Categories
Category: Who Am I
Posts to help folks get to know me
Gather flowers before the frost
Last night was the first frost here in West Granby. So for me it was time for my annual tradition, going out and cutting armfuls of flowers for season-end bouquets. I especially associate this tradition with picking marigolds as they are not the easiest to arrange and they look better in the garden, that is, until you know they won’t be there anymore tomorrow. So I usually don’t pick them til frost threatens. So late yesterday afternoon I gathered bunches of the marigolds that my sister-in-law, Chris, had given me to grow and sat down at the table to arrange them in multiple vases. For me it’s a lot of fun as I put into practice the family knack for flower arranging that came down to me from my mother, Dorothy Jones, and my grandmother, Jessie Isaman. Here are this year’s results. All the bouquets this year are all-sided bouquets. The first bouquet, the largest, decorates the dining room table. It happily matches my wife’s fall colors. The second sits at her computer desk to cheer her spot. The third is on my chair side table along side my Bible, devotional book and notepad. There are full size marigolds and two colors of smaller ones along with a very hardy daisy type plant that blooms very late. Greenery is form a licorice plant and some shrubbery that grows out front that I have to trim anyway.
Observing politics today is disconcerting
It is interesting and very disconcerting to me to observe what has happened in politics over the last ten years or so and what is happening this year. I used to call myself a conservative Republican, and even voted on the Conservative line often to reflect that leaning. But in this political cycle I find myself to the left of nearly all the Republican candidates. I don’t think I have changed much, but in my perception, they have moved decidedly right, becoming more isolationist, out of touch with the poor and more libertarian.
Where am I
I’m still pro-life and pro-traditional family. I distrust bigger government and prefer conservative constitutional interpretation, all of which are traditional Republican positions.
But I am also pro-immigrant, pro prison reform, pro traditional progressive income tax, pro-minimum wage increase, and concerned about racial justice. I also supported increasing those included in health care but along with many feel that the result has been disappointing. Today these kind of positions are more often found among Democrats.
Currently, I believe I am somewhere in the middle of the American political spectrum and the current divide between very leftist Democrats and extreme right Republicans is leaving me and many others in the middle without a good political home.
To compound the matter, the poll-leading Republican candidates (Trump, Cruz, and Carson) are my least favorite candidates of the bunch. Trump is so scary that I would vote for Hillary or Sanders before him.
What is needed
What is needed this year is a bridge-the-gap, common-sense party. Neither Democrats nor Republicans seem qualified for that right now.
Each year I try to get in one post about my Christmas village and railroad. Here it is using Sway. Click on the article to see the pictures. You can expand the picture to full screen. Then in the lower right corner are arrow buttons to click to advance the Sway through the pictures and text parts.
I’ve been working on a Christmas post in a new program called Sway. Here’s my first try. (Looks like you need to scroll to see it all. )
I think you’ll enjoy it.
Choir singing is not as popular as it once was except perhaps in black churches. But my wife and I have always tried to bring people together to sing as a choir for special holidays and events. JoAnne arranges for and directs the choir while I sing tenor or in later years, bass.
I have always enjoyed singing in choir. I have been reflecting upon why.
1. I simply enjoy harmony. Whether created by multiple vocal parts or multiple instruments in an ensemble, harmony is a pleasure to hear and even more pleasurable to be part of making. If you have the ability to sing harmony, it is very fulfilling to do so.
2. Church choir singing gives the added blessing of filling one’s mind with inspirational songs. I often find myself singing the choir song we practiced in my mind on other days of the week. There aren’t very many time investments that help put a song in your heart like choir singing does.
3. There is a great deal of camaraderie in a choir. Like any other task-oriented small group, it provides a place to belong, some wholesome banter, a growing relationship with fellow group members, and a sense of purpose and identity. In fact, in a small choir, one feels quite close to your section singing partners as you strive together season after season to sing your part.
4. For a church choir, there is the joy of presenting the number we have practiced during church service. Sure, we may be a bit nervous about doing well, but we are most interested that those who hear are inspired by the message we are trying to bring in music. When we receive feedback that our work has inspired and encouraged others, we are blessed by that.
5. Singing in choir uses a gift I have. By contrast, right now I am not using the gift of trombone playing that I have and I feel bad about that. My ability will slowly deteriorate. But on the other hand, when I sing in choir, I use my singing ability, I keep up that skill, so that I am ready for new opportunities to use it. As a Christian, I believe I am accountable for using my gifts for the benefit of others.
6. Singing in choir expands my knowledge of Christian music. Many of the songs we learn are fresh and vibrant expressions of our faith that I have not heard before learning them in choir.
7. Being a part of the choir has been a starting point for invitations to sing in numerous other types of groups. Men’s quartets are a riot. I have sung in a massed choir where choirs from several churches joined together, a great experience. I was asked to sing the solo part for “He’s Alive” on Easter Sunday while the choir provided back-up, an experience I will never forget. One year our choir was videoed and put their Christmas cantata on television. I have sung for live nativities and on “living Christmas trees.” All these experiences and more came to me because I sing in choir.
I have been concerned lately that my desk and my shop seem to be getting more cluttered. I’m not one of those naturally neat people, yet I like things organized. Busyness, accumulating stuff, and time pressure seem to conspire to increase the disorder. I am busy enough that I very seldom find time to just stop and organize my space. So I have adopted a new strategy. I am seeking to increase organization on the fly just a little at a time.
When I see a book on the desk that I am no longer using, I pick it up and put it away rather than looking past it to find the one thing I was searching for, as I used to do. If, while I take a phone call, I see a scrap of paper that has lost its usefulness, I toss it rather than ignore it. I’m hoping in this way to make progress on decluttering my desk.
In the same way, when I am looking for something in the shop, rather just push something around on the loaded bench, I try to put it away while I have my hands on it. Yesterday, while searching my little storage bins for a particular type of nail, I noticed several possibilities for consolidations that would open more spots to use. So I consolidated a few drawers while I looked. I’m hoping, before too long, I will have a cleaner working space in the shop too.
I guess I am onto something as I was reading advice from a specialty blogger who recommended 7 ways to get organized for those who have no time to do so. Number two in her list was to “Make progress in small slices of time.” http://www.simplify101.com/organizing-tips/get-organized/no-time-to-organize/. In fact she suggested setting aside very short blocks of time, like 10 or 15 minutes and just doing what you can do to make progress in that time, deliberately resisting the idea that you need to do the whole job.
I just put one notebook back on the shelf where it goes; a notepad into the drawer, and a scrap in the circular file. There goes a book and a file folder. Yes, progress!
When we moved here 2 years ago, I soon noticed a group of elderberry bushes in bloom just over a stone wall. It was being attacked by marauding vines and overshadowed by maple saplings. But I was determined to pick some elderberries. I remembered picking them as a young man and eating elderberry pie that my mother made.
But I soon discovered that elderberry season is short and there are competitors. The first year when I went to find berries there were none. I had been away on vacation on the key week and either the birds or the bears had finished them off. Same story the second year. So I made a more deliberate attempt to persecute the wild grape vines and clear out some overhanging maple.
This year, I found berries, lots of berries. Our vacation was earlier in the summer or I would not have because the catbirds which are very abundant here were upset when I started picking the crop they had already started to claim. Never fear, there will be plenty left for them. I volunteered to pick the berries off the stems and JoAnne made me a pie. Pictures of the process are below. What a pleasure to finally harvest what God had provided.
