Myers Briggs Personality Test

So, I took the Meyer's Briggs test (again) and it tells me I am INFJ - Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging. Hmmm. Doesn't sound like but it said the results were intenrally consistent. I think i'll take it again when all the spam is out of my  system. 

This is what a Mr. Joe Butt has to say about INFJ's at http://typelogic.com/infj.html.  

I wonder, does this ring true to anyone who knows me?

"Beneath the quiet exterior, INFJs hold deep convictions about the weightier matters of life. Those who are activists -- INFJs gravitate toward such a role -- are there for the cause, not for personal glory or political power.

INFJs are champions of the oppressed and downtrodden. They often are found in the wake of an emergency, rescuing those who are in acute distress. INFJs may fantasize about getting revenge on those who victimize the defenseless. The concept of 'poetic justice' is appealing to the INFJ.

"There's something rotten in Denmark." Accurately suspicious about others' motives, INFJs are not easily led. These are the people that you can rarely fool any of the time. Though affable and sympathetic to most, INFJs are selective about their friends. Such a friendship is a symbiotic bond that transcends mere words.

INFJs have a knack for fluency in language and facility in communication. In addition, nonverbal sensitivity enables the INFJ to know and be known by others intimately.

Writing, counseling, public service and even politics are areas where INFJs frequently find their niche."

Missing Link?

The following story about a monkey/lemur fossil is fascinating and all but I am missing the link to the missing link idea - a link from what to what exactly? I'm all ears and don't have an ax to grind on the matter, but I'm jusy not seeing it. Maybe you can help me.

I'm Pulling for Kris

Yes, Adam has a better voice and an incredible stage presence, but neither his voice nor his persona appeal to me particularly. And no, this has nothing to do with who is gay and who isn’t. If Kris were gay and Adam not and they sang exactly the same way I’d still pull for Kris. Adam has a world class voice. Unbelievable. But it doesn’t do anything for me. Mariah Carey has a world class voice, but it doesn’t do anything for me either. I prefer Iris Dement. Josh Groban has a world class voice, and I like him, but I’d rather listen to Jackson Browne. What I like about Kris is his talent for adapting songs and putting his particular stamp on them, from Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” to Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova’s “Falling Slowly” to Kanye West’s "Heartless.”

I expect Adam to win, and either way I wish them both the very best in their musical careers, but I’m pulling for Kris, and I look forward to buying his first record.

Old Friends

Joel (me), Bill, Skip, Calvin, and Matt at Sherb Naulty's house in Westfield NJ, on way to New England, Summer 1977. We miss you Matt.

Countdown to June 1

Well, since my "All the Rest Have 31" post a couple of weeks ago a lot of you have written to me to share ideas and express concern, and I appreciate it very much. This is a new adventure for me. Indeed, I've had a few new life adventures this year and am certainly learning a lot from each one. Facing the specter of unemployment for the first time in my life helps me appreciate what many folks I know and have known have been through and are going through. I have been sympathetic along the way of course, but not truly empathetic. That has changed. This is a big transition in difficult times.

Some days I feel anxious, but so far most days I feel hopeful and encouraged. Thankfully the church where I have been pastoring for 16 years (Covenant Fellowship - if you don't have a church home you should check it out) is going to help in our transition to whatever is next, so it's not like we starve starting in June - just so you'll know.

So I wanted to try to type out a summary of where I am in this job/vocational search. A few things are coming into focus.

I am finding that it's hard to know how to balance short and long term financial needs, the lower paying present opportunities (which offer no chance of ever paying even the well-trimmed bills) with the higher paying potential opportunities that take more time to find (and offer hope of providing for our needs). It seems best to let the longer term employment search process go out a couple of months before I tie up most of my time with a job that would hinder it. I've asked different people about this issue and have gotten widely different answers. It seems the consensus is to give the longer term a shot first. I will need wisdom.

Though it looks like there might not be a solid existing job prospect out there for a person with my background, especially given the economy, I will keep my eyes and mind open as I talk to people and check notices as to existing jobs. One never knows. I have been a generalist pastor for 20 years, a teacher for five, and have run a couple of businesses, all of which gives me breadth of experience, and a lot of practice in communicating (speaking and writing) and in working with people. So, who knows, something may happen. Call me.

I also will keep exploring teaching jobs in NC. I qualify for "lateral entry" here in Guilford County so at least there is that. Unfortunately, there exist hiring freezes all over the place.

I do have a couple of ideas as to longer term employment, but they each require some retooling in terms of education and fundamental knowledge and skills. Even in my areas of interest and having some experience I am still a little out of date.

I have been - both in pastoral ministry and in life in general - a bit of a generalist. I think I could bring a lot to a small business or an organization but it doesn't perhaps look that way on paper. Rather than bemoan that and get discouraged I think I need to use my age and life experience to my advantage. I get the feeling that whatever is out there for me will take require this generalist experience and tendency, especially my experience communicating and with working with people.

Not sure where else to turn I am looking in the direction of areas that have interested me for some time.

First I have interest in a kind of uber-green horticulture/landscape design business that would focus on things like water conservation and runoff, the use of native plants, reduction of equipment emissions, pesticide and herbicide avoidance, use of organic materials, designing and planting with wildlife in mind, possibly more in a restoration/design/maintenance sense but possibly also in a new construction and community planning sense as well, the latter given my interest in land restoration and habitat reclamation. Second, I am still drawn toward working for a non profit environmental organization, perhaps a land trust or a group like the Nature Conservancy whose mission I am particularly drawn to. In both of these areas I do think need more experience, skill, and knowledge upgrade. This could mean formal schooling or a mix of less formal schooling (certificate programs), volunteer work, and just studying up. I am considering each option.

I am already set up with a growing readership/viewership of my online work, plus I am equipped to make some money offering a few services as I have outlined before. I think I need to take advantage of the exposure that I already have by focusing a decent amount of time contributing content in areas consistent with those two areas of interest. These areas weave together very well by the way. In doing this writing combined with training and volunteering, I can interact with and get to know some of the leaders in the interest areas I have cited.

I continue to draw a fair amount of interest in music, art, photography, stories, and general Christian takes on various issues, etc. I think I should take advantage of that as well, partly because it is a good thing to do, and partly to stay connected to other people.

This week is lining up well. I signed up yesterday for an intensive non profit management certificate program at Duke in June. I am also in conversation with a leader in Nature Conservancy to get her take on what sorts of things I should do to be more marketable at an organization like that. I met yesterday with a friend who wants me to think about helping in a prospective business that would take advantage of my experience in analysis and writing, I am meeting with a writing coach, a local doctor friend who is very active in leadership in the community, am applying for a spot in a local leadership training group, and meeting several other folks for general networking.

It's a process. Prayers, ideas and leads are welcome.

Well, all for now.

Joel

Today's Quote: from Apaloosa

"Life has a way of making the foreseeable that which never happens... and the unforeseeable that which your life becomes."

Everett Hitch (narrating, and played by Viggo Mortensen), from Appaloosa

Today's Lyric: I'll Take My Sorrow Straight

"You almost make it seem like something nice the way you take your bad news and you pour it over ice"

Iris Dement, I'll Take My Sorrow Straight, off The Way I Should

Today's Quote: Age Is Not All Decay

"Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk."

George MacDonald, The Marquis of Lossie

British Columbia on My Mind - Howe Sound from Black Tusk

This picture is taken from the top of a volcanic core called The Black Tusk in British Columbia, looking almost slightly to the west of south toward Howe Sound, British Columbia. The trail head to The Tusk is about two hours north of Vancouver. You can see a picture of The Black Tusk from the trail here. And you can see a picture of formerly skinny me atop The Black Tusk here. And you can see a great view of Garibaldi Mountian here. 

The trail is nine miles each way, with a 6000 foot elevation change. The last couple of hundred feet elevation-wise goes straight up through a kind of vertical tunnel in the core called "the chimney." You have to sort of shimmy up using leg pressure on the walls. It's really fun. To be honest, the last mile or so of this trail was very very hard. I was not in great shape and was not used to oxygen levels at 8000 feet, especially after walking eight miles already along with a mile elevation change. In the final ascent to The Tusk I thought my heart to was going to blow out of my chest. I contemplated stopping, but then decided I'd rather die right there than turn around (OK, stupid, I know), so I kept going, slowly. 

Once I got to the top I took a nap. After that I was so full of energy and adrenaline I ran most of the way down - laughing. It was fun running down the large field of volcanic rock - kind of more like a controlled slide or fall! I did the hike with the brother of a friend of mine - he was in better shape then I was! Oh, one other thing. On the way up a black bear with two cubs crossed the trail about 75 feet in front of us. At first just the adult bear appeared, and stood there staring at us, us staring back, and then I saw the cubs. It was way cool, but then I thought, "Oh my..." Thankfully Mrs. Bear decided we weren't a threat or worth her trouble and the three of them moved along. Whew!

Josh Ritter at Cat's Cradle May 30

So, I went to the Cat's Cradle ticket sales site to get tickets to the David Cook show May 31 only to find that the show was sold out. Then to my utter delight I saw that Josh Ritter was playing the night before, on Saturday May 30. I'd way rather see Josh Ritter than David Cook, as much as I like David Cook. Josh Ritter is one of the most talented and unque artists around, and I can't wait to see the show. If you're not familiar with Josh Ritter check a couple of these You Tube clips, or go to his site. And go buy tickets before they are sold out!

Josh Ritter singing Good Man at the Stone Pony

Josh Ritter singing To the Dogs or Whoever on David Letterman

Josh Ritter singing Kathleen at Easy Street Records

Josh Ritter singing Monster Balads at the Stone Pony

And many thanks to my friend Bestin for turning me on to Josh Ritter!

Bill Mallonee Interview - Good Stuff

Found this very interesting interview with Bill Mallonee (of Vigilantes of Love fame). It's audio, and pretty free ranging, but provides insight into a great artist's mind and heart. Check it out. You can find Bill's stuff at www.billmallonee.net. Anyoen want to co host a house show with me? You provide the house I'll do most of the work?

Today's Quote: Francis Schaeffer

"Christians, of all people, should not be destroyers. We should treat nature with overwhelming respect."

Francis Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man

Today's Picture: Reed on Pond

Sun on Grassy Reed Near Pond, Clemson, SC, 1976

More Clemson Pictures

Todays Lyric: Only Love

"Only love can make it rain, The way the beach is kissed by the sea."

from "Love, Reign O'er Me," The Who, written by Peter Townshend, vocals by Roger Daltrey, from Quadrophenia

I love this line, every other line, the music, the sound effects, the whole deal. This is an amazing song (with the very best "scream" in all rock music, the closing "Looooooove.")

Today's Picture: Dog and Cat Affection

Clancey and Yellow Tabby - we had so many cats I can't remember this cat's name. Here is another picture of them together.

Today's Quote: Friendship

"Hence we picture lovers face to face, but Friends side by side; their eyes look ahead" 

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Today's Lyric: Gettin Older

"So scared of gettin older, I'm only good at being young" 

John Mayer, from Stop This Train, off Continuum

Picture of the Day: Issaqueena Dam, Clemson

That's me with hands up sliding down Issaqueena Dam, Clemson, Fall 1975

More Clemson Photos

Today's Lyric: from Nothing Like a Train

"when you find there's nothing special yeah,
about that big hole in your heart
'cause everybody's got one
with precious little time to talk about it"

Bill Mallonee and The Vigilantes of Love, Nothing Like a Train, Audible Sigh

Today's Quote: God Made Us Cultural Beings

"It would be impossible to think of loving humans and yet hating human culture, of loving individuals and yet hating their music, songs, stories, paintings, games, rituals, decorations, lauguages and hairstyles. God made us cultural beings."

Steve Turner, from Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts

Today's Lyrics: How I wish...

"How I wish I could walk through the doors of my mind; Hold memory close at hand, Help me understand the years." James Blunt, Tears and Rain, Back to Bedlam

Today's Picture: A Family Glimpse into the Depression Years

My sister Mary found a "new" batch of old pictures, including this old picture of my dad and his parents. I think this is a great photo, whoever took it - life and fashion in the early 1930's. I think this is in Florida but am not sure.

In the picture:

Curtis Claunch Gillespie, Sr. (my grandfather)
Curtis Claunch Gillespie, Jr. (my dad)
Mary Sue (Andrews) Gillespie (my grandmother) 

My Flickr Site

All the Rest Have 31 - Countdown to Unemployment

So, today I begin my 31 day countdown to unemployment.

I should be freaking out. I don't know why I'm not. I'd like to say that it is due to some deep abiding trust in God and quiet confidence in His provision. In truth He has always provided for me and my family over the years. Maybe that is it. I don't know.

It is a pretty sucky time to be unemployed. If I listened to all the doom and gloom I might want to go jump off a building, but I don't. I think it is a good time to think about opportunity. Yes, I'll go with that.

I have almost never really looked for work - it always seems to have come to me. Yes, sometimes God has me go through many of the necessary motions, but then provides me with something that is in no way connected with anything I tried to do.

I have a feeling that there isn't really a "job" out there with my name on it. Now if you were just going to call me and offer me a job please don't let that last comment deter you. Call me :-).

It feels like a time to find the right niche that fits my interests and core competencies and experience and build work from there. I could be wrong, but that's what it feels like.

There is the horticulture angle. I have a niche idea there - would share it but I don't want anyone to steal it. I like the horticulture angle.

There is the teaching angle. Not much hiring going on. And the pay is not so great. But I like kids.

There is the writing angle. That is very appealing to me because I love (as I have shared) writing about "nature" and environmental issues, local history, stories of life in the 60's, sports, cultural issues, art, theology and biblical studies, etc. And I love putting my pics up there. I could work that via a non profit and also, as hits go up, adding in advertising and such. It could be a piece of the puzzle. I would need a few patrons.

related to that is writing books. I think I have 15-20 books in me over the next decade. My good friend Sherb has a great book idea. Meanwhile something has to pay the bills.

I have talked to a friend about how to get better in photography. There are some cool "Photography Institutes" out there where I could get a lot better. For me photography is more of an enhancement to my writing. I feel more like a photo journalist than a photographer per se. I'd like to get better.

Then there is the non profit angle - maybe environmental non-profit. Hmmm. I've been working with volunteers for 20 years. Do I need a break from that? I need to think about it some more.

I have thought about school. if there were a program that I could start and finish in a school year plus a summer that would greatly enhance either business success or employable I'd be interested, but I can't find one.

Then there are the several "services" I can offer - digitizing pretty much anything, restoring old photographs (not as well or as expensively as the other local businesses), tutoring math and science and writing, working to fill in family histories and putting together digital scrapbooks, de-gunking computers, filling in as a teacher or "preacher" if the need arises, etc. Hmmm.

The there is exploring various ways to market my pictures via various products that include them. My 'lil sis and my daughter like that idea. I need a salesman!

And then there is some kind soul like you who just happens to have a job with my name on it. Please, do call.

30 more days after today...

Happy Birthday Dad - I Miss You

I have posted this picture before. It is my favorite photo of my dad, taken at the Gator Bowl, December 1977.  Clemson got stomped by Pitt but it was still a lot of fun. Dad would have been 79 today. My sister Mary just found a great batch of old photos of Dad - I can't wait to scan them.

More pictures of Curtis Claunch Gillespie, Jr., April 30, 1930 to June 26, 1989.

Today's Picture: The Face of Evil

Here Kitty kitty, here kitty kitty. More cats.

Today's Quote: Nose in the Wind (for Fec)

"Which way you headed, Jeremiah?"
"Canada, maybe. I hear there is land there a man has never seen."
"Well, keep your nose in the wind, and your eyes along the skyline."
"I will do that, Del Gue."

Today's Lyric: Road/Sky

"When we come to place where the road and the sky collide...Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide" Jackson Browne, Road and the Sky, Late for the Sky

Today's Quote: from Crotch to Eyeball

"You turn down this gift, and they'll slit you, me, Caleb and the horses from crotch to eyeball with a dull deer antler" Del Gue, to Jeremiah Johnson, from Jeremiah Johnson

Today's Lyric: Beauty and Pain

"Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain." Bob Dylan, Not Dark Yet, Time Out of Mind

Today's Picture: Why I Like Weeds

Ajuga reptans. Why would anyone want a "perfect" lawn when you can have this?

Today's Lyric: Beauty and Power

"Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power."

Jackson Browne, Before the Deluge

Today's Picture: Clancey in Woods

Animals on my mind today. I miss you big guy! More Clancey Pictures.

Today's Quote: Truth

"I don't want to dismay anyone, but Truth harasses me this morning..." Vicki Hearnes, Animal Happiness

Today's Lyric: Blue

"Blue is the color of night 

When the red sun 

Disappears from the sky 

Raven feathers shiny and black 

A touch of blue glistening down her back 

Blue "

Lucinda Williams, "Blue"

Male Birch Catkins in Azalea Glow

My Backyard, Easter Sunday, 2009 - I love catkins of all kinds - and cats too.

See more Sping pictures

Corduroy in Grass on Easter Sunday

The camera spooked him but he hung in there for this shot! Corduroy is my bud.

Today's Lyrics: A Living Prayer

"Take my life and let me be
A living prayer, my God to Thee"

Alison Kraus, "A Living Prayer," written by Don Block

Today's Quote - about Clouds

From GM Hopkins, “Hurrahing in Harvest”

"…up above, what wind-walks! what lovely
behavior
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?"


Today in Greensboro it is windy and cool with bright white clouds skimming across the skies from west to east all with the same “floor” or altitude.

Although it was Autumn, Hopkins was noticing a similar thing. The excerpt above is from Hopkins’ great poem, “Hurrahing in Harvest,” this part being about clouds skimming across the sky.

Hopkins liked coining words that fit his need for meaning and meter, and such is wind-walk. The idea, I think, is that of the wind moving the clouds in rank or formation, as soldiers might march across a field. Kind of like outside my window right now.

The clouds seem to be both soft and delicate (like silk), and rough and ready (like sack cloth), at the same time – hence “silk-sack.” These “silk-sack” clouds, “wind-walking” through the skies are "wild and" “wilful,” as in headstrong and unpredictable.

I am reminded of lying on my back with my daughter, back when such things interested her, and watching the clouds, making out the shapes with her. How fast they would change! The dog's head would last just a moment before dissipating or crashing into another shape. There is an exciting unpredictable quality to clouds.

These clouds remind Hopkins of white flour or “meal” as they drift across the sky, ever changing – molding and melting (coming together, coming apart) – as they go (again, like the clouds outside my window).

As to how Hopkins responds to this – next time.

Dark Saturday

Today on this Easter Saturday we as Christians find ourselves caught between Good Friday, which we now celebrate as that great and glorious day when our redemption was secured in and by the death of Messiah Jesus, and Easter Sunday, which we celebrate as that great and glorious day when death itself was defeated in the resurrection of Jesus.

But the disciples on their Saturday before the first Easter looked back to Friday as the day their world came crashing to an end, and ahead to Sunday as only another day to adjust to life with Jesus gone.

Easter Saturday was a very dark and lonely and hopeless day almost 2000 years ago for the disciples. They were shaken with grief, scared for their own lives, humiliated, bearing the burden and excruciating disappointment of dashed hopes. It seemed they had been wrong about Jesus. They thought he would bring in the kingdom. They thought he would restore Israel’s fortunes. OK, Jesus had said that he would be taken, that he would suffer, that he would die as a ransom for many, but these words had never sunk in, had never quite broken through the wrong assumptions of the disciples. And now it was a dark Saturday. Jesus was gone.

Given this state of mind, and despite all Jesus had said, when the news broke on the morning of the first day of the week that Jesus was alive, it couldn’t have been more unexpected. Or electrifying…Or transforming...

But, back to Dark Saturday...

Sometimes we feel a little like the disciples on that Dark Saturday. Our most cherished hopes are crushed, and the detritus of our dreams are strewn around us as inescapable reminders of our frailty and failure. Living in the present we cannot yet see through to tomorrow or the day after that, and when we try to project forward we may only be able to imagine a cruel extension of the present darkness.

It is hard for us, 2000 years after the first Easter, to imagine just how dark that Dark Saturday was for the disciples and many other friends and followers of Jesus.

And thus, not having walked through these dark places with the disciples, it is also very hard for us to wrap our minds around the earth shattering nature of what came about the following morning, when hopelessness was replaced by hope, sadness by joy, darkness by light, confusion by clarity.

Sometimes we have to sit in the darkness to appreciate the light, or know hopelessness in order to understand hope, or feel utter gloom before we can know real joy.

We are taught as Christians to identify with the sufferings of Jesus. On this Dark Saturday I am inclined to remember the sufferings of the disciples. Remembering that, and relating to it, it makes the events of Easter morning more unexpectedly wonderful.

Today's Quote: Peace

"And when Peace here does house...
He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,
He comes to brood and sit."

from "Peace" Gerard Manley Hopkins

Today's Lyric: Come to Me

"Come to me like when the rain falls,
like the arrow from the archer,
let the wind behind the stars call me from
points of my departure"

from Points of My Departure, The Vigilantes of Love, off Slow Dark Train,

Downtown Columbia: What's Wrong with This Picture

Downtown Columbia, from State House grounds

Look closely...What's wrong with this picture...

Todays Lyric: from Bill Mallonee

In these days of toil and trouble 

How much of this is failing flesh 

How much a course of retribution

My, my, how loudly we plead our innocence 

Long after we made our contribution 

Bill Mallonee and The Vigilantes of Love, from "Resplendent," on Audible Sigh

Todays Quote: Steve Turner

"One of the great hindrances to the development of biblically informed mainstream art has been the perception that Christians should make “Christian art” and that “Christian art” is always explicitly religious." Steve Turner, from “Imagine: a Vision for Christians in the Arts.”

My Two Grandmothers

My brother Mike and my two grandmothers. I LOVE this picture - check out that suit. Dude!

Adeline Sanders (my mom's mom)

Michael Curtis Gillespie (my brother)

Mary Sue Gillespie (my dad's mom)

At Bobby's Wedding I think, late 70's 

Today's Lyric

"I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from."

Bob Dylan, Not Dark Yet, from Time Out of Mind

Today's Quote

"But Francis (of Assisi) held neither to transmigration of souls nor to pantheism. His view of nature and of man rested on a unique sort of pan-psychism of all things animate and inanimate, designed for the glorification of their transcendent Creator, who, in the ultimate gesture of cosmic humility, assumed flesh, lay helpless in a manger, and hung dying on a scaffold."

Francis Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man.

Days Gone By

My 'lil sis Mary, in Nanny's yard, Columbia, SC., app 1961, Holding Camelia, Pink Perfection I think.

I like the dreamy quality of this picture, enhanced somewhat by being a little out of focus. And those eyes!

See my photostream

Today's Lyric

"So excuse me forgetting but these things I do

You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue 

Anyway the thing is what I really mean

Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen"

Elton John, Your Song 

Today's Quote

"Our generation is hungry- hungry for love, for beauty, for meaning. The "dust of death" covers all. And as in Jeremiah's day, there is with us the unsatisfied longing for a sufficient comforter." 

Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City.

Yellow Jasmine

Gelsemium sempervirens

Jasmine also spelled "Jessamine"

This beautiful evergreen vine and floral array also known as Carolina Jasmine

The state flower of South Carolina

My photostream

Lavender on My Mind

Wisteria, from below

Today's Lyric

"But words and music can never touch the beauty that I've seen looking into you - and thats true."

from "Looking into You," Jackson Browne

Today's Quote

"Mine, O thou Lord of life, send my roots rain."

from "Thou Art Ineed Just," GM Hopkins

It Worked! Hello Beau!

A few weeks back I published a list of ten people that I had lost track of in life, a piece called Does Anybody Know These Friends of Mine?" One of the folks listed was Beau Coxe (incorrectly spelled "Bo Cox"). Well, lo and behold, Beau called me last night from his home near Atlanta. Apparently his sister had done a search and stumbled across my pictures of Beau from our SC bicycle trip in May 1977. She called Beau and he called me. We talked a long time, and will talk again soon. Sometimes the internet is just plain cool.

The picture above with the story below is one of the great memories of that trip - crazy kids in their youth!

"We were riding over a very long bridge between Beaufort and Hilton Head, across a very large river inlet, and we stopped to look. We debated about jumping. There was a pole running up an abuttment and we thought we could climb up that. Beau said he would go first to show us the way. We were maybe 20 feet above the water. Anyway, Beau went under and popped up about 50 feet upriver as the tide was coming in hard. It took all his strength to swim back to the abuttment. On the way up the pole the pole broke and he fell back into the water with no way to get up and about a mile from land. A fishing boat came up, cursed us out for being stupid fools, and threw us a rope. We pulled Beau up by the rope."

Today's Lyric

"Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then"
Bob Segar, "Against the Wind," from the album Against the Wind
(a great song about life - I like Segar more and more as I get older)

Today's Quote

"What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden."

GM Hopkins

"Spring"

Today's Lyric: "No matter how fast I run
I can never seem to get away from me." Jackson Browne, Your Bright Baby Blues, from The Pretender

Todays Quote: "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about." GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Today's quote: "There is only one reason to be a Christian: because it's true" Francis Schaeffer (for real, think about that...)

Today's quote: "The Christian way of life does not take away our loneliness; it protects and cherishes it as a precious gift." Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer

Today's Quote: Truth is truth, whether from the lips of Jesus or Balaam. George MacDonald, from C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald - An Anthology

My Favorite Potrait of Mom, Updated

A kind soul downloaded and worked on a photo of my mom, and sent it to me via e-mail as a tribute to her. I think this is pretty cool. Check out the  original photo.

Quote for today: "Man's spirit will be flesh-bound when found at best," GM Hopkins, Caged Skylark, line 12

Ch-ch-ch-ch Changes

To all my peeps,

A couple of friends and folks in the know have written me publicly to see how I am doing and such, and so as to be open and up front I figured I would just give the basic skinny.

Our church (Covenant Fellowship ARP Church, Greensboro, NC) was very kind last month to grant me a 90 day medical leave to "get better" physically (and emotionally too perhaps). For 2-3 years I had had a kind of gradual cascading series of minor health issues that were adding up to larger health issues and which needed to be addressed, and which as a result had left me for some time generally less energetic and effective than I had been. This included some newer weird stuff that impacted me pretty significantly. After consulting with various folks and our elders, I (and we) decided that it would be best for me (and for Covenant Fellowship) after the medical leave not return to the rigors of full time pastoral ministry at this time, due to reasons/issues related to health, burn out, and family. I've been at CF 16 years (having founded it with Dwight and Susan Thomas), so it's going to be an adjustment for me and everyone. Thankfully I will continue to worship with my brethren there until other things possibly begin to take me away. I and we pray that CF will prosper and that God will direct me to the next thing, whatever that is. I'm looking forward to the opportunities ahead. 

This was all discussed in a sweet spirited congregational meeting this past Sunday. 

I am not 100% sure what I will do next. I will remain a "Reverend" and "Presbyter" in good standing and hope to pick up some "Supply" preaching this summer, expand the work of the Carolina Study Center-Greensboro (and my writing generally), try to find ways to "market" my photography, perhaps take on some work digitizing LP's, cassettes, and VHS tapes (and Beta), scanning slides, film, and restoring old photos, etc), tutor, and start networking for other possible work, maybe teaching again, not sure.

In the mean time I am trying to get fit again since that is the thing that would help the most - and a good friend bought me a three month membership in the City Health Club on Elm Street. I have been working out there,walking, and riding my bike. I hope to hit some serious trails in the next two months too. Uphill trails.

Anyway, that's my life!

Around the Corner - Red Bud Rising

As we head into a period of cool rain, I thought I'd post a picture of what awaits on the other side!

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis L.) Greensboro NC About this picture: well, it was early Spring here in NC, and many flowers were opening up, and I decided after two years I would start to learn how to use my new fangled camera, so I went outside and started trying to capture some shots. The Redbud in our front yard was in full bloom, and the big bumble bees were everywhere. The aroma was amazing. I wish I could capture that - maybe that's the next invention! I tried to focus in on one clump of bud/flowers - but I am still learning the camera settings and haven't got the DOF figured out! (How I miss the manual SLR!). At least I can still focus! This particular red bud took a direct lightning hit last summer. It took half the tree down, but the other half lived!  

About Redbuds in general  

Drive down any interstate highway in the piedmont of North Carolina in early March, and you will see splashes of light purple here and there along the tree line, giving the heart a sense of added hope that Spring is coming. This dash of purple is from one of our more humble native trees, the red bud. Why it’s not called the purple bud is a mystery. Not even the bud itself is red, but some see the color as reddish purple, and perhaps growing in different soils it looks more red than purple.

But around here both bud and flower are light purple, or at best purplish pink. The red bud is actually a member of the bean family. As early spring flower turns to fruit, and as the summer progresses, thick dark bean pods about 3 inches long hang heavily from the red bud limbs, and providing another source of food for a few birds such as bobwhites and cardinals, and some mammals such as deer and squirrels, though the red bud fruit is generally not a food favorite. Bees however love the nectar of the flowers. The bean pods persist often well into winter hanging and rattling in the winter wind well after the leaves have fallen. 

In our early forests, red buds, along with dogwoods and ironwoods and sourwoods, would have found their place under the great canopy trees of oak and chestnut and hickory and tulip poplar, taking what sun they could get, and offering another level of habitat for animals and visual beauty for human visitors. 

The red bud makes for an excellent garden tree. It’s leaf is sort of a rounded heart shape, about as wide as tall, three to five inches across. The tree tends toward a bushy appearance with multiple branches, though it can be pruned to one or two primary trunks. It’s a bit of a gangly tree, no two looking just alike, thus lending character to the suburban yard. It grows fairly slowly and reaches a maximum height of 20-30 feet at most. In the fall the large red bud leaves turn yellow and tend to fall from the tree all at once, making for easy care.

The Life Is in the Bud

Greetings to all in Greensboro on a cool March day, 2009. I hope your day is going well so far.

The other day I walked by The Perfect Tree (a Post Oak) on Elm Street I saw that its end-buds (buds tend to be clumped at the end of oak twigs) were starting to swell, soon to open and fill the air with oak pollen. Last evening I noticed that the birch tree catkins (from the white or paper birch trees by our patio) are just starting to swell and elongate. Soon, birch pollen will cover our patio. I pity my neighbors with allergies, but I love, in the truest sense of deep and abiding affection (and praise to God), the “miracle” of Spring. OK, so I am a biology geek, but tree buds are way cool. Their formation, dormancy, and opening is akin to conception, development, and birth in animals, and almost as fascinating.

Spring is here! Take a break. Go outside and walk around and look at the perfectly ordinary and common tree buds all around you. They are swelling. Many have opened already and we see leaves on their trees – maple trees for example. Others are just getting ready to open, such as dogwoods. Notice the covering of the buds. All winter long those bud scales, sometimes one big scale, sometimes two, sometimes more, have protected the life inside the bud from the cold and wetness outside. One freezing rain storm after another may coat the tree with ice, but the bud scales keep the life inside the bud safe and ready to grow when the time is right.

Inside are tiny leaves and/or flowers, either well-formed in miniature, or at least already differentiated as cells ready to take on full form. What energy the tree didn’t put into its seeds or store in its roots last summer and fall, it has packed into these buds. Indeed, as last summer wound down, and the buds which would lie dormant over the winter started to form, the tree “knew” to transfer important energy sources from the leaves and roots to the buds.

These buds are rich in energy which is why deer and other animals like to eat them. As the buds open they will attract the season’s very earliest insects, crawling and flying, to their moisture and sugars. Over the next few weeks Greensboro will be filled with budding coming-to-life trees, awash with flowers. Tree flowers aren’t all as bright and glorious like red buds and cherries. But each is beautiful and fascinating in its own way, if you have eyes to see. And the overall effect of abundant small flowers and young leaves can be quite beautiful as well. I think in particular of the beautiful earth tones of oak tree catkins and early leaves. This lends a feel of autumn to stands of budding/leaving/blooming oaks. Sometimes the most beautiful things are faint, and less showy. So keep your eyes peeled, and if you have a chance, go bud watching. It’s at least as fun as sitting at a computer all day!

Early Crocus, Fisher Park, Greensboro

The stamen anthers are particularly interesting - they kind of look like "antlers"

My photostream

Guilford Building and House of Prints

I like this picture - not sure why - hope you do too.

Downtown Greensboro

Pink Perfection, Old First Pres Cemetery, Greensboro Historical Musum

This was my favorite variety in Nanny's Garden, and I am always delighted when I find it somewhere.

Southern Gothic

This pic has a cool southern Gothic feel to it. 

My photostream

Pink Camelia, Rear View, Fisher Park

Took this last Tuesday, the 10th, in Fisher Park. Seems like a month ago. Look forward to sunny skies again.

My photostream.

Reaching For the Sun

Fisher Park, Greensboro, Early Spring 2009

My Photostream

Quality Turntable, Cassette Deck

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to buy/borrow/or rent a high quality turntable and a high quality cassette deck for digitizing some cassettes and LP's. I would like a turntable that has ability to have a new quality cartridge/needle if need be. Vintage equipment from the 70's would be fine.

Joel

Nanny's Garden, circa 1950ish

I found a small container of old slides in the bottom of an old box of pictures. They are of my grandmother's garden, in the early 1950's. I was born after this picture was taken, and grew up in a more matured version of Nanny's Garden, but I can say without hesitation that this was my favorite place in the whole world. I had the privilege of maintaining it for many years, and learned a lot about gardening from my grandmother. This was a special place. 

Nanny's Garden

Red Camelia - Behind Historical Museum

I have loved camellias all my life. My grandmother was a Camellia master. My first Camellias I grew from seed form her plants (yes, they do have seeds). I caught this one Saturday the 14th in the old First Pres graveyard behind the Greensboro Historical Museum.

See my photostream.

Does Anybody Know These Friends of Mine? (Part One)

Do you ever wonder where old childhood or college friends are? I do. So, I thought I'd put a shout out to the world. Does anybody know any of these people and where they are?

Billy Holmes

He was my best neighborhood bud through elementary school, before he moved to Chapin. He went to Satchel Ford and also Crayton I think before he moved. We later reconnected at Clemson. I have not seen him since. Many memories of football in the front yard with Billy.

Marshall Moore

Marshall went to Satchel Ford, and to Fairwold I think, and then Keenan. He lived on Meadowood Road I think. He also went to Clemson. He had the most awesome backyard - a big field for baseball and amazing climbing trees, especially an enormous sweet gum. He played for Sunshine Cleaners at Satchel Ford and hit the infamous groundball that went through my legs and won the "first half" playoff game for them. I was the goat.

Phil Owens

Phil was my best friend in 8th grade at Fairwold Junior High school in Columbia. His middle name was “Carroll.” He lived on Fox Hall Road. I hung out at his house all the time. He was on my pony league team, and was part of the great all star team that had a real shot at going the whole way until Bill Allen the pitcher broke his foot sliding into second. He ended up going to Keenan and I to Flora. Last time I saw him I think he visited my roommate Harry Lancaster and I at Clemson.

Gregg Busdicker

Gregg was a good friend over several years in Columbia. He was a pitcher on my pony league team at Trenholm Park. He had an amazing house on Sylvan Drive, with a second floor pool table recreation room. I have great memories of pool with Phil and Gregg, with Led Zeppelin playing very loudly. I saw Gregg in an airport 20 or so years ago – last time.

Bo Cox

Bo Cox was a friend at Clemson from Greer SC. He was part of the great bike ride all through SC four of us went on after our sophomore year. Bo was a trip. I have several great photos of Bo on my Flickr site.

Mary Linn Chapman

Mary Linn lived next door to me for most of grammar school and was my very best bud in my early childhood years. Her dad was a pastor at North Trenholm Baptist. She had a brother named Horace Chapman. They moved to Georgia. My sister Mary and I recently read some letters she wrote to us after she moved. We were all very sad.

Ricky Meyer

Ricky and I were friends at Clemson. He was Forestry major. The man could play guitar, and often played in venues at Clemson. He taught me guitar lessons. I have some cool pics of him at Clemson on my Flikr site.

David Hollis

David Hollis was my best friend in sixth grade at Satchel Ford Elemntary. He lived at the corner of Trenhold Road and Briarfield. We walked/rode to school almost every day. He was on my little league baseball team and Pop Warner football team, and became an outstanding running back at Spring Valley High School. Yes, as with most of my friends, he moved to a different school! Great memories.

Larry Smith

Larry Smith was my roommate for one semester at Clemson. He was from Greer SC. He was an English major, and an amazing guitar player. He loved Gordon Lightfoot. We saw Jackson Brown together in Athens GA in the fall of 76.

Levon Lee

Levon was living at Carolina Children's Home in Columbia SC when I knew him in 8th and 9th grade. He was on my pony league team at Trenholm Park and, along with Ray Derrick (they alternated at pitcher and short) was an amazing athlete. He was a quiet humble unassuming fellow. He has this annoying habit of retrieving grounders and holding the ball to the very last second before rifling the throw to first base. It drove Cleveland the coach crazy, but I loved it! I had the honor of playing at third base next to Levon at short, though I was a peon in comparison. He was adopted by a family up in Maryland I think, and I never saw or heard from him again.

Joel

The 25 Saddest Songs Ever

OK, so the other night I watched Pink Floyd performing Dark Side of the Moon on channel 76, and "Great Gig in the Sky" got me thinking - what are the 25 saddest songs - the songs that are saddest to me personally.

I don't know Country music very well so, sorry for the absence of much of that. And I know the content of many Blues songs is terribly sad, but The Blues makes me happy. I don't know Opera.

So, the criteria is that song has to have a saddening effect on me and it needs to be a sad song inherently (so not mere sadness by association with a memory).

Here is the list..I'll annotate it later...well, except to say that Bill Mallonee's "Locket Full of Moonlight: Casual Reprise" is the most brilliant and profound connection with the deep sadness that springs up from a fallen world that I have ever heard or could want to hear. The harmonica device produces an almost transcendent wail that reminds me of a whale actually, a sad whale cry coming up from the depths...This song is about his marriage dissolving as far as I can tell - I was worried about that at the time - and that made it sadder. But as an artist Bill has delved into the deepest grief of his own failure and alienation and unraveling in away that does not so much leave us there in his situation but takes us on a deep journey of our own soul. Out of his travail he gave us this saddest of brilliance - this song defines the artist's calling and craft to me.


25) Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

24) Walk on By - Dionne Warwick

23) My Life - Iris Dement

22) Honey - Bobby Goldsboro

21) The Circle Game - Joni Mitchell

20) Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright

19) Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy

18) Mr. Bojangles - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

17) Crying - Roy Orbison

16) Into the West - Annie Lennox

15) Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce

14) When You're Blinded By the Light - The Vigilantes of Love

13) Always On My Mind - Willie Nelson

12) These Days - Jackson Browne

11) So Far Away - Carole King

10) Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

9) Have You Ever Seen the Rain - CCR

8) Calling for You - Iris Dement

7) Blue - Lucinda Williams

6) I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams

5) You're Missing - Bruce Springsteen

4) Hurt - Johnny Cash

3) Great Gig in the sky - Pink Floyd (featuring Clare Torry)

2) Adiago for Strings - Samuel Barber ("Leonard Bernstein" version)

1) Locket Full of Moonlight (Casual Reprise) - Bill Mallonee

The Great Snow of '73

What if you were to read this headline - "24 inches of snow in 24 hours?" Would you think Erie, PA? Buffalo, NY? Denver, CO?

Actually this was Rimini SC, just north of Lake Marion in the low country between Columbia and Charleston, on February 10, 1973. I know, we couldn't believe it then either.

In Columbia where I lived we just got 17". Slightly different amounts fell in different parts of the city. It was far and away the greatest and most amazing weather event of my life. I can't believe it has been 37 years ago. It seems like yesterday.

Just a little SE of Columbia, in Manning, there was 21". Orangeburg got 21". Greenville - they got 1".

It happened on February 9 and 10, 1973. I was 15 years old, in tenth grade at A. C. Flora High School.

Back then in Columbia we got a pretty decent snowfall about every winter. Three years before, in January of 1970, it snowed so hard and fast that our bus from Crayton Junior High couldn't get us home, and believe it or not the driver let a group of us off in brutally cold windy snowy weather two miles from where we lived. We got lost on the golf course walking home. It was my first whiteout experience - or near whiteout. We weren't dressed for it. It was brutal.

Back to 1973. I believe that we did go to school that February Friday and when it was apparent later what was going to happen we were sent home. I distinctly remember that the the storm had not been forecast. They had called for rain. Even today with advanced tools these events are hard to see more than a few hours out. This was one of those many low pressure systems rising out of the gulf. The incoming cold front which met it was not expected.

The storm came up from the south and west. This was an enormous snow event for southern Alabama and Georgia too. You can get a good overview of the storm here.

The storm hit so fast that thousands of cars were stranded on I-95 and other highways in southern SC. National Guard troops were called out to rescue the people by helicopter. I remember watching the footage on the news at the time. There were multiple fatalities. People froze to death in their cars.

There were reports of drifts 6-8 feet deep, and strong winds. In Columbia where I was there was almost no wind. I remember the night of the 9th watching the snow fall onto our little back porch. We had one of those standard early 60's variety steel railings with a flat inch-wide top. The snow was coming down in enormously huge flakes, falling very very slowly, like little parachutes. The snow was piling straight up on the little rail. I can't remember if our power went out. I would imagine that it did.

So I went to bed that night and it was snowing like crazy. The amazing part is that when I got up the next morning it was STILL snowing like crazy. That had never happened, and has not come close to happening again in Columbia. It snowed 17 inches at my house in 24 hours.

The next morning the snow on those rails was standing up in thin white walls a foot high. I could not believe my eyes looking out side. It was deeply delightful. But even in my joy I couldn't begin to match the sheer gush of happiness that came over my 18 month old Irish Setter Clancey. When we finally went outside together he was running jumping and spinning around with an expression on his face of utter and pure animal happiness. We rolled around and around wrestling, chasing, playing. It was one of the happiest days of my life.

I remember standing straight up and falling backwards - straight back stiff-spined. Plop! The snow would poof out from the impact, and then I would be lying there in a canyon of snow with the snow wall to my right and left quite higher than my head. I did this fall-backwards thing over and over all day.

I tried doing snow angels but my arms and legs were just plowing under the snow!

A cold freeze followed the snow so we were out of school for at least a week. Snow isn't great for the dry cleaning business so my dad wasn't super excited after the first day or so. I remember my grandmother being stranded in her house. Not sure how I got over there but I remember a lot of pine tree limbs down.

Somewhere we have a few little black and white pictures but I can't find them. I do offer for your view amazing footage from that morning Feb 10th 1973 in Sumter SC, 45 minutes east of where I lived. Sumter had the same amount of snow we did. This footage is wonderful.

Train Songs

So, Issac and I had lunch at Fin Castles today. They have this a new New Orleans menu along with the normal stuff - the red beans and sausage on rice - so good. Well, they also have a jukebox, and while we were there our waiter put on the song "Love Train." Then he started singing and dancing for everyone - well, mainly for a table of ladies next to us. The man could sing and he had the moves - the old time moves - smooth, classy, tasteful.

Well, that song got Isaac and I thinking about songs with trains, so we came up with a list there at the table - deal was I would not add more later. So here is our list - these are also almost all songs we like too. Oh, and the waiter...he's in a band that bears his name - plays next door to Fin Castles Saturday night, but I can't find where I wrote down his name. Will add that later.

Here's our train song list - what can you add? Has to have the word "train" in it or be about a train - not just a station!

Love Train - The O'Jays
Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Night
Folsome Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams
Long Train Runnin' - Doobie Brothers
Tuesday's Gone - Lynnyrd Skynyrd
Nothing Like a Train - Vigilantes of Love
House of the Rising Sun - The Animals
City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie
Slow Train Coming - Bob Dylan
Last Train to Clarkesville - the Monkies
One After 909 - The Beatles
Hear My Train a Comin' - Jimi Hendrix
White Room - Cream
Like the 309 - Johnny Cash
Slow Dark Train - Vigilantes of Love
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osborne
When Love Came to Town - U2 and BB King

Help With Google Blogger

I wrote last week about having "upgraded" my Blogger site to the "new" Blogger, called now "Google Blogger." There are many advantages to Google Blogger for people like me who aren't very code savvy. Yet, even as limited as my skills are I had with old Blogger been able to drop snippets of code into the Blogger template and out comes a flickr badge for example, or a we101 badge, or whatever.

It's not quite so easy in Google Blogger. The template code is built around the architecture of the Blogger "gadgets" - little programs like WordPress widgets that can be added to the site and move around easily. This new functionality for Blogger requires code that looks very mysterious to guys like me, and which from all I have read makes it all but impossible to plop in other code for badges and such.

There is a new Blogger gadget called "HTML/JavaScript." supposedly this gadget allows the user to add code from third parties, but no code I have dropped in there has come out right. I am talking about code provided by various third parties to add to Blogger templates.

If any of you have transitioned to "new" Blogger I would love very much to know if you know how to insert things like the Flickr badge that Flickr provides, or the we101.com badge, or the like. You can comment here or e-mail me.

Thanks,

Joel

It Won't Be Long Now

Just thinking ahead...

Home and Garden

Where Are the Prophets When You Need Them?

I've been quiet on the goings on a half block down and across the street on S. Elm. And yeah, I have an opinion.

Parking downtown stinks. That's just a fact. If I didn't have a parking lot for my building I'd be mighty frustrated. I doubt I'd come down here very often because of the parking. The businesses up and down the 300 block of S Elm are doing their best to make it with poor parking options (and without city incentives).

It takes a lot of dough to renovate these old buildings. How come the city can't make that process easier? And for real, I walk around a lot down here. I think the city could do a lot more to help with the parking other than writing $25 tickets which is what the guys at the barber were talking about yesterday. There are a lot of empty lots here and there, and we could even build a architecturally appropriate parking deck if we wanted to.

Every building in this block is old, or, if it isn't, it was built to fit the rest of the architecture. The thing they plan to put up in that lot on S. Elm is going to butt ugly in context and stick out like a sore thumb. It will steal much of the charm away from the block and further diminish the "cool" factor for people wanting to come down here enough to put up with pathetic parking problem.

So after the new building and its proprietary parking lot takes away thirty some parking spaces that otherwise would be for patrons of local businesses, well, where are people visiting the other businesses supposed to park? I have a real problem as a taxpayer knowing my tax money is going to be given unjustly to the fancy-dancy new developer and at the same time further hinder the ability of the shop owners to survive. Maybe a tax revolt would be in order. It's enough to turn me off from downtown entirely.

Once again the monied interests win out, and the developers on our council sit on their hands and look the other way. It's a nice little racket they've got going here.

It reminds me of some things I have read in my Bible:

Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you are made to dwell alone
in the midst of the land (Isaiah 5:8).

Woe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance (Micah 2:1-2).

Basically Isaiah and Micah were talking about developers, monied influence-peddlers who "influenced judges" so as to take over the land of those less able to sway the foxes looking out for the hen house.

The city council is the judge in this scenario, and rather than doing what is right it succumbs the the influence peddling of the developer set. I just wonder what deals got cut in the country clubs or in the dark chambers hidden away from public view - and how did the council come to change it's mind so abruptly? Very strange if you ask me.

So, a guy is going to make a three and a half million "investment" in ruining a very nice block and discouraging hard working small business owners - wow, I'm all ga ga. Doing wrong by the people who have been working so hard to make a living and promote downtown isn't worth ten times that much.

Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, we need you guys here to kick some serious butt.

And while you're at it can you get the developer interests and their proxies to find a place for the homeless to stay during the day and night?

Joel Gillespie
301 South Elm

The Street, from Above

Taken from atop the Guilford Building - looking down at intersection of S Elm and Washington. Check out the headless rider (you have to look VERY close to figure that out).

My Flickr photostream.

Even the Gestapo Had to Start Somewhere

This should deeply worry anybody who has an affection for the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Help! New Blogger and Flickr

Due to the gradual build up of small coding problems on my Blogger site (which I am not smart enough to fix) I have taken the plunge into the world of "new" Blogger or as they now call it "Google Blogger." Seems it is trying very hard to be like Word Press without the Open Source aspect. ). I have set up a "new" Blogger site. Don't know if I will stay with template. As far as I can tell the new Google Blogger is trying to make it as hard as possible to access non Google sites - places like as Flickr, Pandora, Facebook, or Technorati. It looks like Google is turning into a proprietary monster. I do like the new Blogger widget thing - it's useful for code dorks like me.

But here is the problem. Their widgets for non Google sites are lame. For the life of me I can't figure out how to paste html code the old fashioned way (even in their html widget) and have things show up on the side bar - such as my Flickr badge. Flickr generates the code for a badge but it won't take inside the new Blogger. It does not work just dumping it into the "new Blogger" template code or into the html widget. Do any Blogger users out there know how to do this?

Thanks,

Joel

February - Buds, Birds, and Blooms

It's cold outside this morning. During the night it snowed a bit and the roads are too slick for the school buses, so school was canceled. I am at home with my daughter.

February is certainly an unpredictable month. There may be a week of 70 degree weather, or there may be a huge ice storm. The most amazing winter weather event of my entire life occurred in February - February 9-10, 1973 in Columbia SC. But that's another story.

Just like in late August and early September when there are often harbingers of fall - the cold front that brings air that is dry and cooler and seems to smell like fall, the Tulip Poplar leaves here or there that are starting to turn yellow, or the flock of birds that shows up in your yard already starting on its journey south.

February is similar - it is still winter but hints of Spring abound. It is a month pregnant with possibility. Despite the cold of January that has just past, the days continue to lengthen, and temperatures become just a little more mild.

Life begins to break out all over. There are three harbingers of Spring that make February delightful - buds, birds, and blooms.

The birds are busy and even have a different sound. They are claiming territory and building nests and mating. I've seen several blue birds this week flitting busily about. We have sparrows building a nest in a shrub. Crows are hyper. This can be a hard time for birds that gather seed and berries, as well as those who feed on insects. Food sources are in short supply. It's a good time to "feed the birds, tuppence a bag."

Tree buds are swelling already. It is fascinating to study and understand what it is exactly that triggers bud swelling and opening. Day length or night length may play a part, as may temperature. Either way, buds are really cool, containing in them tiny but recognizable precursors to leaves and flowers. It's only February 3rd today but already the silver maple buds have expanded.

February brings forth many beautiful and delicate little wildflowers in fields and lawns. Many consider these to be weeds. My favorite early wildflower is Lamium, that little purple flower that shoots up with a tuft of beautiful blue/purple flowers in a whorl around the stem. There are many others, mostly small. I hope to get pictures of them all this year.

Take a walk, take a break, and open you eyes and ears to all that is around you. Spring's a coming!

My Ten Favorite Albums

I've been thinking for some time about what are my favorite records. I don't know why, maybe it is a little nostalgia thing, maybe a desire to know myself, I'm not sure. In some ways it may be a desire to step back and identify with and know my own generation and culture. Maybe it's the many great memories associated with each record. Seeing an artist perform the record live is also a big connector.

For some reason I would only allow one record per artist on the list - kind of arbitrary I know but I didn't want it to be dominated by the Beatles.

I am thinking here only of studio albums, too, otherwise Allman Brothers at Fillmore East would be number 2 or 3, and Jackson Brown's Solo Live Acoustic would have been in the list.

To get on the list 1) I had to own the record, 2) I had to be currently listening to the record, and 3) I had to take a kickback. These artists are all so interested in making my list :-).

Of the hundreds of records I love, how do I narrow it to a top ten? How do I choose between five different great Bob Dylan albums, five Beatles albums and so forth? I think in the end it has to with affection. I tend to have more affection for records that seem to hold together and have a sense of unity. It doesn't mean they have to be concept albums, but I tend to think of a record as a whole.

There may other albums with more great songs, but for some reason there isn't the connection for me with the whole. Obviously I have left out way more great albums than I have included.

The list does not reflect any idea of what albums I think are the greatest, the most important, or the most significant, but the records that seem to speak to me most now.

I bought Layla and Other assorted Love Songs when it was first released and have loved it ever sense. It got burned into my psyche I guess. It is a rough record, sounding more "live" than your average studio recording. It is 2-3 songs too long, those 2-3 being real lemons, but the rest of the record flows well. Thankfully the guys managed to get Duane Allman on board by the fourth song. The twin guitars on "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" send me to guitar heaven, and knowing the context makes the song interesting as well. This is the record that hooked me on the blues.

I was not ever that big a fan of Bruce Springsteen, well, except for his mellow music. I bought The rising right when it came out. It does not get the critical acclaim as other of his records. it holds together extremely well, and even songs he wrote before 9/11 work in this collection of songs written about and in honor of 9/11 and its impact on people. The Rising speaks to me very powerfully and intimately. I never tire of it. I like every song, and I saw the concert.

I more or less stopped listening to Led Zeppelin by the time I was 14 after a brief obsession with stairway to Heaven." But I have been listening to them a lot over the last 2-3 years, and I love talking Zep if you're ever interested. Zep fans love to debate which is their greatest album. I like all of them but their album I seem to listen to he most all the way through is their first. It's raw and muddled in parts, yet so full of energy. This is a great driving album and of all their records the one that seems to flow the best in my view.

Some of my choices would befuddle critics. I love so many Bob Dylan records, but I LOVE Modern Times, his most recent, a record on absolutely nobody's top twenty list of his greatest records. But it gives me joy; it makes me smile. I was tempted to put Slow Train Coming, The Times They are a Changing, or Highway 61 Revisited, but the smile won out :-)

Few people even know Iris Dement. What can I say, put on the record and pass the tissues. Tracy Chapman's debut record was close to making the list. "My Life" is her best flowing and most personal record, haunting in places. I have seen her now a couple of times which always adds to the experience of listening to a record.

I was pretty much a rocker-only when my oldest brother Mike gave me Jackson Browne's first record for my 17th birthday in August 1974. I think it is the gift I most treasure from my siblings and family over all these years.

I think the greatest bliss I know listening to modern music comes about 2/3's the way through Question 67 and 68. I think of early Chicago as the pinnacle of creative energy. if you ever see me walking down the road air conducting like a escape from the asylum, I'm probably listening to Chicago.

It is very hard to decide which Beatles record to include. For a very long time the Beatles record I would have called my favorite was the record almost universally considered the Beatles worst - Let it Be! It was the first Beatles album I bought. They broke up when I was 13 and I bought Let it Be when I was in eighth grade! I have a deep affection for it all the way through. But Abbey Road gets the nod now. it is from the first to the last note the one Beatles record I like the most and listen through the most.

I did not discover Astral Weeks until a couple of years ago. I'd have Moondance at #2 if not for Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks is so layered and brilliant, though put together in a hurry, and without great diversity within the album. I think of it as a symphony and the songs as movements. It pierces me.

There has really not been a competitor for number one for quite a long time. Not only do I have deep life long affection for Dark Side of the Moon (I bought it right when it came out in March 1973, about a month after the greatest snowstorm in the history of the universe (well, in the history of Columbia SC). I was in tenth grade. As a studio recording it is as close to perfect as I can imagine. Dark Side of the Moon is a record whose content speaks to me no matter how many times I listen to it, sort of like my favorite poems by GM Hopkins, or my favorite Psalms. Obviously the message of Dark Side of the Moon is ultimately darker and more forlorn, but in some way God uses it to point me to Himself as an answer to the questions raised. And I can't even put into words how Great Gig in the Sky connects with me. It's primordial. But over the primordial and confused bent world the Spirit broods....

Here’s the list…

10.Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - Derek and the Dominos
9. The Rising - Bruce Springsteen
8. I - Led Zeppelin
7. Modern Times - Bob Dylan
6. My Life - Iris Dement
5. Jackson Browne --Jackson Browne
4. Chicago Transit Authority - Chicago Transit Authority
3. Abbey Road - The Beatles
2. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
1. Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd