Category: heart

Hopes and fears

7/4/2018 Monticello Naturalization
For 56 years Monticello has hosted a Naturalization ceremony on the nickel side of the house, July 4. It is July in Virginia, in the direct sun, high humidity. It is a joyous celebration at the complicated man’s house, on the day he died.
new citizen
The Honorable Michael F. Urbanski presided. 70+/- people took the oath, joined the work, new citizens from Afghanistan, Barbados, Bhutan, Burma, Burundi… the list goes on, 35 countries in all. Andrew Tisch, Leslie Bowman and Judge Urbanski spoke. Their words were meaningful, inspiring and portentous. Or maybe it is the mountaintop venue? Like singing in a cathedral where voices reverberate. Monticello is a complicated place to contemplate Liberty, it is the high altar and the thin ice.
Monticello crowd
And so, into the 243rd year.
Monticello 7/4/2018
Tyler Simpson sings the National Anthem, lady on his right signs…

 

Rosni Farm

Rosni Farm wasn’t my first or last job, but of the places I’ve lived/worked, it owns my heart. The pasture, crop and woodland, the herd, the barns, the buildings and the people, were featured in stories from 100+ years. The stories were part and parcel of being there, they were the soul of a place. Stories were told, around a wood stove, under a shade tree, on a hay wagon. They made work easier, they made the world bigger.