In Hyde Park, Chicago for McCormick Days where Tricia received the Distinguished Alumna award, I went walking. On October 15, I wandered past Rockefeller Chapel and had to stop for a photo even though my BlackBerry was all I had. It proved a pretty interesting view.
See you along the Trail.
Seen in Hyde Park, Chicago on 15 October 2012. Two thoughts scream for expression:
There’s no free lunch, but there is free rent!
If it’s free, is it really rent?
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Photo
The 2011 Colorado trek had elements of
sadness mixed with joy.
Our friend Steve died before we arrived,
but we gave thanks with his family and friends
as we witnessed to the Resurrection
and celebrated his life.
Steve lived in Greeley:
some among his friends called him
the Bishop of Greeley.
There in his domain,
we found the
Greeley Centennial Village Museum
and many gardens
and many purple flowers.
These are the first.
Others will follow in weeks to come.
8 July 2011
Greeley Centennial Village Museum
Greeley, CO
I made my way down the jetway and entered the plane. As instructed by the flight crew of SW flight 2635 (LGA to MDW), I found my favorite seat and took it.
There I discovered that someone had worked the crossword puzzle and returned the magazine to the seat pocket. Poetic justice? I have done that many times.
Since I was in the A boarding group, the seats beside me stood empty. I quickly rummaged through them and discovered that they too had worked crossword puzzles. 
I also discovered a perplexing treasure. Someone had left a bag of peanuts behind.
In a totally infallible, absolutely scientifically accurate endeavor, I posted the question on Facebook:
Would you eat the peanuts in the sealed package some previous passenger left behind?
Thus far I have received 19 comments. They range widely and reveal my friends’ creativity.
Seven friends provided a variation on yes. One said no. One said no for allergic reasons.
One wanted further information before committing:
Are they salted or honey roasted?
Context entered into a number of responses. Recognizing my travel habits, one friend wanted to know just where these peanuts had been found. Location may be everything:
On an airplane or on the subway?
Recalling the Donner Party, one friend pointed out that there would be circumstances in which eating the peanuts would make enormous sense:
Depending on the context. probably not. But if I were starving it would be better than gnawing on the arm of the person sitting next to me.
Another observed that there is a holiday of some sort coming up based on obtaining food products with an unverifiable chain of custody:
Yes, if they were sealed….in a couple of weeks, my daughter will bring home a bag of candy with very uncertain histories. As long as its wrapped, it seems safe.
Two friends waxed theological:
Wait – are these “Left Behind” peanuts? Have you considered what could happen if you eat them?
Left Behind? You mean after the rapture nuts?
There were moments of self-revelation. One friend suggested a use for the peanuts other than eating them or leaving them … and implied this may be the voice of experience speaking:
Honestly. I would probably put them in my bag and carry them around for a few days, then end up giving them to one of my sons to take on a field trip. (Not that that ever happened.)
Another friend confessed to being the one who abandons peanuts to the cruel chances of fate:
I’m the one who leaves them behind.
One friend did not know they gave out peanuts in airplanes any more … ah the joys of Southwest Airlines and one friend refused to answer, not out of concern for self-incrimination, but for my safety’s sake:
I could tell you, but then I’d have to … well, you know the drill!
Duly noted and appreciated.
What started as a lark proved to offer insights into both my friends and my friends knowledge of me. I will have to try this again with another question.
For the record, I did not eat the peanuts. And here is why: I am in a self-care mode and I did not want the calories. For 12 days, I have eaten in the range of 2,000 calories, walked at least 10,00 steps, and done a concentrated walk of 30 or more minutes – gotta love those laundry nights.
I hope the next person who discovers the peanuts has as much fun with her or his friends as I did.
See you along the Trail.
The International Ecumenical Peace Convocation
met on the
Mona Campus
of the
University of the West Indies.
Memories of those days remain:
learning, leading, warm sun
worship, singing, prayers,
speakers, workshops,
networks built and renewed,
Colombia Accompaniment Program,
new options for pursuing peace,
Red Stripe under the moon,
jerk chicken, sweet and sour tofu,
little hot dogs in sauce, jerk chicken,
Sarah, Marta, Shaya, Theresa
and in the gardens,
purple flowers.
22 May 2011
University of the West Indies
Mona Campus, Jamaica
Spring’s first blush
kisses me as I push my way
through the door,
onto the porch;
my old hips groan louder than the hinges.
One, two, three painful steps, I shuffle
to the post where I stop and lean
as I try to catch my breath.
Air fills my lungs anew,
as my gaze falls upon the field:
unplowed,
unworked,
untouched it stands.
Tears well in my eyes –
it will stay that way this year.
My sons,
my proud, precious sons
will not plow or
work or
touch the field
or any field
this year
or year.
They forever lie,
in peaceful repose I hope,
in some
unknown, unnamed field:
some
God-forsaken,
God-blessed,
God-damned,
Virginian field,
victims, as are we all,
of this unending war.
Never will my boys
love or
play or
work this field again.
In peaceful rest,
they forever lie –
so I hope,
so I pray.
From the South,
a crow flies into sight,
its raucous call
breaks my reverie.
I rub one gnarled hand
against another –
hands twisted by life will never again hold a plow –
and I wonder if
down in Virginia, where Spring has surely come,
some spent, used-up man, some grieving father,
whose sons marched away to bugle’s call under flapping banners,
now gazes on a field
unplowed,
unworked,
untouched,
and remembers, wonders, weeps.
with thanks to Don Shriver
DL 5759
5 October 2012
Filed under Poem
Today, World Teachers’ Day, I give thanks for:
Father
Mother
Grandmother
Aunts
Sister
Brother-in-law
Cousin
Miss Stuck
Jim Hassel
Larry Sells
Jack Stotts
and all (well at least most) of the teachers and educators I have known.
Each has touched my life and shaped my being.
From each I learned about the subject matter at hand.
From the best I learned to think, to question, to live, to be.
This day, as I should every day, I give thanks for teachers.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Current Events, Family, United Nations
When first I came to New York City, I believed the subway served as a means of transportation.
During the two years that I have lived here, that belief has proven correct, again and again.
But I have also learned that the subway has far more uses that I ever imagined.
Some of those uses depress me. Some inspire. Many confound and amuse.
Take today.
From when I got on the subway at 125th until I got off at 96th, I watched – by glances not constantly – a woman attach false eyelashes, use tweezers on her eyebrows, and apply mascara. She sat at the end of a bench and used the wall of the car as a mirror.
Not just a way to get from here to there, the subway also functions as a moving salon.
See you along the Trail.
Check out this movie that my friends at the Center at West Park will screen.
NEW YORK, NY (September 24, 2012)– The advanced screening of a new documentary by Optimistic Film, The Second Meeting, will debut in New York City on Saturday, October 13, 2012, at West Park Presbyterian Church. Immediately following, there will be a panel discussion featuring the subjects of the film, U.S. Air Force pilot Lt. Colonel Dale Zelko and Yugoslav missile officer Colonel Zoltan Dani.
The Second Meeting follows Lt. Col Zelko’s journey back to Serbia to meet Col. Dani, 12 years after the first meeting of the pilot and missile officer who commanded the Yugoslav missile battery that shot down Zelko’s F117A Stealth fighter in 1999. “I had the remarkable opportunity to have a second chance at experiencing Serbia and her people and I will forever be deeply grateful, enriched, and blessed by it,” said Lt. Col Zelko of the experience.
The advanced screening will be the first showing…
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I visited my friend Bob Brashear, pastor of West-Park Presbyterian Church, today.
We share Pittsburgh roots. We bleed black and gold.
We have bled a lot for our Pirates the past twenty years.
This year appeared that it might bring a different result. Early in the year, they found themselves struggling for the division lead. And then they stayed in the wild card race. Late August and September brought a collapse. Now they stand at 77-82, destined for yet another losing season.
Bob told me that he went out to Shea Stadium last week a chance remained that they might break .500. But it did not happen.
Still … when was the last time that Pirate fans could conceive of going to a game late in September with a chance at a winning season. Our time will come.
See you along the Trail.
Along the Graybeard Trail 