August letter

This is a slightly edited version of my August letter sent to the Headings family:

The last month has been slow for embryo work, almost non existent, actually. We did have work this week, and we have now scheduled some things into September, for which we are grateful.

In the meantime, we didn't have trouble finding things to do! Larry has been working hard in the vineyard. We are grateful for Scott and Steve's help. It looks like we will have a nice crop this year. Normally it would be another year before harvesting grapes, but we had such good growth and established the vines so well last year, that we were able to let fruit on. I think we will be selling most of this year's crop, as we just aren't yet prepared to handle them. Another source of huge frustration for Larry is that we learned recently that the nursery sent us the wrong grapes last year . . . pinot noir instead of merlot. We do not have the optimal growing season for pinot. This means we will need to replace vines, losing two years of production and labor. A consultant for the nursery is coming next week to confirm this mistake, and then we will need to figure out what we do from there and what compensation we might expect. Sarah took some pictures for us this week. If you want to see what the vineyard and grapes are looking like, check out her website at www.littlemomentsbysarah.com/Grapes

A couple weeks ago Larry and I spent about four days up at the house/cabin. It was pleasant to be there, so peaceful! We have known since the first summer that there are bats occupying the attic and that we wanted them out! But how best to do that was the problem. We do want to have them around, just not in the house. So, while we were there, Larry spent three days building a large bat house (a bat condo, really!) out behind the garage. This week, enroute to a client in New York, we stopped overnight. Larry had discovered a simple "bat exclusion device" which would allow the bats to get out, but not back in, a 10 inch long piece of 2-inch in diameter PVC pipe. Up on the porch roof we went, fitted the pipe to the crack in the soffit, taped it securely with duct tape, as well as taping carefully along the remaining crack. That evening we sat out in the yard and waited . . . about eight o'clock, bats started dropping out through the pipe. We quit counting at 56! The next morning, at six o'clock, we went over to the bedroom window nearest that soffit. What we saw was amazing. Bats were swarming up to the taped soffit, trying desperately to get back in. They didn't! But I almost felt sorry for them. Their anxiety was obvious! They would fly in, scurry along the tape, drop away, fly in, feel along the tape, drop away. Oh, well, they do have a lovely condo waiting, if they are interested. I took a video. What a scene. We want to get back up soon and permanently seal the soffit, assuming all the bats have vacated.

Reuben and Donna were at the beach last week. Reuben and the boys stayed here one night on their way back home (Donna stayed another couple days along with some friends). Larry took Judah down to the ChooChoo Barn to celebrate his birthday (just a bit late!!) I took Bella to the Pottery Works one day last week to celebrate her birthday. She starts back to school in first grade soon.

This week is significant, isn't it [Note: a year ago on the 18th is when my younger brother died unexpectedly of a heart attack] . . I know we have all been thinking about Ron, as well as Jill, Holiday, Meredith, Devaron and Shae. May we continue to be inspired by Ron's life!

On Sunday, our church will have services here in the grove and a fellowship meal. That's always a fun time. Our church family suffered quite a blow two weeks ago when we learned, during the service, that one of our own, Glen Lapp, was one of the ten workers gunned down in Afghanistan while on a medical mission in a remote area. The intensity of loss we all experienced in this community reminded me over and over about the many, many losses that families have experienced in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other places around the globe....each life special, each loss leaving a huge hole in a family and community. It is sobering.

The end of September several of us are going to Pittsburgh to participate in a 5K "Great Race". I'm looking forward to being back in Pittsburgh . . . we have lots of good memories of that city!

In October, as some of you know, I plan to join a good friend in NYC for a two-day "marathon and a half" 39 mile walking event called Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. If any of you want to honor someone you know that has experienced breast cancer, a (tax-deductible) donation at my web page will get their name printed on my T-shirt! http://www.avonwalk.org/goto/Marilyn.Kennel
I have to commit to raising $1800 to walk, and I've set a goal of $2000. I've never done fundraising before, but almost everyone knows someone touched by this awful disease. I can name five people without having to stop and think about it. My T-shirt list already includes a sobering number of honorees and memorials....

If you have nothing better to do, here are links to online photo books of summer 2010 Headings and Kennel family reunions....

They are long links so you may have to copy and paste although they show up as live links in my program:

Headings book with special memorial event is at:

http://preview.picaboo.com/Webview/CoverPage.aspx?album=000000000007B12F0D&user=0000000000002725C7

Kennel book is at:

http://preview.picaboo.com/Webview/CoverPage.aspx?album=000000000007C2DB5C&user=0000000000002725C7


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Book Review: The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first book I've read in a long time that I absolutely didn't want to put down. Part of the fascination is that the setting (Mississippi, 1963)is one I know little about. I remember the Civil Rights movement from a northern perspective. This book gives a glimpse into what it might have been like to be a "colored" domestic, as well as the consequences for a young woman who challenged societal norms.

View all my reviews >>

Book Review: A New Kind of Christianity, by Brian D. McLaren

The past fifteen years have found me becoming more and more uncomfortable in the presence of those preaching or espousing a traditional Christian theology. I get down right squirmy, followed by a churning knot in the pit of my stomach. I haven't always been able to articulate why.

McLaren's book is one of several I have read in recent years that have helped clarify what I seemed to be growing into instinctively. Something about the "gospel" I was taught just doesn't seem like good news. Previous books I've read and reviewed (If Grace Is True by Gulley and Mulholland, and more recently, Thank God for Evolution, by Michael Dowd) move in a similar direction, though perhaps with broader language and metaphors.

McLaren stays closer to traditional Christian language. What he adds that was helpful for me was the exposure of the Greco-Roman paradigm which has shaped and distorted both the Hebrew image of God and the role and message of Jesus. His metaphor of Bible as Constitution or Bible as library was also helpful.

At this point in my journey, I can only embrace a spirituality that is willing to explore and practice faith in the manner of McLaren.

Another book read

In June I ran my first 5K ever and I ran in Tevas. You ran in Tevas? Yes, Tevas. Only my nephew who is into barefoot running thought that was cool.

"So," I asked him, "what kind of minimalist running shoes do you recommend? "

"Vibram FiveFingers," was the unhesitating reply. So I bought a pair and have been jogging in them ever since. I also wore them to climb a mountain and plan to run another 5K in September.

In the meantime, that same nephew sent me a book he wanted me to read--Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. I just finished it. I found it to be an interesting mix of history, philosophy, physiology and story. The facts as presented reinforce my long held biases about conventional wisdom related to the superiority of technology and medicine, and how scientific discovery is misused and manipulated in the service of power and greed. That's a mouthful, I know, but it is my perspective based on many years of observation and experience.

I am encouraged in my new found interest in running. A comment from the book: "we don't stop running because we get old, we get old because we stop running". Hmmm. This may be my best decade yet!


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