Top Ten Albums

Well, here I go, trying to be true to my resolutions. The is the second of my top tens, but the first real one really. OK, I do this for fun for me. But I’d love your feedback.

By albums I mean, 1) albums I own, 2) non “best of” albums, and 3) lifetime favorites, as of today. Of course "album" and "CD" mean the same as far as the list goes.

Choosing favorite albums is kind of like choosing between beautiful sunsets. Numbers 11-99 all come close.

OK, here goes, roughly in order….

1. The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East – – The Allman Brothers Band

I suppose they are my favorite band of all time, if I had to choose. The Brothers were on top of their game during the Fillmore Concerts. They are incredibly tight and together, even in the long jams. It may include the best beginning of any album ever – the intro to Statesboro Blues. I like all the songs, but Stormy Monday may be my favorite. With Duane and Dickey both cooking, and throwing in a great organ solo by Gregg - it’s hard to beat. I was recently given the re-mastered version that preserves more of the original order of the Fillmore Concert. I recommend it. By the way, I saw them in concert in Columbia on their Brothers and Sisters tour. Too bad I missed Duane, but that still ranks as my favorite concert of all time.

2. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs – Derek and the Dominos

I bought this early in my teens, and it has followed me around all my adult life. I go through phases, listening to it for weeks in my car, and then putting it aside for a year or so. It gets better to me every year. It’s hard to know what to say about this record. It’s rough and under produced, Clapton’s voice is far from sterling, and yet the record is incredible in its emotional power, its consistency, and its mood. So, my two favorite albums both include Duane Allman. Well, I guess I like the blues, and on this record it’s hard to beat the double guitars wailing on Have You Ever Loved a Woman. And to know how true it was for Clapton!

3. Moondance – Van Morrison

Talking about a record of no bad songs! Van Morrison has been a brilliant song writer for decades, and is still going strong. But of all his records this is the smoothest, most consistent, and most emotionally powerful. I’ll tell you, it’s hard for me to listen to Into the Mystic or Brand New Day without tears. I’ve asked that Brand New Day be played at my funeral! The fusion of rock and jazz, electric instruments and horns, is brilliant. But the one word that comes to my mind when I think of this record is "smooth.”

4. Late for the Sky – Jackson Browne

I have listened to the record so many times in my life, and in so many places, and under so many circumstances, that it feels like an extension of me. I consider it his best work. Well, I think of Jackson Browne and David Lindley as a collaborative team. Can we imagine these songs without Lindley’s slide guitar or beautiful violins? My Clemson roommate and I used to play Road and the Sky at top volume and dance around the room before every Clemson home football game. What a great opening line! Over time, the more mellow works have meant more to me – For a Dancer, Fountain of Sorrow, Before the Deluge. What can I say, I love it.

5. Abbey Road – The Beatles

This only entered my top ten this year. I went through a spell when I could not stop listening to it, after I read the long Beatles bio. I don’t know if it is their best record, but it is for now my favorite of their records. I especially am drawn to the medley on side two, which I find to be an ever constant source of musical interest. It is a diverse and eclectic record, more a group of individual works, except for the brilliant medley, which is a compendium of connected short works and themes owned by all of them. “Because the world is round...” I mean, is that ethereal beauty or what?

6. My Life – Iris Dement

I know, who is Iris Dement you say? Well, she is a folk/old country/twangy singer songwriter from the other side of the other side of the hills, and her songs are piercing and haunting. Having now seen her in concert this past summer I realize that there is an aura about her plain Jane no frills persona - transcendent almost. The woman can write songs that make you cry or laugh or remember loved ones or hope for better things. You name it. The song My Life is a favorite.

7. Slow Train Coming – Bob Dylan

I remember when I first listened to Slow Train Coming on my parents' big living room stereo console. I wept. I also spent like three hours trying to write down all the words. If only we had had the internet back then! I love the hard driving bluesy feel to much of the record, yet Precious Angel, I Believe in You, When He Returns, and Man Gave Names to All the Animals are favorites. Mark Knoppler’s guitar on Precious Angel is world class. And I still consider it to contain Bob Dylan’s best singing of his entire career!

8. The Joshua Tree – U2

I didn’t like 80’s music. Big hair, big shows, big production, power ballads, all balanced by punk which I found tiresome. I had about given up when my Toronto nephews turned me on to U2. So I got involved in music again. And when Joshua Tree came out, I sensed it was simply a special, magical accomplishment. U2 is a great band, and I have liked most of their permutations. But give me Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, With or Without You, Bullet the Blue Sky, and One Tree Hill and I am just fine. And by the way, their Where the Streets have No Name at the Super Bowl after 9/11 was both sensitive and magnificent. I can’t wait.

9. Audible Sigh – Bill Mallonee and the Vigilantes of Love

Bill Mallonee, formerly of The Vigilantes of Love, has labored in the world of independent labels for most of his career, which is too bad in a way, given that he is up there with Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne as a songwriter. And his voice grows on you. Resplendent, with a little back up vocal help from Emmylou Harris, is one of the greatest songs ever written by anybody. He was and is a poet, and a bard, and a knower of the human condition. This is a great record.

10. Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin

It’s hard to choose between a whole bunch of records for my top ten, including two or three Led Zeppelin ones, but I give the nod this week to II. I didn’t like Led Zeppelin so much when I was younger. Oh, yeah, me and all my friends spent hours trying to figure out the meaning of Stairway to Heaven, but the driving force of their music, and Robert Plant’s voice grated on me. Not any more for some reason, and I am appreciating more and more their musical brilliance as a band. It’s hard to pick a favorite song on this record, but I might just give the nod to Heartbreaker, due to the incredible lead guitar riff.

Well, that’s the top ten for today!

Going the Extra Mile in Iraq

So, Bush is going to call for a temporary increase in troops in Iraq tonight, and there will be many voices of opposition. Should be interesting.

This is my take. We the United States are not responsible to settle every squabble and fight and solve every problem in the world. We cannot do that. And many places are not well able to accept parliamentary or representative democracy. This may be due to long standing ill will between groups of people, or it may be due to conflict between secularism and theocracy, as in many Muslim countries. I am sure it’s very complicated. It took us a long time to figure it out and we’re still working on it.

We may or may not succeed in bringing true order to Iraq. Adding to the internecine fighting is unhelpful input from surrounding countries, and frankly, our own decision to disband their army and much of their police infrastructure.

Rightly or wrongly we invaded and we got rid of Saddam Hussein. We have done many good things there which go under the media radar for the most part.

But it is a big mess. Will the potential leaders of Iraq be able to pull their country together with increased help from us? I don’t know. We may at the end of the day have to leave the place a total wreck.

However, since we invaded, destroyed much of their infrastructure, exposed their citizens, men women and children, to months and years of fighting and unrest, I believe that we have a moral responsibility to go the extra mile to try to bring as much stability as we possibly can, even at the risk of more casualties and more pressure on our already stretched armed forces.

For me it would be unconscionable to leave the place in a worse state than we found it. We simply cannot and must not do that to the normal everyday people of Iraq. It would, to me, be profoundly unjust, indeed, morally cruel to do so, and we would share with the intractable Iraqi clerics and leaders the blood guilt for what followed.

I don’t think we have yet gone the extra mile. So I think it is right to try to secure more stability, buy time to train more Iraqi troops and police and leaders, and help the fledgling Iraqi government as much as we can.

It is easy for us to criticize them and say they are not carrying their weight, but that is asking a lot in just a few short years following the brutal dictatorship they had.

So, I for one am glad for the troop increase. I cannot say that I know it will work or achieve its objective. But I think we owe it in a profound way to the Iraqi people to try, no matter if we should have gone in in the first place.

And that’s my two cents.

Joel

A New Year a Week Late

Ahhh, how has the blogosphere been without me? Probably not noticing my absence! But just as Arnold said, "I'll be back" and he came back, so I'm back, for better or for worse.

My wife had to go help with her mother in Toronto for ten days over the holidays so everything in my life sort of got postponed for a week or so. Thus my New Years resolutions are a week or so late.

I've thought about several things I want to do every day, or most every day, and one of those is publishing a top ten list. So, in the spirit of that resolution I thought I'd post my list of the top ten things I want to do every day (or most every day).

1. Read my bible and pray

2. Love my wife and kids

3. Post a top ten list on Blogger. I have already thought of about 150 possible top tens.

4. Post a "thought of the day" on current events, movies, music, nature, Christian discipleship, etc., either on my Blogger or my Word Press site, the latter set aside for more explicitly Christian stuff.

5. Take a picture of something Guilford County or Greensboro related and post it within a day or two on my Flickr site.

6. Post at least 5 older photo's on my Flickr site. I have become an extended family archivist and this is proving to be a great blessing. Check it out - http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelgillespie/.

7. Walk around the block. Any block. Or footpath. Or trail. Take camera. Pray, take pictures, keep walking, or not, or run even.

8. Comment on one other person's blog or Flickr site - everyday. Just do it.

9. Write a card or letter - a physical hand written note - every day, to someone - family, friends, church, Greensboro community - someone. Got to get those cards and stamps.

10. Beat myself up for not getting all ten things done I want to do every day - or nine I guess minus this. Since I'm very good at beating myself up this will be the easiest.

PS - Good game Florida, but I vote for Boise State for # 1.
PSS - Who is the only undefeated division I basketball team today, umm, tell me? I can't hear you! (That could well end tonight!)
PSSS - John Kerry isn't really going to run again is he? Don't know if I can bear it.
PSSSS - Would some good candidate PLEASE come forward from one party or another?
PSSSSS - I can't believe I am saying this, given my dislike of country music, but Pickler did it - it is a really good CD! Go Kellie! (for a different view go to http://www.votefortheworst.com/pickler.html)
PSSSSSS - I'm on a Led Zeppelin kick these days. Been enjoying IV and Houses of the Holy this week. Last night I was jammin' to Misty Mountain Top coming home from the game. Great opening groove.
PSSSSSSS - New York has smelled every time I have been there.

All for now!

Come and See

I was talking to a fellow blogger yesterday and explaining why I had been a little less visible in the blogging world of late, not that it’s any great loss. But I shared with him that I had been involved the last couple of months in a picture and slide scanning/organizing/posting project that had taken up most of the extra time I had.

I invite you to take a look - http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelgillespie/. It won’t hurt you, and you may enjoy it.

If you want any of the pictures I can have prints sent to you – my privilege and pleasure.

When you go to the site you will see that there are many “sets.” Some of these would be more and some less interesting. It’s a big multi faceted project.

Well, how this came about…my grandmother “Nanny,” my father’s mother, lived in Columbia. She and I were very close. She had a beautiful garden (which I wrote about in a piece called “Nanny’s Garden”).

Nanny’s Husband, Curtis Sr. had a niece named Ettamae, who lived with Nanny the last 10 years or so of her life. Nanny and Ettamae were both born the same year. Well, to make a long story short. Ettamae died in 1979, and Nanny in 1985. My brother Mike bought Nanny’s house, but then he sold it in the late 90’s. When he was clearing it out he found in the back corner of the attic an old WWII footlocker of Nanny’s containing thousands of pictures and newspaper cutouts and small personal effects, as well as an old suitcase of Ettamae’s containing the same. It was all such a mess, pictures piled willy nilly upon pictures, but so fascinating. I ended up taking them with me to organize. When my mother died in 2001 I also took some boxes of hers for the same reason.

The problem was, I didn’t know who 75% of the people were. This led me on a long journey to track down all remaining relatives of Nanny and Ettamae. Nanny is from a family, the Andrews, from LaGrange Georgia, and Ettamae, from the Gillespie line originally from Kentucky. This tracking down process got me interested in genealogy as well. So, I have found them all - all the living descendents of my great-grandfathers on both sides! It took some work.

So, I am posting these pictures partly so that these remaining relatives can see them and help me figure out who is who. I am posting old pictures of my parents and us as kids for my siblings and for my children. You know, I kind of want the pictures to tell a story for my kids, a story I wish my parents had told for me. I don’t want them to have to piece it together after I’m gone.

I am posting pictures of our family here, as well as our church family, for those who are inclined to “follow along.” And I am posting pictures I took along the way that are just pretty decent pictures just to have record of some of the beautiful places I have the privilege to go and see in my life.

I have only gotten started, though I am in the mood to start taking pictures again like I used to. I am getting my old Fujica manual SLR camera repaired. I have a Nikon N-80 but just don’t like all the automation. I also am in the mood to start backpacking again. I miss the deep woods. And yes, if truth be told, I am itching to get back into writing, into blogging, so I may give my new expensive Epson Scanner a rest for a while.

Well, if you make it over to the Flickr site I hope something there will make you smile.

Trees in Winter by Edward Waters

Edward Waters has a wonderful poem entitled Trees in Winter. With his permission I tried to post it here, but Blogger makes it impossible to preserve the proper indents and spacing, so rather than ruin the visual aesthetic of the poem I'll just send you to the source -Trees in Winter. While there look around at some of Edward's other splendid poetry.

Joel

Trees in Winter

There was a time in my life during this season between the end of daylight savings time and the winters solstice, when I think I was prone to a mild case of seasonal affective disorder, or, in my case, maybe just the sundown blues. Thankfully that is long past. I’m too busy now for one thing. And the other thing is that I have fallen in love with the woods in winter. I look forward to winter woods like some people look forward to spring flowers. Moore than anything, it is the trees. I love trees in winter.

For the sake of modesty and warmth people need to put on clothes. Yes, it hides what they “really” look like, but I’ll just take the clothed look thank you. But as for trees, all the leaves, as beautiful and green as they are, hide the unique and often magnificent personality of the tree beneath. The uniqueness of each and every tree is more evident in nakedness.

There is a White Oak out my side window. It is almost completely leafless now, with only a few red hanger-on leaves dangling here and there. I see its twisted and gnarly branches more clearly than ever. They reveal its story. This White Oak grew up in its early years with some good competition, but then, that competition diminished. About thirty feet up some very stout limbs grow straight out from the trunk. I am guessing, by the size and age of the tree, that the “competition” was cleared for the building of the houses around, and the builders decided to spare that White Oak. It’s a grand old tree, though it’s a little sick, and I worry for it.

It’s easy to notice tree bark in winter. I am one of those odd fellows who thinks that tree bark is very beautiful and quite cool. The sun likes to highlight the bark of a leafless tree, especially the higher-up bark. Winter is time for the bark to shine. Some bark literally does shine. Sycamore trees peels off huge plates revealing a bright chalky white under bark. Take a walk through Latham Park and you will see plenty of that.

Lots of stuff hangs from trees in winter letting you know about the tree. Tulip Poplar balls like to hang around for a while bouncing in the wind. Plus the last Spring flower cups are very visible reaching to the sky at the end of the high stems. Locust Tree bean pods like to flutter in the breeze throughout the winter rattling like old bones. There’s always the stubborn Sweet Gum balls that won’t let go, just waiting to drop in early Spring when your are just first walking out in your bare feet! Gotcha!

Many trees keep their berries throughout the winter. You’d think for example that the birds would eat up all the dogwood berries right away, but the berries often dry out a little and provide food for the birds all winter long. Same for Red Cedar berries, those lovely little gray-blue balls that often cover a Cedar tree. Same for Black Gum. Same for American Holly. I know our Holly bush is not a Holly tree, but it brings joy all winter watching the mockingbirds eat berries from our Holly bush. It’s like they know how to ration the supply. Interesting.

You may need to be a bit of a tree geek for this one, but tree buds and tree stems are fascinating in the winter. By looking at a bare tree stem you can tell how much it grew the last growing season. It’s really easy. You can also tell a lot about the leaves, even when there aren’t any. You can tell if they come off the stem opposite to each other or whether they come of the stem in whorls. You can also tell how many main tree “veins” feed each leaf. From this, more or less, you can often guess if the leaves are compound or not. You can know a lot about what kind of tree it is by how the buds are arranged. Is there one big bud at the end of the stem? Is there a cluster of buds at the end of the stem? Is the bud really at the end or sort of off to the side toward the end? In fact, you can key a tree, that is determine what it is, in winter, without the leaves at all.

The future fate of life on earth is nestled in those little buds. That is just barely an exaggeration. What is it that protects the life inside that bud (and hence next year's growth, and next year's ability to feed flower and seed) from the cold of winter? It is those scales around the bud. Different trees have different kinds of scales. Some bud scales are like two plates meeting in the middle. Some are like fish scales. You can tell a lot about a tree from those scales.

Winter is the time for Pine trees to make their presence known. They kind of pop out and say "We're here" in winter. Hey, I am a South Carolina boy. I was raised on climbing Pine trees to the top, looking up to the deep blue sky through the black branches and green needles of Pine trees, spending half an afternoon trying to get Pine sap off my favorite jeans, engaged for hours in Pine cone wars with the enemy across the wall next door, and nursing skinned up legs from shimmying up and down Pine trunks. In Greensboro there are a few places where I like to go just to breathe in the Pine tree air, peel off some plates of Pine tree bark, fiddle with Pine tree cones, and just generally feel at home.

It’s nice to walk the woods in winter. You can see farther for one thing. You can tell more easily what has been the history of the land you're walking for another. I like trying to figure that out by the ages of the trees, the kinds of trees, the ways that the terrain has been changed by man, how or where a fire may have swept through fifty or so years ago. It’s a kind of sleuthing that I enjoy.

Maybe my favorite thing to do, especially on a cold winter day, is to find a nice stout tree that I can sit against, one with the sun shining full force right on the bottom of the trunk, and just take a seat. Oh how I love the sun on my face in winter. And there I sit. No bugs. Quiet. As quiet as I can be. If the winds are right, and if you’re still enough, the animals will soon not notice you, and you will get lucky. Many times right here in Greensboro deer have walked near, hawks have flown and perched close by, even squirrels have nervously scampered quite close to my feet. I cannot measure the joy of such times.

Such joy gives me strength to go back and re-enter the world of people. Trees are not fickle and moody and complicated and proud like people, like me. How I love them so.

Jesus Ain't No Democrat or Republican

I really appreciate Ben-from-Greensboro’s thoughts as quoted by Beth over at The Daily Greensboring in her piece Is Jesus a Democrat? Check it out. It's a good read. Ben raises some very interesting and worthwhile philosophical and social policy questions, especially as relates to the intersection of religion, morality, and public policy.

As a Christian I deeply regret the association of Christian faith with a particular political party. To the extent that a part of the Christian church has allowed itself to be co-opted and used by the Republicans (or Democrats in other cases) it has erred profoundly.

Ben also raises an interesting point as to the issue of “free will,” and the extent to which that is to be honored, especially in a diverse and secular culture. It is no easy task to figure out what Jesus and the Apostles would have had us do when it comes to various public policy matters. On many issues I think there are many possible "Jesus-acceptable" approaches as regards public policy. On other issues I don’t think so. I don’t think there exists a specifically “Jesus-sanctioned” approach to health insurance for example, or a specifically “Jesus-sanctioned” approach to many other issues. But governments are put in place to seek after the public good, to encourage good and discourage bad, and to keep evil (stealing, murder, invasion, fraud, poverty, etc) at bay. It is just truly hard to know how best to seek the public good sometimes, much less if there is a “Christian” policy on many issues, and because of that it frustrates me that many of my brethren speak as if they know just what such a policy would be. I guess they’re just a lot smarter than me.

In his own day Jesus chose to avoid the very real political parties and factions that swirled all around him. He had a different mission. Christians who live in various societies today have a responsibility as citizens to seek the public good and participate in civic life. But their ultimate mission is also different. It is not the mission of the Democratic or Republican party. Jesus cannot be corralled by one of our puny political parties any more than a wild lion can be corralled by a couple of little kids. Jesus, as in the Living version, cannot be tamed, co-opted, used, or pre-empted. We may think we’re doing that but we’re just fooling ourselves.

Democrats come and go. Republicans come and go. Jesus is Lord.

An Open Letter to Matt Hill Comer

Dear Matt,

I read with interest your piece entitled “All My Fault...I’m Bringin’ Down Society” in which you respond to Charles Davenport's references to you in his article in the News and Record.

Your awe-shucks, “small, poor little gay boy” thing reminds me a little of Sam Ervin at the Watergate hearings!

But Matt, Charles Davenport is right about you. You are a force to be reckoned with and your awe-shucks humility will not change that fact.

You are dogged, persistent, relentless, focused, and determined to do what you believe to be right. I’d like to see a day or two go by without some new LGBT cause on the front page of greensboro101, but no, there you go again. Do you sleep?

And many small poor little boys like you, gay or not, have changed the world. Charles Davenport knows that.

In the culture war that is upon us you, my friend, are a formidable adversary, a worthy enemy, and a determined foe. You cannot be ignored or forgotten. You do not and will not go away. You will press the issue and press it again until you cause those who oppose your agenda to rise up and exert the same energy back that you are exerting, or else lose the war.

Matt, you remind me a bit of, well, me, thirty years ago, minus the gay part. When I was an older teen I was also dogged and determined and focused on issues that mattered much to me. I wonder sometimes where the fire, the passion went. I once was going to save the world from.....well, let me just leave it at that.

And I wonder...will you keep it up? Will you retain the passion? Will you stay on fire? I don’t know. I guess I hope not ;). But I think you will.

In the current culture war you are my enemy. Jesus says that I am to love my enemies, which means that I am to love you. I already respect you. And I already admire you. We will in the months ahead do battle in word and phrase as we find ourselves on opposing sides of one aspect of this present battle. But if we meet on the street, or in a coffee house, I hope we can meet as friends.

And as to this young skinny white gay boy awe-shucks thing, well, we both know that’s just a set up for a really good sucker punch.

Joel

A Few Thoughts on the Election Results

Locally...

I am bummed out about several of the bonds not passing.

Nationally...

I am not a registered Republican or Democrat. I would probably identify myself, if I absolutely had to, as a conservative Democrat, but there are so few of them left I just don’t try to identify myself anymore. I am pro life, anti gay marriage, and pro environment. I have as much suspicion of big government as I have of big corporations, and vice versa, and I believe in the legitimacy of the war against Islamic fundamentalism. I believe power corrupts. Everyone. I don’t believe in the inherent goodness of human beings, though I believe that goodness is part of the mix. Thus I believe in lots of checks and balances and am not freaked out by divided government. I don’t like Pat Robertson or Nancy Pelosi. I worry about China, and Iran, and a splintered Iraq. Blah Blah Blah, so what.

I think the Republican leadership in Congress has been inept, and that they deserve what has come, though some good men and women got caught in the mess who should not have. I believe that the post invasion handling of the war by the US civilian leadership stateside has been also inept, and if Donald Rumsfeld does not fall on his sword he is a coward. He should have done it a month, a year, or two years ago.

I am more conservative than liberal when it comes to national politics, except for the environment, but I am not an ideologue. Ideologues of the left and right scare me. Politics to me is all about being pragmatic and practical and getting what you can and, yes, cutting deals, and working with the other side, and compromising and being willing to subject your agenda, even your district's agenda, to the greater good. Not all the time. Sometimes you have to vote your conscience no matter what. But usually you need to be pretty pragmatic.

Despite what most people around here think, I think George Bush is a good egg. In fact, his good egg-ness is one of his political faults. He is loyal. That is a good thing. He is too loyal. That is a bad thing.

I actually think George Bush would have been a better president from the get-go if he had NOT had a Republican congress. I think he himself works better as a pragmatist than an ideologue, and being surrounded by the neo-cons and the Republican congress did not bring out the best in him.

I hope the country won’t be saddled with two years of hearings about this or that because it won't do much good, but I expect it’s coming.

I think the price of oil is too low, so I don’t like the idea of hearings about that.

I think a Democratic-controlled House and Senate will be good for whatever Republican runs for President in 2008.

I worry most for pro life issues, gay marriage issues, federal judgeship issues, the prosecution of the war on Islamic jihadism, and the economy.

I am hopeful for the environment, for progress weaning ourselves off foreign oil, for a changed policy in Iraq (since the Republicans seemed incapable of doing that), and for the minimum wage.

I am also hopeful that these two years could bring out the side of George Bush that was effective in Texas. We’ll see. It’s possible.

As a Christian I believe in a sovereign God who is in control, whoever wins. To me the good news of the universe is not who is president or who controls congress, but that Jesus is Lord. I believe that He has His purposes in these things, even when I don’t know what they are, and despite how I do or don’t feel about them.

Deep down I wish for the end of the Clinton-Bush era, and for a new generation to take the reigns, my generation. I think it’s our time now. I look to see what leadership will rise to the top now, in both parties. I’m tired of the same ole same ole. I look ahead, ahead of this year, ahead of next, in hope, and anticipation, not having a clue who it will be, but believing that there are smart and good people of different faiths, genders, and colors waiting to rise up and lead us into a new era.

Nanny's Garden

My grandmother and grandfather, whom we all called Nanny and Pop, moved to Columbia SC in 1943 from Tampa. They bought a house a block off Trenholm Road near Trenholm and Beltline (for those who know Columbia), a small house by today's standards, but with a deep back yard that sloped down to a creek bed. For some reason this suburban bottomland grew the largest Loblolly Pine Trees I have ever seen outside of Congaree Swamp National Park. I loved just lying on her grass and staring up into those huge pine trees. Along with the pines were the natural under story Dogwoods and a few hardwoods here and there, including one giant Water Oak down by the creek. It was a perfect natural setting for their gardening plans.

Nanny and Pop along with their two neighbors got busy developing what would in time be one of the premier stops on the Columbia garden tour. The three yards were planned and planted as a unit. The primary focus would in time be Azaleas, Camellias, Dogwoods, Hydrangeas, Tea Olives, and various Lilies. Of course there were another dozen types of horticultural favorites here and there as well. I always loved the Elaeagnus hedge in her front yard. My keenest memory may be the smell of her gigantic Tea Olives. Oh how I love that smell. I have tried to grow them here, but they just don't emit the pungent aroma like in her yard.

Well, this was a garden twenty plus years in the making. By the time I was old enough to help out in was more of a matter of maintenance. Just keeping the English Ivy and Pachysandra at bay, digging up the brick walks and taking out the roots and resetting the bricks, and cleaning the pine straw off her very high roof kept me pretty busy. I loved her Charleston grass. For years I cut it with a manual mower!

My grandfather Pop died when I was eight, so I just sort of came to think of it as Nanny's yard. From Nanny I learned how to graft Camellias, prune and root Azaleas, cross fertilize Lilies, play with the color of Hydrangeas, and generally love the soil. I also learned to love white painted brick houses with Charleston-Green shutters from Nanny. Know any for sale?

A couple of weeks ago I found a little box of slides full of pictures taken of Nanny's yard in the mid 1950's, before I was born. What a treasure! As a garden it is not yet mature, but it is still beautiful. I scanned them with my new Epson scanner and posted them on my Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelgillespie/ - they are in the "Nanny’s Garden" set right at the top. I have several copies of postcards the city of Columbia made of the three yards to sell in local stores. I'll scan them in sometime along with other pictures from the garden and add them to the set. While you are at the Flickr site you can see lots of pictures of Nanny. She was a classy lady, a great grandmother, a good business woman, and a dear sweet friend to me. She died in 1985. Twenty one years later and I still miss her very much.

Another One Bites the Dust

So another Evangelical Leader is in the headlines - this time the Reverend Ted Hoggard (editorial correction - that's Haggard, thanks Sue and sorry David!), the President of the National Association of Evengelicals. And the news could not be good enough or timely enough for the gay lobby.

I don't know if he did it or not. An aid is purported to have said that Hoggard said that some of it is true. I have a few comments.

First, if it is true, then this is the worst form of hypocrisy, the kind I pointed out at the end of my piece Gay Republicans. It is the kind where a person publicly and professedly comes off as one thing, and yet is another, plus, on top of it, is unfaithful to a vow.

Second, it has nothing to do at all with the validity or non validity of gay marriage as public policy, but it will add momentum to that cause. A man or woman's private pecadillos do not good public policy make. Again, we can ask JFK or Martin Luther King Jr. about that.

Third, it is a further reminder of how all Christian folk, particularly those in positions of leadership, such as myself, must live in a glass house, must be surrounded by many eyes, many alibis, many levels of accountability. In our own community men have been given too long a rope and many have hung themselves with it. The flesh is too weak, particularly when there is a mystique and power associated with one's title and position, which, oddly and strangely enough, there is with a minister. One must build a kind of day to day pattern where these things are not possible. One must build a day to day pattern where false accusations carry no weight because of immediate falsifiability. One's day, one's time, one's life is not one's own. That's the deal. If a man does not like that he should do something else. There should have been no possibility for Ted Hoggard to have hookups with anybody, if that is what happened.

Fourth, and most sadly, this reveals yet again the premier heresy of the modern American Evangelical church. I will name the heresy here and, Lord willing, discuss it later. It comes in many forms and guises. It is all over Greensboro like a rotten grotesque cancer. It is all over the National Assosiation of Evangelicals. It crosses denominational lines, though it is worse in some than in others. It is a beast with many heads. It is called antinomianism. Look it up. Study it. It is probably worming its ugly way into your church. If the allegations against Mr. Hoggartd are true, it was probably worming its way into his head as well.

Peggy Noonan wrote recently that the potential loss of the congress may remind conservatives of what conservatives were supposed to be. It may be good for them.

One hopes with all these scandals about, that the Evangelical Church will wake up one day and realize it has been running down a path leading to a pit, or to a Shelob, or to a wall of laughing finger pointing vindicated naysayers, so that maybe, it will turn around, and seek the right way again.

I hope so. May God be merciful upon us all.

Why John Kerry and Gang Scare Me

I want to share why John Kerry, and hence the Democrats, scare me when it comes to the larger war on Islamic radicalism, and why, therefore, I cannot vote for them this election season.

I am tempted to offer a hundred caveats just to show how balanced I am– things like how I think our post invasion policy in Iraq was terrible, how I wonder if Islamic countries can really be democratized, how I think Donald Rumsfeld should have been replaced, how I don’t like the Republican environmental policies, etc. But I won’t. :)

OK, so Kerry’s comments were stupid and inappropriate. I think about everybody agrees with that. I personally know people in Iraq with multiple college degrees, and I don’t know that many people there.

But what bothers me about Kerry is the very thing that should give him credibility, and that is his war record. I don’t think Kerry, and many if not most of his generation, are able to get over Vietnam. It seems that that during their formative years they developed a fundamentally anti-military, perhaps anti interventionist attitude, and a view that if we are involved in something militarily it must be bad, unjust, and evil. (Where, O where, are the Scoop Jackson Democrats? Are there any left?)

When you add to those suffering from Vietnam-induced arrested political development all the general-pacifistic-give-peace-a-chance-beatniks still lurking all around the Democratic party, I just plain don’t think that they can prosecute any war right now.

And prosecute a war we must do, make no mistake about that. Radical Islam would take over the world if it could. It would strike and kill innocent men, women, and children wherever it could until it either gets its way or runs out of the ability to kill. This war is not going to go away. It will not stop if suddenly, tomorrow, we’re all pacifistic and nice. We’ll just have more people dead, not fewer.

Tolkien comes to mind here, from the Two Towers, movie version:

Théoden: "So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?"
Aragorn: "Ride out and meet them."

Radical Islam hates us. It hates our secular constitution. It hates the freedom we give to women. It hates the freedom of people to convert from Islam to something else, even though the reverse is happening in greater number. It hates the infidel. We are the infidel. We must die.

And I don’t think John Kerry and Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi and Brad Miller and the rest have what it takes to prosecute this war. And that scares me. And that is the main reason I cannot vote for them.

(I can almost imagine Hillary prosecuting it, if she gets sufficiently pissed, but that’s another story)

I was too young to go to Vietnam. Barely. I think the way we handled the Vietnam draft was a travesty. I don’t think the idea of that war was wrong, because I think we also were engaged in a serious worldwide war then as well, but the way we handled it was terrible, and the unjust manner in which we sent people there was unconscionable. I don’t think Bob Kerry and his gang can get over it. And that is not good for the present.

That is why I hope, for now, that Bob Kerry (edit - meant John Kerry, thanks Jim) et al remain the minority party.

Vote Yes on the War Memorial Renovation Bond

I just wanted to say out loud how much I have appreciated David Hoggard and David Wharton's intelligent reporting and opining on the War Memorial Stadium Bond issue. I for one will support the bond and hope a majority of the voters will do likewise. The structure is historically worthy of our protection as a Memorial to the Great War. So, we spend money building other memorials and let this great historic memorial slide? That makes no sense to me.

And different from many other memorials, this one has been actively used. It speaks to and honors a part of our history and the men and women who sacrificed their lives in that great effort. But it also participates in history. It has been a living memorial. If we could but see a collage of all the great games and great ballplayers that have walked its field. Now we have a chance to make the stadium available to ball players of all ages for a long time to come. We have a chance to extend the Stadium's ability not just to remember and memorialize history past, but to make history present. We should do it.

And we should also do it for the sake of the Aycock and surrounding community of which it is a part, a community that was snookered by the proponents of the new stadium (an effort which I confess I reluctantly supported, but did so with the understanding that we would preserve and protect War Memorial Stadium). An active and vital War Memorial Stadium, attracting quality tournaments and made available for various sorts of leagues and games would be an economic asset to a community it seems we're trying to forget as we drool all over every sort of downtown renovation. I like downtown. But there is more to our city than downtown.

So, go out and vote. Even if many of the polilitical races are too uninspiring to get you to the polls next week, go out to support this bond effort, if nothing else.

Guilford County NC Photos

Hi Everyone,

In order to facilitate making pictures of our fair city and county available for all to see, and to perhaps even for bloggers or web hosts to include on their web sites as a link, I have set up a Flickr site called Guilford County NC Pictures, URL http://www.flickr.com/photos/guilfordcountypictures/. I uploaded two pictures I took today just to get it going.

If you would be interested in sharing photographs for this site, I have a good scanner with Digital Ice technology for prints as well as slides, and a very good color restoration tool for older pictures, and I can scan them in, upload them, and give them back to you. Or, if you would be keen about this and you take lots of shots of the local scenery - people, buildings, farms and fields, critters, old pictures, businesses, etc. - then I can share the passwords with you and you can upload the pictures yourself.

It is easy to give attribution to the person who took the pictures in the title, description, or comments. It would even be easy to provide a link for people back to your site.

If certain file size standards are upheld, then it would be easy as well for folks to order pictures. I have tested the process of ordering prints from Flickr and can say that it is simple and inexpensive and the quality is excellent. On my own site for example I have enabled friends to order pictures from college years, one dear friend to order photos of a deceased husband, and my own family to order pictures of us all when we were little.

You can go to my URL - http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelgillespie/ - and see how it works.

If you want to e-mail me pictures for uploading, maybe a coupel of megs would be max via e-mail. I can then resize if I need to. I generally upload jpegs in the 100-200kb range, just to assure that that are suitable for making prints. Flickr can take bigger files as well if you want to make available a picture than someone can print into an 8 by 10.

If there seems to be interest I'll spring for the extra $25 and upgrade the account to allow for more options.

So, I know a lot of you out there like to keep the camera's out. Take some shots and send them my way!

Joel

Hickory on Elm

This rather remarkable yellow hickory can be found on North Elm just south of Bessemer, west side. Catch it before the leaves fall.

I think it is a "pig-nut" hickory, pretty much the same kind that grew all over the place in Columbia where I grew up.

When we were kids we would go out and collect bags of nuts, then sit in circles in somebody's carport, or on somebody's driveway, and crack them with bricks. The trick was to crack them just so - not too hard so as to mash the nut, and not too soft so as to barely open the hard shell. We had these little metal nut picks to help get the hickory nut proper out. We got pretty good at breaking them open,

and would feast on Hickory nuts for half an afternoon. There is a distinctive taste to hickory nuts found nowhere else. I've taught my daughter how to crack them, to continue the tradition.

Anna Gillespie - OK, So I'm a Little Proud

This picture of and inerview with Anna Gillespie (my fourth, a junior at Northwest High) came out in the Friday News and Record.

Gay Republicans

There has been much discussion of late about all the outings and subsequent resignations of gay Republicans. It seems that some folks are doing everything they can to peek into the private sex life of these men in order to call them on their “hypocrisy.” I confess this sounds like the kind of tabloid sexual snooping that liberal minded folk have long objected to, but I have other questions and concerns.

These men have varied backgrounds. Many are married and thus cheating on their wives. I think that it an issue of some significance, but what are we doing to “out” cheating heterosexuals, Republican or Democrat. But some are not in this situation.

It seems that to many that it is just about impossible to be a gay Republican with any integrity. I do not agree, and I am neither gay nor a Republican.

There is a principle that many gay men and women themselves are anxious to establish – and that is that gay people are people too. OK, obvious point. But there is nothing inherent to being gay that would lean one away from a conservative political philosophy. Or is there a liberal gene that goes with the gay gene? Thinking of classic conservative principles I see no reason why a gay person could not be persuaded of these as much as a non gay person. Granted, the Republican party is mushy on those principles these days, but why could a gay person not lean toward less government, more state’s rights, protection of unborn chldren, a stronger military, educational vouchers, etc.

So, what if a gay person finds himself to be for the most part in keeping with a party that is politically conservative. So what? I would think some gay people like Italian food and some like Mexican food.

But what if the Republican Party is anti the “gay agenda.” What is a gay man to do? I would think that he has several options.

First, he may just take the bad with the good in his mind, and not support those agenda items. He would be open about being gay, work toward the other issues consistent with his conservative values, but not support anti gay rights initiatives.

Second, he may, despite his private predilections, actually oppose gay marriage. It is quite possible that a person would see as not in the public interest things that are true about himself. Rather than being a sign of some deep troubling psychological pathology, this might simply be good sense. I am sure that there are a lot of straight men (let’s say they are not married) who do not think cohabitation laws are in the public interest, yet they may be promiscuous rascals. It does not go without saying that one’s private predilections should form the basis of one’s public policy. I wonder what JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. would have to say about that.

Third, he may, like many other people on a thousand issues, merely be a hypocrite. Well, if we’re outing hypocrites, let’s get busy and clean out the majority of the people who are in office. We could start with environmentalists, who seldom live daily lives consistent with their own public policy positions. We might start with Al Gore and go from there. Hypocrisy stinks, but it is an equal opportunity employer. I would imagine that many avid supporters of gay marriage and the value of gay monogamy are themselves promiscuous. We can throw them out too.

I don’t like hypocrisy, in myself, or in others, but let’s apply the hypocrisy ruler equally across the board. I don’t see that happening.

Fourth, a gay Republican may feel that he has no future in the system if he is outed, so he leads a double life. That is, he may be a true conservative, yet may otherwise wish for more liberal marriage laws, but he knows that it won’t get him far in the party and there are so many other things that he is passionate about he just keeps his mouth shut. He is not really allowed by the system to vote his conscience. Well, welcome to politics. is this not why both parties have whips, to keep their folk in line? Is this not the case time and time again for so many people regarding so many issues. I dislike it, but let’s root out the problem across the board and not pick on these men.

Fifth and finally, the man may be cheating on a wife, advocating anti gay marriage in public meetings, and holding himself up as a standard bearer of traditional values, yet practice a gay lifestyle. This is a higher level of hypocrisy, because it both involves cheating on a vow and making oneself out to be what one certainly is not.

But I ask, do we really care about cheating and high level hypocrisy or is this just about winning an election and regaining the house? Do gay rights advocates care about these same issues as perhaps may involve themselves in other respects, or many involve other more liberal politicians on other issues? I think not.

It all smells of the same ole same ole election year scandalizing that both parties have become so good at, and which gives politics such a stench in my nose.

My Three Current Addictions

Armed with an Epson Perfection 4990 photo scanner that has Digital Ice Technology for prints, plus a pretty decent slide scanner attachment, I am now a scanning, photo organizing, Flickr junkie (http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelgillespie/). I think I need serious help. I must have strength! I have thousands of old family pictures and documents from several lines that have all ended up in boxes in my office. The temptation is there, everyday, calling…

And then, may God help me, there is Sudoku. So far this has not impacted my work life, but it has become hard for me NOT to do the daily Sudoku in the News and Record when I get home in the evenings. It so brings out the geeky closet perfectionist in me such that I can hardly make myself go to bed if I have not mastered the daily puzzle. I can carry on a conversation and do Sudoku at the same time, but my dear wife actually likes me to look at her while I talk. That’s pretty demanding of her, don't you think? So what’s a guy to do? Maybe I need to learn more Sudoku tricks so I can finish the puzzles more quickly.

And as this last one really only impacts me while driving, I must confess to all that I have been driving under the influence. Not of alcohol, or my cell phone, but of the Beatles. Indeed, for the last month I have hardly been able to take Abbey Road out of my CD player. I mean, I try. I put something else in. Usually Layla would do the trick, or maybe Bustin’ Out, or Live at Filmore East. But I keep ejecting everythign else and putting Abbey Road back in. Why, after all these years, am I hearing it in such a new way. Why does that side B medley sound like the most awesome music ever written? It didn’t used to. Why can I not stop singing “Because the World Is Round” and “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Golden Slumbers” and “Here Comes the Sun” and “I Want You” and so on. I need help.

Cara Michele Has it Right

As far as Bible believing Christians and the political parties, particularly the GOP, Cara Michele has nailed it

Bloggered

Excuse my French, but Blogger is getting to be a total pain in the ass. Half the time it won’t upload, and then it uploads in triplicate, and then the system is down, and there’s still no good way to do categories. Apparently there was some discussion at Converge South about the advantages of Word Press as a tool and as a blog host. Would anyone be interested in sharing with me the gist of that conversation? I have a Word Press blog, and like it. I wonder what is behind the movement away from Blogger?