10.29.07 BEAUTIFUL SIGHT

Traveling through the tiny college town of Shepherdstown, West Virginia today we see several of these signs. While in the bookstore I find this reference:

“‘Shalom, Peace, Salaam’ hung in Hali Taylor's mother's kitchen in La Jolla, California for 22 years. Upon her mother's death in 1989, Hali brought the yellowed and brittle peace sign to Shepherdstown where it became very popular during the peace talks of 2000. Her mother had cut out a full page message in the L.A. Times in 1967, after the Six Day War in the Middle East. When the peace talks came to Shepherdstown, Hali, the assistant director of the library, hung the sign in the library window...before long the sign could be seen in every building, window, door, house, business, and even in car windows. That tradition has continued.” Dolly Nasby

10.18.07 LETS FLY!

The popularity of hot air ballooning is growing in our community. It is a magnificent experience and lifts the spirits not only of the passengers but of pedestrians as well. Would that more transportation systems had this magical effect!

10.13.07 FROM THE (HE)ART

Yesterday morning's walk discovered a new street art installation. Someone decided to distribute their favorite music on CDs by hanging them from a tree for passersby. A poster of a painting by Chagall (?) attracted my attention. Another innovative way of using new technologies to make music available to all. And this in the same week that the band Radiohead challenged the conventional music publishing industry by making their latest recording, In Rainbows, available as a digital download from their website asking for customers to just pay what they feel like.

10.08.07 SAVE SACAGAWEA

Columbus Day 2007. Our county claims itself as the birthplace of Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame. We have a statue at the center of town commemorating their journey of "discovery." Hiding behind one of the explorers, almost as the sculptor's afterthought is Sacagawea, the Shoshone Indian woman without whom the Corps of Discovery would have very probably disappeared to violence or starvation. This was the appropriate spot for a vigil today honoring the native american peoples of this country. The "first nations." It is good to see that many in this generation of Americans have set a goal of researching and correcting some of the historical assumptions we have so long taken for granted.

10.06.07 CHALK TALK

And the kids playing at the city market this week had a beautiful chat. The fact that the work of art has remained as long as it has, unfortunately, is witness to another week of drought in this community.