A Couple of Books

After finishing Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard I started back in to The Way of Ignorance by Wendell Berry. Haven't finished Ignorance yet, but I have been struck by how the two books dovetail in many ways.

Chouinard told tales of how he climbed and created a business, but he hammered away most about the responsibility we have to the world we live in, both individually and corporately. He gave details how Patagonia has been shaped as a company to minimize its footprint and damage to the world. He admits there is damage, but effort must be made to have as little impact as possible.

This is one of the first Berry books I have read and it is a collection of essays and talks he has given. The theme of localism comes through loud and clear, but the idea is localism builds whereas the opposite, globalism, has no one being responsible for what happens. Soil and water and people are materials to be used, not built. The end result is we all die somewhere in the future.

As Chouinard says, "The problem is like [environmentalist] David Brower said, there’s no business to be done on a dead planet."

Thankful For. . .

God
Family, wherever they are.
Food and the wonderful person that prepares it most days
The wonderful people that eat what I prepare as I am trying to become a better cook
The jobs I have
The house I get to inhabit
The mess that is shrinking  around the house
Another day to get better and to serve God

What a Difference Two Years Make

Two years minus one day ago that was me. What you can't see under the blankets is the five drain tubes and the electrode snaking to my heart. You can't see Dr. Woo and his team, as well as the rehab staff at Stanford Medical and the work they did getting my plumbing back in working order and tightened it down to near specs, then sending me home.

I thank God for putting together Dr. Woo with Dr. Gupta. It was no coincidence that Dr. Woo was driving through the valley and decided to stop in Visalia to introduce himself to Dr. Gupta.

What you can see is a frail man with a journey to healing before him and the hand of the wonderful person that will help and comfort him on that path. This was not the first time, nor will be the last, but I will be always thankful that God put this woman in my life.

Another Trip North

You can sure tell we're not in the Central Valley. The sky is as blue as my shirt.

You don't pour, you shovel. The mask was so I didn't breathe in Portland cement.

My helpers. Actually Maureen is more than a helper in this enterprise, she is a partner in thought and work.

We went north again mostly to do some more work on the pizza oven. We visited with family and enjoyed our time together. After a few days of rain and drizzle we poured the insulating hearth of vermiculite cement. What a strange mixture that was. 5 parts vermiculite to 1 part Portland cement mixed to the consistency of oatmeal. You don't pour, you shovel. Fortunately only four wheelbarrows worth compared to the 30 bags of redimix. Takes about 3 weeks to cure then on to the bricks for the hearth floor and the tunnel or dome of the oven itself. That will be fun.

The strangest event, or it really should be called a blessing was the journey my eye glasses didn't take. We were in the parking lot of a grocery store in Napa with dogs and food, ready for the last half hour of the trip and I realized I didn't have my glasses. We thought through all the possibilities and figured they fell out of the door pocket at one of the three stops along the way. I don't have spare glasses in the correct prescription and I've worn glasses for many years. I anticipated a weekend of headaches and little reading. When the rain extended out stay, I just figured the glasses were a loss and I'd have to go through the process of getting new ones.

We traveled home and stopped at the first two places, gas and food stops across the street from each other. No glasses. We continued south and the last stop was at a rest stop off of the northbound lanes of the highway. We had to travel to an offramp pass the rest stop and I commented that though I was going to turn around and return I wasn't holding out much hope of finding the glasses.

We pulled into the rest stop and we got the dogs out and they got into a tizzy with some other dogs and that put everyone on edge even more. I located a person that looked like a supervisor and asked if there was a lost and found. She said there was and we could go look. She put her hand into the box and pulled out my glasses case and glasses. I thought I was going to cry. Joy over some glass, plastic and metal.

Then I realized the joy is what one gets in trusting that God is still calling the shots.

Addendum to "Trip North and PorchFest"

This was intended to be a part of the previous post about our trip north to Napa. Some information needed to be kept secret for a while, so this will be an addendum to that post.

Plans changed when we arrived north. Good news was no pruning. Better news we're building a pizza oven. But it is a surprise and you'll be reading this latter when the surprisee is given the news. It is both exciting and scary to be building this oven. The location is in an earthquake zone so to speak and I am overbuilding it because of that. It is also the first oven I've built and want to do it right. Fortunately Tio has a big leftover pile of materials from his farming operation to dig through for the needs of the project.

So far we have the base of cinderblocks and the structural hearth poured.

It should be quite a ride building this. Thanks for the opportunity, Tio.

Quote of the Day

"This world can be a tough address."

Paul David Tripp from New Morning Mercies

Which Comes First: Chicken, Egg? Art, Life?

Maureen and I recently went to the latest Bourne movie. Back to the formulaic action version. Action, fights, car chase with Matt Damon. Early in the movie I started to become uneasy about the actions of a few characters. The government "good" guys  weren't good. In fact they seemed more than ever doing what they wanted to do regardless of the rightness or wrongness. People killed, laws ignored. I wanted to check out and live on a mountain somewhere.

We got home and turned on the Olympics hoping for some  good. Accusations of being pulled over and robbed by police, now are the athletes are accused of fabricating the story. And then the scrolling news message at the bottom of the screen: US State Department spokesman says that the $400 million given to Iran was indeed for the release of American citizens. Two weeks after our president says the two actions are coincidental.

Art imitating life? Life copying art? Who can you trust?

God.