by Greg | Aug 31, 2010 | Blog Posts
Last weekend Aaron and I were in my car running errands and he pointed to my dashboard and said, “You just past 100.” Rest assured I was not racing the MINI down Washington Rd. at 100 miles per hour. I am doing good to break 20 mph with all of the traffic. My car has now over 100,000 miles on the odometer. Turning 100,000 miles is really not such a big deal anymore. It wasn’t too many years ago that if a car or truck ever made it to 100,000 miles it was ready for the junk yard or Ripley’s Believe it or Not. To own a vehicle that made it past 100,000 miles gave you bragging rights for the next six months and an article in the weekly paper, right beside Earl and a picture of his 20 pound mud catfish. Now we just assume a car will last well past that mile marker. My niece drives the same car she bought used when she was 16. It has well over 200,000 miles. My dad recently retired one of his pickups and his best guess is that it had over 300,000 miles – at least that is what it was before the odometer quit working. My car is doing pretty well considering it is over 100. As with anything getting older it has its problems. The power steering has not worked in six months, which is okay because it has really strengthened my biceps. Who needs gym membership? The air conditioner smells like a wet dog is taking a nap under the hood, which doesn’t offend me, but...
by Greg | Aug 24, 2010 | Blog Posts
A couple of months ago I handed over a rather plain fountain pen to one of our church members, Bill Engels, and asked him if he thought he could repair it. I knew Bill had recently taken up the hobby of making ink pens and pencil sets and thought perhaps he could repair this old pen. This vintage pen has been in an equally old cup with other artifacts from the past. It belonged to my grandfather or my great-grandfather. I have never known it to write and it has been nothing more to me than a sentimental antique that reminds me of family. Bill took on this project and soon began to give me reports on its progress – yes, progress. Apparently this was not going to be a simple job. I learned from Bill that it was from 1946 and Parker discontinued this particular model the next year in favor of something more modern. Today Bill presented me with the pen, repaired and ready to write. The pen itself is plain and unassuming. It has a black barrel with nickel plated cap and a very simple nib that has to be dipped in an ink well and filled. I am not sure what my grandfather paid for it, but I am sure it was a small yet necessary investment for a farmer. I am certain that with this pen he figured and refigured milk prices, the worth of cows, calves and other livestock, and made notes to himself. Unlike today where people give pens away, this was a pen that was kept and used for years, perhaps...
by Greg | Aug 19, 2010 | Blog Posts
One of the rewards of gardening is growing and eating your own food. There are few things that can compare with sitting down at the table and knowing that the peppers garnishing the peas and the slices of tomatoes alongside the bowl of spinach all were planted, nurtured and harvested out of the garden in the back yard. Of course my two little plots do not have much room for little else than tomatoes, peppers and a few varieties of herbs. Still, there are few things better tasting than a homegrown tomato. Can I get an amen?! I figured my tomatoes averaged about forty dollars apiece, which does not include my labor in planting, staking, tending, watering, fertilizing and chasing away pests like hornworms, squirrels and other varmints. I certainly did not garden to save money. A church member reminded me that it was still cheaper than paying a therapist, which I concede is a good point. I have had some nice surprises during this otherwise abysmal harvest season. Early in the summer I noticed a couple of vines growing volunteer (meaning I did not plant them but they came up compliments of last year’s compost). At first I thought the vines were cucumbers, but as the blooms gave way to fruit they looked gourds. Finally the shape was unmistakably that of cantaloupe. While my tomatoes ran forty dollars apiece, I have four cantaloupes for free. This is not quite a wash, but I will take it. By next spring I will get over my failures in “the back forty” and plant again. In fact soon I will replace...
by Greg | Aug 10, 2010 | Blog Posts
This past Monday was a “Last First” for us, well for our oldest son anyway. It was his last first day of school. Beginning with Kindergarten he has had for the last thirteen years a monumental first day of school and now that he is a senior he observed his last first day of school. I thought about this as both boys were eating cinnamon rolls that we bake, always on their first day of school. This will not be his last cinnamon roll of course, but it will be his “last first.” Once you become a parent the seasons mark by school take on a heightened significance. I remember holding his nervous little hand walking with him to his kindergarten class and thinking to myself, “this school is too big for my small son.” Now both of my sons seem too big for any school to contain their dreams and ambitions. The school bus no longer stops for them because they drive to school. It has been years since either one of them brought home a drawing to post on the refrigerator. I am no longer invited to eat lunch with them in the cafeteria. There have been many “last firsts” along the way; I just did not always know it or recognize it. This is the way of life. Things come and move and have their being and then are no more. Life cannot be frozen or halted. Children grow up; parents get old; employment changes; friends move and the seasons unfold. In fact growing involves shedding things along the way. Did you know that every five...
by Greg | Jul 27, 2010 | Blog Posts
…that sounds so mysterious, doesn’t it? Well, it is in fact mysterious. Recently I was listening to a podcast where a physicist was interviewed about his ideas of the “consciousness of contemplation” – or something like that!! He kept referring to “dark energy.” “What is dark energy?” I asked out loud to no one in particular, but I was hoping Amy might have an answer. Finally the physicist speaking from my radio answered my question. Dark energy is the most popular way to explain recent observations and experiments that the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate. It is thought that it accounts for 74% of the total mass-energy of the universe. (Thank goodness for wikipedia for convenient statistics!) The very thought that there is energy out there – that cannot fully be explained, let alone defined – that accounts for most of the energy in the known universe is enough to make one’s neurons pop. A few hundred years ago it was thought that the earth was the center of the universe. Now we know that not only is the earth not the center of the universe, but it is not even the center of the solar system in this galaxy. Furthermore, our galaxy, according to some astronomers, is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies. Our solar system is more like a suburb among the other galaxies, known and unknown. The very thought alone draws me into a sense of Biblical awe and reverence. Long before telescopes the Psalmist thought as much. In Psalm 8 David wrote (and no doubt sung) “When...
by Greg | Jun 14, 2010 | Blog Posts
This is our last full day in Rome and I am almost certain my last blog entry from Rome. We decided to make it more or less a full day in the city, squeezing in a rest time in the afternoon. Speaking of rest, I look forward to sleeping in my own bed in our happily air-conditioned house! Last night was a long night with nary a breeze to stir up the disquieting quiet. We boarded the bus to begin our trek through some of our favorite places in Rome, but first we needed a quick breakfast. In Italy a typical breakfast is a cappuccino and pastry – no bacon, eggs and certainly no grits. The four of us dined for about 7 dollars. We started our day of shopping with the Piazza of Campo de Fioro (translated it means “field of flowers” although the only flowers are the ones sold in stalls and it has not been a field in about two thousand years). At the market I bought some very pungent spices that will go well with olive oil and bread when we are settled again in Augusta. I just hope it will make it through customs. We also bought a few other things along the way that we had putting off until the last minute. In fact, most of our shopping was accomplished by wandering down alley after alley walking in stores that we thought to be interesting. By the time lunch rolled around we were all laden with small shopping bags and the satisfaction in knowing we have done our small part in helping the...
by Greg | Jun 13, 2010 | Blog Posts
Saturday was my first and last Saturday that was completely unscheduled so I did what I usually do when faced with the “oppression” of an open schedule – I scheduled something! Actually I had help from Amy. The other day we read an advertisement in the subway that there would be a “Fan Fest” starting Saturday in the Borghese Park for the World Cup. We both agreed that this sounded like fun and easier than the side trip I was thinking about taking south of Rome to look at some more ruins. About mid-morning we took off first by bus and then by walking another mile and a quarter to the park itself. Along the way we picked up a few foccacia sandwiches and chips with the hope to find a place to picnic before the jumbo-tron. Gates opened at ten and the first game (Greece versus South Korea) began at 1:30. It was already noon and we wanted to beat the crowd, since the place was designed to only hold 20,000. Our concerns turned out to be groundless. We arrived and no one with the exception of workers and one lone person was there. I am not kidding. In fact I have a picture to prove it. We plopped down in the middle of the expanse of artificial turf rolled out for all the fans and ate our sandwiches while listening to Italian radio. All along we kept thinking, hoping that the swelling crowd was making their way rowdily from somewhere in the park and just have not arrived. By the time the game was about to start...
by Greg | Jun 12, 2010 | Blog Posts
Today was my first day on sabbatical leave that was not in one way or another dedicated to my intended studies. For 17 straight days I have been walking, talking, listening, and taking in the sights, sounds, and conversations related to sacred art. If I have counted correctly I have visited 19 different churches, some of them multiple times; six different museums; innumerable historical sites; and eaten enough pasta and pizza to become a regional authority on southern Italian cuisine. Today we took it easy, or at least easier than the past two and half weeks. The timing could not have been better because for some reason I have developed a painful blister on the ball of my right foot two days ago. Normally one gets blisters on the first few days which then become calluses. I am not sure how this one slipped by until now, but either way it is painful to walk. People have asked me if we were planning to travel outside of Rome in our remaining few days in Italy. Originally that seemed to be a sensible plan, but truthfully we are all about spent and there are still some things we want to do and see while in Rome – like see the skulls and bones of the Capuchin friars! In spite of an irritating blister, I swallowed my pride and wore “socks in my crocs” and walked a bit today, visiting a favorite market in the piazza Campo dei Fiori. There were a few items we needed for supper as well as just the need to leisurely browse without having to worry...
by Greg | Jun 11, 2010 | Blog Posts
Even though my more or less formal study of sacred art in Rome under the tutelage of Michael Schwartz concluded on Wednesday, I still had a couple of more commitments today. Just after lunch I left my family to meet with the president of the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Italy, Anna Maffei. I am not sure if I have clarified how I became acquainted with Anna, so let me explain. Two or so years ago, when I began planning for this sabbatical, I contacted Rob Nash, the global missions coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and asked him for help. He put me in contact with Anna, whom he came to know through shared work with the Baptist World Alliance (more about the BWA later). My primary concern was to locate suitable and affordable housing for a three week stay in Rome. Through a flurry of email exchanges Anna suggested I rent from her sister, Adrianna, which is exactly what we wound up doing. Even though we have been here for well over two weeks and our time about to wind down, due to my heavy schedule and Anna’s we were only able to meet Thursday afternoon. The headquarters are just above the Rome Baptist Church where I worshipped Sunday. The offices were rather ordinary with modern, inexpensive office furnishings arranged beneath what looked to be a rather old, coffered ceiling that was at least a few hundred years old. As I said earlier, the denomination (although that is not a term used much outside of America) of Italian Baptists belong to the Baptist World Alliance. The...
by Greg | Jun 10, 2010 | Blog Posts
Today marks the “official” last day of class, although there are some extra excursions planned before the weekend. Before meeting up with the class this afternoon I took some time to go on a “hike” on the Appian Way. As you recall from an earlier post, we walked a portion of it Monday, but there was still more to see. I set out on my own, since the family has no desire to do any additionally walking and ambled my way southward (and in this case upward, as in a hill) along the Via Appia Antiqua. Before reaching the terminus, I came to a place where it was fenced off, apparently due to an archeology dig. Over the years when I have been out hiking, walking or just plain wandering around and have come to dead ends, I tend to look for another road, which was what I did today. I found a small dirt foot path to my right that wove through a pasture end emptied into a dirt road. I kept walking. Along the way I found the ruins of some old structure that could have been an old home and barn. This is what makes Rome endlessly fascinating – treasures on every corner (or in this case pasture). Down the path were all sorts of wildflowers growing including delicate purple blooms. I was reminded of a line from the novel The Color Purple that goes something like this: “I think it makes God mad when someone walks past the color purple and not notice.” Well, I noticed and snapped a picture for good measure. It was...
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