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Category: Ideas & Views
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Nancy Gift: “My Dad and David, too”
Nancy Gift is a former Winchester resident and professor of sustainability at Berea College. She is married to Jim Trimble, a mom to Emily and Hazel, and a stepmom to Riley. She’s the author of “A Weed by Any Other Name” and “Good Weed, Bad Weed,” as well as a textbook. Nancy and Jim recently…
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If someone says women were given the vote, just slap ‘em
In a letter dated March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John (who was meeting with the Continental Congress at the time and who would become the second president in 1797) encouraging him on behalf of the women of America. She wrote: “I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And,…
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Into the For Rest, or The Four Hills of Life
The Native American Medicine Wheel, sometimes called the Sacred Hoop, has been used by generations of indigenous First Peoples tribes for health and healing. One meaning reflects the so-called Four Hills of Life. Each hill characterizes a life stage. The hills one climbs along the way are the challenges we face and the responsibilities we must learn to accept. Spring…
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Marine training: Morning routine
LaCoursiere drove a blue two-toned Oldsmobile and on the mornings when he had not been quartered with us overnight in the barracks; a lookout was posted to alert us when he had arrived. Since he was the D.I. most likely to mete out punishment for the most minor offenses, we were always more attuned to…
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Reason to believe: Is Christianity compatible with science?
Mary Lou was old and wise, young at heart and sharp as a tack. She grew up poor in the Appalachian Mountains during the Great Depression, but was well-read and took classes at the University of Kentucky in her eighth decade. Hers was no ordinary life. She lived in Georgia, California and Oregon, and her…
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Chuck has (still more) questions!
More questions. If the dictionary has a word misspelled, how would we know? What good is it to find greener pastures if you’re too old to climb the fence? I’m less than five time older than I was at age 17, so how come it costs twenty-one times more for a haircut? And I have…
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The Big Bang Versus the Big Guy in the Sky
“But you cannot prove that God exists!” he insisted emphatically. Indeed I cannot. I was having a spirited and engaging conversation with my friend Jim, an astronomy expert, math nerd, and avowed agnostic. We were discussing religion and quantum physics. I believe that spirituality and science dovetail beautifully. Jim’s stance holds that religions arose from…
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Dana McCall: “Good old days”
Born and raised in Winchester, Dana McCall is a self-taught artist, writer, and dulcimer player. A member of the Winchester Art Guild, she can be seen playing her dulcimer in front of Arts on Main during the Beer Cheese and Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival, where her art is displayed. Dana was one of our local…
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Marine Training: Settling in to a new home
The barracks for Platoon 195, First Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment was a two-storey wood-framed and wood-clad, H-shaped building located adjacent to a vast bituminous-paved parade field with which we would become intimately familiar. The center portion of the "H" housed the offices for the training staff and, on the back side, the toilets, hereafter to…
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We can’t afford to put this off: The time is now to get moving on the ‘High Side’ project
Nearly a year ago, in May of last year, I attended a public meeting in which Palmer Engineering presented two plans for the rehabilitation of the block of Main Street stretching from Lexington Avenue to Broadway. Although the focus of most folks was on the “high side” of the street, the plans addressed both sides…