Peaceable Kingdom

We went to church this morning and then to Applebee's for lunch with Sarah, John and the kids to celebrate Ashley's birthday. Then back home where I hunkered down to write. As I was looking up some information on Margaret Fell Fox, "Mother of the Quakers," I came across a book with a copy of a wonderful painting on the cover. Turns out it was painted by an American, Edward Hicks in 1833. Here is what I discovered about this Quaker preacher:

Trained as a sign, coach, and ornamental painter, Hicks painted over a hundred versions of his now-famous Peaceable Kingdom between 1820 and his death. His artistic endeavors provided modest support for his activities as a Quaker preacher in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The theme of this painting, drawn from chapter 11 of Isaiah, was undoubtedly attractive to Hicks and fellow Quakers not only for its appealing imagery but also for its message of peace: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." 

In my quest for Hick's work, I happened on some other delightful paintings. Discovering such artwork is a wonderful way to waste time on the computer.

Jon Rappleye, "Nightwood Bloom"

Leo Rawlings, "The Peaceable Kingdom"

Happy Birthday, George!

Since listening to 1776 on audiobooks, we have taken a greater interest in the Father of our country, and this morning while reading our daily fix of "The Writer's Almanac" were reminded again of Washington's love for Sally Fairfax, the beautiful young wife of a Virginia plantation owner. After he became engaged to Martha, he wrote to Sally: "Misconstrue not my meaning, 'tis obvious; doubt it not, nor expose it. The world has no business to know the object of my love, declared in this manner to you when I want to conceal it."  It is probably incorrect to assume, however, that Sally would be crowned Miss Virginia if Martha had been in the competition. I found this very interesting perspective online:

Our image of the mother of our country, vague and insubstantial as it is, is drawn from portraits painted after her death showing a frumpy, dumpy, plump old lady, a fussy jumble of needlework in her lap, wearing what could pass for a shower cap with pink sponge rollers underneath.  But today, 250 years after Martha and George tied the knot, a handful of historians are seeking to revamp the former first lady’s fusty image, using the few surviving records of things she wrote, asking forensic anthropologists to do a computerized age-regression portrait of her in her mid-20s and, perhaps most importantly, displaying for the first time in decades the avant-garde deep purple silk high heels studded with silver sequins that she wore on her wedding day.

Fighting All the Way Back From Florida

Yes, we were fighting non stop. And if that wasn't bad enough, on the way down it rained and poured and we were swept away in flood waters. Just got back home last evening. Otherwise, it was a relatively stress-free vacation.

On the way to Florida we listened to The Johnstown Flood by Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough. We both felt as though we were experiencing the reality of that 1889 flood ourselves---a flood that claimed more than two thousand lives. On the way back we listened to 1776, McCullough's book on the first year of the American Revolution which he read himself. Though we actually do know the eventual outcome of the war, it seems like we re-fought those first awful battles every mile of the way. In fact, both books were as exhausting as they were spellbinding.

I wish that every American could listen to 1776. It's so easy to imagine that particular year as simply the hot Philadelphia summer of the glorious Declaration of Independence. But the Rebels' utter lack of preparedness, lack of clothing and shoes and tents, insufficient food and gunpowder is hard to comprehend. Camp conditions were deplorable, disease as rampant as were desertions, and then the string of humiliating military defeats. Untrained, undisciplined soldiers often ran wildly in retreat.  Besides all that was General George Washington's inexplicable indecisiveness again and again. The Revolution was a lost cause. No doubt about it. There was no way those rebels could prevail against the strongest military establishment in the world. But then on Christmas night, Washington crossed the Delaware River and with his rag-tag soldiers and some very able officers made a surprise attack on Trenton that ended in a decisive victory. 

The war, of course, would drag on for 7 years, but Washington learned from his mistakes. His untrained underlings, especially Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox, would become the seasoned officers of military history.

It was a good reminder to us of the incredible price that was paid for the birth of this nation. Today we lose sight of that as one side of the political spectrum screams about the 1%---especially the billionaires who claim they are as persecuted as were the Jews under Hitler, and the other side lamenting that we are suffering under the rule of a Kenyan, Muslim Marxist President. Most of us have pretty good lives---lives that these destitute soldiers could not have imagined.

Florida Memories

Our initial destination in Florida was Apalachicola, where we stayed at the River Inn for 2 nights, then on to Suwannee River State Park where we met Carlton for a night in a nice cabin---same one we stayed at for the past few years. Carlton picked up Kayla at the Jacksonville airport the following afternoon and we all met up in Fort Myers where we stayed 5 nights and had a lot of fun in the warm sunshine, especially hiking and biking.

This blog is primarily a family picture journal which supplements John's hand written detailed daily journal. I used to write once a week or so myself, but I've traded that for this blog. We often try to remember particular events, and these posts jog our feeble memories. 

Outside our door at the River Inn

Our room at the River Inn

Carlton, Kayla,winning night at dog races

Kayla, Thomas Edison Museum

Black Swan, Sanibel Island

White Pelicans, Sanibel Island

A Few Witty Literary Quotes

“If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.” 

P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters

“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don’t know the answer” 

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”  Dorothy Parker, The Algonquin Wits

My Etch-A-Sketch Memory

The last time etch-a-sketch was in the news was a quote from Mitt Romney's campaign advisor: "I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an etch-a-sketch." Recently another reference was made to that toy when Jane Pauley said: "I have the memory of an etch-a-sketch." I was glad that someone so young as she could say that.  I often wonder where all the information stored in my memory bank has gone. Now I have a metaphor---an etch-a-sketch. I'm particularly feeling this memory loss as I'm working on my next book related to women in the history of Christianity. I've read so many books and done so much work in that area in the past, but it feels almost like my memory has been erased and I'm starting over. I will take a book off the shelf and it sometimes seems like I'm reading it for the first time. I take my frustrations out in shoveling. The snow simply won't quit.

Overnight in a Cozy Loft

With the prediction of 6-10 inches of snow beginning at midnight, we decided to stay at our loft here at the Gardens last night. Glad we did. We started shoveling just after 8 am and before we're done we almost need to start all over again. It will be a mess this afternoon when we get back to the house on the river but that driveway is much smaller than our parking lot here. We love the loft and staying there is surely no hardship, though we have no running water, thus there are similarities to camping.