Thanksgiving 2015

We had Thanksgiving with Debbie’s family on Thursday and with mine on Friday.

The young’uns in our families are the millennial generation [1]. We’ve watched them grow from infants to the young adults they are today.

My generation loves to bash the millennials. The opinions run from the millennials are the worst generation ever and the world is doomed to the millennials are the worst generation ever but the world may survive their awfulness.

I don’t get it. I look at these kids, and they’re all right [2]. They’re smart. They’re more than smart; they’re bright, they sparkle with intelligence. They’re ambitious and hard-working. They’re tolerant and kind. Now I’m not looking through the world with rose-tinted glasses. They can be dumber than a bag of hammers and you just shake your head at the wonderment of it.

But these are good kids, and it’s been a pleasure to share in their lives.

We’re handing off the world to good hands.

1. Millennials are those born roughly between the early 1980’s and the early 2000’s.

2. Or “the kids are alright” as my g-g-g-generation would say.

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Zippy For President

Now here’s a candidate I can get behind.

Corgis for everyone!
Corgis for everyone!

Corgis for everyone! Although I’m not sure why you’d name them Ralph.

Zippy may strike some as a taste you have to acquire, but I’ve loved it from my first read when I lived in the Washington DC area in the 80’s and Zippy was in the Washington Post.

Brushed Owen
A Corgi named Owen

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Religious People

Tom and I went up to Nappanee yesterday to get a part for our auger that self-destructed during wheat harvest. I needed gas, so we swung into the first station in Nappanee.

I was surprised when I went in to get a refreshing fountain pop to hear what seemed to be Indian hip-hop music blaring. Then a young man wearing a turban and a full beard took my money. I was again surprised to see a Sikh in downtown Nappanee, but it explained the music.

We got back into the truck and waited for an Amish guy…

with a hat and a full beard

… to pass by on Highway 6 so we could continue on.

I didn’t think a thing about it, until tonight when I was relating to Debbie the amusing anecdote of a Sikh in Nappanee, and she said, “Don’t you see? The Amish guy and the Sikh are the same. They’re both following their religion.”

Huh.

I wish I was as smart as Debbie.

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Looking Out My Front Door

This is the view out my front door tonight. The corn is growing minute by minute, and the native plants Debbie and I started in front of the field are really taking off.

Fields
Fields
Fields and Spenser
Fields and Spenser

Owen (the Wonder Dog) of course had my back as I was taking these pictures.

Watchful Owen
Watchful Owen

Debbie’s been gone all weekend, so I’m feeling maudlin. I have two confessions to make about what’s pictured above.

1.) When we were looking at places to build our house, and when Debbie said, “this is the spot,” I thought she was nuts. I often think that, and just as often I’m wrong. Particularly in this case though. It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful spot to live.

2.) Lana often accuses me of taking more care with the field in front of my house than all the other fields. I categorically deny this of course. It’s not my fault that we happened to build by the best field on the farm.

But Lana’s right. I do take more care with this field. I have to look at it morning and night, every day!

Actually, I have a third confession.

3.) I also thought Debbie was nuts when she brought Owen home. As usual, I was totally wrong. Spenser may disagree, but Owen is endlessly entertaining.

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Manet

Debbie and I went to see a Manet exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art yesterday. Did you know Manet and Monet aren’t the same person? I wondered why we were going to see a bunch of impressionistic paintings of water lilies, that’s not really Debbie’s sort of thing. But when we got there it all became clear to me. Édouard Manet painted lots of portraits and was a major influence on the Impressionists to come. Claude Monet was the water lily guy[1].

On the way to Toledo Debbie asked me, “What do you hope to get out of going to this exhibit?”[2] I said I thought it would make me a better person. That’s sounds a bit[3] dorky, but I meant it. I think viewing any creative work enlightens and ennobles the viewer. We call God the Creator and when people create we’re at our best. It’s good to immerse yourself in that and come out feeling renewed and hopeful.

The Toledo exhibit was very nice and larger than I expected. It runs through January 1st, 2013. If you have a chance to get to Toledo in the next few weeks, it’s definitely worth your time and the 8 dollar ticket price.

I had three favorites from the show.

Portrait of Henri Rochefort

Rochefort reportedly didn’t want to sit for this portrait. It’s amazing how Manet captured his impatience and disengagement. The way he makes Rochefort’s black coat look real with so little paint is astonishing.

Portrait of Emile Zola

You can’t see it in this little picture, but the blue book on top on Zola’s shelf is his critique of Manet.

Summer, or The Amazon

Manet loved to paint beautiful young women and this was the most beautiful to me.


1 Hey, it’s not just me. The first line in the Wikipedia entry on Manet says, “Not to be confused with Claude Monet, another impressionist painter of the same era.”

2 Have you driven the new 4 lane limited access ‘Fort to Port’ highway 24 between Fort Wayne and Toledo? It’s a wonderful improvement over the old twisty truck-dodging road, but it’s also so stupefying that you’ll too be asked questions (or hear answers) you’d normally only hear from a drug-addled stoner.

3 A ‘bit’ dorky? No, a lot dorky!

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