All posts by David Todd

Christianity, History, research

Tied Up In Research

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A congregational photo taken in 1925, the earliest photo I could find. We have identified a few people in the photo.

Well, I’m late with my post today. Often I write my Monday morning post sometime during the weekend and schedule it for 7:30 a.m. Monday. Alas, that didn’t happen. My Saturday outdoor work was interrupted by rain, so I worked inside. Besides the usual clean-up, such as dishes, vacuuming, kitchen counters, laundry, decluttering, I worked on the checkbook (yes, I still keep the checkbook and make sure it’s correct to the penny) and budget. I then switched off to continue some research into our church’s centennial book.

As I’ve said before, it’s complete as to the writing. Well, almost complete, I have one more interview to do, and I decided I wanted to add one small section. Photos are something the committee will help me select.

One task I have taken on concerning church history—well, two tasks I suppose—is expanding the list of charter members. From history passed down, we know we had 63 charter members back in 1921. Alas, the names of only 12 were recorded. In fact, the church didn’t establish a record book until almost 3 1/2 years after they started meeting. Fortunately, the pastor at that time wrote the names of all who were then or who had been members before his coming. It is about 170 names. Of those 170, 63 were charter members and the others what I call “early members”. I decided to take on the task of figuring our who the missing 51 were.

I delayed that because I knew it was going to be a huge task. I was right. I established some criteria, researched the names, and was able to identify 32 people who I thought could be added to the 12 known charter members. I passed that list two three different people to check the names and see what they thought. Yesterday afternoon I met with two of them for nearly three hours. We went over every name on the list. Most of the names they were not able to rule in or rule out. One family they ruled out, being pretty sure they joined a little after the church began. One other family they added, being sure, from church lore passed down, that they were in fact charter members.

So where does that leave me? I have 12 known charter members, 34 probable charter members, and 42 possible charter members. The rest of the ±170 I have ruled out based on the research criteria I’ve set. The 12 + 34 add to 46, leaving me 17 still to be determined. Somehow, if I am to be successful with this task, I need to decide which 17 of the 42 were most likely charter members. That is my current research task.

One related item I’m working on is cross-checking that old record book to make sure I didn’t miss any names or any clues. I’m also working on documenting my research better than I have thus far. It occurred to me that some future historian will write another church history, maybe at our 150th anniversary. I want that historian to have confidence in my research. So I’m going back over every family, every name on that early members list, and doing the research over, but this time documenting everything I find in a Word file. I’m being meticulous. It’s slow going. Yesterday evening I documented the one family added to the list of probable charter members. There were four or five in the family but only the parents were on the early members list. They are now fully documented and added to the charter member list as “probables”.

While this is tedious work, and will take me a couple of months to do, It is also quite satisfying. It’s a mix of detective work and genealogy. Once research is finished, it will give way to writing. I have a section in the book giving the 170 names on the early members list, a section I will have to rewrite once the research is done.

Will it ever be done? Just as I finished my afternoon research session, I took a look again at the “H” page (since the next family I’ll do begins with an H), and realized I may have misinterpreted what that pastor wrote long ago and have to add some more H names to the early members list. I’ll do that happily, to be as accurate as I can.

Of course, I am hoping to return to creative writing at some point, more than just sneaking an hour or two of it in from time to time. The end is in sight.

book reviews

Book Review: Intimate Correspondence

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Their relationship, an affair or not, rocked the British world in 1936 and had repercussions for years afterwards.

About a month ago I made a deep search through my reading piles that sit on a bookcase in my bedroom closet. I added a fair number of books to this pile some years ago and have been slowly reading those books. So having finished another book, I went there to see if one on the shelves would be suitable for my next read.

I found the book The Intimate Correspondence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The subtitle is, I guess, Wallis and Edward Letters 1931-1937. I say “I guess” because the layout of the cover is strange, and it’s not clear to me that this is the subtitle. I picked this book up at a thrift store many years ago. Now, I’m not a big fan of the British monarchy and their whole system of nobility, but I love letters. That’s why I bought the book.

I won’t go into much of the history. Some people know it, some don’t. Edward was heir to the throne of England. Somehow he met Wallis Simpson, an American woman living in England. The were frequently together in social situations. The crown prince became enamored by her and, even though she was married (after a prior divorce), Edward ditched his girlfriend for her. Even though he was 37 when he met Wallis, Edward wasn’t ready to marry.

The letters in the book are mixed with a considerable amount of commentary. I was surprised that most of the letters weren’t between Wallis and Edward but between Wallis and her Aunt Bessie. They are interesting letters, tracing the development of the prince and her meeting, then getting to know one another, then becoming dependent on one another. The letters between Edward and Wallis begin only after several years of their relationship. And,  they are not intimate in the sense we think of today. They don’t give salacious details of secret rendezvouses and trysts. They mainly consist of cute little things like “oh wasn’t that a great dinner party last night, my love?” As the relationship grew, the letters were more and more how he couldn’t live without her, how she loved him, but that it was all so futile.

Two things came out clearly to me from the letters, mainly the prince’s. He was terribly immature. Raised by governesses and tutors, with little involvement from his parents, Edward sounds like an 8th grade schoolboy as he writes to Wallis. All he knows are parties and pubs. Oh, he had duties, I realize, but they are rarely mentioned. Edward had regular, somewhat small parties at his country home and rarely interacted with his family. Wallis became more and more estranged from her husband, who was also a friend of the prince. Eventually Mr. Simpson has an affair with her good friend, giving her grounds for divorce.

Just in time, too, because Edward’s dad dies and he becomes king on Jan 20, 1936. And here the second thing that came out clearly begins. Naturally, all Britain wanted the king to marry, be happy, give them a queen, and hopefully produce an heir. But the king wants to marry a soon to be twice-divorced woman—an American to boot—and parliament won’t allow it. It was around September 1936 that the existence of Mrs. Simpson comes to the awareness of the British public. The prince has already been discussing this with the prime minister. He says Edward can’t marry Wallis. She will never be queen. If he does marry her, the entire cabinet will resign. Parliament will never agree to grant her any royal title. And this is what is so bizarre to me. The ministers and parliament—the government—have to approve who the head of state marries? That’s absolutely absurd, and it’s one of the reasons I think monarchy is ridiculous. Edward decides he can’t be king unless Wallis is by his side. See how immature he is? He gives up his throne and must leave the country in disgrace and exile.

But I prate, and have moved away from the book. While the letters were not quite what I thought they would be when I paid 50¢ for the book at a thrift store, I found it all captivating. It’s history, whether the persons involved are attractive to me or not. I found myself able to read many pages a day and rarely skipped anything. Yes, the commentary was more than I’m used to in a collection of letters, but it was not too much. I think the editor, Michael Bloch, got it about right.

I give this book 4-stars. Sorry, but I can’t give one about British royalty a full 5. But is it a keeper? I have a nice collection of letters, a number of which I started but few which I finished. The answer is no, it is not a keeper. I don’t see myself ever reading this again. So out to the donation pile it goes. Or I’ll sell it or give it away if one of my readers (you know who you are) wants it.

Why not keep it to have a broader collection of letters? That’s a good question, but ultimately why do I need to keep a collection of collected (or selected) letters? I don’t. They would be one more thing for my heirs to have to deal with when I’m gone. No, Edward and Wallis go out to the garage. I hope to recover the 50¢ for them, but will gladly see them go without recovering my investment. They were worth that price for sure.

poetry, Writing

Two Changed Words Make a Big Difference

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Dateline Sunday 15 August 2021

I’m having a restful Sunday. Took a nap or two this afternoon. It’s evening now, and I may try to write a little this evening. Or maybe I’ll continue to work on old e-mails, deciding what to keep, what to discard, what to archive. For some reason I find that a restful occupation. Right now I’m going through e-mails from 2011.

But this blog post is about a small writing success story that happened late last week. I think it was on Friday, but it might have been Thursday. This involves poetry. Now, years ago I wrote poetry, but I transferred away from that and concentrated on prose for a long time, with many works under my belt. From time to time over the last ten years I would try my hand at poetry, but none came to me, either by inspiration or perspiration. I have ideas for poetry books, but no means to make them happen.

So Friday evening, I had a minor breakthrough, a two word breakthrough. I wish I could explain how this happened, what  inspired me to bring this poem to mind and to figure out those two word needed to replace two unproductive words. I’ve been reading in three books: Behind The Stories, a 2002 book about a couple of dozen Christian novelists; The Joyful Christian, a library book that is a compilation of a number of Lewis’s writings; and, on my phone, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol 3. I think my catalyst may have been in the letters book. Lewis probably wrote something to someone about some poetry that person had sent him. As a result, the problem poem came to mind. It’s a sonnet I wrote in 2002, my 18th sonnet. But as I said, I was never happy with the closing line. I had emended it several times, maybe improving it, but never feeling that it gave the required punch the sonnet needed.

Well, the words came to me while I was reading. I didn’t have my computer open, so I wrote the revised line on a sheet of paper by my reading chair, and said it over and over to myself. I went to bed saying it, mulling it over and over. It seemed good. I’m going to paste in the poem here. I would type it, but I don’t know html and poetry lines don’t come in right on this platform.

A snip from my Word file. Alas, I don’t like the way poems format on this platform. If the poem isn’t readable, click to enlarge.

 

I’m not going to explain it. Native Rhode Islanders will understand, both the place references and the object references.

I’m not saying poetry is back for me. My mind is still mainly on prose: stories, novels, articles, letters. But I’m glad for a small poetic break-though. I leave it to poetry critics to explicate that last line and judge its worthiness. Now, back to my prose.

home improvements, miscellaneous, Writing

Morning Work

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Some of the area already cut. I started at our mailbox (just out of the photo to the left) and am working my way uphill along the street and downhill toward the woods.

It’s hot out. Yesterday’s high was 97°. That’s actually around average for this time of year in Northwest Arkansas. I think our summer, overall, has been slightly cooler than normal—not by much, just a few degrees. Certainly within a standard deviation of normal.

In these temperatures, if I have yardwork to do, I go out immediately upon getting up and do it. This year I have yardwork every day. That’s anywhere from 6:30 to 7:00 a.m., depending on when I wake up and how fast I’m moving. Today it was 06:45, and I was out the door in just five minutes. I worked until 07:45, so just under and hour.

Some of the isolated blackberries. Still some weeds to cut away if I want to, but I’ll probably leave them. So long as I know where the blackberries are that’s good enough.

The front yard (a rock yard, not grass), is picked free of weeds; nothing to do there. Our unplanted flower bed needs to be picked of weeds again, but the lack of rain has resulted them being impossible to pull out; nothing to do there. The backyard (also a rock yard) needs much weed pulling. I think I’ve weeded twice this year. But I never blew the leaves off of it last year, which has prevented many weeds from growing. Still, that was a possibility.

However, I also had work to do on our wood lot. This is the lot south of our house. It’s our lot.  Over a year ago, the power company did a lot of cutting on their easement on this lot, clearing growth away from their lines. The shredded the smaller saplings and hauled off the bigger stuff. This left about 30 feet of a combination of grass and wood-covered bare earth. I raked down a bunch of the shreddings and put them on a brush pile on the lot. Naturally, plants have come up in that area. The favorable rains and temperatures have resulted in a lot of plants growing in this area, some as tall as 6 feet.

I’ll start working in this direction either tomorrow or, more likely, next week.

Most of those plants are weeds and grass. Some are wildflowers. A few are blackberry plants. Everyone knows I want more blackberries, and to have them growing on my own lot instead of across the street in the right-of-way would be great. So, to remove the unsightliness of the tall weeds and to isolate the emergent blackberry plants, I’ve been manually cutting weeds on this lot using hedge sheers. That’s my only option since my weed eater quit and I haven’t replaced it yet.

It’s not really hard work. I work from the downhill side so that I have to bend less. Still, it includes a lot of bending. Once I find a blackberry plant the bending increases, as I go slowly, cutting weeds and grass around it to isolate it. I have around six or seven viable blackberry plants isolated so far. I’m not sure if I’ll find any others, but I still have a long way to go, so I may.

The hickory is down. The clean-up remains. That will be tomorrow, along with raking down some of the cuttings of the weeds.

Another thing I’ve been doing in my morning outdoor work is cutting down a 4-inch diameter hickory sapling. This is growing right against an oak, and the two of them don’t need to be so close together. Until the power company did its clearing, I never noticed this tree encroaching on the oak’s territory. Again, I’m using manual tools: my ancient bow saw and my little folding pruning saw. Sawing is hard work, especially when bending or kneeling. No, 4 inches isn’t a lot to cut through. Hickory is a hard wood, however, so the combination of conditions meant I decided to do this over a few days—four days to be precise. Today, down it came after the last little bit of sawing. Now I get to do the clean-up.

If I had to guess, I’d say I have about five more mornings of work on the woodlot, a morning of work on the flower bed (once it rains), and at least five mornings of weed pulling in the backyard. By then a few weeds will have come up in the front yard and I’ll pull them.

All of this should be of no real interest to my regular readers. So in my retirement I get up early in the summer months and do yardwork. Big deal, right? It’s of interest to me, however. I figure I have another month of doing this, having a little less daylight each day.

This work, while it helps keep me limber and “young”—young being a relative term—it does cut into my writing time. My short story is sitting there, waiting for me to add the final conflict and last 2,000 words. The Forest Throne is sitting there, waiting for me to get beyond the first chapter and make a book out of it. Documenting America: Run-Up to Revolution is sitting there, waiting for me to move from completed research to writing.  And sorely needed updates to this website are begging me to get to them.

This too shall pass, and soon I’ll be back to starting my day off with writing, the yardwork either being completed or the days cool enough to do the yardwork later in the day. I’ll be glad for that time to come.

Christianity, miscellaneous

Four Hours of Ministry

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These are the shoes we gave out. I’m sure we would have had fewer no-shows if they had given out Red Sox shoes instead.

Even though I’m retired and can do whatever work I want on whatever day, I still do more yard on a Saturday than on weekdays. This past Saturday I had big plans for two hours of specific work, finishing stuff I started Monday through Thursday. But I had already decided I wasn’t going to work in the yard, because our church had a special ministry opportunity, something known for a few weeks.

Each summer, in August, we have partnered with Samaritan’s Feet to provide shoes to needed children who would soon be back in school. It normally involves foot washing and giving a pair of socks along with the shoes. Last year we cancelled it due to covid concerns. We had it scheduled for this year when it seemed covid was under control. Our problem was construction adjacent to the church that has severely reduced our parking. Then, covid began to rear-up again.

However, since we had them (Samaritan’s feet) scheduled, our leadership reached out to our Hispanic church in Springdale, who accepted our church partnering with them and holding the event for them at their church. That happened this Saturday. We were supposed to sign up online for what job we wanted to do. All the volunteer slots were from 8:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. I signed up to be one of those moving shoes from the back “inventory” table to the front for access by those giving them to the recipients. That seemed like a nice indoor job (i.e. in air conditioning).

I arrived a little early, and saw people pulling things out of a trailer. The plans for the day included hot dogs, snow cones, cotton candy, small back of chips, and water for all recipients and their parents, as well as for the volunteers as available. Also included was an inflatable play house, but the kind where only two kids at a time enter and no one else goes in until they come out. That was a covid concession to not have the type of house where many kids are in it. They were just pulling them out of the trailer when I came, so I joined the work crew and we figured out how to set them up.

They were also putting up awnings to cover the different food areas. I helped with that, and helped moved the grill out of the trailer and find a place in the shade for it. Then I figured they would be ready to train the inside volunteers, so quickly went there. I was wrong. They were already halfway through with the training. As I listened and looked over the set up, it seemed to me they didn’t need four people to do the job I had signed up for. Two people could easily handle it. They had 400 people signed up to receive shoes, which sounded like a lot, but the system is so well set up that I couldn’t see that I was needed for that. Because of covid fears, the normal foot washing was suspended, reducing close contact between volunteers and recipients.

Back outside, I looked for a job to do. Because of covid they were going to individually wrap hotdogs. A few of us figured out a system for that and, as the delectable meat began coming off the grill we fell into a rhythm where three of us did the wrapping—wearing masks and gloves, of course, and making use of hand sanitizer.

Alas, the hot dog wrapping table was just outside the shadow of the awning. It was hot, and I wore down fairly quickly. I found a shady place to sit from time to time. I did some trash pickup. I went inside when supplies were needed—anything to get out of the sun.

Even with these steps, I was done by about 12:45. All the hotdogs had been grilled and wrapped and over 200 already given out. Most people who had signed up to get shoes had come and gone with their tote bag of shoes, socks, school supplies, and a small message card. Of the 400 who signed up, they estimated about 30 percent no shows. But people who didn’t sign up came by, and because of the no-shows they were able to receive shoes.

Also going on was a food pantry and a covid vaccine clinic. Both of those served a good number of people. The food pantry, mainly of bread products donated to the church, looked like it might be a regular part of their ministry. The covid clinic was something we arranged for to hopefully catch people who came for shoes but who had not availed themselves of the vaccine. That seemed to work.

I got home (a 30 mile drive) a little before 2 p.m. I tried to read awhile but my bum knee hurt too much. I went to the couch and, once I found a comfortable lot, was out light a light and slept close to two hours. I should have taken an extra pain pill because the knee prevented me from getting a restful night’s sleep.

Yes, I was tired. Yes, I paid for the extra activity. But it was worth it. The yardwork will still be there Monday morning and after. Hopefully I’ll be able to do this again next year. The construction next to our church will be finished, perhaps covid will be in check, and it will be a more normal set-up.

Thanks go out to Samaritan’s Feet and to our church leadership for figuring out how to make this ministry available in difficult circumstances. People (both recipients and volunteers were blessed) and the kingdom of God advanced a notch in the process.

But, I was busy enough I forgot to take photos of the event. This video will tell you a little. How’s your Spanish?

book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: The Soul-Winner’s Secret

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Back in May I reviewed a book re-published by the Salvation Army entitled Love Slaves. I was critical of it, though admitted it did me good to read it. I said in that review that this would be a book for sale or donation. What I didn’t mention was that I had another book in the same series to read. That I did, finishing it last month in my wife’s and my reading aloud in the evenings time. This one is titled The Soul-Winner’s Secret and it’s by the same man, Samuel Logan Brengle of the Salvation Army.

Not one of a pair as I first thought, but one of a dozen or so. They will all be going for sale or donation.

Originally published in 1903 and re-published in 1984 (the date of this copy), my review could be nearly a carbon copy of the last review. The language is just old enough to be archaic. Sentence structures are often convoluted, with multiple levels of defining clauses, requiring re-reading, leaving out the inserted clauses, to find out what the meat of Brengle’s message was.

The message of the book is good. Winning souls for Jesus doesn’t happen by chance. The one who wants to see people added to the kingdom of God on earth must go about it deliberately, with much preparation, prayer, follow-through, and renewal. Chapter titles include:

  • The Soul-Winner’s Personal Experience
  • Be Obedient
  • Prayer
  • Zeal
  • Spiritual Leadership
  • What to Study
  • Personal Health

Prepare to win souls. Study to show yourself approved. Continuously renew your commitment and knowledge. Mind your own health (spiritual and physical) as you do so. Keep at it. Don’t lose your zeal.

As with the other book, this one, while good, is not a keeper. The next time I need a refresher course in my own role in expanding the kingdom of God, I will find a more modern book that is relevant for conditions in the world today. My rating on it is 3-stars, the markdown coming mainly due to the language issue.

But, a funny thing happened when I planned to put this and the other one out on the donation/sale table. About a week before we began reading this, I went to our basement family room, where the biggest part of our library is. Shelves line the west and half of the north wall. But some of those north shelves are hidden by the Christmas tree we keep up year round (it’s a long story). I reached behind the tree one day in June or early July to grab a copy of John Wesley’s Journal, and on the shelf below it I found a whole series of these books, identical binding and covers except for the title. Maybe twelve books in all including the two we read.

How did these two get separated from the set? The shelf I saw the series on was the bottom shelf. Back in 2010 or 2011, we came home from vacation and found our basement wet due to a hot water heater gone bad. The books on the bottom shelf of three book cases were damaged. Rather than throw the damaged ones away, I put them on a table by my computer desk and slowly, while waiting for something to happen on the computer, would open one of them and separate pages. These two books must have been the only ones of that set that were damaged.

I believe I’ve read enough of the set. The two books, which were barely water-damaged, will find their way back to their brothers and thence to the donation/sale table. But, if any of my readers want them, I’ll be happy to send them to them for just the cost of shipping. If you want to know all the titles first send me contact information and I’ll be happy to give you the list.

Bible study, Christianity, Documenting America, goals, Writing

Writing Goals for August 2021

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No new work on this, except to link the three main volumes in a series. I sold 4 copies of The Civil War Edition in the last ten days. More about that in another post.

Well, July came and went without me establishing any writing goals. Yes, you astute observers will have noticed that I didn’t post goals at the beginning of July nor give a recap of how I did with my June goals. When July started we were busy heading to Chicago for a family event. I prepared a few posts ahead of time and scheduled them to post while we were away. Writing progress and new goals wasn’t something I could write early.

But here are my June goals and how I did on them over a two month period. You can get through them then see my August goals after that.

  1. Finish the church anniversary book. I think I’m doing well on this, and should be able to add the final portions and declare it done by the end of the month. …I have some more interviews to conduct, which may hold it up, and some contributions by some others. I won’t say that I’ll have those contributions, but without these interviews the book won’t be done. The book is DONE! I’m at the point where I am so far ahead of schedule with it that, if I had to go to press today I would be satisfied with it. However, since I still have time available, I will continue to tweak it. Maybe do a few more interviews, work on some more photos, etc. It will still be an August goal, and probably every month going forward until it goes to print.
  2. Blog twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. With this post I’m well on my way toward achieving that. I achieved this goal.
  3. Explore a little more the linking of a series together on Amazon. I have four series among my Amazon publications, none currently linked.  This was on my list of things to do last month but didn’t get done. Not only did I explore this, but I managed to get two series created, linking existing publications with their related publications. That was the Danny Tompkins short stories and the Sharon Williams Fonseca short stories. No, wait, it was three series. I also linked my Documenting American non-fiction books into a series.
  4. Work on this website, creating a new landing page and updating some content. I did not do this, technophobia taking over I suppose. I don’t think this is a difficult thing to do, but I put it off and allowed other things to fill the time.
  5. Work with the cover designer concerning new covers for the Church History Novels series. This is somewhat out of my control, based on her schedule. I haven’t checked with her in a couple of weeks. I stayed in touch with the cover creator. She has had a very busy summer, interning somewhere. She contacted me last week to say she is just about ready to get back to them and wanted the print book dimensions. So this is good news, and a goal sort of met.
  6. Watch some Amazon videos on how to better do Amazon ads. They keep sending me e-mails about available webinars, several of which look beneficial. I’d like to watch at least one a week. Goal partially met. I watched two Amazon advertising webinars. They weren’t very helpful. I also re-took the 5-day Amazon Ad Profit Challenge in July, the fourth time I’ve gone through it. I created six ads for Acts Of Faith, bringing me up to 16 ads running. Are they profitable? I’ll cover that in a future post.
  7. Continue work on the next volume of Documenting America. I’m still mainly in the reading for research phase, though I also did some of the book planning and created the book file. I want to at least complete the basic reading (40 more pages) and move on to some other sources. I think that is very do-able. I did finish reading the source materials. I also add somethings to the book file and even began the process of editing down the source documents. But, I would have to say I did not complete this goal.
Six ads running. Not a lot if impressions or clicks, and only one sale in July.

So all in all, June and July, while not stellar with accomplishments, did have their moments. Lack of July goals has reflected in that lack of accomplishment.

Now, time to set some goals for August.

  1. Continue to tweak the church anniversary book. I can think of only two more interviews to do. I may add in photos this month. I have a bunch in the file now, but have more I could add. As I do this, I will first format the book for print dimensions. That will let me bring in photos at the right size.
  2. Finish a short story in the Sharon Williams Fonseca series, tentatively titled “Foxtrot Alpha Tango”. I wrote four pages in July to share with the Scribblers & Scribes critique group when we met that month. With just under 2,000 words written, I believe it’s 2/3 done.
  3. Work on the middle grade novel I started in July. The Forest Throne is technically to be co-authored by my oldest grandson, though I’ll do most of the writing and he will edit it, helping me to understand what 10-13 year old boys like. I wrote the first chapter of this in July and sent it to him for comments, receiving his approbation of the sample. I’d like to add another 5,000 words to it this month to go with the 1350 written so far. I’ve brainstormed out most of the plot but not specific scenes.
  4. Blog twice a week, as always.
  5. Do some work on my website. I’m not sure what, but I have to overcome this technophobia and improve it.
  6. Attend meetings of my three writing groups, assuming they don’t get cancelled because of local corona virus outbreaks.
  7. If the cover artist gets the covers re-done, re-publish the three older church history novels, updating them for new copyright info and list of works, as well as link them in a series.

That’s it. See you in September with a progress update.

miscellaneous, poetry, Robert Frost

The Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Deep

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The patch of land, cleared by the power co-op quickly being overgrown, makes he woods look not all that dark in this photo. The eye, in this case, sees more than the camera does.

People who know and love poetry might recognize the title of this post as coming from Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening”. Over the years I have come to like this poem much, but once upon a time I hated it.

I hated it because of how it was used by a string of English teachers, year after year, and how they insisted that this was a suicide poem. That may even include two favorite English teachers. If so, they did a good job except for this. I never could see suicide in the poem. The teachers said you had to look below the words on the surface and find the hidden meaning the poet was really saying. I couldn’t see it. To my schoolboy mind, the teachers ridiculed you if you couldn’t see it. Years later I wrote a poem about those experiences.

A critic I will never be.

What others “know” I seldom see.

Thought most did, I just never could

see death in that dark snowy wood.

Let others find some hidden meaning.

Such deep insights I won’t be gleaning.

But please, don’t take this as a stricture.

I just enjoy the pretty picture.

Not much of a poem. It has no hidden meaning. No metaphor or simile. The only poetical devices are rhyme, meter, and line breaks. Maybe a touch of word play.

A few days ago, I was outside our house in the street, just up the hill in front of the vacant lot next to me. We live in a lightly developed area; four houses on our street and twenty undeveloped lots, all forested. I looked down into the woods of that lot, and it was dark. It was a bright sunshiny day, but the leaf canopy of the oaks let no light in. The sun, beginning its western descent, was shining on the forest at the edge of the road, but the woods were dark.

I’ve never noticed that before, the incredible darkness of the woods on a sunny day. Maybe the leafy canopy is denser than normal this year. Yesterday I purposely went outside to see the woods (from the street) at noon. The high sun penetrated the canopy in a few places. Most of the wood seemed dark, but the few sunlit places would give someone in the woods a target to go to.

At different times during the day I went into the woods. Just one row of trees from the open area cleared by the power company, but the view was completely different. The darkness of the woods seemed deeper. My eyes adjusted to the reduced light (the sun now being behind my back and me in shade), so I could better see individual trees until tree after tree stacked together and you couldn’t see any further into the woods.

Just 15 feet—one row of trees—into the wood and it looks different, darker. Much to explore here, and learn about.

Why did people, English teachers especially, think “Snowy Wood” was a suicide poem? Primarily because of the last stanza, where Frost repeats “and miles to go before I sleep.” The first time this phrase is used, they say, the poet narrator means that night that he is looking at the woods. The second time he uses it, they say, he means sleep as death. His death is a long way off, and those promises he has to keep are burdensome. Thus, he wishes he could just go off into that wonderful, dark and deep snowy wood, die, and be released from his burden.

As I look at the dark and deep woods that surround our house, I have no such foreboding, no such longing. I have much to do in life. While I may be retired, every hour of the day is filled with meaningful, stimulating, sometimes physically exhausting things. Writing, Reading, Praying. Stock trading. Even decluttering and dis-accumulation. I’m so far from being ready to die that I don’t think of it, most of the time.

But I do think of it as I look at the world around me, and people close to me. A number of people in our adult Sunday school class are facing serious health issues. Death may not be on the doorstep but he’s certainly on the block, right around the corner. Wednesday we learned of the death of another high school classmate. That’s now around 80 or 90 out of a class of 725. I didn’t know this man in school, as life circumstances then prevented me from meeting many except for those in my classes, football, track, and band. And even some of them have faded from memory.

But, clearly, the older I get the more death closes in, just like the impenetrable woods.

To me, the woods represent opportunity, something to explore, something to master. not to tear it down, but to get to know it. I have the rest of a lifetime to do so, whatever God allows me to have. I hope I use the time well.

The woods are indeed lovely, dark and deep. But I do have promises to keep and, hopefully, miles to go before I sleep. It’s not about death but about life.

book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: Life and Diary of David Brainerd

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It took me at least ten years to finish this. A combination of many things to do and read, and maybe some repetitive boring passages and extraneous material caused me to set this aside for most of that time.

If you start reading a book, get 3/5th of the way through it, lay it aside, and pick it up again and finish it ten years later, does that say something about the book or about you?

That’s what happened to me with The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. It might actually be more than ten years, though for sure less than twenty. My edition of this book was printed in 1989 by Baker Book House, a reprint of the 1949 edition, edited by Philip E Howard, Jr. The original diary and life dates from 1749, first written and edited by Jonathan Edwards, the famed preacher.

Brainerd (1718-1747), from Haddam Connecticut, attended Yale University then became a missionary to the Indians, specifically the Delaware Indians of northern New Jersey. But he was a sick man, suffering from what modern scholars believe was tuberculosis. He had considerable success in his evangelistic efforts.

Brainerd kept a diary and journal at various times during his ministry. Sometimes this was required by the organization that sponsored his ministry. Sometimes he wrote of his own accord. After his death following a lengthy decline, Edwards, in whose house Brainerd spent his final months, had all the younger man’s journals and edited and published them, along with biographical material that Edwards wrote.

The journal is, like many journals are, somewhat boring. Brainerd wrote much the same thing from day to day. At least he did at certain times. At other times, especially in his last three years, he had more substantial and varied writing. It was more interesting. He was quite a man, working through poor health to evangelize the Indians. He took part in their everyday lives, not just preaching to them. It seems that the Indians loved him and regretted his parting from them when his health no longer permitted him to work.

Why did I put this book aside all those years ago? Like I said, it was somewhat boring. That was just the early part. Had I persevered, I would have come to the last third, which was considerably more interesting. I was also put off by the lengthy biography of Jonathan Edwards included. Philip Howard used 30 pages for a bio of Edwards, then two pages of a list of Edwards’ works. That left 320 some pages of the Life-Journal-Diary. I remember thinking that, if I wanted a bio of the fiery Edwards, I would have read a biography of him. For me, at the beginning of the book, it was wasted.

I picked up the book again about a month ago and finished it. I did so because I don’t like to abandon a book I start. Also, because I figured the book wasn’t a keeper. I wanted to finish it, then put it out for sale or donation. Finish it I did. And, as I thought, it isn’t a keeper. Once I finish this post, off to the garage it will go for disposition, one more book read and off the shelves.

I probably sound too negative. It’s a good book. If I were to rate it I’d give it 3 or 4 stars. It’s just not something I see myself ever reading again.

Health, home improvements, miscellaneous

Still Tired

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One friend I exchange letters with, via e-mail, said, “You really don’t understand retirement”, or something close to that. As I said in Monday’s post, I stay busy. So I guess my friend is right.

This week, every morning, I’ve been out in the yard around 6:30 a.m. to do my work before the heat of the day comes. I’m pulling weeds from a couple of places. Also, Mon-Tues-Wed I cut the deadwood from our crepe myrtle bush. The branches all died in last winter’s extreme cold, but new shoots are coming up. The dead branches took a lot of sawing, so I spread that hard work out over three days. But it’s done. Tomorrow, I have just a little more weed pulling left, then bush trimming (evergreen and boxwoods), which I should be able to do in an hour or so. Then I’ll haul the cuttings and the deadwood off to the brush piles I’ve made in the woods nearby. Then, next week, I can tackle the backyard.

All this has left me pretty tired. You would think that an hour of yardwork a day wouldn’t tucker me out, but it seems to. That’s a lot of bending and stooping. A rock yard should be easier to keep up than a grass yard, right? Maybe if you spray for weeds regularly to keep them from growing, but pulling them out by hand is real work. Hopefully it’s keeping me young.

Wait, if I can’t work an hour in the yard without wanting to rest the rest of the day, I am no longer young. I keep telling myself that there’s nothing wrong with me that losing another 40 pounds (on top of the 80 already lost) won’t cure, but maybe that’s not true. I haven’t felt much like walking lately, though maybe that’s the heat more than energy. Walking seems to give me energy. Maybe I am old.

The fatigue I’ve felt has slopped over to non-physical pursuits. My work on the history book for the church anniversary is close to done. I’ve started the process of looking into printing options. I should now be spending time on my next two writing projects. But, after a brief rest after yardwork, I haven’t felt like new writing. I do a little hole-plugging on the church book, bringing it from 98% done to 99.5% done, but my mind hasn’t wanted to wrap around my work.

I did manage one mental task this morning. I finally called an appliance repair man to come and see about our oven. The lower heating element went out a couple of months ago. The porkchop and rice casserole I made last night took three hours to cook, so I’d had enough. The man is to come out late today or sometime tomorrow.

So that’s something. Next, maybe I’ll get our barely functioning vacuum cleaner replaced. After that, maybe I’ll return to decluttering activities. Or maybe I’ll get two listings made today, if I can multi-task these house and home items.

Then, and only then, will I have mental energy to work on my writing.

Oh, yes, one more thing. I have decided that next year I will hire a “lawn” service to spray for weeds in the front yard. If that works well and there’s no weed pulling to do, maybe the year after next I’ll do the same for the back yard. That will be my nod to retirement and the accumulating years.