January 9, 2020. I have told this story of systemic racism many times, to many people. This is the first I’ve written it*: In the summer of 1960 between high school and college, I worked on a construction crew for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, Co. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A paternalistic, non-union, company, Reynolds hired students…
January 8, 2020. Our early morning hunt was not successful, we had no deer to pull out, skin and dress. We were simply father and son, enjoying the mid-morning warmth and gazing over Mr. Shaw’s withered garden. Daddy talked quietly as I eyed engraving on the L. C. Smith double-barrel cradled in the crook of his arm. Shifting…
January 8, 2020. Birds and animals aren’t quite as frightened of machinery as of people. Often, I get images from my car that would require careful stalking on foot. These are two birds from a flock of about eight that I saw on Loner Road returning from Blythewood. They were wary of the car, but…
Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna
January 2, 2020. A wet weekend in late December brought out winter colors along Cedar Creek. This is a north-facing bluff with moss and Mountain Laurel, which is unusual for central South Carolina.
“. . . in democracy there is the reconciliation of opposites, the elevation of the vernacular, the transcendence of the individual through the equality of humanity.” Walt Whitman