Roadside Liberal Arts

Last Saturday was full blown summer.
Hot.
Humid.
Smell of chipmunk-abandoned tomatoes.
Afternoon spent inside, reading.

The very next morning, fall had come.
Cool.
Dry.
Smell of burning pine.
Afternoon spent in a jeep, exploring the Quehanna.

With the doors off, the roadside views were fantastic.
We watched deer skipperty-hop up roadsides,
elk in velvet munching on apples,
and many fall plants:
goldenrod, Queen Anne's Lace, Joe Pye weed,
maidenhair ferns, Christmas ferns, bracken ferns,
knotweed, ragweed, smartweed....

One of the many things we've gained from a Houghton liberal arts education
is familiarity with our surroundings.
Denny learned geology from Mr. Paine.
Sue learned botany from Mrs. Cook.
Though these skills aren't necessary for education majors,
they've certainly enriched the way we observe the world.

The Cooks have taught us many other things:
*how to make plans, and then to be flexible,
* to choose restaurants that have the most local cars,
* to find the humor in everything (it's punny!),
* to pass food around the table in one direction,
* to treasure Gene Stratton Porter books,
* to be calm when you remove a potential rattlesnake from the back of a stove,
* to journal,
* to appreciate the seasons,
* to identify birds and appreciate their Latin names,
Did you know that a robin's Latin name is Turdus migratorius? True.
* to go off-the-beaten-path when travelling,
* and to be content in whatever situations we find ourselves.

Thank you, Cooks, for the lives you've modelled for so many students.
Thank you, Houghton, for hiring profs like the Cooks who make the liberal arts come alive.
Thank you, God, for places like Houghton College,
the Quehanna Wild Area,
and this mountain.

Sue

Isaac and the Polar Bear

It's been one month since we arrived home from our Alaska trip.
"So... how was your trip?"
How do you answer that in a passing conversation?
"Great!"
The more savvy have asked,
"What's one memory of Alaska that stands out?"
Aaaaaah.
That would be Isaac's story of killing a polar bear
with a spear
when he was five years old.

We met Isaac in Anchorage,
but the event took place in the far north.
Isaac is now 56,
but told the story as if it had happened yesterday.

The tiny five year old stood alone on a frozen pond
as directed
to lure the polar bear
while his family waited further off
to kill it.

Isaac started singing a song his mom taught him,
"Jesus loves the little children."
A polar bear noticed
and came to the bait.

Just then, it started to snow, hard,
and Isaac could not see his family.
But he could see the bear,
and knew he had to make the bear mad.
If the bear isn't mad,
he just plays with you
and knocks you around
and you'll be senseless.
You have to make him mad.
So Isaac said every mean word he could think of to the polar bear.
One of my words worked
and pissed that bear off.
He ran right at me.

I remember thinking
My mom is going to be so mad if that bear gets me
because she just made me a new parka
and he will ruin it.

Ten or twelve feet away,
the bear stopped and roared.
I thought I had lost my intestines
but it was just a big fart.

Isaac looked for solid footing,
a "bog",
to plant his spear
but it was all ice.
The polar bear rushed at him and hit him.
He knocked me down
and I could hear my spear spinning away.

While down on the ice,
Isaac found his "bog".
It was a polar bear footprint.
Sometimes a warm midwinter wind comes and thaws the ice.
Birds come to the open water, then the ice refreezes so quickly
that the birds start to freeze into the ice.
Polar bears come along and eat them.
As he was dodging the bear in the whiteout
he found his spear.
Isaac planted the end of the spear in the footprint
as the bear charged.

The spear entered the bear's chest
and stopped at the stopper.
Stoppers dangle from the spear.
They are crosspieces that are attached to leather thongs
that stop the spear from going straight through an animal.
In this case, it kept the polar bear from landing on Isaac.
The bear lunged again,
and the stopper broke,
and the bear covered Isaac.

His dad and brother had been stumbling in the whiteout
listening to the song
and the insults
and the roars
but were unable to find Isaac
to rescue Isaac
until something caused a small break in the snow
and something caused his brother to look back
and he saw the polar bear lying on the ice.

Isaac was nowhere to be seen.

Something made them turn the polar bear over,
grabbing the bear by his testicles,
when they caught a glimpse of a small Inuit boy
beneath the pile of white fur, grinning.

The first thing I saw was my brother.
He had just got a new haircut
just like that stooge Moe.
It made me laugh.

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow, black, and white,
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Sue

Summer Blessings

Tonight is the last night of summer vacation,
and while I'm excited to begin a new year with fresh first grade faces,
I'm somewhat nostalgic for the months past.
I take this time to share some simple summer blessings with you:

floating in a swimming hole
lying under flowers so that hummingbirds feed over your head
Penn State Creamery ice cream
going a-journey
mocha chocolate milk
reading on the couch, or on the porch, or in the yard
jeep rides
collecting Japanese beetles
friends visiting
a walk through the chicken barn at the fair
fresh raspberries
the Hazen flea market
calling someone you love
Swedish rye bread, toasted, with cheese
wading
good conversation
looking closely at a dragonfly
oooohing at meteors
appreciating what is set before you each day,
no matter what the season.

What would you add to the list?

Sue

Some Thoughts On Home Haircuts

If hair hits your eyes or your mouth when riding in a summertime jeep, it's too long.

Symmetry is a good thing.

When cutting hair with electric clippers, put an attachment on unless you want a buzz cut.

Brunette hair is more forgiving than blond.

For a quick wedge cut, put on a ball cap frontward and cut whatever sticks out the back. Then put the cap on backward and cut whatever sticks out the front.

Don't cut your own hair when you are being ruled by humidity or hormones.

A cool haircut sign would be
HAIRCUTS, $2.00
BAD HAIRCUTS, $1.00

You can get reeeeeeeeeally dizzy if you spin on a barber chair too long.

Keep your clippers oiled.

Don't say "Oops."

If there is an "Oops," remember I Samuel 16:7...

God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Sue

PS Katrina is a quick study with clippers.

Remembering

Last Saturday,
Denny's college roommate Mark
and his family
escaped from inner-city Buffalo
curious about their ministry?
and visited the mountain for the first time.
While Mark and Denny told stories of thirty years ago
(thirty years!)
I talked with his wife Diane.
We were discussing how we remember our "to do" lists.
I put items I need to take with me directly in front of the door
so they're not forgotten.
Diane said she sometimes writes lists on her hand.
We all develop ways of remembering what is important to us.
Just like God...
See! I will not forget you.
I have carved you on the palm of my hand.
Isaiah 49:15

Sue

The Morning Is Glorious

It's a beautiful morning. The sun is shining, the zinnias and sunflowers and coneflowers and mallows and lilies and beebalm and snapdragons and marigolds and black-eyed susans and geraniums and begonias and pansies are blooming, leaves raised to the sun, processing life. Also the cosmos and the morning glories. The cosmos is (and are) amazing, and the morning is indeed glorious. This is a safe and peaceful place.

It's been about a month since we visited Denali National Park.
We rode the tour bus to and from Fish Creek, about six hours.
During that trip, we saw
a woman slice her knee badly while hiking on loose rock,
six people make an emergency entrance onto our bus
due to a close encounter with a grizzly,
a woman get stranded on a gravel bar due to rapidly rising water,
three hikers in shorts and t-shirts shiver uncontrollably,
and a man nearly drive off a steep embankment.
Five incidents
in six hours
on one of many buses
in one of many places
on one of many days.
(There is a multiplication possibility here.)
Denali was a peaceful place, but not a safe place.

And yet, what is peace? What is safety?
In the past week, a Minnesota bridge collapsed.
An earthquake devastated coastal Peru.
There were local fatal car accidents,
fires,
diseases.
Peace and safety are an illusion.
Our peace and safety are only found
in feeling the fingerprints of God on our lives each moment.

Sue

Climbing The Hill Together

Twenty-nine years ago today we said our vows at West Side United Methodist Church in Clearfield. Denny sang "Let Us Climb the Hill Together", and almost three decades later we're still climbing, as C.S. Lewis and our vows said, "...further up and further in." I am thankful to God and to Denny for our past and future together.

Guys, take note. Here is some author-unknown advice on starting conversations for those who of you have not yet reached the twenty-ninth year: when in doubt, you may want to choose "C".

A.What's for dinner?
B. May I help with dinner?
C. Where would you like to go for dinner?

A. Are you wearing THAT?
B. Gee, you look good in brown.
C. Wow! Look at you!

A. What are you so worked up about?
B. Could we be overreacting?
C. Here's twenty dollars.

A. Should you be eating that?
B. These apples are so delicious.
C. Are you craving chocolate, honey?

A. What did you do all day?
B. I hope you didn't overdo today.
C. I've always loved you in that robe.

Sue

No Target Shooting

Wellllll, irregardless, the weather here on the mountain is rainy. There is so much humidity in the air that it just has to rain. That's an opportunity to type about Alaska. Sue has allowed me to type about the signposts that we noticed along the way. Interesting that the "must have" travel item for Alaska and the Alaska Highway is "The Milepost." Really, it's better than AAA brochures that we have loved.

I'd love to be able understand the need for some Alaskans to punch bullet holes in the signage that the tax dollars provide. In the state that has the most interesting things to hunt, the sportsmen can't find enough to shoot at so they put holes in their signs. It seemed that the most interesting signs were those that had to do with no shooting zones. No shooting. Firearms prohibited. Hunting prohibited. Perforated with bullet holes! One such sign which interested me was one next to a "rent-a-can" (we call them portapotties here in Pennsylvania). The sign said, "No target shooting." It was, as you can see, placed right next to a "rent-a-can" that was on the Turnagain Arm highway on the way to the Kenai Peninsula. We shan't discuss exactly why this was a stop along the way :-) , suffice to say that we just couldn't pass it. I think that we were looking for the tidal bore--yeah, that's what we were doing, looking for the tidal bore.

I contemplated the exploration of this area by Captain Cook, how incredibly large this land is, the glacier that formed Cook Inlet, which must have been huge back before global warming was even an issue. (Heck, that was almost before we knew there was a globe.) Everybody headed for any milepost on the Kenai has to pass this spot. And the sign is perhaps a chance to warm up for things further south. Anyhoo, it is clear that Alaskans have taken to heart the words of wisdom from Clint in Unforgiven, "...should have armed himself."

Perhaps I must confess that I only noticed these bullet holes because I was unable to arm myself. That customs lady at the Canadian border north of Haines asked me three times if I had a firearm in the truck. Three times I had to answer, "No ma'am." It was like saying, "No ma'am. I'm a girly man." A real man probably would have hidden that pistol inside the console of his pickup cab. A real man probably would have had no compunction to smuggle that loaded pistol through the Canadian customs station so that he might have plugged the first "big game sign" that he came across. A real man would have armed himself.

And so I could just make an observation and not participate in the sport of Alaskan sign hunting. It's a season that has no starting or ending dates and that's so American. We can fire off those guns at any time. "Oops! Sorry officer! I was just trying to scare those mosquitoes away from that portapotty."

Denny

A Chipmunk Question

The chipmunk living in the raised beds used to be cute. We'd find a pile of raspberry seeds on the stone wall, a tomato skin and seeds on the other side of the herb garden, but today I counted 21 tomatoes on the ground with just tiny nibbles missing. That chipmunk is getting just as many tomatoes as we are. At times like these, we really miss the cat. We never realized how many small animals he kept away. We think a bobcat got him. That chipmunk may be a marked mammal.

A question: what precipitated his change from a clean-your-plate rodent to profligate-tomato-waster? And while we're at it, here are some other questions that have entered my mind recently:

• Does the wind ever blow something out of the ground roots and all?
• Why is pre-lightning air greenish?
• Are there advantages to fallow fields besides postponing degradation?
• Where was George McGovern from?
• How does male eyesight differ from female eyesight?
• What does "uff da" mean?
• Why don't classic sermons get read more often?
• What is ear candling?
• What is the difference between "regardless" and "irregardless"?
• Why are samovars so big?
• Are flowers more fragrant in dry places?
• Are all northern races blue-eyed?
• Why is there a fire in the chimney at the gas plant?
• If IQ is mental age divided by chronological age, shouldn't we get dumber as we get older?
• What difference would it make if mosquitoes were eliminated?
• If you put Japanese beetles into a jar of water and they crawl over eachother to get to the top, are there beetles at the bottom who are self-sacrificing enough to not crawl?

If you have any thoughts on these questions, let me know.

Sue

The Place Where You Go To Listen

"The place where you go to listen"
is a soundproof room in the University of Alaska's museum
where seismic tremors,
solar radiation,
and other silent geologic and cosmic measurables are transformed into sound.
We heard rumbles and varied high keening tones, always shifting, unpredictable.
Unthinking, it could be called "unearthly,"
yet it was both as earthly and as heavenly as anything we'd ever heard.
We were transfixed.
Imagine, to hear sunrise and moonrise,
storms and sunlight,
mountains being made new,
northern lights and starry nights and comets and earthquakes.
So much goes on that we are unaware of,
that we refuse to be (or can't be) aware of.

I tell you, if my disciples would keep silent, the stones would shout aloud. Luke 19:40 (NEB)

Sue

36 Days and 8,000+ Miles

, Life on the mountain is peaceful. The katydids have recently begun their back-to-school song katydid katydid katydidn't, the pink coneflowers are attracting loads of fritillaries and monarchs, the stone wall chipmunk is treating himself to a daily ripe tomato leaving only skin and seeds, and 27 turkeys frequent the lawn for the doves' corn. We are enjoying being back home, having driven a Chevy S-10 to Alaska and back for the first five weeks of the summer. Paul and Katrina came back from Tanzania in June due to greencard issues, housesat for us, and are now spending part of their last days stateside teaching me to blog. Thanks, guys.

Let's face it. One of the main reasons we headed off was to see MOOSE. We started looking in Montana, then Idaho, Washington, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Alaska.... Aside from a roadkill in BC, we'd seen zilch. I was beginning to be depressed when the thought "In His time" popped into my head. Other scriptures soon followed:

God will provide a lamb, er.... moose. Genesis 22:8

I go to prepare a place, ummm, moose, for you. John 14:2

From that moment on, it was an adventure, to see what God had for us that day. It may be the most peace I've ever felt. ...and the moose that had been prepared near Anchor Point, Alaska walked to within forty feet of the truck with her two babies.

Sue