Jack Skeleton from Nightmare before Christmas sculpted by Joel from Chocolate ice cream on the Appalachian Trail.
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A Walk in the Woods
I’m re reading Bill Bryson’s book ‘A Walk in the Woods’ – his account of walking the AT (Appalachian Trail). It’s a great laugh out loud read. We walked a bit of the AT today as part of a 6 mile ‘Big Run Loop’ hike. It started out with about 2 miles gently sloping down the hillside. As you know, what goes down, must come up, and so we then had about a mile and a half of fairly steep climb. You then get a feel for what Bill Bryson talks about. After a while, you don’t care about the view, you can’t talk to your comrades on the trail, you just look at the ground to make sure you don’t trip over any roots or rocks.
We did 6 miles today. If I was just starting the AT I would need to walk about another 10 miles today, and I would have another 149 days to go.
We were talking to a guy called Chris the other day who was telling us that he met a girl of about 18 and her 17 yr old friend who were doing the AT – she was doing it for the second time. The first time she did it was 7 years ago – she was 11 and her brother was 8! They were the youngest girl and boy to ever do the whole AT.
The AT
This is a view looking east from the Skyline Drive, in the Shenandoah National Forest. The Shenandoah National Forest was established in the 1930’s as the first National Park in eastern USA. At a time of high unemployment, the CCC – the Civilian Conservation Corps – was started to give young unemployed men from poor families a job making the roads, and the trails in the park. They got $30 a week, of which $25 went straight home to their families.
Part of the park was the Skyline Drive, a road that runs for 105 miles from Front Royal in the north to Waynesboro in the south. In order to set up the national park, the federal government had to buy the land, which involved resettling hundreds of people who were living in the area. Many of these people did not want to move, and their were numerous court cases as they challenged the right of the government to move them off their land.
Once more, an example of the powerful displacing people from their home !
As well as the conflict between the local inhabitants and the federal government, there was trouble between the newly established Shenandoah National Park and those who had recently set up the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail (AT) came from Benton MacKaye who had the idea in 1921 to have a hiking route from Georgia to Maine, a distance of over 2000 miles. The AT was finally finished in 1937, but when the National Park service was building the Skyline Drive, it turned out that they wanted to use the same route that was already being walked by the hikers!
Today hikers along the AT in Virginia follow a trail that runs close beside the Skyline Drive. hardly the wilderness experience envisaged by Benton MacKaye, but it has opened up this beautiful country for tourists like us!
White Magnum
No, not the Walls one, this one’s a Dodge. But pretty tasty! It was supposed to be a Chevrolet compact, but …
It goes like this. I was just congratulating myself that we had planned our itinerary pretty well, when it went (a little bit pear shaped). It was Monday. We had spent the morning at Union Station – amazing building – and the afternoon at the Zoo watching the Orang utan – amazing animal.
The plan was this. Hop on the metro at the zoo, go to the Arlington Metro stop, and find the car rental place, which is on Davis Jefferson highway – which is the same street as the Arlington Cemetery.
So we emerge from the Arlington metro station, and discover that Jefferson Davis Highway is … well … a highway … that is, like a motorway. So finding the car hire place was not going to be easy. Plus, I had forgotten what number jefferson David Highway!
We decided to take a taxi, got in, and then after being assured by the driver that he knew the car rental place we wanted to go to, discovered that he didn’t! Quick exit from the taxi. back to the hotel where our luggage (and free internet) is … and find out that the car hire place is actually Ronald reagan Airport.
Eventually arrived at Ronald Reagan Airport, (which is where the car rental place is) and after a long walk, found the car rental desk.
They had no record of us! Then the car rental computer went down! Then he found us on the system, but not at Ronald Reagan Airport, but at their Jefferson Davis Highway branch.
Confused? Don’t worry. He found us a car, and got us on the road, 2 hours after we had planned. But the outcome of all this was that we ended up with the Magnum!
Today
Today just an update on our travels. Having had three fantastic, entertaining and informative days in D.C. we are now in Luray, small town in the Appalachian mountains. Today we went white water rafting, and shot the rapids down the Shenandoah River! saw an eagle, a couple of otters, a crane, a kingfisher, loads of turtles, a buzzard, and some unidentified jumping fish. Tomorrow we plan to hike in part of the Shenandoah National Forest … the weather is great – around 80 degrees, but will be a bit cooler up in the mountains tomorrow.
Meeting
Today, here in Washington, Barack Obama will meet with Benjamin Netanyahu. Yesterday, we visited the excellent and moving Holocaust Museum here in Washington. From the early days of Nazism, through the rise of Hitler all the way through to the post war era, the museum shows in powerful ways what it meant to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.
In some of the ghettoes, Jews were separated from the rest of the population by high walls and barbed wire. Their movement was restricted, and they had to go through checkpoints and show papers to move around the city. Does that remind you of anywhere in the world today ?
Later on in the day we visited the museum of the American Indian, where we learnt about the ways of Native Americans, from Peru in the South, to Inuits in the north. Today, after many years of being oppressed and marginalised, Native Americans are speaking with a more confident voice, rediscovering their roots and ensuring that their culture survives into the future.
Early in the 19th century, European settlers encountered what they saw as an obstacle to their safety and freedom, the existence of Indian communities (who of course had been there for many centuries). President at the time, Andrew Jackson pursued a policy of moving the Indians westward, so that the settlers could live in safety.
Does that make you think of anything that has happened in the recent past (Think 1948, and Jewish Settlers forcing out Palestinian communities)
We have more in common than we realise! Whether it is in the Warsaw Ghetto, or the Indian Reservation, or the Palestinian towns separated by the wall, or the segregation experienced by the African Americans in the 20th century, we have this common history, and maybe realising this may help Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu find common ground
Tax Collectors and Sinners. Mark 2:13-17
Mark 2:13-17
Here Jesus asks Levi (a tax collector) to follow him, and he does. Later, at Levi’s house, there are clearly many other ‘sinners and tax collectors’ who are also following Jesus. The scribes ask Jesus’ disciples why Jesus will eat with ‘these people’ (my phrase).
There are six references, (direct or indirect) in these 5 verses to the ‘tax collectors and sinners’. They are people who are attracted to Jesus, so much so that they are desribed as followers. Reading these verses, my question is this. If Jesus had come today, who would be the equivalent to the ‘tax collectors and sinners’ ? Would they be mostly people who are in our churches ?
And where would Jesus be ? (a la What Would Jesus Do?!). Maybe we could have some wristbands made up! WWJB.
The question for the church is – how can we be a presence in the same way that Jesus was ? Sitting in the same house with ‘tax collectors and sinners’ and ‘scribes of the pharisees’
Washington D.C. is a good place to look because it is THE centre of power in the world, and is at the same time a city of great need.
Whilst staying here in Washington, we have been about 10 minutes walk from the White House, the centre of executive power of the only global superpower, and at night, we can hear the sirens of the emergency services at regular intervals. (D.C. has, or at least has had in the recent past, the highest murder rate in the USA). It’s a city of contrasts.
In 1947, Gordon and Mary Cosby started The Church of the Savior’, an ecumenical Christian community here in DC …
From those early beginnings, others have taken inspiration from the Cosbys, among them Jim Wallis, spokesperson for the Sojourners Community, and leader of the ‘Evangelical Left’ inthe USA. Today the life of the Church of the Saviour is expressed in 7 separate communities … Along with Sojourners Community and many others, the Church of the Saviour is setting out to do what Jesus did, a to be where Jesus was … both engaging with the powers, and sitting with the powerless.
Gran Torino
The film Gran Torino was showing on the plane on the way over. There’s no sex, a little violence, and some fairly rich language (mostly the F word). If you can cope with that, see the film.
It’s set in mid west America, is about the relationship between Walt Kowalski, a Korean veteran, and the Vietnamese (?) family that are living next door. Right at the beginning of the film Walt’s wife has just died, and the opening scenes show the funeral and the wake.
A teenage boy living next door is under pressure to join his cousin’s gang, but does not want to join. As the story progresses, there is a triangle of relationships between Walt, the next door neighbours, and the gang, and Walt’s preconceptions about this Asian family are challenged. But for Walt, the heart of the story is about the burden of guilt that he carries from Korea. The big question for Walt is – can violence be justified to solve things ? I won’t say any more on this post … but I may add another post about – don’t read it if you want to see the film.
We’re Here
Well, we’ve arrived in Washington D.C. Matt kindly drove us to Manchester Airport, picking us up at 4.15, bang on time. Flight was good, all running to time, and arrived at D.C. 4 pm local time. That’s 9 pm in English money.
Saw a couple of films on the flight, Gran Torino and the Reader, both great films in different ways. More about Gran Torino another time, because it fits in well with my earlier post about the myth of redemptive violence.
Long queues at immigration, with fingerprints and photographs taken … to see if we are on any databases of undesirables ?
My previous experience of USA has been largely very positive, and that was reinforced by two very helpful people getting us sorted it out with where/how to get the tickets for the bus from the airport to D.C. The guy at the hotel where we’re staying was also very helpful … Good Vibrations.
BFN
Bye for Now. I won’t be putting anything here for a few days as tomorrow I’ll be watching the first day of the second test (Cricket), and the next day we fly to Washington. So I’ll be back in a couple of days
Five Short Words 