Mountain Resources and Resourcefulness

I took my children to visit The Lost Sea this week and was fascinated to learn how both Cherokees and early settlers had used this great cave.  The Cherokees used one large room for council meetings.  The marks from their fires the tour guide now calls damage, but it looked to me like evidence of a great use for that space.  They also used the cave as a shelter from the coldest parts of winter and the hottest parts of summer – the constant 58 degrees must have felt wonderful in both those seasons.  Later, settlers used the cave to store potatoes and other vegetables – I wonder how far away the homestead were, but a God-given root cellar just begs for storage, doesn’t it?

That information got me to thinking about the way we’ve historically used the resources on our own mountain.  I’ve written a couple of times about bluffs and caves on the mountain and I wanted to remind you of those stories – one of them was in 2014 and I am shocked The Tennessee Mountain Stories is that old!

I hope you enjoy revisiting these bluff stories.

The Pot of Gold

Under the Bluff

After the Storm

Yesterday the weatherman was saying things like “sustained high winds” and “long-track tornadoes” and this morning the sun is shining on most of Tennessee.  Even as I rejoice today that the winds weren’t so bad last night, I realize there are those who are digging out of storm damage today, and my prayers are certainly with them.

Doesn’t it seem like the sun is brighter, the grass greener and the flowers are more beautiful after a storm? It’s as though the world has had a good scrubbing and we get to see its true beauty, its vibrant life.  That’s what springtime is all about anyway – reminding us of the new life and life-after-death that we are promised when we are washed clean of sin by the blood of Jesus.

There are leaves on my car today, and sticks in the yard, but I took a few snapshots of the really pretty things I’m seeing around my place and wanted to share them with you.  I hope you will do the same and snap a picture in your own front yard then share it with me.  You can post them on my Facebook page, or if you don’t use Facebook, please email me here and I’ll post them at the bottom of the post. 

I can’t wait to hear from you.

Corn - Mountain Gold

A few years ago I was a proud member of the Future Farmers of America.  The emblem for the FFA is a cross section of an ear of corn because that is the vegetable that is grown in every state in the union.  Today it is an embattled vegetable, yet the history of corn is old and complex and essential to life.

Way back in the Bible times, farming was a little different than it is in the 21st century.  Barley was the main grain crop of the day – remember that the boy in Jesus’ crowd carried 5 small barley loaves and 2 fishes for his lunch; Jesus took those meager provisions and miraculously fed a great crowd.  Yet barley is mentioned in the King James Bible just 37 times compared to 102 mentions of corn.  However, a deeper look at languages finds that in British English, corn refers to most any grain – it’s more of a generic term.

Still, the natives of North and South America were indeed enjoying the hard kernelled grain we know today – or something very similar since there was neither genetically modified nor hybridized.  It was the natives who introduced corn to the earliest explorers and settlers.  The crop spread quickly across Europe and soon became as essential to those communities as it had been to the Americans.

Fast forward a few centuries and we find the Scots-Irish settling in Appalachia.  Their hilly, rock-strewn fields were rich in humus and readily produced corn for the cows, mules and men. 

You see, corn is that unique crop that can foster any domesticated farm animal and equally supports human life.  Now, my research tells me that corn is deficient in niacin which is essential for converting our food into energy.  Perhaps that’s why our people ate cornbread and milk – I doubt they could have even pronounced niacin yet somehow they combined two perfect foods that were readily available to in their mountain home.  I find that amazing.

Today, scientists have gotten ahold of corn and modified it to resist pests, withstand chemicals and yield ever greater harvests.  We find corn in everything from soda pop (both the plastic bottle and the sweet drink), the carpet we walk on and the makeup on our faces (per FarmProgress.com). It’s come a long way from the pone turned out of an iron skillet and crumbled in sweet milk.  I said in the beginning that it’s an embattled vegetable because the long-term effects of the genetic modifications are suspected of causing great harm and corn has crept into so many aspects of our lives that we can scarcely avoid it.  Still, whether it’s heirloom or hybridized, corn is as central to our modern American lives as it was to the earliest American lives.

Freedom is That Important

It is neither Veteran’s Day nor Memorial Day, but a brief encounter this week with a Vietnam Veteran just has to be shared.

Anytime I can identify a veteran, I try to say “Thank you for your service.”  Their reactions are varied - usually it’s an almost embarrassed, “Thank You” or “You’re Welcome”.  This week I saw a gentleman wearing a Vietnam Veteran’s hat and when I thanked him, he told me it was his pleasure. 

“I’d do it again if I had the chance,” he said.  Then he added, “Freedom is that important.”

Wow, that little phrase kind of stopped me in my tracks.  A couple of days later my 8 year old asked about the current ‘take a knee’ movement and I had the opportunity to explain to him that we treat our flag with great respect because of the American blood that’s been shed to keep it flying.  The Iwo Jima memorial is such a great object for that lesson.

Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State.  While many of our veterans waited to be asked to serve, they did so with eager valor. Other Tennesseans are in uniform voluntarily today; ready to face down America’s enemies.  Everyone who has served in any capacity deserves honor and respect from all of America.  I will continue to voice my thanks every chance I get and I invite you to do the same.

The Old Old Songs

The Old Old Songs

I have written here many times about music.  It tells our stories, motivates our works and memorializes our dead.  The history behind hymns in particular fascinate me.

As I was looking at Easter music this week, I noticed the date of one hymn , The Day of Resurrection.  The Praise for the Lord hymnal (Praise Press, 1997) credits these lyrics to John of Damascus c. 750.  While that may not be the oldest hymn in the book, it’s the earliest date I have ever noticed.  So that drove me to research both the song and the author.

Hymnary.org (St. John of Damascus | Hymnary.org) tells me John was from Jerusalem where he was born into a wealthy family that served the Muslim caliph.  After his father’s death, John assumed the duties until he was about 50 years old.  Then, he dissolved his household and joined a monastery where he would spend the rest of his life writing both poetry and prose.

Christianity Today (John of Damascus | Christian History | Christianity Today) further details his work in the Greek Orthodox Church where he fought to keep religious icons in their services despite the Byzantine Emperor’s quest to remove them.  John of Damascus convinced at least the people, if not the bishops, and icons are “an integral part of Orthodox worship to this day.”

The lyrics of this song are stirring, “The Lord in rays eternal, of resurrection light; and listening to His accents, May hear so calm and plain, His own “all hail!” and hearing, may raise the victor strain.” And “Let all things seen and unseen their notes in gladness blend, For Christ the Lord hath risen, Our joy that hath no end.”

While I don’t particularly enjoy the tune Henry Smart associated with John of Damascus’ lyrics in 1836, this is certainly a song that I will return to.