Stroudsburg, Pa. or Norman Rockwell's Imagination?

It is a gorgeous Fall morning, here in Pa.! The sun is shining, the air is crisp. The colors are magnificent. It is, for this small moment in time, the stuff of great artists, and poets, and memories. As I sit here at my desk, the sun is streaming in through the window, warm on my body. My birds are behind me making all their morning noises. My coffee is still steaming. I can hear small school children walking down the street, shuffling their feet in the crispy, fallen leaves, voices and laughter part of their sounds. And I am thinking about my new friend, far away, that I want to share this moment with. I want to freeze it in time.
We have a beautiful old, brick, elementary school a half block down the street. In good weather the kindergarten and first grade teachers often take their children for walks in the mornings. And it is always a treat to watch them. I love the little ones. At a distance! When someone else is responsible for them! They are always so bright and fresh and full of quick smiles!
Sometimes I get so caught up in the daily horrors and pains of life that I forget how truly blessed I am.
I live in a lovely old Victorian neighborhood. Full of beautiful old homes and wide, tree lined streets. We have almost no crime in this neighborhood. People take pride in their yards, and many are beautifully landscaped. It is a family neighborhood with lots and lots of children. The speed limit on our streets is 15 miles per hour and most folks actually respect that. All of the streets in this neighborhood are named after the children of our town's founder. We have Sarah and Thomas, Scott and Ann, Monroe and Fulmer. It is a constant reminder, at least for some, that this is a family town. A family place. Many of the homes were built a hundred to two hundred years ago. And they were big houses for that day. Houses for big families! My house was built in the late 1800's!
A few blocks away is Main St.. Main St. is alive and vibrant. Not the desolate, declining Main St. of all the news stories from across America. We have local shops, owned and operated by local folks, that thrive. There are always people in and out of the shops. Cars parked and sounds and smells coming from the doors. We have old fashioned side-walk sales all summer long. There are restaurants and small shops, side by side. It really is very, very nice! People recognize one another on the street, nodding, and saying hello, as each makes their way along their routes. The local police walk the sidewalks. The mailman knows everyone. Often someone's dog is tied to a parking meter or light post while their owner shops, or does an errand. It really is like something off the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. It is Norman Rockwell, circa 2008.
Between Main St. and my neighborhood, lies Courthouse Circle. Our courthouse is an huge old, natural sandstone, building, with a big tower and large, stately stairs leading to the front doors. In front, separated by a narrow street, is a circle with a "doughboy" statute and an old, WWI cannon, and flower beds and benches for lunch time sitting, or for strollers to stop for a rest.All around the circle are old brick and clapboard row houses. All in beautifully restored condition. These old buildings house lawyers and small shops like jewelers, and tailors, and land offices. It is very pretty. And in front of the buildings are flowering trees. The spring, when they are in bloom, is gorgeous! In the winter, when the trees are bare, small lights are strung in the trees, giving them a twinkling quality as soon as the sun sets.
Year round, on the first Saturday of each month, we have an "artist's walk" in the evening. All of the shops stay opened, late. Local artists display their works in the different businesses. Often business owners will offer refreshments. In the warm months, musicians are playing on the street. There are often kiosks at the Courthouse circle with vendors of all sorts. And everywhere there are people strolling. The downtown theater often has open doors with some special short performance being offered several times over the evening. the restaurants have outside tables. It is very, very nice!

So...the pictures here I took about an hour ago....

I want to share my town with you. I want it to be real....

This is the front of my house. Next is looking East from my house, then the house two west from me.


This is the house three west of me and one looking from across the street going west.

If you notice, the old maple tree in front of my house is so much greener than all the others???...well, methinks it has broken into the old, iron sewer line coming out of my house....gggrrrrrrrr..........

Here we have Ramsey Elementary, the school a half block from my house. Next is the side street running along the west side of Ramsey, and then my friend Peter's house, kitty-corner from Ramsey.

Here is the house on the other corner from the school and next is the courthouse, three blocks south from my front porch. If you drew a straight line from my porch, you would hit the back door of the courthouse.

Following are a few more images of the courthouse and the circle in front of it....

All old buildings, housing lawyers and small businesses......

Now some images from Main St. Because I'm taking these pictures on a weekday morning, you won't see all the foot traffic, but by mid-day, it's bustling.....

And now, last, but not least...two pictures of McMichaels Creek, just one block south of Main St. and a picture of the Anne St. Train Station....

I hope you like the pictures. They don't begin to do justice to what a really pretty town Stroudsburg is...

On Acting In A "Christ-like" Way......and the FLDS

Whether one considers oneself Christian or not, there is no disputing the fact that Jesus Christ was a pretty decent person. A caring, thoughtful, giving, compassionate man. So modeling one's behavior after this man, whether you believe in his divinity or not, is something that is apt to serve you well.

If you read various "Christian" dogma and doctrine, it usually sounds 'okay'. The usual stuff about kindness and giving and loving and so on.....sprinkled with all the 'shalls and shall nots' and a healthy sprinkling of fear....
But all in all, the writings of most "Christian" sects would lead one to believe that those that ascribe to these beliefs are a pretty decent lot of folks....

Not......

Too often I find folks that call themselves "Christians" to be terribly hypocritical. They quickly tell you what denomination they follow. Many quickly tell you all the ways you are going to hell or suffer damnation if you don't also begin to follow their denomination. almost across the board they tell you how to live your life. And what to believe.
This is especially true of those that claim to be 'evangelical'....holy jamoly are they fast to tell you that the state has no place in dictating religion, or interfering in religion!!!
On the other hand, these are the same folks who want to "bring God back into the schools..", "bring God into the courtrooms..."
teach our children in public schools...state funded, PUBLIC schools, that specific lifestyles are bad...particularly homosexuality. They want to teach creationism in science class...as a viable alternative to evolution....a set of religious beliefs...undisputably their beliefs about 'creationism' come from their belief in the bible...a religious document, or collection of documents....
They are fighting to maintain the current definition of marriage, in most places, by religious standards...i.e. one man, one woman.
There are those who object to Martin Luther King Day being recognized as a school holiday, but cry bloody murder when Spring break doesn't fall over Easter Week.....
They rail against feminists. Completely ignoring the fact that it is the feminists who are fighting to assure that "choice", including the choice to be a stay-at-home-mom is a valid and viable one for women to make...and that whatever choice a woman makes, it is deserving of the same respect and compensation and validation as those choices men have always had the right to make.....

And, worst of all, these so called "christians" both approve of, and often participate in, behaviors that deliberately hurt other human beings.....because they have judged them......somewhere along the way they missed the phrase "Judge not, lest ye be judged..."

Fact is, I had become pretty anti-christian because of these behaviors, until recently......
Well, actually, I have always been very, very 'pro christian' if you're talking about those folks who truly try to emmulate Jesus Christ's behaviors and demeanor....I had just become anti-assholes...most of whom I met called themselves "Christians".

Then the debacle in Texas started to unfold. The women and children were taken and Voila'!!!!, the FLDS were in the headlines.....Now I already knew a bit about their faith...but I knew nothing, except what folks like Flora Jessop or Carolyn Jessop said on television, about the people, themselves.....so I was willing to lump them into the pile with the rest of the "christians" I knew...or most of them, anyway....(I do know a few folks who truly do take emmulating Jesus seriously, and are really good folks.)
Be that as it may, I was horrifed at the abject trampling of the constitution...the clear and resounding bias and bigotry being displayed....the magnitude of the state's incursion into their lives...the damage the state was doing to the women and children it had taken into custody...I was simply horrified!!!!! So I knew I had to speak out...I assumed I would be just one voice amongst many that were crying out.....

Wrong....

I ran into a host of my "christian" friends...all telling me what a great thing the State of Texas had done...how "those people" deserved this, and worse...and just watch...they were gonna get what was coming to them...those freaks...those pedophiles...those weirdos in their funny clothes and hairdos....just you watch!!!!
Well, if I had misgivings at all, they dried up in a heartbeat!
So I started reading and blogging...
I found that Brooke Adams, from the Salt Lke Tribune, had about the fairest blog I could find. She seemed to go out of her way to present a balanced view. And she never inserted her own opinioninto her blogs...she just wrote stories...
So I started being a 'regular' on Brooke's blog...and, unbeknownst to me, so were a number of the FLDS community....if not posting, then following.....
And awhile into this mess, a couple of the FLDS started talking to me...and one or two emailed me....
And I started asking questions and learning not just about their doctrine, but about them as a people. And amazingly, I have found them to be amongst the most Christ-like of people I have ever come across.
They have a set of beliefs, yes. I have yet to find any one of them saying anyone else has to believe what they do. They are across the board respectful in how they speak and interact with others. They are accepting of the goodness of others, whether others ascribe to their beliefs, or not. Their doctrine also accepts and expects that people of all faiths and callings will be a part of heaven and the hereafter....
They turn the other cheek, they forgive, even the most egregious of wrongs....
I have made friends in the FLDS community who know full well I do not share their religious beliefs, but they take me at my word and like me for who I am, and ask nothing more than the same from me....
They work hard at following the United Order....they work hard at not falling prey to the vagaries of greed and envy and petty jealousies....
I don't know if they have a word for them, but I know them as 'mitzvahs'...doing good things for others, freely, often unheralded, just because it is the right thing to do...they work hard to make others feel good, to be happy, to have joy...to see the cup half full....FLDS members make 'mitzvahs' all of the time....
I have an FLDS friend who sends me 'smiles'...I know it sounds silly....but who knows, maybe they are divinely inspired, because they seem to come just at the point when I am most fed up with the ugly vagaries of the human condition.....

So this is long....and probably to most, quite boring...but I needed to 'say it'...to put my instincts in order...to give words to intuition....
To help me continue...to remind myself of why I fight....
And to honor a group of people I feel so very priveledged to have met...and to especially honor my new friends, for whom it took real courage to extend that first email, that first smile....

I am so angry and fed up with the ugliness that abounds...I am so grateful I have found some balance.....

Morrie's Iron Pot, Pot-Roast

Best darn pot-roast ever!!!!!!!

Morrie's iron pot, pot-roast;

Ingredients;
Large boneless chuck roast...4-5 lbs.
large green bell pepper, chopped in one inch pieces
one large or two medium onions chopped in big pieces...one inch
3-4 stalks of celery, including leaves, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 fifteen ounce can of diced tomatoes
about 2 ounces worsteshire sauce
3-4 tablespoons of chopped garlic
3-4 cracked bay leaves
salt and pepper
6 medium all purpose potatoes, cut in half
1 lb. of 'baby' carrots
several small, peeled onions, if desired

Dust the roast in flour and brown in oil on all sides
pour off the oil and add the canned tomatoes and all the chopped veggies and spices
add enough water to cover the meat.
bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer
Cook on simmer for four to five hours...until the meat is very soft...
Remove the meat. cover on a platter
add more water if necessary. add the small onions. cook for about fifteen minutes.
add the carrots
cook about ten minutes
add potatoes and cook until tender
remove large vegetables...
thicken water with a flour roux...
put meat back into simmering gravy for a few minutes to reheat..
place meat and veggies on a platter to serve...cut meat in chunks
place gravy with all the veggie bits in a bowl with ladle and enjoy!

I suppose you could cook this in any old big pot, but Morrie always used a cast iron dutch oven so that is what I use.
(I have my grandmother's cast iron pots and they are THE BEST!)

This works well with stew meat, also. Just reduce the time you cook the meat.

My father died a very rich, miserable man. This is the only thing of value I ever got from him.
The man was really pretty awful. But boy oh boy, could he cook!

God, Can't We Slow This Show Down A Bit?

I've intended to blog so many times....

Intended, of course, being the key word here. Life just gets in the way. Just when you think there might be five minutes to breathe, something new comes up, demanding one's attention.

So this is going to be a quick update...

1. The porch is 'almost' completed...still have to do the ceiling...and then plant the front yard over...grass...flowers, etc...

This isn't the best picture....probably because I haven't yet taken 'the best' picture...sorry. But at least there is a new deck, new posts and rails, it's painted...and you can't see, but there is a new roof on it...ah..this is good!

2. The fish...oh what a mess....we have another koi that is probably going to die today or tomorrow. We did, however, finally discover what was/is killing them. We have a case of "hole in side" disease. Honestly! That is the name of it. And it is awful. Apparently it is a direct translation from the Japanese....

Our vet gave us a prescription of strong antibiotics to use, but for this last fish, it was too late. Hopefully, however, it has imunized the others....we also treated the water, again, this time with an antiparasitic. Hole in the side disease apparently often starts with a microbe and invades susceptible fish...

Right now, anyway, all the rest look healthy. And it is time for their systems to slow down for winter...so keep your fingers crossed for us. We have switched them to a wheatgerm based food for winter. That's what we used to introduce the antibiotics with.

Funny story about that...in order to get the antibiotic powder to stick to the food, you have to mix it with grain alcohol. You shake the powder and food till it is mixed and then sprinkle on about an ounce of grain alcohol and shake it all up. You leave it open for the alcohol to evaporate for 24 hours and then use it as you would regular feed. Well, the alcohol mostly dries...*smile*...but not completely...I can smell it when I open the jar it is in...and the fish love it!!!!...Ohmygod! If you could see them come to the top and scarf this 'new' food down...it is hysterical....so we have a pond full of drunks...

On the up side, when I was putting plants back in the pond after the last treatment, I found several small fish in the wading pool we had the plants in. I rescued them and have them in a tank inside. We have no idea what kind of fish they are. Very strange looking. Actually, three are plain silver looking and are probably comets. The others are really odd. Mixed colors and black, black eyes. I read somewhere that Sarasas start out with black eyes so these may be Sarasa/Koi mixes....or Sarasa/Shebunkin mixes...either way, they are strange....

3. Josh....

What can I say...he's still in love...he's been going down to Florida every other weekend, lately....

Although he now tells me he is going down there for Thanksgiving. i may have to kill him. I'll just prop his dead body up at our Thanksgiving table! This better be seious if I am expected to give up one of my children for a family holiday! He'll be home this weekend so I plan to grill him...which is apt to do no good. I grill...they clamp up....You'd think I'd learn, no?....oh well....

4. Me..

I'm still struggling, everyday...

The more I learn about the FLDS, the more sure I am that hey have been seriously persecuted and targeted by law enforcment and others.

The more sure I am that mass media feeds this ugly, wrong picture of them....

And the more sure I am that we each have an obligation to speak out when we see wrongs...no matter the personal cost. No matter how great we may think our personal cost is, it is nothing compared to the cost we all pay when we leave wrongs unchecked.....

I'll try to write more, soon...there are so many topics I would like to explore....

For now...this'll have to do....