Aunt Carolyn Died

My Aunt Carolyn died last night. She was my mom’s little sister.

My mom’s name was Maurine. She got the “Maur” from her dad “Maurice” (yes, I just thought of Steve Miller’s song too), and she got the “ine” from her her mom “Adeline.” She always had to correct people who wanted to spell her name the usual way – “Maureen.”

Their last name was Sanders. That’s my middle name – Joel Sanders Gillespie. I am so proud of that middle name.

Carolyn always called my mom “Sissy.” I guess that’s what she called her when they were we teeny kids and it stuck. “Sissy” is my mom’s name on that side of the family. It’s strange. My mom (who died in 2001) and Carolyn are survived by their older brother Karl. I think most folks wouldn’t have thought it would have worked out that way. Karl and his wife and young daughter were hit by a train 40 some odd years ago and it really messed up Karl’s back. But he is doing pretty well these days. It must be really hard losing your two younger sisters.

Carolyn and my mom and Karl all had four children. Odd how that worked out. All the children are still living.

People who know me and my siblings know that we have a rather dark sense of humor, a dry wit, and a tendency to see humor in the dark moments of life. We got that from my mother’s side. Carolyn was a master. She was actually pretty quiet and shy. But she would throw out a crack in her slow Texan drawl that would leave you in stitches. She was very smart, and very kind. And very witty.

When their mom died they got closer, talking every week on the phone, my mom in Columbia, Carolyn outside of Dallas. A couple of years after my mom died Uncle Philip and Aunt Carolyn came out with their daughter Deanna, and were met by their daughter Patricia and her husband and children, and joined all us Gillespies for Thanksgiving. It was a great time together that I will always remember.

This summer my daughter Laurel and I went out to spend a week with Philip and Carolyn, and also to see Uncle Karl and Aunt Edie, and various of their children. It was a great visit. Carolyn was already quite weak from the effects of the multiple myeloma, but she was herself more often than not. I will never forget that time, and that big hug goodbye. I love you Carolyn. I love you Joe.

Yeah, when I was little they all called me “Joe.”

I love Carolyn and Philip for who they are. But I know deep down I also love Carolyn a little for my mother in her. She was a real and vital link to my mom which is gone, so, the grief for Carolyn is like a grief for my mom all over again.

I really miss her, my mom. And I miss Carolyn already. I know people talk about death as part of life. Death is part of the ordinary fallenness and brokenness of this world. But it is the antithesis of life. Death is the enemy. “The last enemy to be defeated is death.” I hate death. I long for the day when death will be swallowed up in victory – no more goodbyes, no more separations, no more losses, no more loved ones gone.

Some days I get tired of missing people I love. But I must keep on loving people. I suppose a day will come when some of them will miss me when I go. Or maybe they won't have to. Maybe Jesus will come back first. Come Lord Jesus.

I Love you Carolyn.
I love you Joe.

Goldfinches and Coneflowers (Photographs and Memories?)

What good are a bunch of dead and dried up Coneflower stalks and leftover flower pods? Well, just ask the four Goldfinches in my garden who can’t get enough of them. For days these guys have been feasting off the remains of my Coneflowers, Black Eyed Susans, and Zinnias. I haven’t wanted to trim the withering Zinnia flowers (which stimulates more flowers) because the little guys have been enjoying the seeds so much. I ran the water today in the garden – just let it run freely and puddle here and there – and that seemed to make the Goldfinches (and several other birds and bugs) quite happy as well. I wish I could get close enough without glass in between for a clear picture, but I will content myself with watching through the bedroom window for now. They seem to love the Coneflower pods the most, just a-plucking away at the seeds tucked down inside. It makes me happy watching – takes away some of the sadness of having three daughters going off to college this week. Oh, and I counted four growing watermelons, picked about a dozen tomatoes and several squash, and started collecting hand grenades too. No, I am not a terrorist; I’m just talking about those little black Four-O-Clock seeds. I’ve always loved them, and used to collect them in Dixie cups when I was a kid, each cup labeled by the color of the flower the seed came from. I really didn’t (and don’t) know how or if they cross pollinate, and how flower color is determined in Four-O-Clock fertilization, but I love the little black hand grenades anyway, and they will sprout if planted. Next year I have another place picked out just for more Four O’Clocks!

Off to College

Today we moved our third daughter into her dorm at Chapel Hill. She is a freshman. Tuesday we moved my second daughter into her apartment at Chapel Hill. She is a junior. Also today our first daughter packed her car and moved back into her apartment in Raleigh, a fifth year senior at State.

I know, I have two other daughters and my wife to tend to, but even our small little house will feel empty tonight. Yeah, I am supposed to have all these big generous liberal child focused thoughts about what great opportunities lie ahead for my children to spread their wings and grow up, and what a great place to live with such good colleges so close, etc. Well, maybe tomorrow. Tonight I just feel like part of me has died, again.

On a brighter note, there were a whole bunch of kids from two campus ministries helping cart the stuff to the rooms today and that made a HUGE difference. To them I say thanks!

Kudzu, by James Dicky, for BB

Kudzu

By James Dickey

Japan invades. Far Eastern vines
Run from the clay banks they are

Supposed to keep from eroding.
Up telephone poles,
Which rear, half out of leafage
As though they would shriek,
Like things smothered by their own
Green, mindless, unkillable ghosts.
In Georgia, the legend says
That you must close your windows

At night to keep it out of the house.
The glass is tinged with green, even so,

As the tendrils crawl over the fields.
The night the kudzu has
Your pasture, you sleep like the dead.
Silence has grown Oriental
And you cannot step upon ground:
Your leg plunges somewhere
It should not, it never should be,
Disappears, and waits to be struck

Anywhere between sole and kneecap:
For when the kudzu comes,

The snakes do, and weave themselves
Among its lengthening vines,
Their spade heads resting on leaves,
Growing also, in earthly power
And the huge circumstance of concealment.
One by one the cows stumble in,
Drooling a hot green froth,
And die, seeing the wood of their stalls
Strain to break into leaf.
In your closed house, with the vine

Tapping your window like lightning,
You remember what tactics to use.

In the wrong yellow fog-light of dawn
You herd them in, the hogs,
Head down in their hairy fat,
The meaty troops, to the pasture.
The leaves of the kudzu quake
With the serpents' fear, inside

The meadow ringed with men
Holding sticks, on the country roads.

The hogs disappear in the leaves.
The sound is intense, subhuman,
Nearly human with purposive rage.
There is no terror
Sound from the snakes.
No one can see the desperate, futile
Striking under the leaf heads.
Now and then, the flash of a long
Living vine, a cold belly,
Leaps up, torn apart, then falls

Under the tussling surface.
You have won, and wait for frost,
When, at the merest touch
Of cold, the kudzu turns
Black, withers inward and dies,
Leaving a mass of brown strings
Like the wires of a gigantic switchboard.
You open your windows,

With the lightning restored to the sky
And no leaves rising to bury

You alive inside your frail house,
And you think, in the opened cold,
Of the surface of things and its terrors,
And of the mistaken, mortal
Arrogance of the snakes
As the vines, growing insanely, sent
Great powers into their bodies
And the freedom to strike without warning:

From them, though they killed
Your cattle, such energy also flowed

To you from the knee-high meadow
(It was as though you had
A green sword twined among
The veins of your growing right arm—
Such strength as you would not believe
If you stood alone in a proper
Shaved field among your safe cows--):
Came in through your closed

Leafy windows and almighty sleep
And prospered, till rooted out.

Tending Our Garden

I enjoyed Karen Neill’s article in the News and Record this past weekend about invasive species, which segued into a bit of an encouragement about the need to stay on top of things in the garden. This brought back some childhood memories and brought up a few reflections.

She commented on the now ubiquitous Ailanthus, or Queen of Heaven Tree, which grows along about every roadside and in about every disturbed area you see. It’s really not a very pretty tree at all, and it’s flowers are sort of a dull creamy yellow, but that is actually too favorable a description for such a homely flower. We called them peanut butter trees when I was younger because if you crush the leaves in your fingers and then you smell your fingers they smell like peanut butter.

Karen also made comments about the Princess Tree, which I only identified this past Spring along Old Battleground. It’s so pretty I forgive it for being invasive and taking over space belonging to native plants.

Somewhere in the article Karen segued into talking about complaints from some gardener about Trumpet Vine shoots volunteering here and their in the garden. Apparently the said gardener wanted to cut down the Trumpet Vine. Karen reminded us that Trumpet Vines, a native plant, are really quite beautiful, and worth the small effort of pulling out a volunteer here or there.

I agree. I love our native vines, well, all but Poison Ivy, which I respect more than love. Trumpet Vine, Virginia Creeper, Crossvine, Moonseed vine, American Wisteria, Muscadine, and many species of Smilax ("sticker bushes"). I personally love English Ivy though it is technically an invasive species – it’s just been around so long it seems native. And Pachysandra, though not a vine, often seems to spread like one, so I’ll throw it in there too.

Earlier this summer my nephew and I had a great time swinging on a huge Muscadine vine in Columbia. Memories of childhood and childhood dares. “I dare you to climb that vine all the way to the top of that tree.” “OK, you’re on.” If my poor mom had had a clue!

Back to gardening.

My grandmother and grandfather moved to Columbia from Tampa in 1943 and bought a small house in a suburb, a house whose long narrow back yard sloped down to a creek bottom. Along this creek bottom grew the largest loblolly pines in Richland County. Over the course of twenty years they and their two next door neighbors transformed their yards into a highlight of the Columbia garden tour. One day I will scan and post a postcard of their yards put out by the city of Columbia.

They did it all themselves. They were real gardeners, grafting and rooting azaleas and camellias and even cross fertilizing lilies to come up with new patterns and colors. As to vines, there was English Ivy, Pachysandra, Wisteria, and Virginia Creeper, all of which required constant vigilance to keep them in their place.

Pruning was an art. I would walk behind Nanny while she pruned azaleas and camellias with precision, by hand, with small hand clippers, still my favorite tool. There was, and is, an art to pruning.

My point? Real gardening is a hands on, constant, pro-active, entropy denying channeling of energy. You just don’t see it much any more. Folks are too busy. A beautiful Trumpet Vine sends out underground shoots which pop up here and there? Too much trouble? Kill the vine. Azaleas too hard to learn to actually prune? Then buzz them, like a hedge. And the garden gods cry “murder, murder!”

Gardening and hurrying don’t go well together. A garden is a slowly cooked meal that takes seasons and seasons to prepare. It is a pot you have to watch boil a little each hour so to speak. It takes tending. And just as the good shepherd must know his sheep, the good gardener must know his plants, and love them. And even, maybe, if nobody is looking, talk to them…

My grandmother did not care about the “perfect lawn.” Good gardeners don’t, I don’t think. The perfect lawn is a creation of chemical companies, not gardeners. Nanny liked a decent lawn, and she tended it. In fact, her lawn was made of “Charleston grass,” a kind of a wide bladed version of Centipede. It doesn’t grow up here. They mowed it with a manual mower. With all the loblolly pines and dogwoods, and one or two enormous water oaks, there was too much shade for a perfect lawn, and there were spots here and there of mostly moss. She liked her moss just fine.

The way I figure it, if a culture is too busy to cultivate good gardeners, it’s just too busy. Gardening requires energy; but a lot of that energy isn’t mere brute force, it’s the energy expended a little each day, often just planning and piddling. “Hmm, I’d like to move this over there, and that over here. I think I’ll prune my azaleas today. Today I need to weed.”

Theologically it bothers me that we’re too busy to garden. For if we’re too busy to care for our own little spaces, we’re probably too busy to be what we're called to be as human beings and care for that big space we called earth. That makes me sad.

We were meant to tend gardens you know. As it says…

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” We need to remember that.

Local Litmus Tests?

I read with some interest David Hoggard’s excellent article in the News and Record this morning and found myself agreeing with him. Where are the voices of reasonable moderation in our local city and county government? I have addressed this before myself (and been chided). But I wondered as I considered David’s example, whether there was still, even in his mind, a subtle litmus test at work in defining what is or isn’t reasonable and moderate. For example, and not that I’m running, but what about somebody like me, who has a different kind of mix of traditional democratic and republican takes on various issues than what David posited. I’m a strong environmentalist with a passion for bio-diversity and clean air and water and the endangered species act (far left democratic), yet I am pro-life (republican). I am pro-planning as to local development (democratic) yet pro-business as to taxes (republican). I am a traditionalist on marriage (republican), yet very concerned that we protect and care for our poorest and neediest members (democrat). I am profoundly passionate about education (democratic), yet thinks our system is way too centralized (republican) and have a thing for vouchers, especially for our poorest communities (far right republican). Yet, all in all I think I am a consensus builder (a moderate), and would approach things in a civil give and take manner. My question maybe to David is, given what is known about someone like me (or Joe G), is there a place for us at the “moderate” table in local politics? Or is there a non spoken litmus test really in this fairly left leaning town?

A Telemarketer Hung Up On Me!

A guy from Bell South called late this morning. He wanted to talk to the person who made decisions about the phone service. I told him that that would be a committee. He asked me when they met. I told him that he could not attend the meeting, but that he could relay info to them through me. He asked me if I could make decisions about the phone service. I said not if money was involved. He asked if he could talk to the person who could make decisions about the phone service. I said that I was as close to that person as he was going to get. He asked if I could make decisions about the phone service. I said that that the one who could make such decisions would be the said aforementioned committee, and that he should either talk to me or quit wasting our time. So he hung up.

That was the first time in my life a telemarketer has hung up on me.

I feel......renewed.

Joel

Iris Dement at Cat's Cradle

I had the distinct honor and pleasure this past Saturday night to go over to the Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill with my second daughter Heather (a rising third year student at Chapel Hill) to be a part of “An Evening with Iris Dement.” It was totally packed. Now if you don’t know who Iris Dement is, well, she is kind of hard to explain. Iris Dement is somewhere on the far other side of country. You might call her music folk/alt country with a dice of old gospel thrown in. But no matter how you try to classify her music, her voice defies any classification. Her voice is somewhere on the other side of the other side of the Ozarks. It is high and clear and non contrived and kind of twangy, yet full of pathos, and, well, totally unique. I don’t know if it grows on you or not. I liked it the first time I heard her sing one day on Prairie Home Companion. She writes her own songs, and they are about real life, and they hit home, at least for me.

She has four CD’s available, plus a collaboration with John Prine. Her CD’s, in chronological order, are Infamous Angel, My Life, The Way I Should, and Lifeline. The John Prine CD in which she does several duets is called In Spite of Ourselves.

Lifeline is mostly Iris Dement’s take on several old gospel hymns that she grew up hearing her mother sing. Indeed, her relationship with her mother, and her mother’s religion, are constant themes in her music. One sees a kind of progression through the CD’s. According to the CD insert for Lifeline, apparently she was going through a very hard time and was on the phone with her mother (who is now 88 years old) and her mother encouraged her to go to her piano and play the old songs, and she did...

Much of her music is about her past, about growing up, about relationships that blossomed and then went bad, about inner struggles, about finding her way, about the transitory nature of life, about what may or may not be around the corner. In other words, it’s about life, her life, but her life in its true and honest humanity, and thus about all our lives. It pierces.

About two thirds of the concert was Iris on piano and a third Iris on guitar. Did I ever say I love the name Iris?

Saturday evening was my first Iris Dement live show. I kind of didn't know what to expect at the concert in that there hadn't seemed to have been a lot of movement over the last few years in terms of her original music. I have to say however that I was more than moved and impressed by the show. The music, the moment, got into the back places of my mind and heart and just won’t go away. It was a special night.

Iris Dement is a very normal looking lady. She has a sweet smile with dimples, but she does not dress to impress, and she does not do flowery things on stage. She has a humble self effacing demeanor, and is honest about performing live being a bit nerve wracking. Yet she also has this soft and calm very-southern voice which is disarming (and totally different in tone and pitch from her singing voice). There is a presence about Iris Dement and her live music that is hard to define, perhaps that goes with the humanity and reality of her art, and the manner in which her voice matches her lyrics so well – yes her amazing voice – a presence which lends a sense of gravity and transcendence to her live show. There were a few moments in which I looked around, and people were sitting and standing transfixed, like they were in the presence of greatness. It was really amazing. I realized that there would be few times in my life that I would be that close to that level of artistic talent. I was honored.

She played many of the songs from her CD collection – just off the top of my head I remember My Life, Our Town, Mama’s Opry, When Morning Comes Around, These Hills, He Reached Down, You’ve Done Nothing Wrong, Easy’s Getting Harder Every Day, The Way I Should, Sweet Is the Melody (I think), and Let the Mystery Be. There were many others. She did this incredible strumming/picking thing on Easy’s Getting Harder Every Day that I’m still trying to figure out!

I was encouraged by all the songs I had not heard. It seems she has written some new songs since her recent marriage. I loved the new song about the hill near the Iowa farm where she now lives. And there were others I had never heard - the one about her Mama's truth, the song about learning how not to pray, the one about all the books lining her living room and having spent enough time on the inside, the one about the hotel room near the lake (the "documented" song about thinking about jumping off a bridge), the one about thinking the relationship was going to last (that was a very nice touch singing that song right AFTER the song about the relationship going down the tubes – You’ve Done Nothing Wrong). Anyway, I detected in the newer songs some new sounds - different chord progressions, different moods, different nuances. I can't wait until she comes out with her next CD.

OK, yes, there was a struggle here or there to find the right key (but what virtuosity in moving from key to key so effortlessly on piano), but I was actually pleasantly surprised at how good her voice was live – better even than on the CD’s I think. And she did a lot of songs on the piano, which I think is harder to sing to generally. The one song where she both struggled both to find a key that would work and also missed a lyric - Let the Mystery Be - really just provided a moment's smile, reminding me that this was not a slick Nashville gig – and she ended it with a really funny drawling "well that was a train wreck."

For those of you who have not heard Iris Dement I encourage you to go over to iTunes or wherever you like to buy individual songs and spend $10-15 on a sample (or if you’d rather purchase one CD to start out I think I’d suggest “My Life”)

If you go the sample route, here is a suggested list. I think this would be a good sample of 15 songs and would fit on a burned CD just fine.

My Life off My Life
Mama’s Opry off Infamous Angel
After You’re Gone off Infamous Angel
He Reached Down off Lifelines
Our Town off Infamous Angel
I’ll Take My Sorrow Street off The Way I Should
You’ve Done Nothing Wrong off My Life
Wasteland of the Free off The Way I Should
No Time to Cry off My Life
The Way I Should off The Way I Should
Sweet Is the Melody off My Life
I’ve That Old Time Religion off Lifeline
Easy’s Getting Harder Every Day off My Life
God Walks the Dark Hills off Lifeline
When My Morning Comes Around off The Way I Should

You Never Know What a Day Will Bring

Well, you never know what a day will bring…

Or a week…

One week ago I came back from vacation to discover two nice big fat bills from Sprint/Nextel. There was also a “letter,” yeah, one of THOSE. We only owed them $5000. So, someone had used our basic public church info plus a phony EIN number to set up an account at some kiosk in town. Did the clerk ask for any ID? Any proof of connection? Of course not. Well, to make a long story short, I reported it to the police and to Sprint's fraud division and we’ve been cleared of responsibility. Why do these companies make it so easy for people to defraud others?

Oh, and did I say that almost all the calls were one or two minutes or less? Yep…drugs…

Well, a week later, this past Monday, I was checking my personal bank account to get a number for an expense report issue, and was surprised to find my checking account was empty. I scrolled down and there was a check for pretty much all I had, written to a lady in Texas, all typed, no signature. That freaked me out a little. I called Wachovia, and after waiting a very long time I finally got a guy in their fraud division, or loss division, or whatever they call it. This guy was like a secret service/FBI dude. I kept wanting to say, "yes sir" or "yes, officer." He took one look at the online photo of the check and said, “Mr. Gillespie, this is what has happened.”

He went on to tell me that I probably had a key logger virus or Trojan on my system, that it had hijacked my username and pass code and sent it probably to somewhere in Russia or Iran or Iraq. Seriously, he said these schemes were usually terrorist related and were a huge big deal for Homeland Security. Then someone used the numbers to log into my online account, set up bill pay, and write the check to the lady in Texas, whom he said was also likely a victim, someone who had fallen for some sort of phishing scam run by the same outfit, and they just link two “victims” together. Thankfully I caught it before the check had time to get to her, and they were going to take care of notifying her. Plus they refunded all the money to me. He told me to take both computers (home and office) in to a place that could use more powerful software than what I had, and have them deep scanned. I did that, and we found the key logger Trojan! Nasty little devil. Then I had to go to the bank, change all my numbers, and of course contact the gazillion companies that draft out of my account. So, that was my week. I just got set up and am ready to work again.

So, I decided to move to upper Manitoba, right? Wrong. I decided never to do online banking again, right? Wrong.

As I was telling a friend, I have been rear ended six time since I have lived in Greensboro (no, I don’t have a bumper sticker that says hit me! And every time I was stopped at a light or a stop sign!) So, am I not going to drive because of that?

There is a risk to “being connected.” I have about as much software as my 1 gigabyte of RAM can manage with which to protect my systems. I did get yet one more even more powerful spyware program that uses so many resources I can only have it “on” when I actually run it. But that’s about all I can do. You spend $120 or so dollars a year on this software you get $120 dollars a year of protection. I can’t really go to the next level.

I’ll be more careful with what I throw away. I am going to get a shredder for home. I might even stop putting checks out in the postbox. But life goes on, and everything carries a risk.

OK, yes, it used up a week of my life. But I got to talk to so many nice people…

And yes, I know, I should have been running a Mac. Send me 5K and I’ll get two good ones.

Joel

A Christian Prayer for Our World

Heavenly Father, you have called us as followers of your Son Jesus Christ to remember to pray not just for ourselves, but for the world, your world. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

We pray for the poor and hungry and oppressed peoples of the world, that you would intervene, and bring justice and relief. We pray that you would show us how you would use us to make a difference. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

We pray for the peoples of Iraq, Israel, Labanon, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Korea and all places where military conflict abounds, that you would intervene and bring peace and safety. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

We pray for our own leaders, those of all political parties, that they would make decisions in keeping with justice and goodness and peace. Protect them all from the evils of power and from political scheming, and work through their decisions for the greater good. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

We pray for the leaders of the United Nations, that they too would lead in ways uncorrupted by power and self interest, that peace would more quickly come to our world. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

We pray for the Church throughout the world, for her protection, for her ministers and her people, that you would protect them from persecution and terror, and use them as agents of good and light wherever they are. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

We pray for the good and safety and health and pace of all peoples of all nations and faiths; yet we also pray for the success of the ministry and message of the good news of Jesus Christ, that for your glory disciples of Christ may increase in number and influence in every nation. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

We pray for our community and the many issues which divide and hurt us. I call upon you to bring good and truth and wholeness and peace to us all in this place, in this city, that we would all live peaceful and tranquil and loving lives together in this place. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

I pray for myself, as I relate to and contribute to the good or to the evil of this world. Make me into a vessel of good and peace that my life will be for the good of others and not of myself; that you might be glorified through me, and others lives made better because of me. Root out of me all that would bring harm, sadness, or evil to others. Lord, please, in your mercy hear my prayer.

Heavenly Father, the problems of this world seem so great, and we seem so small; yet you are greater than all of us. We humbly acknowledge our helplessness and our need of your work in our hearts. Lord, please, in your mercy hear our prayers.

A Christian Prayer of Affirmation

A Prayer of Affirmation

Heavenly Father, you are the Creator God, the Maker of heaven and earth, you are my Creator, my God, you made me, and you have redeemed me.

Father, I want to claim the truth this morning that I am your child. Father, how great is your love for me, that I should be called a child of God.

Father, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me, and that I have been acquitted of guilt before you, and that you, my judge, have become my Father, and have adopted me into your family.

Father, I believe the Scriptures that you chose me to be your child before the foundation of the world, that you predestined me to be adopted as your child through Jesus Christ.

Father, I embrace the truth this morning that you love me more even than the best human father or mother loves their child, and that you will never stop loving me.

Father, I desire in my inmost being to live and think and act as your child today.

Father, I believe that you will go with me through this day, that you will provide for my needs, that you will watch over and protect me, and that nothing can happen to me that you do not allow for my good.

Father, I know that you love me too much to let me go my own way. Father, I accept and desire those changes you need to bring about in me, and I accept the hardships of this day as loving discipline from your hand.

Father, I thank you that you are present with me today through the Holy Spirit whom you have sent. I thank you that the Spirit will not only make your presence known to me, but will pray my unspoken prayers back to you, when I just don’t know how to pray.

Father, I believe that I am an heir, a co-heir with Jesus, of the bounty of your kingdom, and I go forth into this day knowing that your future for me in your kingdom is greater than my highest dreams, so I wait patiently for that bounty to come.

Father, I affirm that my adoption will not be complete until I receive a new resurrection body, and that even all creation longs and waits for that day. Give me patience today while I wait. Come Lord Jesus.

What I'm Saying What I'm Not: Marcus Kindley, Homosexuality, and Pedophilia Revisited

In response to Roch’s comments on my previous post, and to Ed’s post today, and the N&R article today, I wanted to clarify a few things as to myself, though of course I am a virtually irrelevant player in the large scheme of things.

I appreciate Roch’s basic suggestion. If we together can guarantee that legalizing homosexual marriage will not lead to looser laws regarding pedophilia, then we have a negotiating starting point so to speak, a starting point for working together for new laws in North Carolina regarding homosexual marriage. But, I think Roch is saying, if anti-homosexual marriage folk who raise the pedophilia issue won’t agree to such a “deal,” then the pedophilia matter proves itself to be a red herring.

I believe that Roch and I both understand a red herring to be a bunny trail argument, a kind of phony distraction.

What I personally am suggesting is NOT a red herring argument. I am opposed to the legalization and legitimization of homosexual marriage for multiple reasons which have nothing to do with pedophilia.

My point is every argument I have heard for the legitimization of homosexual marriage will lead to the legitimization of many other things. This is most true regarding the “argument” from nature, or "desire," or “natural” sexual preference (we do need to do a work over on that word “natural” – it has SO many possible meanings).

What I am saying to the homosexual advocacy groups amounts to help frankly. Not that they asked for it. This argument will damn their cause. It will do that because it will damn us all to many things we do not profess to want. Mark my words. It will do so.

In addition, in my opinion, rooting the argument for homosexual marriage in loose ideas of nature or desire is, in my mind, demeaning to the integrity of the choices that homosexuals (and everyone else) makes. I do not wish to see our culture go down the path of legitimizing behaviors on the grounds of desire or genetic predisposition or “feelings of love” or whatever. It will make us a poorer culture. Ultimately it involves a denial of personal responsibility. It is childish.

So, pedophilia issues aside, yes, I oppose the legalization of homosexual marriage. I think the current most-oft used argument for homosexual marriage will also bring about many results even most homosexuals won’t like. And, sad to say, it will open up the door to comparisons to pedophilia, at least the kind of relations with older minors that are already quite OK in much of Europe. I think this approach will prove a deal killer and a dead end for the homosexual lobby.

Though I disagree with Roch on how the issue of “equal protection” is to be understood and how it should apply, it would be much better for all, in my view, if the case for homosexual marriage were based in legal arguments such as Roch’s.

In the event that homosexual marriage will eventually be approved, which I think (sadly) it will, it will be much better for everyone to have its approval grounded in constitutional arguments and not silly “arguments from desire.”

As to the N&R article, and Ed Cone’s piece, and other commentary on Marcus Kindley’s blog, I don’t think a close reading of the now oft quoted sentence actually will substantiate the claim that Marcus was saying that homosexuals were pedophiles or were no different than pedophiles. I think his inability to state things well has been used by others to have him say what he did not mean to say. Taking advantage of his blundering use of words to make political hay is a problem unto itself.

I wish Marcus would come out with a statement like this – “I am sorry that my poor choice of words gave our community the impression that I or the Republican Party believes that homosexuals are pedophiles or like unto pedophiles. I am sorry for the offence my words may have caused. I do not believe that homosexuals are predisposed to be pedophiles or are pedophiles.”

Now, were it me in this mess, I might wish to write a long philosophical discourse on the use and meanings of the word “natural” in order to clarify what seems on all fronts a murky subject. Hey, I think I will.

Marcus Kindley, Homosexuality, and Pedophila

There has been much commentary around the blogosphere regarding Marcus Kindley’s comments about gays and pedophiles. One can check out Matt’s featured story on greensboro101.com, the debate over at Sue’s place, and the debate on Chip’s new Blogger site. I’m sure there is much being said elsewhere too.

Personally, I think Mr. Kindley’s comments were unhelpful and hurtful and politically stupid. It is a disservice to say the least to decent law abiding homosexual men and women to throw them in with pedophiles. And that is being said by someone who believes homosexuality to be morally wrong.

I actually agree with Matt. One can’t let such comments stand just because a bumbling blogger says them. I think an apology is in order. It would certainly be politically wise.

Having said all that, there is a legitimate danger of the issues of homosexuality and pedophilia being confused or conflated, and that danger rests in the “argument from desire” often used by homosexuals themselves.

I have always thought that such an argument does a disservice to homosexuals and to their moral/political goals.

There is this tendency to equate or not equate “sexual preference” with “desire.” As I said elsewhere…Sexuality determines desire....Desire determines sexuality...Words...What is sexuality (unless we're talking about gender confusion) if it does not include “desire” as a most fundamental component? To say that desire comes out of sexuality is to say that desire comes out of desire. It says nothing at all.

In the sense, everyone makes decisions all the time whether to be true to their "desires" or not. I happen to believe that most heterosexual men are inclined or "bent" to "spread their seed" far and wide. Most men have an insatiable desire for sexual variety. Every day involves decisions whether to act in thought or deed on those inclinations or not. Thus, as to our common experience of "heterosexual male sexuality," having many and multiple partners could be considered a defining aspect of our "sexuality." Monogamy could be considered downright unnatural. But whether we act in mind, heart, or deed on those desires is a choice involving whether we go against our base level "sexuality."

Add to this the fact two common experiences I have come up against on many occasions in counseling others.

First, many men because of having been abused sexually by males as children, have a confused libido. They have a base level sexuality such that they "get up" by anal and oral intercourse. They are drawn to homosexual pornography. This may be extremely distressing to a wife or a woman. The man may be fundamentally heterosexual, but it is hard for them to have appropriate non confused libido when it comes to sex with women. It is hard for them to “get up” for normal intercourse. The point is, their “sexuality,” in terms of what turns their sexual crank, should not be the defining issue when it comes to their sexual actions.

Second, many people who have "let fly" sexually, and have let down the walls and barriers through all kinds of group sexual encounters, find that any kind of sex will do just fine. This problem is often exacerbated by pornography. The point is that their desires are spread all over the map. Acting on sexual impulses even "against one's normal grain" actually changes that grain, changes one's "sexuality." Again, choice is always there.

The bottom like in that the arguments for homosexual sex based on desire or some vague notion of sexuality eventually become arguments for all kinds of sex. Ultimately we have to draw lines based on some sort of moral compass. and, corporately as to laws, on some sort of moral consensus. The argument rooted in "desire" takes away all such compasses. It is a bad argument for homosexuals because it takes away the dignity of their choices and opens them up to the very kind of comparisons as have been made by Mr. Kindley. It also makes them out to be children, non grown ups, people who cannot live counter to their desires. Much better to say one chooses to be homosexual in terms of one’s way of life. There is more dignity there. The argument rooted in "desire" is also a bad argument culturally because it leads quickly to moral and sexual anarchy, including, eventually, as we will see soon enough, to cultural acceptance of some forms of pedophilia. See the article on pedophilia in Wikepedia to get a glimpse of what might be next). It’s coming. The argument rooted in "desire" will help it get here.
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Race Matters

I have been away for a few weeks, and came back to all the commotion regarding "A Declaration Against Intolerable Racism."

I have read the Declaration, and in a minute will comment on it.

I wanted to share a different experience however that I had recently. I was in an Ikea store north of Dallas – with my daughter. During that three hour plus stay we looked around, shopped, stood in a line along time for lunch, and had lunch. I was struck by the amazing diversity of people in line for lunch. There were English speaking white people, English speaking Hispanics, Spanish speaking Hispanics, English speaking black people, black people speaking non English languages, and oriental people of different nationalities speaking English or oriental languages. It was a people-potpourri for sure.

All rubbed shoulders in line, were nice to each other, sat at adjacent tables, and no one seemed to care a twit about the color or language of the people next to them.

I find the same basic experience everyday in countless stores and restaurants where I rub shoulders with people - black, white, Hispanic and Asian.

OK, racism no doubt exists in the hearts of many people. It probably exists in some minor form in the heart of every person. But we have come a long way.

And yes, racism is very bad. But other things are also very bad. Like classism. Like consumerism. What united all the people in the Ikea that day was that they were all consumers, they all apparently had the means to consume, and they were all goo goo eyed over all the STUFF.

I think overall that classism is more prevalent and more insidious these days than racism. The fact that there may be some overlap between these does not mean that they are not different matters.

I am a white guy, so what do I know, but I think most white people don’t care all that much what color another person is. But I think that all kinds of people, white and black, care too much, in a bad judgmental way, whether another person is poor, shares or does not share certain “middle class values,” dresses shabbily or smells bad.

I think we judge others more on class than race.

Which gets me to the Declaration. First of all, what a totally lame name. Sounds like a Jim Carey movie title.

Secondly, I think REAL racism, and its seriousness, is cheapened by false charges of racism.

I am a pastor of a Presbyterian Church. We believe in the devil and in demons, but we aren’t as inclined to see them in as many places as some of our Christian brethren. We might be inclined to say, if asked, that we “don’t see demons behind every tree.”

Likewise, we should not see racism behind every tree. The Declaration has been well critiqued by others. I concur with many others that most of the items are just silly. Well, it is silly to pull out the “R” word as a cause for the problems which themselves aren't silly. The problem with doing this time and time again, is that it discredits those who may have insight into or be working against real racism. I concur that the tendency here in our city and county to pull out the racism card, and to hype racism as the source of so many evils, does not contribute to the decline of racism, nor does it solve the problems of real racism. Indeed it polarizes and possibly even creates and promotes racism.

If a bunch of white people continually say stupid divisive things, it provokes similar divisive thoughts and emotions in some other people, it deadens others to whatever the white folk are saying, and it may even cause some people to come to dislike white people, just by association. I think Dumb Declarations can have the same effect.

Is racism still a part of the structure of our culture? Yes. Does it need to be rooted out? Yes. Is it found in all the places as claimed in the Declaration? No. And eventually, with all the yak yak from the same crowd about racist boogeymen behind every tree, people will just stop listening. And that is a disservice to Black or Hispanic or Asian people who are in fact the victims of real racism.

I take comfort in the fact that in the general culture, at lunch at the K&W, at dinner at The Outback, waiting in line at the DMV, at the movies at the Carousel, there is much less regard to or thought of race as compared to a generation ago.

And meanwhile, we should all look into our hearts, not only for signs of racism, but for signs of classism as well. Because it is the natural inclination of the human heart to look for ways to feel superior to others. None of us is immune. None of us.

The Gospel

(originally prepared for www.covenantfellowshipgreensboro.org)

The phone rings, I pick it up, and an unfamiliar voice says, “May I speak to Mr. Joel Gillespie, please.” “This is he,” I respond. “Mr. Gillespie,” the voice continues, “I have great news for you. You have been pre-selected to receive the new no annual fee Bank of Missoula credit card!” Wow. I’m thrilled. When the voice pauses for three microseconds to catch its breath, I interrupt. “Thank you for calling, but I already have enough credit cards.” I hang up.

There is so much hype. Everything is awesome. Everything is incredible. Everything changes your life.

Now if the voice on the phone had said, “Mr. Gillespie, you have won eighteen million dollars!” then, yea, that would have made for a good day. But I haven’t had many calls like that lately.

Most people I know are working hard to survive and make a living, to keep themselves and their loved ones alive and healthy, and to know a measure of success and happiness. It’s not a foregone conclusion that one will succeed at all this. Life is unpredictable. Even if we can control what we say and do, we can’t control what everyone else will say and do. We can’t control the weather. We can’t control disease and sickness. We can’t keep our company from being bought out. We can’t control what other nations may do. Not only that, we realize that we are not so able to control even ourselves. Inside, all mixed in with goodness and kindness, is anger, resentment, lust, greed, sadness, confusion, pride, and arrogance. It seems that underneath and surrounding all of our hard work and best efforts are the twin pillars of chaos and emptiness. They are ready to devour us. Evil surrounds, decay presses, and death awaits. It seems, frankly, that we’re all alone in a great big empty universe and, “ah ha!” the joke’s on us.

So is there any good news really? So I win the lottery. Big deal! It doesn't change the world, and it doesn't change me inside.

But the message of the Bible is in fact a message that there is good news. This is what the word “gospel” means – “good news” or “glad tidings” or “positive reports.”

The good news of the Bible is the news that in fact we are not alone in the universe. We and the entire universe have been created by an infinite and personal and good being whom the Bible calls God. This God has made us as human beings “in his image.” He has made us to find our happiness in knowing and loving Him. He has shown us how to live in a way that brings honor to him and happiness to us. He has shown us how to live toward one another and toward our neighbor.

The bad news of the Bible is that we have messed up. We have decided that we don’t like the way that this God runs His universe. We have decided to look elsewhere for our fullness and happiness. Because of our rebellion, our world is fallen. We are alienated from God, from one another, and from the earth. And God has honored us, as creatures made in His image, by allowing us ultimately to experience the full weight of our choice to reject his authority and presence in our lives. He has prepared a place and environment called hell where we get to live forever without Him and His presence and blessing. Hell is God’s ratification of our anti-God choice.

The good news of the Bible is that evil, decay, and death have been defeated. The good news of the Bible is that though we have rejected our creator, he has not rejected us. He has provided a way for us to be restored to Him and to begin to regain what we had lost.

How has this come about? This good and powerful God has embraced the world that has rejected him. He has indeed become a person – Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. In word and deed this Jesus has revealed to us what our creator God is like. He has taught us what our creator God seeks to do in and with His world. In word and deed Jesus has also shown us what we were created to be like. He has shown us how to live toward God and others. He has shown us how to love God and love our neighbor.

This Jesus has also done the most remarkable thing. Something really incredible. Something definitely life changing.

Jesus has taken upon Himself the full weight of human sin and rebellion. He has “borne our iniquity and carried our sorrows.” He has experienced in our place God’s justifiable displeasure with our rebellion against Him. In other word, Jesus has “died for our sins.” He has suffered hell in our place.

But Jesus has done more. He has defeated death itself. He has been raised – bodily -- from the dead. He has ascended into the presence of God, where he now rules over the world and intercedes for His people. Jesus is alive, and is coming back again.

Jesus has opened up a way back to God. He has put the world back on track. He has dealt with the chaos and uncertainty, with death and decay and evil. Jesus rules over the universe.

The good news of the Bible is that as we believe in and embrace and cling to this risen Jesus as our Lord and master, we will be forgiven of our sins, we will be declared acquitted of the charge of rebellion against God, we will be adopted into God’s family, we will begin again to be remade into the image of God, and we will be raised from the dead to an eternity of fellowship with God in a renewed heaven and earth. Now this is good news indeed!

Covenant Fellowship is committed to proclaiming and bearing witness to the good news that Jesus Christ is alive, that he is King over the world, that he has borne our sins, that he has defeated death and Satan, and that he is coming back as judge of the earth. This is good news indeed!!

The Dixie Chicks Taking the Long Way

Bad news today about the upcoming Dixie Chicks tour. Ticket sales are sluggish, and some of the dates and venues may have to be pulled. They are scheduled to play here October 22nd. I’d like to go, so I hope this is not one of the venues pulled.

I bought their new CD, Taking the Long Way, a couple of weeks ago. The CD consists of fourteen songs all written by the Dixie Chicks with some helpers here and there.

Based on their original songs from their last CD, I am all for a CD of their own songs. I think they are terrific song writers. In fact, musically, Taking the Long Way is a superb piece of work. I have no idea what genre to call it. It’s not country, not really rock or pop, not blue grass. Maybe some sort of folk/country/pop/rock fusion. But I’ve never cared about genre types really anyway.

There are enough melodic hooks, unexpected but cool chord changes, surprises as to where you think a song is going, to cause me to expect to enjoy the CD for a long time to come.

Their single, which I heard them do on Leno or Letterman, is Not Ready to Make Nice. It is basically a middle finger to the country music powers that be, and the fans who got on their case after Natalie Maime’s comments about President Bush while they were on tour in England.

I admire their spunk. Not being a fan of the Country Music Establishment I don’t mind their rebellion against its rules and standards. Good for them.

Not Ready to Make Nice is not even in my top five favorite songs on the CD. As of today I’d go with Baby Hold On as my favorite, Easy Silence second, Everybody Knows third, Bitter End fourth, and The Long Way Around fifth. But I expect that to change as I listen to the CD more and more.

I think the Dixie Chicks are simply great musicians and songwriters.

I also think they have been really stupid, and have dug their own grave to a great extent.

The crack about President Bush made in England before an adoring British anti-war crowd was just a cheap shot, and that it was taken out of country at the beginning of the war justifiably rubbed people the wrong way. Their upcoming concert was mentioned at the Chris Daughtry show at Grimsley Stadium and there were resounding boos. I don’t think those folks were all Republicans.

I really don’t think most people care what Natalie Maime’s personal view is of the war in Iraq or President Bush. She is hardly uniquely qualified to offer intelligent commentary. She is free to run her mouth as she sees fit. People are free to buy their CD’s and go to their concerts as they see fit.

The Dixie Chicks should incorporate their thoughts about life and the world – and the war – in their art, in their music. They do this to some extent in I Hope which I find to have a hopelessly naïve “why can’t we all just get along” message, but I still like the song. I just don’t think political commentary, even in music, is their strong suit. And I am a fan of good protest music, even when I don't agree with it. OK, so I miss the sixties already...

Much of the CD is about how they have dealt with their fall from grace. There is too much of it for my taste. I think the over focus becomes self indulgence. It focuses attention too much on their own struggle with their fans and with country stations when there are simply too many other things to write about. Yet, existentially, they have been living in that struggle, so it is no surprise that they would write something about. Just too much I think.

What I worry about is that the buying of their CD’s or the attending of their concerts will be less about their music and more about whether people agree with or disagree with their political stance. I think that would be a real shame.

Having said all that, I will keep enjoying the CD for its musical excellence, and if I have the money I will go see them when they come here, if they do. And, again, I admire their grit.

Mostly I admire their music making. I admire their genre busting. I admire their musicianship, and that of their supporting cast. I just wish they would change the subject a little bit.

The Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum at the Historic Palmer Memorial Institute

(prepared for www.backporch.org)

Drive east out of Greensboro toward Burlington and about half way there you will enter the recently incorporated town of Sedalia, North Carolina. Within the town limits of Sedalia is the site one of the most truly remarkable institutions in the history of Guilford County, and a story of one amazing woman, Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown.

The site is that of the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum at Historic Palmer Memorial Institute.

When one thinks of the most important and influential people and institutions in the history of Guilford County, this official State of North Carolina Historic Site celebrates a person and place that should be in anyone’s “final four.”

The subtitle of the definitive work on Dr. Brown and the Palmer Institute (for sale at the gift shop) really encapsulates the inspirational nature of visiting this historic site: “what one young African American woman could do.”

The story of Charlotte Hawkins Brown and the Palmer Institute is the story of how one person, committed to the well being of a community and a people, can make a profound difference in the lives of others. It is a story to inspire the best in all of us.

She was born a Lottie Hawkins in 1883 in Henderson North Carolina, later to change her name to Charlotte Hawkins. To escape the pressures and injustices of the Jim Crow era, and for the sake of opportunity, her family moved to Cambridge Massachusetts in 1888. There Lottie was able to receive a solid education at Allston Grammar School, Cambridge English High School, and Salem State Normal School. Her drive, personality, and intelligence caught the eye of many, including Alice Freeman Palmer, who would help Lottie in her education, and to whom Charlotte Hawkins would later dedicate her new school in North Carolina.

Young eighteen year old Charlotte Hawkins arrived in what is present day Sedalia in 1901 with an assignment from the American Missionary Society to teach at the Bethany Institute, a struggling school in the small predominantly African American community. Soon after her arrival the Association decided to close the school after one term, yet Charlotte Hawkins, encouraged by members of the community to stay, saw opportunity across the street (now Highway 70) in an old blacksmith’s shop, and soon had raised the money from friends and associates back in New England to open the Palmer Memorial Institute, a day school and boarding school, named after her mentor back in Cambridge Mass.

Charlotte Hawkins, soon to become Charlotte Hawkins Brown, would go on to lead and guide the Palmer Institute for over fifty years.

It is worth the better part of a morning or afternoon to walk the large campus, read the various signs about the many buildings, and take a tour of “Canary House,” Mrs. Brown’s home, restored much as the way it was (including furniture) when Dr. Brown lived and entertained there. There is a short video which excellently captures the spirit of Dr. Brown and the school. What is so impressive is the ongoing ripple effect of the school in communities far and wide, as graduates of the Palmer Institute have themselves gone on to make a difference in places far and near.

Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown ran the Palmer Institute for 50 years touching the lives of countless young men and women. Her story should be told, made into a movie, and proclaimed abroad, for it is a truly inspirational story of what one person can do.

I am very happy to have learned that the State of North Carolina has budgeted money for the upgrading of the site, including the renovation of some of the central buildings. That should provide even greater access to this great place, and great story.

You can read all about the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum, and get directions to the Historic Site, by going to their outstanding web site - http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/chb/chb.htm.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on Charlotte Hawkins Brown here.

Top Ten Local Hikes

(prepared for www.backporch.org)

We are blessed in Guilford County with a wealth of areas preserved for hiking, and by hiking I mean hiking on trails. I have a separate section for Top Ten Walks (on pavement).

Many of these trials are overseen by the City of Greensboro Park System, Guilford County parks and Recreation, Greensboro Beautiful, and the City of High Point.

I am going to list my own personal top ten, then a few “honorable mentions.” I have tried to link these to local web sites which describe them further, and there are articles or articles pending for each trail.

I have with one exception NOT included trails that are shared by mountain bikers.

Please feel free to e-mail me with a trail that belongs on the list, or, if you are so inspired, a description of such a trail for our readers.


Here is my “Top Ten.”

The Greensboro Bog Garden Trail (Hobbs Road)

The Laurel Bluff Trail (Watershed Trail Between Lake Brandt and Lake Townsend)

The Nat Green Trail (Lake Brandt)

The Piedmont Trail (Lake Brandt)

Big Loop - Little Loop Trails at Bur-Mil Park

The Palmetto Trail (Lake Brandt)

The Beech Bluff Trail (Brush Creek, Lake Higgins)

The Evergreen Trail at Price Park

The Osprey Trail (Lake Townsend)

The Bill Faver Lakeshore Trail at the Piedmont Environmental Center


Here is my “Honorable Mention.”

The River Walk at the Summit

The Deep River Trail at the Piedmont Environmental Center

The Townsend Trail (Lake Townsend)

The Chatfield Trail at Hagen Stone Park

Regional Festivals

Hi all you out there in blogland. I am putting together a list of regional festivals, and was wondering if you could tell me what I'm missing.

Here is what I have:

The Eastern Music Festival (Guilford College, Greensboro, June 23-July 30, 2006)

The North Carolina Shakespeare Festival (High Point, Winston Salem, Raleigh, various venues, October to December, 2006)

The Piedmont Jazz and Blues Festival (Greensboro, April 29-May 6, 2006)

Fun Fourth Festival Greensboro (Downtown Greensboro, July 4)

The Galax Leaf and String Festival (Galax, VA, June 9-11)

The National Black Theatre Festival (Winston Salem, bi-annual July 30-August 4, 2007)

Grandfather Mountain Highland Games (Grandfather Mountain, July 6-9 2006)

The Occaneechi Saponi Spring Cultural Festival (Hillsborough, June 9-10, 2006)

Celebrate Our State: A North Carolina Festival (High Point, June 9-11, 2006)

The Original North Carolina Wine Festival (Clemmons, Saturday, June 10, 2006)

Celtic Festival & Highland Games (Historic Bethebara Park, Winston Salem, May 12, 2006)

Top Ten Hikes Within an Hour’s Drive (or so) of Greensboro

(prepared for www.backporch.org)

For a county sitting right slab in the middle of the piedmont, far from mountain and sea, we are fortunate to have some truly good hiking opportunities so close to us.

I know, the great stuff lies further a field, across the parkway, in the misty mountains to our west, and along the seacoast to our east. When I was at Clemson I spent about every opportunity backpacking and exploring the western North Carolina mountains, west of Asheville. Great stuff out there.

But we have what we have, and it ain’t bad.

I am not including local Guilford County hikes in this list, though some of the watershed trails would qualify. You can find them under Top Ten Local Hikes and Walks.

The best trails are in three “clumps,” one to our northwest, one to our east, and one to our south. There are trail maps and descriptions on most of the web sites hyperlinked below.

To our Northwest lies Hanging Rock State Park, (also check out North Carolina Outdoors Hanging Rock Site), Pilot Mountain State Park, and the Sauratown Trail that joins them (and is a part of the Mountain to the Sea Trail).

To our east lies the Occoneechee State Natural Area, The Eno River State Park, (also check out North Carolina Outdoors Eno River Site), the Duke Forest, and the William Umstead State Park.

To our south lies Uwharrie National Forrest including the Birkhead Wilderness Area (also check out North Carolina Outdoors Birkhead Mountains site), as well as Morrow Mountain State Park.

From all of these options, my top ten may not be the same as your top ten, but there are quite more than ten trails to hike, so, who cares, hike them all!

There are several good books available at local book stores that five guidance on NC hiking trails. Allen de Hart has written several editions of books on North Carolina trails. His Third Edition gets good reviews. There is Hiking North Carolina by Randy Johnson, a Falcon Guide Book. And then there is Don Childrey’s Uwharrie Lakes Region Trail Guide: Hiking and Biking in North Carolina's Uwharrie Region. Allen de Hart also has two trail guides, for the Triad and Triangle respectively, which covers most of the short trip hiking opportunities near us. They are Trails of the Triad and Trails of the Triangle.


Anyway, here are my “Top Ten Hikes Within an Hour’s Drive (or so) of Greensboro”

The Moore’s Knob Trail, Hanging Rock State Park
The Robbins Branch-Birkhead Mountain Trail loop, Birkhead Wilderness Area
The Sauratown Trail
The Occoneechee Mountain Loop/Occoneechee Mountain Trail, Occoneechee State Natural Area
Bobbit’s Hole Trail, Eno River State Park
The Mountain Trail, Pilot Mountain State Park
The Wolfe Rock/Hanging Rock Trail Loop, Hanging Rock State Park
The Little Pinnacle, Jomeokee Trail, Pilot Mountain State Park
The Lower Cascade Falls Trail, Hanging Rock State Park
The Uwharrie National Recreation Trail, Uwharrie National Forrest

Maybe you would like to write a trail description for www.backporch.org, or just pass along ideas to me. I’d appreciate it.