A Cemetery in the Mountains

Last weekend I visited my parents in Lynchburg, Virginia, and this was only the second time I’d been there since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Having nowhere I needed to be in no specific hurry, on Friday I took a scenic route down through the Shenandoah Valley to Natural Bridge, then across Virginia Route 130 backContinue reading “A Cemetery in the Mountains”

Exploring Cemeteries in Lancaster County

Yesterday afternoon, since it was sunny and nice, I decided to go for a drive into Lancaster County and check out a cemetery. My great-great-great-grandparents are buried at the Millersville Mennonite Church, about twenty-five miles away, which is closer than Diamond’s offices, but I’ve never gone to look for myself. The reason? Lancaster isn’t farContinue reading “Exploring Cemeteries in Lancaster County”

The Symbolism of Old Flags

My next-door neighbor has affixed a Gadsden Flag to his minivan. It could be worse, I suppose. Ten years ago I’d have looked at the Gadsden Flag or the Pine Tree Flag (a white flag with a pine tree and the words “An Appeal to Heaven”) and thought the person was a history junkie. TodayContinue reading “The Symbolism of Old Flags”

On the Revolutionary Time Lord

Today was Inauguration Day. Barack Obama, whose second term as President began yesterday, was administered a ceremonial oath of office this afternoon for a public inauguration ceremony. Obama’s inaugural speech was strongly progressive in its outlook, but some of the speech’s invocations of god irked me. I tweeted my irksomeness, and Stuart Ian Burns repliedContinue reading “On the Revolutionary Time Lord”