowers:

A friendly wasp:

Giving me the stink-eye:

New leaves warming in the sun:

Pretty holly:

Going-to-seed Swiss chard flowers trying to bloom:

Invasion of the Caterpillars

I've been on the watch for the white butterflies (moths?) that appear every summer to lay single white eggs on the underside (usually) of Brassica food plants (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, etc.). Wikipedia calls them "Small White" butterflies -- though this picture isn't as bright white as the females I see here in North Carolina: (both the following pics from Wikimedia Commons)

This is the caterpillar that hatches from the egg -- up to an inch long. They can shred a plant:

Since I've been seeing the butterflies circling around my Brussels sprouts (and found the single white egg left where I saw one perched on the underside of a leaf), I've been watching for the caterpillars. This was the first one I found two days later:

So I immediately fired up the BioMister and soaked the six plants with BT (bacillus thuringiensis), an organic bacterium that the worms ingest from eating the plants. The bacterium shuts down their appetite (basically) and they expire in a couple days. BT is harmless to humans, animal life, and the environment.

Reading and Writing

Leo Strauss, Persecution and the Art of Writing:

It is a general observation that people write as they read. As a
rule, careful writers are careful readers and vice versa. A careful
writer wants to be read carefully. He cannot know what it means to
be read carefully but by having done careful reading himself.
Reading precedes writing. We read before we write. We learn to
write by reading. A man learns to write well by reading well good
books, by reading most carefully books which are most carefully
written. (Quoted from Edwin Curley, Behind the Geometrical Method:
A Reading of Spinoza's Ethics, Princeton University Press, 1988,
p. ii.)

"We learn to write by reading." This is why reading good books is
essential to becoming a good writer.

Copied and posted from MaverickPhilosopher.com, a blog recommended by my son, Daniel.

Prepare to Be Moved

A few weeks ago I posted a video of a group of singers around the world performing Sophie Madeleine's song, "You Are My Favorite." It was cool -- but not as cool as what's below. Don't let the length of the videos dissuade you; this is well worth the time invested. If you haven't seen the "Sophie" video you might want to watch it first in order to appreciate the enormous scale you'll see in the second video below.

I realize this music may not appeal to everyone. Rather, I'm posting these videos as further examples of the never-ending expansion of creativity of which human beings are capable -- here related to the arts (music and visual) and technology. The TED conferences serve as amazing symposia in which talented, creative, and inquisitive people can sharpen and stimulate one another by sharing, affirmation, and enjoyment.

First, watch this for background (14+ minutes):

Then this (9+") (go to 720p and full screen if you can):

Longing to Be Ruled

Yes, I rose at 5:00 a.m. last Friday to watch the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge marry in Westminster Abbey. I admit to being a sucker for pageantry and nobody does it better than the British. Why did an estimated two billion people worldwide, including 23 million Americans, tune in to watch the ceremony and pageantry? It's an interesting question. In America, we call ourselves proud to have jettisoned the baggage of royalty in the 18th century, yet we are still fascinated by the "royals." For me, it may be the English genes my maternal grandfather passed down to me, but I think there's another reason why I -- and people in general -- are attracted to "kings and queens." It goes beyond the fairy tale bit, I think. Yes, they are beautiful (at least these two) and rich and live in castles and palaces. But I think there's something else happening besides envy.

I think human beings have a longing to be ruled. After all, the Bible says we were created as subjects of God -- a royal relationship that mankind threw off by choice. And perhaps we give our emotions to earthly kings in a misdirected attempt to find our created place as subjects of a true king. Again, in America we set aside royalty because the examples of the day -- the British kings -- were not good models. And yet, in establishing our tripartite government we reflected the three dimensions of God's kingly rule:

For the Lord is our judge (judicial branch),

the Lord is our lawgiver (legislative branch),

the Lord is our king (executive branch);

it is he who will save us.

(Isaiah 33:22)

Deep down, we know we need saving. And we know that is a king's business. So even though America is a republic and not a monarchy, we still long for a leader to save us. I remember the emotion I felt when watching the funeral of Ronald Reagan -- maybe the closest thing we've had to a "good king" in the modern American era (in spite of his imperfections).

So when Prince William and Princess Catherine open the balcony doors on the second floor of Buckingham Palace and appeared to the hundreds of thousands who stood below, looking up endearingly at them, cheering at the tops of their lungs, it was like a fresh opportunity for the British people, and many more around the world, to feel something that is likely undefinable to most: the longing to look up to someone who is bigger and better than we are.

Of course, that is an unreasonable expectation to project onto a couple of twenty-somethings who stand on the same clay feet as do the rest of us. Though they will likely sit on the thrones of England one day, their ceremonial-only positions will have little impact on the world. But when we see royalty taking their rightful place, it ought to remind us that we were created to be loyal subjects. The real question is, Subjects of whom? Certainly not of any earthly king. Palaces, royal colors and guards, and earthly wealth cannot fill the heart of commoners like us. They can only remind us that a true king is coming -- Jesus, the King of kings -- in whom our longings for submission will finally be realized; by whom we will ultimately be saved as we bow in submission to Him.

For now, royal reminders like the wedding of William and Catherine have their place -- earthly shadows of an eternal reality.

Brussels Sprouts

I planted six Brussels sprouts plants and five of the six have done beautifully. Isn't that interesting that one of the six has hardly budged?

These plants have grown remarkably. I hope they produce fruit in keeping with their foliage size:

I put a tray of wheatgrass in the dirt and it has begun to produce heads of berries:

These are two Swiss chard plants that were planted last summer. They survived through the winter but this spring promptly bolted and are going to seed. The one is nearly six feet tall. I decided to let them go to see what the flower/seed production looks like:

Spring Water

Went to Cold Spring outside Concord, NC, after church to fetch spring water. Was sad to see two gigantic trees that stood in back of the church now in pieces. I don't know if recent storms brought them down -- I didn't see evidence of them being uprooted or "broken." Looks like they were both just cut down. Would love to have the wood -- would love to have a wood-burning fireplace.

Lots of years represented by these rings:

I love the coolness and quiet of the little grotto where the spring is located. This is standing by the spring looking up:

Filling five-gallon bottles:

Water weighs eight pounds per gallon, so each five-gallon jug weighs 40 pounds, or two equals 80 pounds. Good resistance training for the bones. No wonder our ancestors rarely had osteoporosis:

What a treasure this spring is -- it's been running steady since the early 1800's (the earliest records) and I assume long before then.