Canada


The Belated Summer Vacation Photo Journal continues...
Esther (above, with fruit) left her Elkhart home early one August morning, picked me up in Archbold, and we proceeded north, in order to visit ...


our dear friend Kristen, who resides in what many of us consider a land flowing with milk and honey (or at least stroopwafels and blueberries). We spent 48 lovely hours together, culminating in a visit to ...


Lydia and Drew, my very hip neice and nephew-in-law.

It was a road trip to be remembered. Sunglasses on, funky mix-CD in the CD player, crazy city driving, trouble at the border!, picnic in the park, coffee and donuts in the city, a thrift store like no other, a visit with Kristen's cool 'rents and her apartment-in-progress, ice cream, a mysteriously disappearing DVD player and extensive conversations about the merits of owning a laptop.
What more could one ask for in a road trip?

My classmate, Juan Quevedo-Bosch, was born in Cuba and is a resident of New York, where he works as an Anglican priest in a multicultural parish. He wrote the following, which I would like to share with all of you.

Thanksgiving is an American festival strongly embedded in the mythogenesis of American identity.... It is celebrated by a family dinner with a detailed and prescribed menu, the center piece of which is the roasted turkey and a number of other elements that reputedly were part of the first Thanksgiving dinner. This seder of American manifest destiny could not escape unnoticed by Hispanic pilgrims themselves and reappropriated. Thanksgiving was dropped, perhaps since thankfulness is hard to come by for the oppressed marginal and it was renamed El Dia del Pavo (The Day of the Turkey) rather seriously. Bemused, I asked what was this Dia del Pavo all about and heard this most interesting new mythology. When the American pilgrims fathers came they were ambushed by North American natives and if a nearby turkey had not sounded the alarm, they will have surely being exterminated. This pavo salvador (savior turkey) was rewarded then with becoming the pie de résistance for the day of the first pilgrims! Putting humor and amazement at their ingenuity aside, I notice the shift in roles of the North American Indian, from savior to attackers, and how the savior role is displaced to the turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Belated Summer Vacation Photo Journal
I had a wonderful time back in the States this past July and August, but have yet to post about it. Here's a beginning: a few photos and stories of some folks I reconnected with along the way. I'll post more about my summer in the coming days...

Columbia, Pennsylvania


My incredible cousin, Katrina Wyse, M.D., mother of ...


Tyree!


Tyree with Aunt Anna


My former Hiram College roommate Rebekah with energetic Lily. They drove up from Maryland for a visit.


Tavis and his parents came over for a visit, too. They live in a little PA town not too far from New Jersey, his dad's home state. Tavis is shown here with mom (that's Wendy to the rest of us).


Tavis with dad (Shawn to the rest of us). Shawn and I became friends at Hiram.


Tavis is quite excited to be held by me! (The feeling was mutual.)

Columbus, Ohio

 
(right to left) Joanna, Frank, Alison and I gather for a group shot after enjoying dinner together at The Cheesecake Factory. I'll never forget the four slices of cheesecake we shared for dessert. We each took a bite, then passed the plates around the table for more bite-taking. We continued this seemingly eternal rotation until each had had enough. My favorite: the vanilla bean cheesecake (which is really saying something, coming from a chocolate nut like me). Check out the full array of cheesecake possibilities here. The four of us met at Hiram College. Although I've seen Frank and Alison pretty regularly since, Joanna and I hadn't seen one another for something like 7 or 8 years. It was wonderful to reconnect with all three. Joanna is a published poet now, and promised to send me a copy of her work, which I'm eagerly awaiting. Go, Joanna!

Elkhart, Indiana

 
Above, friends from the Elkhart/Goshen area gather for dinner at the delectable Antonio's restaurant. All of them I met either at seminary or at church. (Not pictured: Esther, photographer extraordinaire)

Cloudy Blogging


At snapshirts, you can make a word cloud for your blog. The words that appear most frequently are the largest. I don't think mine is at all accurate, but the results are cool enough for posting.

Thanks to Brenda, who did it first.

As Autumn Wanes

 
Three weeks ago, this was the view waiting for me outside my kitchen window.
Today, the branches are bare and the earth is covered with brown, wrinkly leaves.
Autumn's colors are muted in the Netherlands, and they don't last long. Two things I miss about Ohio are the colorful autumns and the snowy winters, both of which are rare occurences here. 

The Beginning of a Quilt

This particular piece was created in the artist's Wyoming Period. It was only recently discovered in storage in her aunt's bedroom. Double-click on the photo above for a close-up. And click here to meet the artist.