Category: Kentucky

Laws of Nature

When I was working on a homily this afternoon, some big birds outside my window caught my attention. I gently parted the blinds so I wouldn’t scare them away. The reflection of the blinds created the horizontal stripes in the lower right corner. I didn’t notice taking this shot that two of the birds were eating something.

It turned out these were turkey buzzards and they were eating a baby raccoon. (See the ringed tail.) These two were young buzzards and they could eat together when the dominant male finished eating all he wanted. But when he came back for more, they had to scatter.

After an hour, all that was left of the raccoon was leg bones, some fur, and its rib cage.

I still need haircuts in Kentucky

In Cambodia, I had my haircut by our Job Training Project students and I learned from running the program how important it is for training programs to get customers so the barber trainees get as much experience as possible. That led me to Tri City Barber College in Louisville where Connor gave me a haircut today.

Falls of the Ohio River

Today I bicycled across the Ohio River to Indiana where the Falls of the Ohio national park is located.

The statue is of Meriwether Lewis (R) and William Clark, the commanders of the Lewis and Clark expedition that set out in 1803 from what became Louisville to explore the American West between Kentucky and the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president, sent them out.
Riverboats coming down the Ohio from the new northeastern American colonies could only travel as far south as the falls of the Ohio River, not a dramatic waterfall but a drop of about twenty-five feet over these now exposed shoals loaded with fossil remains. Today Lock and Dam 41 enables river traffic to be routed around the falls. The concrete wall in the rear creates a channel by the island in the background which provides access to the locks. Lewis and Clark left here in 1803 and returned in 1806 after an epic journey.

A bike rack and a horse–kudos!

Here’s my ride (the bike, not the horse) at the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute today. I went there to follow up with a man who fell in his room at night and was on the floor there for 3 1/2 days until someone found him. Frazier is part of U of L (University of Louisville) Health, a major hospital system here. All of their centers I have been to have had a bike rack. Good on them! The horse is part of community participation in the Kentucky Derby. Hundreds of schools and businesses and organizations each decorate a full-size horse and display it permanently outside their establishments.

Something old, new to me…

One of the residents, Myra, in independent living at Nazareth Home is an aficionado of the dulcimer, a stringed instrument that was developed in Appalachia and is still much a part of the musical scene in Eastern Kentucky. At a gathering in one of our community rooms, Myra related the history of the dulcimer and showed us her collection of the instruments, explaining the different types and how to make them and play them. Quite interesting!

Kingfish Gathering

Periodically our STS alumni Chief Organizing Officer, Mo Byrne, gathers ex-seminarians from near and far for delightful gatherings. Last week we met at Kingfish and were blessed with the presence of some brothers who had not been to prior lunches.

Wayne Jenkins shares a phone call to Jim Graf (whom we thought was coming) with Donna and Jim Duffy. The Duffys got extra points–and extra thanks!—for making the trip from Owensboro.
We missed a few of the regulars who usually come but had a good group gathered around the table at Kingfish.
Back: Joe Graffis, Tom Mouser, Wayne Jenkins, Jim Duffy, Dennis West, Don Stosberg, Dave Dutschke. Front: Charlie Dittmeier, Mo Byrne

St. Joseph Picnic

Here are five of my family at the St. Joseph Picnic for Kids (previously known as the St. Joe Orphans Picnic) last Saturday. The picnic has been a Louisville tradition for about 100 years. Our grandmother told us about taking her ten children there, all of them in suits and dresses. And when I was a college seminarian, I ran the seminary cookie booth at the picnic for two years.

Here and There, Then and Now

After 42 years in Asia, I returned home to Kentucky. But it isn’t the home I left. Things I saw THEN are different NOW. Life HERE is different from life THERE. Here is another sample of the differences.

THERE
I had really good friends in Cambodia, even though for the group above I was their boss. They went out of their way to get together with me for lunch when I visited Phnom Penh in April.
HERE
Today I had lunch with a group of guys who were with me at St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville in the early 1960s. Some of them I didn’t know so well because they were three, four, five years ahead of me. But we all shared the common experience of a minor seminary pre-Vatican II. That created an enduring bond that brought us together 65+years later. And overlaying that was the common language, the experience of living together away from home for years, a common goal in our youth, and the shared studies, meals, sports, and pillow fights in the dorm. That all makes these friendships significantly different from those of Cambodia.