Road Trip - Duluth (updated)

The Str. American Victory (then, the Middletown) passing beneath Duluth's aerial lift bridge

We went to a wedding in Duluth, Minnesota, of a good friend of Hannah's, who is also very dear to us. It was moving to witness this moment of promise and joy in her life and, as is often the case, to reflect upon how we have seen her grow during the eight or so years we've known her. It was really wonderful.

It was also the occasion for us to plan a road trip. The idea of spending two days of solid driving to get somewhere can be daunting but ever since we took our youngest daughter to California for her first job (U-Haul and Boxer in tow), I've felt differently. 

There is something about seeing the land change as you drive by. About meeting the different people on the way, hearing new accents, seeing food specialties change. You understand the country a little differently.

That slow evolution also is reflected on the people traveling, as Tom and I have found. Listening to music or audiobooks, letting silence fill the car, watching miles slip away - these are all conducive to reflections that we just don't have time for in regular life. We may never have the time to develop the thoughts, much less carry them through into conversation. Long hours in the car lend themselves to such things. 

So we embrace any chance for a road trip. I get my knitting, we pick out audiobooks and podcasts, pack up the cocktail kit, and hit the road. Plus, you have the chance for side trips which indulge at least one person's special interests. 

Mike Breitbach and me!
He's hardworking - see the glove? When we met him,
he was refilling croutons at the salad bar.

Cindy Breitbach and me!
She took time away from the kitchen just for a second —
pies wait for no man (or pictures!)

That meant we took to the back roads so we could sample fried chicken and pie at Breitbach's Country Dining, which was one of the three restaurants featured in the Spinning Plates documentary (a great favorite of mine).

It was truly worth the trip. We met both Mike and Cindy Breitbach, who were gracious and charming. Community is key for them, as we could see, and the food was definitely worth the trip. (We should've taken pictures of the place, but check here.)

And you really do have to want to take the trip. We saw lots of little roads and communities as we made our way from Balltown to Duluth. Thank goodness for Google Maps!

William A. Irvin tour

On Saturday we had all day to be tourists and it was Tom's chance for special interests. We walked around Canal Park looking at the lighthouses and, most of all, the aerial lift bridge which excited no little interest when a ferry came through so we could see it working. Afterward, we met up with our son-in-law who was also at loose ends. Naturally that meant we needed to take a tour of an ore hauler which the guys found fascinating. I especially was interested in the living quarters and galley. Thinking about living and working on that ship, often in extreme winter conditions, was fascinating to me.

Gin can be more flavors than juniper - who knew?
But this Juniper Gin has underlying flavors that never
made it into my favorite brand

We were intrigued to find the Vikre distillery not too far from where we were staying which had cedar and spruce gins in addition to the usual juniper flavoring. I liked the cedar but the spruce was too much like chewing a Christmas tree for me. Most interesting was that when I added the tonic water, the flavors really bloomed in my mouth, as opposed to the straight sip I'd taken initially. I've heard about the effect water can have on a liquor but it was the most vivid example I could've asked for.

Overlaying the entire trip was our repeating our Beyond Cana marriage retreat along the way. Once you've done the marriage retreat, you refresh the basics on your own once a year. We first did the retreat in 2005 so we've had plenty of practice and could talk over the various steps at different points on the trip. We'd put it off for longer than we should have so it was a really wonderful renewal of our marriage.

A great trip, all in all!

Guest Interview on Among Women Podcast

I have the pleasure of being a guest on the Among Women podcast where Pat Gohn and I discuss my book Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life. It leads us to the every day life of a believer… grounded both in the interior life — the life of prayer — and the call to do good works. Join us!

Well Said: Christianity thoroughly approves of the body

Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body — which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty, and our energy.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Worth a Thousand Words: Geraniums

Geraniums, Childe Hassam
via Arts Everyday Living

Genesis Notes: Laban's Resume

I never really thought about Laban much except as an obstacle to Jacob's plans. But he's more than a stereotypically difficult father-in-law. I have really enjoyed the insights about how gave Jacob have a taste of his own medicine by tricking him so thoroughly. And he was the instrument God used to help humble Jacob and make him stretch himself in different ways.

Jacob reproaching Laban for giving him Leah in place of Rachel, Hendrick ter Brugghen

Strengths and accomplishments:

• Controlled two generations of marriages in the Abrahamic family (Rebekah, Rachel, Leah)
• Quick witted

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• Manipulated others for his own benefit
• Unwilling to admit wrongdoing
• Benefited financially by using Jacob, but never fully benefited spiritually by knowing and worshipping Jacob's God

Lessons from his life:

• Those who set out to use people will eventually find themselves used
• God's plan cannot be blocked

Vital statistics:

• Where: Haran
• Occupation: Wealthy sheep breeder
• Relatives: Father - Bethuel. Sister - Rebekah. Brother-in-law - Isaac. Daughters - Rachel and Leah. Son-in-law - Jacob.

Key verses:
"If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you" (Genesis 31:42).

Laban's story is told in Genesis 24:1 - 31:55.

All material quoted is from the Life Application Study Bible. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

When it comes to the life of a child, should parental devotion be disqualifying?

Let us stipulate a distinction between removing someone from life support, as the hospital proposes, and taking active measures to induce death. Put another way, if Connie Yates and Chris Gard —Charlie’s parents—decided to remove their son from his ventilator and allow nature to take its course, it would be a difficult but eminently defensible position.

But the claim asserted by the representatives of Britain’s state-run health care system is more sweeping and insidious: This is our call, they say. Such is the Great Ormond Street Hospital’s sense of dominion, says Ms. Yates, that it refused to allow Charlie to come home to die, wrapped in the loving arms of his mom and dad.

Bill McGurn wrote a really excellent editorial, For the Love of Charlie Gard, for the Wall Street Journal. It is hidden behind the WSJ's paywall but if you click through from his Facebook post then the whole article may be read.

Worth a Thousand Words: Evening on the Meadow

Evening on the Meadow, taken by Remo Savisaar

Worth a Thousand Words: Drawing for Alfred Gilbert's project for the tomb of the Duke of Clarence

Arthur Robertson,
Drawing for Alfred Gilbert's project for the tomb of the Duke of Clarence
via Lines and Colors

Lagniappe: Dating girls in Thrall to Creatures from the Void

"Something's been calling her," he said. "In dreams. Someone that wants to be let out. I'm afraid she's going to get hurt."

"She's not worth it," said Gaspode. "Messin' around with girls who're in thrall to Creatures from the Void never works out, take my word for it. You'd never know what you were going to wake up to.

Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

Lagniappe: Warning Shot

“Were you proposing to shoot these people in cold blood, sergeant?"

"Nossir. Just a warning shot inna head, sir.”

Terry Pratchett, Jingo

Worth a Thousand Words: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood

Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood, John Singer Sargent

Worth a Thousand Words: Yellowstone Park

Yellowstone Park, taken by Colorado Nature Photography

Well Said: The "Prince of this World" is a great P.R. man, a great master of the media

It is not brains or intelligence that is needed to cope with the problems with Plato and Aristotle and all of their successors to the present have failed to confront. What is needed is a readiness to undervalue the world altogether. This is only possible for a Christian... All technologies and all cultures, ancient and modern, are part of our immediate expanse. There is hope in this diversity since it creates vast new possibilities of detachment and amusement at human gullibility and self-deception. There is no harm in reminding ourselves from time to time that the "Prince of this World" is a great P.R. man, a great salesman of new hardware and software, a great electric engineer, and a great master of the media. It is his master stroke to be not only environmental but invisible for the environmental is invincibly persuasive when ignored.

Marshall McLuhan, The Medium and the Light

Tomato-Basil Soup

This has become a classic soup during my lifetime. I recall when La Madeleine restaurants in Dallas served it to rave comments, sold it bottled at grocery stores, and yet ... I never tried it. And then came Rose, who insisted we try it ... check it out at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

The Hauntingly Beautiful Music of the Trees

Instead of a vinyl disc, Traubeck's record player uses a cross-section of a log or tree trunk, using light to translate the different colors and textures of the tree's rings into musical notes and instruments. Because every tree has its own unique configuration of rings, every tree has its own unique "song."

For details about the technology, read the top comment at YouTube.

Worth a Thousand Words: Inside the Church

Inside the Church, Franklin Booth

Genesis Notes: Rachel's Resume

My favorite story about Rachel is when she hides the household gods that she stole from her father by sitting on them and saying, "It's that time of month!" A plea that any father of teenage daughters has heard many a time to excuse lots of different behavior. It makes that father-daughter dynamic so real to me.

All that aside, it is when Jacob encounters Rachel that he has met his equal (also his true love). Rachel is strong-willed, determined, and not above bending the rules to get what she wants.  I always felt so sorry for poor Leah.

The resume digs deeper into Rachel as a person.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Rachel sitting on the idols

Jacob's love for Rachel was both patient and practical. Jacob had the patience to wait seven years for her, but he kept busy in the meantime. his commitment to Rachel kindled a strong loyalty within her. In fact, her loyalty to Jacob got out of hand and became self-destructive. She was frustrated by her barrenness and desperate to compete with her sister for Jacob's attention. She was trying to gain from Jacob what he had already given: devoted love.

Strengths and accomplishments:

• She showed great loyalty to her family
• She mothered Joseph and Benjamin after being barren for many years

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• Her envy and competitiveness marred her relationship with her sister, Leah
• She was capable of dishonesty when she took her loyalty too far
• She failed to recognize that Jacob's devotion was not dependent on her ability to have children
  

Lessons from her life:

• Loyalty must be controlled by what is true and right
• Love is accepted, not earned

Vital statistics:

• Where: Haran
• Occupation: Shepherdess, housewife
• Relatives: Father - Laban. Aunt - Rebekah. Sister - Leah. Husband - Jacob. Sons - Joseph and Benjamin.

Key verse:
"So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her" (Genesis 29:20)

Rachel's story is told in Genesis 29 - 35:20. She also is mentioned in Ruth 4:11.

All material quoted is from the Life Application Study Bible. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Future

The Future, by Chris Turnham

Well Said: The Church is a Superhuman Institution

I never came into the church as a person who was being taught. I came in on my knees. That is the only way in. When people start praying they need truths; that’s all. You don’t come into the Church by ideas and concepts, and you cannot leave by mere disagreement. It has to be a loss of faith, a loss of participation. You can tell when people leave the Church: they have quit praying.

Actively relating to the Church's prayer and sacraments is not done through ideas. Any Catholic today who has an intellectual disagreement with the Church has an illusion. You cannot have an intellectual disagreement with the Church: that's meaningless. The Church is not an intellectual institution. It is a superhuman institution.”

Marshall McLuhan, The Medium and the Light

Worth a Thousand Words: Golden Winged

Golden Winged, taken by Remo Savisaar