Buddy

Three years ago, a great man died. His name was Henry “Buddy” Arnold.

Buddy was the song leader at Otter Creek for 35 years and especially for me, the formative years of my faith. He was a veteran of World War II, one who parachuted into the Philippines and was married to Bernie Wyckoff. He had 4 children, 3 sons and a daughter. He taught at Lipscomb University in the theater department as well.

What strikes me about that listing of his life is that even though it reveals a great deal about him, it doesn’t tell you much about the man. Buddy loved life. He was a man with a generous heart and a kind spirit. He was a touchstone for my life at Otter Creek and one of the big reasons that I came back to that church. He always had time to hug me (even at 22) and always asked about my family who didn’t go there anymore.

When I was baptized at 13, it was touch and go as to whether my dad would be there to do it. So I asked Buddy to step in if Dad couldn’t be there. Dad made it, but I would have been honored to have him do it.

And 9 years ago, when Sheryl and I got married, there was only ever one person I wanted to officiate. And he did. And now I can look back on those pictures and remember the dinners we had at his house with Bernie to talk through the ceremony.

There are so many other stories about him. Him teaching Otter Creek the “Hallelujah Chorus.” One time when he was asked how he felt about new worship styles, he said, “My time is over. It’s time for a new generation to step up.” The grace with which he handled tough situations (as worship items usually are in Churches of Christ).

Buddy was a servant of Jesus. He was a man that exuded grace and love and a sincere heart to worship God.

I was so happy that Buddy got to see Kinsey and know her before his death. I’m sorry that she’s not going to be able to know him, although I know that there will be someone in her life that plays the same role.

I hope it’s me.

Well, not much to blog about right now. Things at work are pretty crazy and I haven't had time to do much thinking or pondering so today will be a mish mash of things I think are interesting.

I watched Hit Me Baby One More Time on NBC last night and enjoyed it way more that I should have. I even liked hearing Vanilla Ice do Ice Ice Baby again. The best version of that song I've ever heard was a mix of it and Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen (from which VI stole the beat). However, last night, the Knack's cover of the Jet tune was really good and I kind of think they were robbed.

You should really read Mike Cope's Blog from yesterday. Well worth the time and the thinking that it provokes.

You should also read Preston's Blog from yesterday. It puts Jesus into a great context and how we would think of him today.

Finally, I'm going to admit my vice to all of you. Well, okay, one of them. I like to listen to conservative Church of Christ lectureships. Yes, it's a personality flaw. But the truth is that at the church I grew up in (Otter Creek, where I currently attend) I was never exposed to this kind of teaching, so this is really a window into my religious heritage.

I say that to say this. A certain lectureship starts on Sunday that I almost wish I was attending. It is the Bellview Church of Christ Lectureship in Pensacola, Florida and the title of the lectureship is "The Blight of Liberalism." Not liberalism like Democrats or something. No, liberalism like the church I attend, or Highland in Abilene.

I know I shouldn't listen, but this is going to be such a train wreck I don't think I can turn away, particularly with lecture titles like: Stemming the Tide of Liberalism, “Moderates” Pave the Way for Liberalism, and The State of the Church Today.

Have a good one.

Something Bigger Than Ourselves

I don't know what got me thinking about this. It could have been this interview with Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics. In it, Wallis talked about some of the work he did in the 1970's during the Civil Rights movement. I started thinking about why white people joined the struggle at that time (and, btw, race is an issue I want to get into at some point). Was it to fight an injustice? Was it to help a friend? Something else? And obviously, this isn't an either/or question. There could have been many reasons.

However, one reason that hit me was the idea of being a part of something bigger than themselves. They didn't see themselves as one person or one small group fighting. They saw themselves as a part of a whole, a whole that they knew had the same goals they did. A whole they knew would support them in their defeats and would celebrate the victories. It was a sense of a larger community.

This is one of the big reasons that the Kingdom of God/Heaven concept has really started to appeal to me in ways that it never has before in my life. When Jesus talks about the Kingdom, he's not talking in a limited sense. He's talking big picture; he's talking about God's plan for this world. And as a follower of his, Jesus is saying, "Come on. There's something bigger going on here; there's more to what you're saying than what you think. You can be a part of that. You can help bring God's justice and mercy and grace and love into this world. You can be a part of a group of millions that are trying to do this." Or as a buddy of mine put it, we're trying to turn the world right side up.

It's one of those things of wonder I talked about last week. That as his follower, I'm partnering with Jesus and millions of others, past, present, and future, in bringing about the Kingdom. I'm a part of that.

Today, I'm participating in Impact Day with my employer. I'm working with an AIDS victim support services group called Nashville CARES. I did something similar last year with this same group and was exposed to people I wouldn't normally be around or associate with. Last year, I packed food. This year, I think we're going to AIDS victims' houses to do work around them.

I don't say this to say, "Hey look how spiritual and loving I am." I say it to ask for prayers. I firmly believe that God loves people with AIDS, no matter how they got it. I firmly believe that helping these people is a means of increasing the Kingdom and of exposing them to the love of God.

Pray for my attitude. Pray for my heart to not prejudge people. God is there among them. Pray for them.

One final thing: Check out Preston's Blog, also linked on the right. He's been a good friend over the last few years and has been a companion on this spiritual journey. He has some good things to say.

I Wonder

On last week's blog, Tiffany posted about the seeming loss of mystery within legalism. She said it so well that I want to quote it here:

I think one of the most tragic aspects of our legalism is the loss of mystery. We seem to want to learn enough so that we can explain God. How dare we try to claim that we can ever fully understand Him? When we lose our sense of His mystery, He becomes nothing more than a scientifically explainable phenomenon, something we can comprehend and therefore control. Or at least we fool ourselves into thinking so.

I think she has hit something on the head. As a part of my heritage in an Enlightenment-born faith, one of the great pursuits has been for knowledge. We have tried to figured out all of the aspects of religion and to put it into a nice little box, whether it's the Trinity or grace or any of the great mysteries of faith.

One of the things that I'm figuring out as I go through life is that God is so much bigger than I ever imagined. It's like my parents getting smarter the older I get. There is a mystery to God that if I try to figure it out, there's something deeply profound lost there. Mystery is a fact of faith. Without mystery, there is almost no faith. It's only knowledge.

And the truth of the matter is, as much as I'm starting to recognize that God is bigger and more mysterious than I have imagined, so is the Gospel. The Gospel is the love of God that fills me with wonder and calls me to action. It reminds me of something that I heard Todd Hunter say once. When we have reduced the Gospel to a bumper sticker, we have lost the mystery. And the implications of that statement are profound.

It means that the Gospel is not spread in drive-by evangelism. Bringing someone to church as the primary means of "conversion" is not something that holds value. If the Gospel is more than a bumper sticker, or 5 steps, or getting every jot and tittle right, then what is it?

It's relationship. It's loving someone no matter his or her condition, spiritual, physical, or whatever. It's being willing to sacrifice ourselves at the altar of others' needs. It's showing the love of Christ in our words and our actions.

But it takes us as believers to recognize the wonder of the mystery of God. If we lose that wonder, how can we pass it on? If our faith is reduced to knowledge or mentally assenting to a predetermined set of issues, where is the wonder? That child-like awe that comes from recognizing that there is mystery, that there is more than we know, and more than we could ever know.

The Poetry of the Trinity

The post today is an altered version of a talk I gave at Otter Creek's contemplative service on Wednesday night. Judy Thomas told me I had to post it, and well, I always listen to my blogmom.

The Scriptures I refer to are Exodus 3:1-6, Romans 8:12-17, and John 3:1-16 That'll help with some of the context.

The Scriptures above are all ones intended to cast our minds toward the Trinity, as this coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday according to the High Church Calendar.

Because of this, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Trinity and how it seems to work both in our theology and our practice. Ever since the doctrine of the Trinity was officially recognized in 381 by the Council of Constantinople, I think that Christianity has looked at it as the final call on the matter, which I believe it is. Although historically some churches, including some churches of Christ, have not deemed it so. For instance, the song Holy, Holy, Holy has had lyrics changed in some of our hymnals from to "God over all, and blest eternally" from "God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity," which is especially peculiar considering that Holy, Holy, Holy was written specifically for Trinity Sunday, but…

What I would like to bring up is how we think about the Trinity. As I stated before, I think that we’ve thought about the Trinity as the final answer on the nature of God. He exists simultaneously as the overall Creator God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit of God, the Comforter who remains with us in this time before eternity. I had the book 3 in 1 as a kid, that used an apple with the peel, the meat, and the core to illustrate the Trinity. Good as far as it goes, but even comparisons like that can break down.

However, this can sometimes be a very cold way to think about God. We split him up into pieces and parts and relegate each part with a function and everything fits into its nice and neat section. But honestly, I don’t think the Trinity works that way. I think the Trinity works like poetry.

Have any of you ever wondered why there is so much poetry in Scripture? I don’t know this for sure, but I would imagine that anywhere from 30 to 40% of the Bible is poetry, mainly in sections that we skip over like the prophets and the longer Psalms, but if we think about it, poetry must have some meaning for it to be so prominent in our Scripture.

In a section of his book, Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller talks about the use of poetry in Scripture. One of his assertions is that poetry allows God through the writers to express ideas and feelings and emotions that cannot be expressed any other way. He says:

I began to wonder if the ancient Hebrews would have understood this intrinsically, if they would have sat around watching plays and reading poems knowing this is where real truth lies, and if our age, affected by the Renaissance and later by the Industrial Revolution, by Darwin and the worship of science, hasn't lost a certain understanding of truth that was more whole. If you have a girlfriend and you list some specifics about her on a piece of paper—her eye color, her hair color, how tall she is—and then give her this list over a candlelight dinner, I doubt it will make her swoon. But if you quote these ideas to her in a poem:

She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes …

… she is more likely to understand the meaning, the value inferred by your taking notice of her features. The same ideas, expressed in poetry, contain a completely different meaning. She would understand you were captivated by a certain mystery in her aspect, in her eyes and her stride and the features perfectly met upon her face. And while our earlier conceived list of features might have been accurate, it certainly wouldn't have been meaningful.

It makes you wonder if guys like John the Evangelist and Paul and Moses wouldn't look at our systematic theology charts, our lists and mathematical formulas, and scratch their heads to say, Well, it's technically true; it just isn't meaningful.

I think so many parts of our life work like this, and if we open ourselves to the poetry of life, we open ourselves to meaning and the joy and sadness and anger and energy that comes from all of that. Poetry is hard to understand. It takes thinking and considering and pondering. Many things that are not currently commodities we take the time for. That’s one of the reasons I love the music of Rich Mullins. He was someone in our time that I think could capture a bit of God with the lyrics and music that he made. Listen to the lyrics of the songs sometime and try to work in that. (From Sometimes By Step: Sometimes I think of Abraham/ And how one star he saw had been lit for me.... Or from The Color Green: And the moon is a sliver of silver/ Like a shaving that fell from the floor of a carpenter's shop....)

The Trinity is the same way. It’s not intended to be a systematic solution to the issue. It’s poetry. It’s the Father and the Son and the Spirit working together as one God. How? I don’t know, I don’t understand. But it’s not up to me to figure out how it works. It simply is. It’s poetry. It’s Love and that Love drives me to follow the Master and not simply espouse belief in him but do his teachings. It’s also a call to unity. For all of our disparate parts to come together in unity for the passionate pursuit of the Kingdom: Male, female; black, white, and every color in between; free thinking, anal; forceful, kind. For all of those to come together in a mission: the mission of sharing the love of God which is the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Trinity is our model for unity. May we strive to live out that poetry in our own lives.

So I ask you, gentle readers, what is the poetry in your lives? What do you do to try to find poetry in your lives?

Just for info: I got an article published at Allelon. It’s an old blogpost from here, but it’s kind of cool to be published on the same site as Brian McLaren, Dallas Willard, and Adam Ellis. Well, maybe not that last guy.

So.

About two weeks ago, I finished reading Brian McLaren’s conclusion to the New Kind of Christian trilogy, The Last Word and the Word After That (I’d post links, but you can get them from the post previous to this one). It is a book that deconstructs the idea of Heaven and Hell in ways that I’m not entirely comfortable with, yet, and really causes me to question some of the basic fundamentals of the way I approach faith. For instance, if Christianity is NOT all about getting to Heaven at the end of life (whatever Heaven means), but it’s about recruiting participants in the Kingdom of God, have we gone about the whole evangelism thing wrong?

Also, have we made a mistake in overfocusing on Hell? In other words, if we focus on Hell, we’re going to scare people away from it, for certain, but in my experience, people are only going to adhere to Christianity as long as there is a fear of Hell. Once that fear is gone, so is the reason to stick with Christianity.

And what about salvation? Have I misdefined that? And what does Judgement mean? One idea I ran across in the book is that we are saved by grace through faith, but we’ll still be judged by what we do. Honestly, this was a spiritual earthquake to me. My whole adult spiritual life has been struggling against the idea of a works-based theology, but you know, as I read the Gospels, Jesus talks a heck of a lot more about what we do than what we believe. I know I’m saved by the grace of God, but that grace calls me to do something. If I don’t, do I really have faith?

I don’t know quite yet what all of this means theologically. I really don’t, but I do know what it is. I know it’s a call to action. It’s a call to get out of my comfort zone and share the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Without that, I’m a white-washed tomb. Without taking action, what’s the point of having a belief?

England Scotland Travelogue - 2005 Thoughts

So, it's been five years now since the trip to England. Honestly at this point in my life, I can say that it's my third best memory behind my wedding and the birth of Kinsey.

It truly is incredible to think that Sheryl and I walked in places that have been trod for at least 2000 years. The streets of London and seeing the Roman wall. The structures of Dunnottar Castle. Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. We were really honored to be there and it's something that we will never ever forget.

I am really looking forward to going back there with Sheryl and Kinsey in October. One of the regrets of our trip is that we didn't have a chance to really interact with people. We were seeing the sites and visiting places and driving and all of that. We didn't get to talk to people and we're going to get to do that in October. We'll be in someone's house and we'll be talking and working beside people. That's what I'm really looking forward to.

Well, next week, I'm going back to my regular Friday schedule. I've just finished reading Brian McLaren's new book, The Last Word and the Word After That, which is the last book in the New Kind of Christian trilogy. The other book is The Story We Find Ourselves In. Anyway, The Last Word... has been giving me a lot of thoughts on Heaven and Hell and judgement and salvation that I'm going to try to work through here.

Thanks for indulging me on this travelogue. If you're here in Nashville and want to see pictures, we've got plenty of those to show as well.

2005 Thoughts
Post Trip Thoughts
Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
Day Eleven
Day Ten
Day Nine
Day Eight
Day Seven
Day Five
Day Four
Day Three
Day Two
Day One of the trip

England Scotland Travelogue - Post Trip Thoughts

2005 Note: Sheryl and I were so tired when we got back home to Nashville on June 3rd that I didn't write an entry in the travelogue. However, when I initially typed in this journal about 18 months later, I wrote this postlogue. I'll probably post one more time tomorrow on this trip and then get back to my regular Friday schedule.

Well, I intended to write a post-trip reaction about six months after we got back, but life managed to intervene as it always does and I’m only getting to it now. Things have changed for Sheryl and me. I’m no longer teaching, but working as a tech writer, and we now have a beautiful, six-month-old little girl, Kinsey Morgan. But this isn’t about her; it’s about extended reactions to our trip.

Well, I can honestly say that the part we cherish most is the part in Scotland. I think some of that has to do with our fascination with the land. Sheryl and I have joked that if our families didn’t live so close to us, we’d like to live there. What we’ve now decided is that when we get rich, we’ll have a home here in Nashville and one in Edinburgh.

We talk about driving a lot, mainly because it’s so different from here in America. The other joke we make is that if an American marriage can survive driving in Great Britain, it can survive anything. Probably vice versa on the nationalities.

This trip really was a life changer for Sheryl and me. Not in dramatic ways, but in the sense that it gave us a chance to view how others. That was also affected by the September 11 attacks. In watching some of the international coverage, when I saw the Guard at Buckingham played our National Anthem and saw that same song sung in St. Paul’s Cathedral, I felt an even stronger connection with that land.

That’s another one of the aftereffects of this trip. I love seeing places on TV that I’ve been. Seeing Buckingham, St. Paul’s, Parliament, Westminster, Edinburgh Castle, and all of the other places we saw, it just is a cool feeling to look over at Sheryl and say, "We were there." To look on a map and be able to say, "We were there. Our feet walked those streets" is an extraordinary feeling. 2005 Note: As happened in the Amazing Race on May 3rd, when the remaining four contestants took the Heathrow Express to Paddington and Sheryl and I saw the restaurant we ate at before seeing Les Miz.

We definitely want to go back and see some things we didn’t get to see, like Iona, York, and Glastonbury. We also want to spend more time in Scotland, because it was so beautiful there. Sheryl and I have talked about maybe doing a motorcycle tour, not that either of us knows how to ride. Or course with Kinsey now, we really want her to see all of the things that we saw. She will, too, one of these days.

2005 Thoughts
Post Trip Thoughts
Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
Day Eleven
Day Ten
Day Nine
Day Eight
Day Seven
Day Five
Day Four
Day Three
Day Two
Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Thirteen

Friday, 2 June 2000 London

Not a bad day at all. We went to the Globe Theater and got our tickets for the 2 pm Hamlet. We then wandered around and had some lunch. We got back there about 1:15 to stand in line. We talked to a couple of people and then got our "seats" as Groundlings. I say that because as Groundlings, we were on the floor in front of the stage. In fact, it was front row for Hamlet at the Globe theatre in London.

It was great. The acting was strong and you felt like you were there 400 years ago. We stood the whole time except intermission and then we couldn’t stretch out. They obviously cut some scenes out and one that I didn’t understand, like between Hamlet and the Norweigan Captain (Act IV, Scene 4) when Hamlet says that all his thoughts would be bloody. I’ve always considered that the turning point of the play. Anyway, we really enjoyed all three hours.

We then went back to Harrods and got Sheryl a bag and me an England Football cap. Then to Hyde Park to see Speaker’s Corner and then to the Barry. We had dinner at a nice little Italian place up the road from Paddington Station. Finally, home to pack and ready to go to our real home, Nashville.

Before the Globe, we went to Westminster Abbey again to get some shirts for family and on our way back, Westminster Station closed down because of a bomb threat. We didn’t know it at the time, so we weren’t scared, just curious. It turned out to be a false alarm, which was good, but I understand the precautions after the Hammersmith Bridge bomb yesterday.

2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Twelve

Thursday, 1 June 2000 London

Well, we’re back here at Barry House. It’s a different room, bigger which is good, but it’s not great and for what we’re paying, I guess it’s for the location. Neither Sheryl nor I like it much.

Today, we got to Euston Square 45 minutes late and then rolled our luggage from the Square to Euston Station to avoid jumping Tubes. We rode to Paddington and had to go the long way to get here to Barry. Once we got settled, we went to the London Eye Ferris wheel to get tickets for tonight at 9:30, the last time round. We figured it would be dark then and we’d get good pics.

We then went to St. Paul’s Cathedral to tour and we really enjoyed the architecture. Sheryl and I climbed to the 2nd level and then I went on alone to the next 2 outer levels. Not bad, but the Eye ended up being better.

We went back to the Texas Embassy to eat, then journeyed back down to the Imperial War Museum. I wish we’d had more time there, because their WWII section was incredible and amazing. Uniforms, flags, pictures, memorabilia, all sorts of things were in this. Probably the highlights were seeing the actual maps that the Nazis were using to plan their invasion of Britain and this interactive experience that showed what the London Blitz was like. We spent two hours almost there, but then went to Harrods again, got a bear, saw the Diana-Dodi Memorial, big deal.

We came back to Barry and then to the Eye. We saw some great sights from above, hopefully got some great pictures and generally had a good time. We came back to Barry, which made us long for home. Tomorrow the Globe and Hamlet, then Saturday, Home!

2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
Day Eleven
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Day Seven
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Eleven

Wednesday, 31 May 2000 Sleeper train from Inverness to London-Euston Station

You know, I don’t see how anyone who sees the Highlands couldn’t simply fall in love with them.

This morning, we left Bimini about 9:30 after having a great conversation with Collin, the host, and made our way across the country to Inverness. It is really difficult to put into words exactly how beautiful they were. We saw snowcapped mountains, rivers that created valleys, country roads, manor houses, and sometimes all together. It is always gratifying when a trip or better an area exceeds what you expect and Scotland has done that.

We stopped at the site of the Culloden battle field that Sheryl’s read about in the Outlander series. It was interesting to see the clan markers and the main monument, but it started pouring rain after a bit, so we ran back to the car.

We got to Inverness and shopped a bit. Sheryl drove for the first time in town and got to experience the nerve-wracking joy that is. We got turned around a couple of times and finally dropped the car off and walked to the Rail Station.

We stayed in a room for sleeper passengers for a couple of hours reading, met a 4 1/2 year old adorable boy named Oliver from "Hartfordshire in town called Trent" and boarded the train. We also met a family from Wisconsin who were on holiday and had been to Iona, a place we wished we’d been able to go. Oh, well, maybe next time.

Our accommodation makes Barry House look like the Ritz. Barely any room and even less with our luggage. It’s not the Orient Express. That’s for certain. But tomorrow, back to London for three more days.

2005 Thoughts
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Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Ten

Tuesday, 30 May 2000 Aberdeen

Never thought driving could be so stressful. We taxied out to the Edinburgh Airport, a 21-pound job, to ride for more time to get our rental car. It’s an Accord and very nice.

Driving in Britain is very tiring. Obviously you have the left side stuff, but that doesn’t feel too bad, because the driver side on the right. It’s little stuff, like I curbed the left side several times, mainly because I couldn’t see it well. Roundabouts are hard too. You have to look right first, always. You take whatever your first chance is. Also, the rearview mirror is on the left too, which is not instinctual. We only had one really close call, but that was mainly because it is apparently all right to park anywhere on the road in Britain.

At any rate, we left Edinburgh and went to Dundee, where I got an English National Football Team jersey for the best price I’ve seen. I wonder if that’s because it was in Scotland. Heh.

We left Dundee and headed south to St. Andrews, where we picked up some golfing things for family, and a gold Celtic pendant for me, and we had lunch. We then headed north toward Aberdeen and Dunnottar. We hit a couple of rain showers and saw a rainbow over the North Sea. It was brilliant, so we decided to stop and take a picture. We pulled into a parking lot and realized that we were looking at the ruins of Dunnottar and past that the rainbow.

It was amazing. We shot 1 1/2 rolls of film there, the 36 exposure kind. Sheryl was like a kid in a candy shop and I was too. We were running at many places, seeing new things everywhere. It was incredible. Then we got caught in the rain and another rainbow showed up. Amazing.

2005 Note: In reading this again, I realized there's no real context for why we visited Dunnottar. My grandmother on my mom's side is from the Keith Clan, which owned this castle for a long time and so there was a family tie there. Also, Sheryl and I are deeply interested in Scottish history and castles as well, so Dunnottar wrapped all of this up together. Easily one of our favorite things in the whole trip.

We finally headed out and after driving all the way through Aberdeen, because our directions were screwed. We finally got to Bimini House and after eating dinner, crashed here in the room.

2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Nine

Monday, 29 May Edinburgh

What a great day. The best of the trip. We bussed down to the Edinburgh City Centre. Then we walked to the Royal Mile and up to Edinburgh Castle. Amazing. We did the tour and saw some really great stuff, like the room where James VI and I was born. We also saw the Honours of Scotland, the Crown Jewels, and the Stone of Destiny, which was just returned in 1996 after 700 years.

We then headed down the Royal Mile and pretty much went into every tartan shop, looking at a lot of different things. It was really nice and comfortable. Sheryl and I headed down to Holyrood House, Queen Elizabeth’s residence when she’s in Edinburgh. We snapped a couple of shots, then headed up to Arthur’s Seat. It’s a crag about 850 ft. above Edinburgh. We climbed up and got some great views. The wind was blowing and although the climb was difficult, it was more than worth it.

We walked backed down and hit some more stores. We dined of course at a fine restaurant, Pizza Hut. We finally headed back, taking the bus, which didn’t go all the way. So we walked the rest of the way and with our feet expanding from hitting the pavement multitudinous times, we ripped our shoes off in our room and hit the bed.

2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
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Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Eight

Sunday, 28 May 2000 Edinburgh

Not much today. We mainly traveled here to Edinburgh. We went through Manchester, and stopped there for a while. The whole trip took about six hours or so. The train was nice. We had a bit of a conflict between the train door and Sheryl’s suitcase and lost the pull handle to it. The ride was beautiful, though. This north country is extraordinarily gorgeous. The hills became much larger and more rolling. There were sheep and cows and streams and it really was everything I’d imagined.

Edinburgh seems nice. Our B&B, the Ardgarth House, is like being in someone’s home. We walked along the beach of the Firth of Forth. I still don’t know what a Firth is, but I don’t guess it really matters. I’m really looking forward to seeing the city for real.


2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
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Day Seven
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Seven

Saturday, 27 May 2000 Oxford

Forgot to write yesterday because of total exhaustion, so I’ll recap two days.

Friday. Let’s just say it rained. A lot. It basically rained all day. We caught the bus to head downtown and meet the guy who was going to be our guide to Blenheim Palace. Unfortunately he had to have four people to go to make any money and Sheryl and I were the only ones. He did give us solid directions to get there and we followed them, again by bus. We did have to walk the long driveway to the Palace. In the rain.

The Palace was beautiful and huge. It was where Winston Churchill was born unintentionally. There were many huge rooms and tapestries that covered two walls and a library that seemed to stretch on forever. We ended up having lunch there and headed back. In the rain.

We napped at the Dial and then headed out to find the Kilns, C. S. Lewis’ home and Holy Trinity Church where he worshipped. In the rain. We found Kiln Lane and walked up a drive but aren’t sure if we actually saw it, getting soaked the whole time. We did find Holy Trinity and his grave. The church was closed, so we didn’t get to see the Narnia Window, where there are paintings of characters and events from the Chronicles. We saw the back of it, but not the front, but oh well. We would have actually worshipped there Sunday, but our schedule wouldn’t permit it.

2005 note: We did not actually find Lewis' home. His house is on Lewis Close, which we passed, but did not walk up. We ended up walking all the way up Kiln Lane wondering where it was. Oh well, maybe next time.

We headed back in the rain and finally got back to the Dial and collapsed and bathed and warmed up and slept.

Saturday. No rain. We taxied to the rail station and went to Salisbury. We’d decided we really couldn’t get to Avesbury and Glastonbury, so although that was disappointed, we really wanted to see Stonehenge. In Salisbury we hooked up with a Californian named Keith. We ended up staying together most of the day.

We got tangled up some on how to get to Stonehenge and ended up spending a couple of unintentional hours in Salisbury. We finally got out to Stonehenge and it was a neat site. To think of four thousand years of history, even to the fact that we really don’t know exactly what it was built for and the preciseness of it was amazing.

Well, tomorrow we head to Edinburgh by train. I’m not looking forward to the trip as much as I am to being there in Scotland.


2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
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Day Ten
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Day Seven
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Five

Thursday, 25 May 2000 Oxford

A pretty good day today. We left London about 9:30 and reached Oxford about 10:30. We took a taxi to the Dial House and basically collapsed on our bed. We slept for an hour and a half which we really needed.

We headed into the town by bus and basically wandered the rest of the day. We ended up seeing a couple of nice places. Christ Church College was the first. It was huge and very formal. It had a walk thru tour and the whole deal. We then moved down to Magdalen College, pronounced "maudlin." It was where C. S. Lewis taught. It was much less formal and immensely more enjoyable. Sheryl and I would walk down the halls and the Quad and through the paths, as though we were students. It just felt right.

We also saw Blackwell’s Bookstore, which was huge. Four floors, the basement one stretching beneath Trinity College which was next door on the street. Kind of like a super Barnes and Noble. I got a book on Shakespeare and the movies, which I read bits of already. Seems good.

We got back to our room, which is much bigger and nicer than our Barry House room. We had Pizza Hut for dinner and stayed in. We’re shooting for Blenheim Palace tomorrow, then Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avesbury on Saturday, possibly by car.

Uh-oh.


2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
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Day Seven
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Four

Wednesday, 24 May 2000 London

Today Sheryl and I discovered the joys of train travel. We woke up early to catch a 7:55 from Charing Cross and when the train left at 7:48, we knew we were in trouble. Thankfully, we switched to the right train and were on our way.

Trains are a lot more… jouncy than I’d have thought. It was neat to see the English countryside, which actually reminded me a bunch of home, except for the sheep.

Dover was very nice. We walked a lot. We walked up to Dover Castle and got a great view of the town. Then we got a nice surprise, as they had opened up some tunnels which had been used as a hospital and Naval Base of Operations during WWII. Very neat. We got up to Henry II’s Keep and saw some great sights. I wish we’d have been able to stay longer up there; I’d have liked to have done more, but like Sheryl said then, we’re going to see several more castles.

We walked back down and got some nice pictures of the Dover Cliffs, which weren’t as white as some pictures I’ve seen, and headed back to the station. We rode to Canterbury and got to see the Cathedral which in many ways was as amazing as Westminster, although the latter was still more… deep? I don’t know, the sheer amount of history at the Abbey was astounding.

Canterbury was stellar and huge and beautiful. I had to pay two pounds to get to take pictures, but it was worth every pence. I shot a lot of stained glass windows and Henry IV’s grave, as well as Edward the Black Prince’s grave.

Sheryl and I then headed back on the hour and a half journey back, which seemed to take longer. We then vegged for the night, meaning Sheryl slept and wrote postcards, while I watched the UEFA Championship, where Real Madrid beat Valencia 3-0. I wish Manchester United had been in it, but they lost in the Semis. Oh, well.

Tomorrow we move our base to Oxford, Inkling’s country, C. S. Lewis, Tolkein, Charles Williams. I’m looking very much forward to it.

Oh, two surprises I forgot to mention. 1) We saw a Hovercraft land at Dover and 2) we saw an exploded church, almost destroyed, in the Nazi attacks, at Dover. Old St. James. Very sobering.


2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
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Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Three

Tuesday, May 23, 2000 London

Today was another tiring one. We started off toward Hyde’s Park looking for a breakfast place, but never found one and ended up at Burger King, which made us wish we’d picked McDonald’s.

From there, we hit Paddington, then Charing Cross Station to get our tickets for the trips to Dover and Canterbury tomorrow, then Oxford on Thursday. It took awhile, but we finally got it all straight. Then back to Piccadilly for a gift, then to the British Museum.

We got badly turned around and were headed completely the wrong way on Oxford Circus, finally turned back, and eventually ended up at the Museum. It was neat, but there was a lot of construction going on so it wasn’t very nice looking. We saw Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Celtic treasures. Probably the best for me and Sheryl were the Parthenon pieces, an almost completely restored Naiad temple, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Rosetta Stone. There was more, but it got tiring after a while.

We made our way to Harrod’s. Tottenham Court Road Station was closed for some reason, so we walked to Leicester Square, then tubed to Harrod’s. This was amazing; a full London city block devoted to a store! 5 Stories! Unbelievable. I got some cigars and Sheryl wandered. We didn’t get to see the Diana memorial, but that wasn’t too disappointing.

We headed back to Barry, rested, then ate dinner at Aberdeen Steak House. It was good, and then we saw Les Miserables. Beautiful. Outstanding. The first half didn’t do much for me, and I almost fell asleep several times. It wasn’t that it was boring; it had merely been a long day. I got a drink and was much better. Then the relationship between Marius and Eponine came up and her unrequited love, then death to be with him nailed me. I was hooked from then on to the end. We came home, called some family, and retired.

Tomorrow to the White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury. Should be fun.

2005 Thoughts
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Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day Two

Monday, May 22, 2000 London

Another full day today. We got up just in time for our breakfast today and got out on the town. We tubed to St. James Park and walked to Buckingham Palace, which was neat and all, but not too wonderful. We then walked down toward Westminster. On our way, Sheryl had to use a phone and as we looked up, we caught our first glimpse of Big Ben. It was very cool. We then walked to Westminster Abbey, which was amazing.

Westminster has this overwhelming sense of history that covers you. You see the graves of kings and queens and poets and politicians. It is a nearly thousand year old church built be Edward the Confessor. Even words don’t really contain it. Again for history buffs like me and Sheryl, every corner held another amazement.

Once we left, we crossed the Thames and walked down toward Big Ben and Parliament. We got some good video and hopefully some good pics as well. Those places are so big that pictures don’t really give a good sense of their size and stature.

We headed to Trafalgar Square and got some nice shots, then ate at a great restaurant called the Texas Embassy, which sells Tex Mex and was a nice taste of home.

We hit the National Gallery of Art and saw some wonderful paintings: DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Gainesborough, Turner, Van Gogh, Degas, Sweurat, and Manet. However, our favorite was a picture of Westminster Bridge, Big Ben, and Parliament, by Monet, a favorite painter of Sheryl. Neither of us had known he’d painted London so it really pleasantly surprised us. We ended up buying a print for home to go above our bed.

We headed back to Barry and Sheryl slept, while I read the Evening Standard. We then went to Piccadilly Circus to see American Beauty. I really enjoyed it, although Sheryl didn’t seem to like it as much. We hung around Piccadilly for another little bit before heading back.

Tomorrow we have Hyde’s Park, Harrod’s, and the Brit Museum again. We’ll see what we get to.


2005 Thoughts
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Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
Day Eleven
Day Ten
Day Nine
Day Eight
Day Seven
Day Five
Day Four
Day Three
Day Two
Day One of the trip
Intro

England Scotland Travelogue - Day One

Sunday, May 21, 2000 London

This was a long day. It really started yesterday in Nashville on our flight to Toronto which was ok. Our layover in Toronto had good and bad points. Good: It was short. Bad: Pearson is a lousy airport. No gate notices, poorly designed. Lousy. The trip here wasn’t too bad. The flight was full and I honestly slept through most of it. Sheryl wasn’t able to, mainly because she’s such a light sleeper. This of course affected her throughout today.

We arrived in London about 6:30 AM GMT. Customs was no problem and we caught the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, which was great, since our B & B is only three blocks away, within sight of Paddington. No bears around though. We dropped our bags off at Barry House and headed out. We took the Tube out to Piccadilly Circus in search of the Tourist Info Center, but since it was only 8AM, it wasn’t open yet. So we ended up having breakfast at a traditional British restaurant, McDonald’s I think it’s called, and then decided to head to the Tower of London.

The Tower was pretty good. We did an audio tour, which was interesting to both me and Sheryl, but that was mainly because we both like history. It was mainly about prisoners and such. A minor problem perked up when rain started. I was ok, but Sheryl’s anorak wasn’t heavy duty enough for English rain and she got pretty wet.

We toured through the White Tower, seeing a lot of weaponry and an original copy of the Domesday Book. To see a 1000-year-old book was… amazing, even though that word hardly describes it. We saw the Crown Jewels as well, which made me wonder if such opulence is only for us, the paeans, since I would imagine that if someone were around it all the time, it would be old hat (no pun intended).

We left the Tower about 12:30 and had lunch, fish and chips. We decided to forgo the British Museum today, since we were exhausted, go get Sheryl a new jacket and head back to the B&B. We tubed to Piccadilly and wandered around for a bit. We found the TI and got some good info. The woman from Scotland was talky, but helpful. We found a sporting goods place, Lillywhites, and I found a great Manchester United jersey, but didn’t get it, yet. We found Sheryl a new jacket and finally Tubed back to Barry about 4.

Our room is small with a double only and a shower and toilet and desk. It’s functional and faces the street. We can hear a lot.

We slept from 5p to about 10p. We got up and put our stuff away and got organized for tomorrow, which should contain St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey. Of course, today was supposed to contain the British Museum and we didn’t manage to get there, so we’ll see what happens.



2005 Thoughts
Post Trip Thoughts
Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
Day Eleven
Day Ten
Day Nine
Day Eight
Day Seven
Day Five
Day Four
Day Three
Day Two
Day One of the trip
Intro