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The Magical Leaf
It’s one of those things in this region that holds on. You not only see people using it in its various forms, but also growing it, even in small, hillside or backyard patches. The farms near my home in any direction, dug into the rocky mountain soil, coax vegetable and grain crops each year, but a surprising number of them grow the devil’s lettuce. A country drive at this time of year will take one past leafy fields so pretty and so poetic, they make even a tee-tobacco-er want to stop and get out and gather an armful. This dedication to tobacco is not only understandable to me, but also…
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Forgotten Men
I’ve finished reading Thomas Merton’s history of the Trappist order, The Waters of Siloe (1949 by Harcourt, Brace, and Company, Inc., New York, NY) and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Merton — or Father Louis, as he was known at Gethsemani Abbey — certainly deserved his reputation as a formidable writer. I wanted to share a couple of sections from this book. One for a rather whimsical reason, and the other a more serious point I wanted to highlight. First, the whimsical section. I offer these paragraphs from pages 132-133 in hopes that my friend Francis Berger might see them: We can see what was the mentality of the monks of Gethsemani…
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Passing, Briefly
For the past couple of years, I have daily passed a man on a bicycle on the way to work. I always see him in town, about a mile from where I turn off the main road and head to my office. On the right shoulder of the road, he wears a jacket and ball cap, and a small backpack is strapped across his shoulders. I have never clearly seen his face, though when I glance over at him or look in my rear-view mirror, I can tell that he is wearing glasses. I cannot tell whether they are for vision or for protection against bugs and other things that…