There is an old Hymn that goes, "For the Beauty of the Earth, for the glory of skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies. Refrain: Christ, our Lord, to you we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
Brenda and I have really, really enjoyed the beauty we have seen around us. G^d has made a beautiful world in so many ways. Here are a few:
I wish I had taken a picture and was really tempted. In the end, I was a bit afraid of fomenting a riot. I was in the looooooongest line for TSA clearance I have ever seen anywhere. It was Sunday AM and two friends and I were headed for San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were running a bit later than I would prefer, but they had done the driving and I was grateful for that. I seldom check a bag, so I got my boarding pass very fast. After they had checked a bag, we rounded the corner, and behold the longest line I have ever seen for anything. In fact, I couldn't tell exactly how far the line went, it was so very long. Well, to get on a plane you must go through TSA screening, so here we go.
At least the line moved--mostly. We wound back and forth and we inched toward our goal. I looked at my watch, I looked for the end of the line, and then I looked at my watch again. After what seemed an eternity, we made it. It had been a long time since I had gone through one of these. Pre-COVID I was very often on the TSA precheck list, which meant I didn't have do a lot of things and the line was much, much shorter. Now I had to load everything into separate plastic bins, which frankly, were a bit too big for the conveyor they were supposed to slide along. Being new to this game, since COVID, I forgot to take my wallet out of my pocket, which sent me through the screening a second time. My pants were so loose I feared I would lose them without my belt. My shoes, as usual, were tied so that I could slip them on and off with ease.
Finally I was past TSA, now down those long escalators in ATL. Then to the train. My gate was on E, which is the next to last stop. I looked at my watch more than once. When we pulled into E station I was one of the first off the train and ran to the gate. If I made it on time, I would beg them to hold the gate open for my friends.
Whew! We made it. I was rejoicing in the L^rd for answering my many prayers. He showed His mercy and we made it with time to spare.
Thanks be to G^d and that long, long line should teach us a lesson. Moses waited 80 years to start delivering the Israelites. Elijah waited 3+ years for his showdown with the baal worshippers. What's a little TSA line compared to those?
L^rd teach me patience, just do it in a hurry!
In looking back is is great to see G^d's mighty hand directing our path. I think about how much I wanted to be a zoologist--yet G^d blocked this path. USNA where G^d sent me for undergrad didn't offer biology as a major. When I tried to do a Master's degree in Bio, I couldn't work that out either. I wound up doing a doctorate in Human Biology, which didn't dawn on me until I published one of my first papers in the Journal of Human Biology. I came discover later that Professor jobs in Biology are few and far between and most Biologists do one or more post-docs before they land a Professor job. With my age and family that would NOT have worked very well for me.
When I took the job as Assistant Prof at U of Alabama I did it on a "trial" basis. I had already observed that it is much easier to go from a bigger Uni that is Research-based to a smaller uni that is much less research-intensive than the other way round. I loved my time at UA. And, when it was time to leave, G^d orchestrated my happy departure. It would have been far too hard to leave a job I truly loved, had G^d not worked out these circumstances.
Likewise, G^d sped up my plan to join Cru Faculty Commons staff by several years. In retrospect, waiting as long as I intended would not have worked so well.
Many, many years back there was a tv show called "Father knows best".
Indeed, indeed, Father knows best! We are wise to enjoy G^d's guiding hand as we see our path blocked here or there.
Father knows best.
I grew up in North Georgia and learned the North Georgia accent from birth. As I got into High School I came to recognize the differences between North Georgia, Middle Georgia, and South Georgia accents. And yes they are distinctive.
I have no musical ability whatsoever, despite having been in graded choir programs at First Baptist Church Canton, GA from first grade through High School. I can, for whatever reason, distinguish most accents. When I hear a British accent, I can often (not 100%) identify where in England they originated. Often I can guess Middle-Eastern accents. Of course the hardest accents are blended ones, wherein a person was born in one locale, but emigrated to a different one early in life and maybe have lived in another accent region for long periods as an adult.
Brenda and I, and our kids have all noticed that when spend time back in North Georgia our original accent become much stronger.
I have taken a lot of abuse as a result of my strong southern accent. I recently quoted a Hebrew prayer and my seminary-trained-Hebrew friends commented on my Hebrew-with-a-southern-accent. Thanks guys!
Despite the abuse, I am still proud to be from the deep southern USA. We have had our problems, but you seldom hear of a southerner who retires and moves north. Our weather is hot in July and August and into the first two weeks of September--but it is nice otherwise. And southern people tend towards being friendly and helpful.
See y'all later.
US Culture is in a crisis at the moment. We have COVID, racism, feminism, social justice, and also the usual issues of life. In thinking about all these issues and our approach to them, it occurs to me that there is but one effective strategy and tactic--to be obedient to what Jesus the Christ has taught us.
If you are a follower of the Christ, you should have the life goal of becoming as much like Him as possible--in every way possible. Jesus had something to say about every issue of life of importance, surely He can give us guidance on today's societal issues.
I confess, I am constantly correcting your grammar--silently hopefully. I just read where someone posted on Facebook about something being "Very unique". The word "unique" isn't unique, but is a bit odd in that it is an absolute--it does not, ever, take a modifier. Something is either unique--i.e. one of a kind--or it is not. There are no degrees of unique.
Verbs are modified by adverbs, not adjectives. Adjectives modify nouns not verbs. Infinitives (noun from of verbs, e.g. to err is human) should not be split. E.g. "to hardly work at all" is wrong. "To work with little effort" is fine.
Prepositions are not appropriate words to end sentences with. See what I mean?
To my surprise, as I read and correct the grammar in published (by a commercial publisher) I am shocked at the numerous grammar errors.
Then two weeks ago I attended an online seminar in writing. To my shock I learned that the uses of punctuation had changed dramatically since I learned grammar. Ellipses, " ... ", are not used to denote an incomplete thought. A colon, :, can be used to make an emphasis, as well as intro a list.
When I discovered the changes in punctuation, I asked about the other grammar "rules". I was shocked to hear that ending sentences in a preposition is now OK.
Who knew? Certainly not me.
To some extent i gues, rules, including grammar rules, are arbitrary. I once thought that following the rules of grammar made communications more clear. I guess I was wrong.
So grammar is a thing of the past.
But beware, some of us are still correcting you.
Back when Brenda and I were kids, everybody we knew, with only a few exceptions, had a vegetable garden near their home. Our little garden was just beyond the peach trees--which did yield small, whitish peaches which typically were quite tasty.
Our dad didn't have any fancy farm equipment, in fact once I recall him hooking up David and I to pull his little plow. That wasn't very successful if I remember correctly.
But we grew corn, beans, okra, tomatoes--the usual stuff. We might harvest a bit in the late afternoon for dinner that night. People grew what they wanted to eat, with little thought to anything else. It was a family ritual, and an enjoyable one.
As you have heard older people speak of "home-grown tomatoes" this is likely what they were remembering from the old days.
My mom, and I think most moms, had a pressure cooker and she would can some beans most years. We had a freezer, but I think that was after I left for college.
The home garden for growing food is now something of a curiosity. Our neighbor grows one, and a few other folks we know. It is a bit sad to see it go.
But, things change.
In the late 90's when our kids were still small, Brenda left me in charge and went to Canton, GA to help out her parents. I was in charge of 5 kids--breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was a bit out of my depth, to say the least.
I can't remember anything that happened, except for one meal. I will say that NO one died during my tenure as overseer. In that meal, I was fixing beef stew for supper for the kids. Realize, as I did, that cooking also involves clean-up after. So, as I fixed beef stew I heated it still in the can. This particular beef stew had sort of stratified. One layer was carrots, one beef, one potatoes. As I dished out the beef stew main course, one child got almost entirely potatoes, one got mostly carrots, one got mostly beef, and we all got a story that lives on to this very day.
See, creative cooking is highly memorable!
From 9-21 May we got to enjoy the beautiful sugar-sand beaches at Panama City Beach, FL. The weather started cold and rainy and remained a bit cool for part of the first week. We did our usual walking up and down the beach, sometimes wearing long sleeves.
One of the things we saw for the first time ever was shallow water prowling by eagle rays. These are beautiful sting rays with jet-black tops and pure white bottoms. They are about 22-26 inches wide, wingtip to wingtip. They cruise the shallows in groups from one to a dozen and do not seem overly fearful of human waders and swimmers. Sometimes they seem to be playfully "body-surfing" the breakers.
They are bountiful. They are beautiful. They are just another part of G^d's terrific, amazing creation.
Thank you L^rd!
