Monday, 28 April - Contemplation

I've titled this blog entry, "Contemplation," because of the three photos I want to share. They all involve thought and they all evoke different feelings.

On Thursday, 24 April, Barry and I visited the traveling version of the Viet Nam Wall. If you're not familiar with it, it's a half-sized replica of "The Wall" in Washington, DC. It travels all over the US -- I went to Farmington, ME, to see it several years ago, and last week it came to Danville. The local newspaper ran a story about a local woman whose husband was killed in Viet Nam in 1970, visiting the wall to see his name. Just as in Washington, people reached out to touch the names on the wall, even though in this version, they are not carved into the shiny black granite, as they are in DC. People left memoranda, and someone from Mercer County High School (in Harrodsburg) left photos of two graduates. Many of the photos of "The Wall" show someone contemplating, and being reflected off the granite -- hence this photo of Barry.

My feelings about this picture are that, once again, we are involved in a war, far away from home, that is killing young Americans, wasting precious resources, continuing to fight so that those 4,000+ who have already been killed will not have died needlessly (so it's necessary to kill 4,000 more?--illogical) and we really don't know why. Is the war win-able? Was it necessary? When will it end? How will it end? How can we thank sincerely those who serve (and served) without supporting the war in which they served? To me, it's like Viet Nam all over again only it's in a desert instead of a jungle. The photo asks, "why?" yet it doesn't provide any answers.

The second photo, taken early in the morning on 26 April, shows the barn just over our property line, just before the sun was blocked out by rain clouds. Seldom have I seen a rainbow in the morning! And I guess the barn is where the pot of gold must be located! Or at least, something is in there. No matter how old we get, there is always something exciting about seeing a rainbow. The bright colors contrasting against a darkening gray sky causes us to look in awe at what is basically a lesson in light-bending physics.

But a rainbow is more than just light refracting on raindrops, being bent to a greater or lesser extent depending on its wavelength. That is such a droll explanation.

Throughout time, rainbows have signified hope in the future -- just take out Genesis and read about the Flood. Whether one is religious or not, doesn't matter. When this rainbow appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, it was a sight beyond the physics.

Unfortunately, within minutes, the sun was obscured, the rain began, and the rainbow disappeared. But there will be other rainbows, other days, and whenever we see one, we will be joyous.

Finally, I had to include a nice portrait of another of our "neigh"-bors. We have seen her several times, but I haven't been able to get a nice close-up of her. She's apparently being sold by the people next door, to a gal on the other side of our neighbor, so she may well be hanging around in the same location for awhile. I hope so, because she's a beautiful animal. Does anyone ride her? How old is she? What's her name? What is SHE thinking as she looks at my camera? So many questions, so few answers, and the contemplation of what animals see, hear, feel, think...if anything...

On Friday night, we went into Danville to see Over The Tavern, by Tom Dudzick. It's billed as a Catholic Neil Simon play, about a 12-year-old Polish boy in Buffalo, NY in 1959, who questions the authoritarianism of both his Church and his father, and seeks a "fun" religion. The play brought back SO many memories of "catechism" classes through which I suffered, growing up Catholic. Many of the questions Rudy asked, I also asked, beginning at about his age. The play was performed at our local community theater, the West T. Hill Community Theater, and four of the players were 7th, 8th or 9th graders. How they can memorize ALL those lines is a mystery to me, but they did a great job. They're doing Into The Woods (Sondheim) in July, and up in Harrodsburg next month, their community theater is doing Bye, Bye, Birdie. And this is all BEFORE the Pioneer Playhouse opens. Kentucky has more open-air theaters than any other state, and we need to visit them all!

My next blog entry -- after Wednesday -- should contain some really joyous news...hold your breath...