Weblog 190
September 27, 2009~ 12:00am
It was wonderful to get away last week! The weather in Gettysburg was supposed to be rainy every day of our visit, but it only rained one night, and that was after we were settled in and back in our motel room. It actually felt like summer-- low 80's, high humidity-- but I still loved every minute of it. (Even while mopping my face with Wayne's hankie, I was marveling at the beauty of that place, which is our favorite in all the world.)
That's a view from the First Day's battlefield while standing on Doubleday Avenue, looking down toward the town past the McClean Farm. There were some vivid fall colors, but the green was more lush than I ever remember seeing it. Here's a typical rough-barked old tree at the stone wall in the same area. Those shots always take my breath away. They're pure poetry.
The park service has cleared away many of the trees and brush in an effort to restore the field to the way it appeared in 1863, working from old photos and historical records, and the new vistas are sweeping.
We also went to the newly opened David Wills House, where Lincoln spent the night before giving the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery.
It's moody, and quite moving-- but having experienced the 'old Wills Museum' twice in years past, I have to say that the 'turn-of-the-century' style museum works best for me, without all the interactive displays and studied 'space'-- it just felt 'authentic'.
The house today is certainly well-designed in its new role, but the old dark, creaky floors and the glass cases, one of which displayed a lock of the president's hair and a piece of bloodied pillowcase- its artifacts crammed into cluttered cases- worked best for this visitor. (I guess I just like 'musty gloom'....lol.) Here's Wayne in the red room, studying the carefully labeled and perfectly spaced objects in their temperature-controlled environment.
The most moving display, was an actual chair the murdered president sat in, as well as Wills' own lap desk that had been in the room on that day, and probably had been handled by Lincoln himself.
It gave me a chill, looking at that particular tableau, because I could very easily imagine his long skinny frame-- knees poking up-- desk propped on his lap, and scribbling notes.
The town itself is unchanged. Christ's Lutheran Church, located on Chambersburg Street where a chaplain was shot dead by the rebels right on the front steps, has a picturesque breezeway between church and rectory.
The new Visitor's Center was a delightful surprise to us. We'd heard so many negative impressions of the new center, we expected to be disappointed.
It's true that there's a fee of around 10 dollars to see the movie, museum and exhibits (whereas the old center was free to the public, and yes, there's the inevitable food court) ...but by GOD, they finally got the emphasis right. This visitors center places the central cause of the Civil War right where it belongs and yes, right where it bothers a lot of folks, especially Southern visitors, and the lynch pin is slavery---Lincoln knew it.
The crux of his 'few remarks' at the dedication of the soldiers cemetery was the higher purpose for which those slain men gave their lives, and it was to perfect what had begun in the Declaration of Independence, but never carried through-- that all men should enjoy the fruits of this land, and that none should be in bondage to another.
The old visitor's center (and truly, much of the souvenir shops and other attractions around town) still manage to make it seem as though it was simply two gallant armies fighting over states' rights and differing philosophies, and it tries too hard not to offend.
Indeed, much of Gettysburg still places the idea of reconciliation ahead of any uncomfortable prickliness about the howling immorality of the slavery issue- and given the accelerated expansion of the 1860's, this nation needed to settle things for all time, and the purpose of the Civil War was to say, 'No More'. We are a nation of free men, every blessed one of us.' Men died in the most gruesome ways imaginable over a moral principle, and to my mind there is no other reason ever to take up arms-- not revenge, not national pride nor imperialism, but only as a moral imperative when a segment of humanity is being exterminated or oppressed.
I might go as far as to say the emphasis that's given the Civil War in general seems always to be about 'gallantry' and 'bravery'- or the genius of certain commanders- or the valor shown in great contests with both sides being more or less equal, but this time......they nailed it. (And no stuffy Round Table humbugs who love to deal in regimental statistics and troop movements, dissecting campaigns as they would a Sunday football game, can do a damn thing about it) -it's now writ in stone- in a lovely building set in an area far from the commerce of the bustling streets of downtown Gettysburg. It's a pastoral setting looking for all the world like a round red barn with a farmstead's stone foundation, set in field where high grasses and natural wildflowers are permitted to grow in their natural state- and for those who hear the message, for the heart to grow as well.
I felt as if every window had been thrown open.
I was in tears at the end of the main film, magnificently (and appropriately) narrated by Morgan Freeman-- and there was absolute silence as visitors filed out of the main theater; whether in anger or because of emotion... by God, it made them think. In room after room, display after display, the large, wall-sized mini-documentaries playing in segments of the building re-emphasized the reason for that conflict. There was no escaping it.
And I've never been prouder -or happier- visiting Gettysburg... it's now the jewel of memory it should have been all along, because at last-- it speaks the truth.
September 27, 2009~ 12:15am
Oh! And since I've gotten home from my trip, I also got the October issue of 'The Blue House' online. For the poetry appreciators out there, you might enjoy taking some time to glance through it. Plenty of fine writers-- and a chance to let the old brain cells dance around a bit. Medicine for the soul, that's what poetry is...
and an opportunity to throw open those windows a bit, and breathe...to feel the joy of words. Enjoy!
September 27, 2009~ 1:00pm
Just woke up and opened a lovely email from my good friend Deborah Rey, and wonder of wonders!- she's given me the link to her newly designed blog with the happy news that her BOOK is now in print!
And how appropos that with this week's theme of war and its hideous toll, and the way we may rise like the phoenix from its ashes-- here is the story of one survivor in a bright, shining new incarnation.
I cannot tell you how that sweet picture of a vulnerable little girl's back touches me- and alway has. If you want to actually hold this story in your hands, follow the link to find out how to purchase-- (right now, only the British Amazon site is featuring the proper information, but Deborah is hard at work to get the U.S. version to carry the updated information as well, so that's on the horizon.)
The wonder of life is in survival -- for all of us -- from wars, from hardship, from pain, we fall and rise again, and in that stumbling and getting up is the great story of mankind. The living wonder of us all! The going on... and bless us, every one.
September 28, 2009~ 5:30pm
Nothing makes me as happy right now as pulling into my carport and looking at my peaked yellow house (with its new roof) and seeing a standing ovation of sunflowers up tall to greet me! (What a joy it was to see those things in bloom in 4 short weeks!)
(I had to prop the ones on the end today with a plastic tube I hammered into the dirt because these 50 mph wind gusts knocked 'em down) -but their brothers were waving madly, "Hello! Hello! Welcome home!"
Ain't they just gorgeous! On my first day back to work, having put in a good, hard and productive day, these guys seemed to sing to me... an old song... one my late uncle loved to sing when he was in his cups (and if someone joined him in harmony, he was blissful)...
I wanna be a good friend of yours
(Um hum, and a little bit more)
I wanna give you everything I got -
(Um hum, and a little bit more)
I wanna be that wild, wild flower
Hangin' around your door -
I wanna give you everything I got
(Um hum, and a little bit)
and a little bit, and a little bit
moor--OR--ORE - and a little bit more!
There! That felt good. LOL!!! I'm just so damn happy because nuthin'...I mean nuthin' ever grows for me... so these just tickle me pink.
October 2, 2009~ 8:30am
Tomorrow, a day trip to the Springs Festival. This is an annual event scheduled for the first weekend of October, and only 50 miles from Pittsburgh. Fall should be absolutely at its most splendid in the mountains, and even with some drizzle, scenes like this
(the Casselman Stone Bridge) five short miles from the festival, will make it a scrapbook memory for sure. Lots of goodies to eat, sights to delight in.... I'm truly looking forward to it. We went once before, but having been 'homebound' for so long, the prospect of doing this again is sheer enchantment.
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
It was wonderful to get away last week! The weather in Gettysburg was supposed to be rainy every day of our visit, but it only rained one night, and that was after we were settled in and back in our motel room. It actually felt like summer-- low 80's, high humidity-- but I still loved every minute of it. (Even while mopping my face with Wayne's hankie, I was marveling at the beauty of that place, which is our favorite in all the world.)
That's a view from the First Day's battlefield while standing on Doubleday Avenue, looking down toward the town past the McClean Farm. There were some vivid fall colors, but the green was more lush than I ever remember seeing it. Here's a typical rough-barked old tree at the stone wall in the same area. Those shots always take my breath away. They're pure poetry.
The park service has cleared away many of the trees and brush in an effort to restore the field to the way it appeared in 1863, working from old photos and historical records, and the new vistas are sweeping.
We also went to the newly opened David Wills House, where Lincoln spent the night before giving the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery.
It's moody, and quite moving-- but having experienced the 'old Wills Museum' twice in years past, I have to say that the 'turn-of-the-century' style museum works best for me, without all the interactive displays and studied 'space'-- it just felt 'authentic'.
The house today is certainly well-designed in its new role, but the old dark, creaky floors and the glass cases, one of which displayed a lock of the president's hair and a piece of bloodied pillowcase- its artifacts crammed into cluttered cases- worked best for this visitor. (I guess I just like 'musty gloom'....lol.) Here's Wayne in the red room, studying the carefully labeled and perfectly spaced objects in their temperature-controlled environment.
The most moving display, was an actual chair the murdered president sat in, as well as Wills' own lap desk that had been in the room on that day, and probably had been handled by Lincoln himself.
It gave me a chill, looking at that particular tableau, because I could very easily imagine his long skinny frame-- knees poking up-- desk propped on his lap, and scribbling notes.
The town itself is unchanged. Christ's Lutheran Church, located on Chambersburg Street where a chaplain was shot dead by the rebels right on the front steps, has a picturesque breezeway between church and rectory.
The new Visitor's Center was a delightful surprise to us. We'd heard so many negative impressions of the new center, we expected to be disappointed.
It's true that there's a fee of around 10 dollars to see the movie, museum and exhibits (whereas the old center was free to the public, and yes, there's the inevitable food court) ...but by GOD, they finally got the emphasis right. This visitors center places the central cause of the Civil War right where it belongs and yes, right where it bothers a lot of folks, especially Southern visitors, and the lynch pin is slavery---Lincoln knew it.
The crux of his 'few remarks' at the dedication of the soldiers cemetery was the higher purpose for which those slain men gave their lives, and it was to perfect what had begun in the Declaration of Independence, but never carried through-- that all men should enjoy the fruits of this land, and that none should be in bondage to another.
The old visitor's center (and truly, much of the souvenir shops and other attractions around town) still manage to make it seem as though it was simply two gallant armies fighting over states' rights and differing philosophies, and it tries too hard not to offend.
Indeed, much of Gettysburg still places the idea of reconciliation ahead of any uncomfortable prickliness about the howling immorality of the slavery issue- and given the accelerated expansion of the 1860's, this nation needed to settle things for all time, and the purpose of the Civil War was to say, 'No More'. We are a nation of free men, every blessed one of us.' Men died in the most gruesome ways imaginable over a moral principle, and to my mind there is no other reason ever to take up arms-- not revenge, not national pride nor imperialism, but only as a moral imperative when a segment of humanity is being exterminated or oppressed.
I might go as far as to say the emphasis that's given the Civil War in general seems always to be about 'gallantry' and 'bravery'- or the genius of certain commanders- or the valor shown in great contests with both sides being more or less equal, but this time......they nailed it. (And no stuffy Round Table humbugs who love to deal in regimental statistics and troop movements, dissecting campaigns as they would a Sunday football game, can do a damn thing about it) -it's now writ in stone- in a lovely building set in an area far from the commerce of the bustling streets of downtown Gettysburg. It's a pastoral setting looking for all the world like a round red barn with a farmstead's stone foundation, set in field where high grasses and natural wildflowers are permitted to grow in their natural state- and for those who hear the message, for the heart to grow as well.
I was in tears at the end of the main film, magnificently (and appropriately) narrated by Morgan Freeman-- and there was absolute silence as visitors filed out of the main theater; whether in anger or because of emotion... by God, it made them think. In room after room, display after display, the large, wall-sized mini-documentaries playing in segments of the building re-emphasized the reason for that conflict. There was no escaping it.
And I've never been prouder -or happier- visiting Gettysburg... it's now the jewel of memory it should have been all along, because at last-- it speaks the truth.
September 27, 2009~ 12:15am
Oh! And since I've gotten home from my trip, I also got the October issue of 'The Blue House' online. For the poetry appreciators out there, you might enjoy taking some time to glance through it. Plenty of fine writers-- and a chance to let the old brain cells dance around a bit. Medicine for the soul, that's what poetry is...
and an opportunity to throw open those windows a bit, and breathe...to feel the joy of words. Enjoy!
September 27, 2009~ 1:00pm
Just woke up and opened a lovely email from my good friend Deborah Rey, and wonder of wonders!- she's given me the link to her newly designed blog with the happy news that her BOOK is now in print!
And how appropos that with this week's theme of war and its hideous toll, and the way we may rise like the phoenix from its ashes-- here is the story of one survivor in a bright, shining new incarnation.
I cannot tell you how that sweet picture of a vulnerable little girl's back touches me- and alway has. If you want to actually hold this story in your hands, follow the link to find out how to purchase-- (right now, only the British Amazon site is featuring the proper information, but Deborah is hard at work to get the U.S. version to carry the updated information as well, so that's on the horizon.)
The wonder of life is in survival -- for all of us -- from wars, from hardship, from pain, we fall and rise again, and in that stumbling and getting up is the great story of mankind. The living wonder of us all! The going on... and bless us, every one.
September 28, 2009~ 5:30pm
Nothing makes me as happy right now as pulling into my carport and looking at my peaked yellow house (with its new roof) and seeing a standing ovation of sunflowers up tall to greet me! (What a joy it was to see those things in bloom in 4 short weeks!)
(I had to prop the ones on the end today with a plastic tube I hammered into the dirt because these 50 mph wind gusts knocked 'em down) -but their brothers were waving madly, "Hello! Hello! Welcome home!"
Ain't they just gorgeous! On my first day back to work, having put in a good, hard and productive day, these guys seemed to sing to me... an old song... one my late uncle loved to sing when he was in his cups (and if someone joined him in harmony, he was blissful)...
I wanna be a good friend of yours
(Um hum, and a little bit more)
I wanna give you everything I got -
(Um hum, and a little bit more)
I wanna be that wild, wild flower
Hangin' around your door -
I wanna give you everything I got
(Um hum, and a little bit)
and a little bit, and a little bit
moor--OR--ORE - and a little bit more!
There! That felt good. LOL!!! I'm just so damn happy because nuthin'...I mean nuthin' ever grows for me... so these just tickle me pink.
October 2, 2009~ 8:30am
Tomorrow, a day trip to the Springs Festival. This is an annual event scheduled for the first weekend of October, and only 50 miles from Pittsburgh. Fall should be absolutely at its most splendid in the mountains, and even with some drizzle, scenes like this
(the Casselman Stone Bridge) five short miles from the festival, will make it a scrapbook memory for sure. Lots of goodies to eat, sights to delight in.... I'm truly looking forward to it. We went once before, but having been 'homebound' for so long, the prospect of doing this again is sheer enchantment.
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