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Page 4 - Friday, March 17, 2023
The Jenkins County Times
thej enkinscountytimes .com
So, do y’all remember me saying that I did not want to get actively involved in another
church for a long while? If I didn’t say it, I thought it. I was just tired y’all. But somehow,
I got volunteered for coffee hour. Now, because we Episcopalians have wine so early in
the morning with our communion, we like to have a little something on our stomachs
beforehand.
I’m lying, I think. But my Baptist friends are probably agreeing with my explanation
right about now. Anyway, there is always that one person who stands back and says, “y’all
please don’t overdo it.” What does that even mean? I want to say to those people, “I’m not
asking you to finance it, so don’t worry about it.” Of course, their explanation is always,
“you make me look bad.” Well, no, sugar, that ain’t got a thing to do with me.
I have learned however to keep my mouth shut. That advice comes from my sweet
neighbor, Mrs. Jean Rountree. But, all of that changed when I also got volunteered for
Altar Guild. Now y’all, in case you didn’t know. Altar Guild is a group that tends the altar.
They setup communion, keep the flowers up, that sort of thing. During the pandemic, I
was on the altar guild that never quit. It was me, and only me. After three years, I excited
ly resigned that position. Three years is enough for anybody. Hint Hint, all you folks who
have been on church committees since 1974! Let the younger folks have a turn. Change is
good!
Altar Guilds across the globe however do not believe in change of any kind. We must use
this wafer, because we always have. Only white flowers at Easter because we always have.
The Gospel book must go here, see, there’s a mark on the linen to remind you. Because,
you guessed it, it always has.
Is the good Lord somehow not going to approve because the gospel book is on the left
side, and not the right, four inches from the outside edge? Why don’t we put the Christ
mas tree in the sanctuary this year? Pastor Brad says, “as long as folks know why they are
celebrating Christmas, who cares about when or where the tree goes up?”
I have a dear friend who will purse her lips like a persimmon every time she sees a
Christmas tree before Christmas Eve. Of course, this same friend can’t understand why
anyone would possibly want to pray outside of the Book of Common Prayer! Y’all, let’s
move aside a little and let them younger folks have a turn. We just might be amazed!
Twenty or so years ago I got on ancestry.com and traced Daddy’s family all the way back
to when a young newly married couple got on a boat to America from Dublin, Ireland. I
told Daddy we should go to Scotland and Ireland. His response? “What the heck for?” I
said Daddy that’s where our people came from. Wouldn’t you want to see it? He looks at
me all crazy and says, “do you know how hard a trip that must have been back then? I feel
certain they wouldn’t give a gray hair on a rat’s hind end if I ever went back. I wouldn’t
cross that dirt road to go to Dublin, Ireland, much less no ocean.”
Mama retired from teaching 20 or so years ago and when she did, she took off to Paris.
I’m sure Daddy was invited. However, in regards to Paris, not only would daddy “not
cross the dirt road to go to no Paris, France" but he also responded emphatically, “you go
have a good time honey but I ain’t lost nothin in no Paris, France!”
Several years back for our 10th anniversary Pete and I decided to take a trip to the British
Virgin Islands. We drove up from Rincon to Waynesboro to leave the children with Mama
and Daddy for the week. Daddy looked at me and said, “honey y’all work so hard and y’all
deserve a nice trip if you want one but I mean to tell you I wouldn’t cross that dirt road to
go where y’all going.”
By Joe Brady, Editor
for
The Times
Just off
the
Paved
Road
Carmen Bennett
Columnist
The Times
“Crossing the dirt road”
Last Christmas I decided that Ali would LOVE tickets to the Garden Lights Holiday
Nights event at the Atlanta Botanical Garden for Christmas, so I got them. Then I thought
I’d ask my mama and Pete’s mama to go too. Then it occurred to me that Daddy might get
his feelings hurt if I didn’t at least ASK him to go. So, I kinda felt him out at breakfast one
morning to see if he might want to go. Wanna take a guess at what he said?
“Honey I wouldn’t cross that dirt road to see nothing in Atlanta, Georgia”.
Profound.
There’s something to be said for loving your side of the dirt road I reckon. The other day
I read an article about how dirt roads are bad for the environment. The author was proba
bly right. I mean out here we change HVAC air filters as often as some people change their
underwear. When it rains, you can’t get to the highway. Daddy has pulled many a sedan
out of its muddy ditches. A dirt road ain’t for the faint of heart.
One hundred years ago 90% of American roads were dirt. Now fewer than 30% remain.
I imagine in 50 years they’ll all be gone. And that’s sad to me because a dirt road helped
raise my children. When I’m old and crotchety like my daddy, and my children drop the
grandkids off so they can go to some fancy place on a paved road, I want to be able to yell
as they leave “I wouldn’t cross that dirt road to go where you are going!” I’ll smile and
think of my daddy, who sure does love life on a dirt road. I’m thankful for he and mama
both who gave my girls not only their love of this dirt road but such a genuinely amazing
reason to cross it a million times.
THE world is filled with Problem...
PEOPLE HURTIN6 OTHER PEOPLE ...PEOPLE
NOT UNOERSTANDINS OTHER PEOPLE...
Ei
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The Tenacity to See the Stars
By Special Contributor
for
The Times
One of the most often used behavioral descriptors today is
attention deficit disorder, which basically means unable to sit
still or focus for longer than a few minutes. All parents know
that ADD worsens when chores or homework are involved.
And if we’re honest with ourselves we all suffer from Attention
Deficit if the task at hand is something we are not interested
in, like say counting the stars in the universe. Most of us
would drift off into somnambulism in less than a few minutes
of staring upward. But fortunately for us, the heavens were
an early fascination for Galileo. He was the Italian engineer,
physicist, and father of observational astronomy. That means a lot of night shifts looking up and
wondering how things work. He lived and worked in the early 1600s, charting the phases of
Venus, the breadth of the Milky Way, Jupiter’s moons and even sunspots. Galileo was wont to
explore new realities based on science. Tne universe held his attention and he worked tirelessly
to understand it, even after he was convicted of heresy during the Inquisition and put under house
arrest for the last 10 years of his life.
Rather than complain about his inability to move about, Galileo turned his attention to what he
could do in the confines of his studio. He expanded his research on the motion of objects and the
strength of materials. If that sounds boring think about this: you can draw a straight line from
Galileo sequestered in his primitive lab to Elon Musk and SpaceX. Galileo stuck with it when
his friends abandoned him, when he was confined to his home, when he was feeling the effects
of age. He was curious and driven. Elon Musk is equally driven and fearless in his exploration.
SpaceX is changing just about everything about space exploration, from reusable rockets to
greater payloads, to radical innovations in spacesuits and parachutes. Musk has a vision of what
space holds for the future, and he is sticking to it no matter the obstacles.
Max is a different kind of explorer. He’s 6-years-old. His bedroom is littered with battery-
powered contraptions that light up, move, rattle, and roll. His first-grade teacher says Max has
a hard time paying attention in class, yet Max will work for hours to figure out the electrical
circuit between a battery, a motor, and a propeller. He’s also building his own telescope. “I want
to see what Jupiter’s rings are really made of,” he says. Perhaps if Galileo were in school today
with his curious nature, he would likewise be a little restless. Curious minds are always seeking
problems to solve. As we leam to channel our curiosity into actions and finally results, we leam
the power of stick-to-itiveness. Tenacity is the result of a challenge we give ourselves, a bigger
vision to accomplish. Someday Max will make the connection to what he is learning in school to
what he is building in his room, the same way Galileo saw the importance of his research while
confined to his house.
So maybe the next time we feel bored with a task or chore we need to look up at the stars.. .and
challenge ourselves to reach for them.
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