"I thought all presidents were giants"

A few weeks ago Alex and I took some vacation time and headed out to St. Louis. The stated objective was to watch the marriage of a dear college friend of mine but with the excuse of getting out there the trip quickly included a great vacation aspect to it.  And once Alex starts planning a vacation it is hard for her to stop at just a few days.  Our first major event was attending Shakespeare in the Park in Kansas City.  Alex and her roommate Jules have gone to this in years past and Alex was quite excited to find that its timing coincided with our tirp.  Basically some of the finest actors and sets are put together in an open air environment absolutely free to the public through the generosity of a number of Kansas City patrons.  Showing that evening was The Twelfth Night. Watching a Shakespearian play you quickly come to realize that plays are meant to be seen and not read as we all did in high school English classes.  These actors truly made Shakespeare come alive.  I would highly recommend it to the average guy off the street as well as to the English major.  It was a really warm evening but once the sun went down it was pleasant, or at least tolerable, to sit on the grass watching the production. 

 On Thursday morning we headed to Independence, Missouri—hometown of Harry S. Truman and his celebrated library. Our hometown boasts its own presidential library, but the Truman library boasts being the first. It really was a wonderful portrayal of the life and presidency of a man who faced several gut-wrenching and difficult decisions.  

Everyone knows that Truman had to make the final decision about dropping the atomic bombs in Japan.  But he was also responsible for directing how America responded after the war was over, specifically in Europe with the Marshall Plan and the Berlin blockade and airlift.  He also faced tough decisions as the US ended up in the Korean War as well during his presidency.  Also, don't forget that it was Truman who, over the objections of several top advisors, integrated the army.  I appreciated how they present pros and cons and the narrative in how the entire museum came together to tell a linear story. 

Rarely does a single artifact in a museum move me personally, but I had some goosebumps viewing the Bible Truman took the oath of office on.  Apparently, Democratic party officials had seen FDR before the Democratic National Convention, where he would run for an unprecedented fourth term, and they new that the Vice President they selected would indeed be President before long.  Perhaps never V.P. was ever as carefully picked as Truman, a testimony to his character.  When FDR passed away, Truman reportedly asked Eleanor Roosevelt if there was anything he could do for her.  The recently widowed woman responded, "Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now."  Just seeing that Bible, on which a solemn oath was sworn during a time where humanity's fate seemed so dire, struck me with deep awe.

The artifact that stood out to me (Alex is the writer for this paragraph) the most was a letter to President Truman written by a distraught father who just lost his son in the Korean War.  It reads as follows:
Mr. Truman-- As you have been directly responsible for the loss of our son's life in Korea, you might just as well keep this emblem on display in your trophy room, as a memory of one of your historic deeds.  Our major regret at this time is that your daughter was not there to receive the same treatment as our son received in Korea.
Included with the letter was a Purple Heart.  Truman kept the letter locked in a drawer in his office and it wasn't discovered until after he passed away.  This brought to life the humanity of the decisions Truman had to make.  The father has every right to be angry.  The President is doing what he believes is best as Commander and Chief.  I think one of the most difficult pieces of the presidency would be the ongoing struggle of having so much power but at the same time being utterly powerless in so many situations.

Another interesting exhibit was a room that had all the covers from Life magazine in 1952 to give a glimpse of what life was like during the Truman era.  A few items we took note of was an article about the Notre Dame football team and that three players in the picture didn't have face masks on their helmets (and were subsequently all missing a handful of teeth).  Another page had letters to the editor commenting on President Truman's wardrobe in a picture-- some argued it was unkempt and unseemly and other argued that the man responsible for getting the free world back on track shouldn't have to worry about his shirt being tucked in the wrong way.  Oh how times have changed and how people are still very much the same.
 

I have always admired Truman and his library made me appreciate him even more.  Perhaps the most surprising thing to me was how short of a man Truman was.  As I told Alex while standing next to a life-size statue of Truman, “I always thought all the Presidents were giants”.  

Next on our trip was another adventure in our slightly quirky world of looking at big trees.  Missouri boasts the national grand champion bur oak.  Of course a detour was in order to see this tree near McBaine, MO.  Alex saw this tree several years ago when see biked across Missouri on the Katy Trail.  We turned off the interstate to the wander the back roads that go up and down and twist all around.  We are Kansas drivers and this makes us nervous.  Finally the road flatten out to the Missouri River bottomland.  The bur oak tree has stood on this soil for 350-400 years.  It has stood watch as Lewis and Clark would have paddled at the turn of the 19th Century.  It is 90 feet tall, a crown of 130 feet, and diameter of almost 8 feet. During the 1993 floods the water level at the tree was 9 feet.   

That night we camped at Klondike Park on the banks of the Missouri River.  The area was beautiful and the facilities were amazing for a camp ground.  That first night was much warmer than either one of us would prefer -probably hovering around 90 degrees after dark with no breeze- but Alex was relieved to find that I can sleep in just about any conditions.  Were she only so lucky however we slept with the rainfly off so she spent her time stargazing instead of sleeping.  Omnia Vincit Amor. 

Lazy Saturday

What happened to the month of June?  I think we have hardly posted since Memorial Day-- oops.  We have been on a few weekend trips that we are working on posts for but our personal computer decided to go belly up and is on its way to get fixed as we speak.  On it are a few of the blogs that we were editing to get ready to post.  They are serious when they recommend that you back up your computer frequently.  Maybe we will learn our lesson or start using the nebulous Cloud.  Also it's summer and there is more to do outside and less time to post blogs.  So this ends my excuses for being a less than stellar blogger and here is what we have been doing for the past month:

Today is one of the first Saturdays we have been home for in a long time.  We can thank my monthly duty in the church nursery that keeps us from gallivanting around every weekend.  It hasn't actually been a lazy Saturday but at least we are home.  We are training for our annual triathlon so I rolled out of bed early to run.  When I got home Arthur was making sourdough bread and washing the dishes-- such a beautiful sight for a wife.  Instead of hiking we are conquering mountains of laundry and recycling.  Of course the morning wore me out so I took a nice long Saturday afternoon nap.

Our garden is in full swing.  I took pictures to post but can't load them onto this computer so maybe I can add those later.  The big development in the garden this year was moving everything to the front of the house.  Usually I hide the unruly tomatoes and squash at the back door but so far they are behaving well out front.  I also got a hose so I am no longer sloshing buckets of water on my work pants when I tend the garden in the morning.  This past week we harvested some basil and I made 4 patches of pesto for the freezer.  Arthur is pretty excited about future meals of pesto chicken pizza.

Our church had vacation Bible school about three weeks ago.  I was the leader for the 2nd and 3rd graders.  I knew it was going to be an interesting week when I had one kid cry for the first 30 minutes that he wasn't to go home and couldn't be consoled or distracted.  Who gets homesick at VBS?  I had a group of 15 and 3-4 kids who needed constant"eagle eye" adult supervision.  It was kind of like herding pin balls.  I would see one run somewhere and by the time I turned around to bring him back I would see the same kid on the opposite side of the room.  It was a long week and probably led to Arthur thinking his wife was going to lose it a few times.

The same week of Bible school I found out that the Grand Canyon back country office had rejected us again for backpacking permits.  For the past 2 1/2 years we have been trying to get a permit for to do a rim to rim trip at the Grand Canyon.  This has involved spending two hours on the phone trying to get through to get a spot at the Phantom Ranch lodge in the bottom of the canyon.  I really think you are more likely to win the lottery that spend the night at Phantom Ranch.  Next I convinced my husband that our only ticket in would be if we camped so we have applied twice for backpacking permits.  To get a permit you submit a form at the beginning of each month about what days are available and which campgrounds you would like to stay at.  We submitted 8 different trip options and could go any time during the months of September and October.  And were denied and rejected.
So the Grand Canyon is on the back burner for another year.  We have been trying to get this bucket list trip done before we get old and gray-- it is a good thing we started planning early as we may be old and gray by the time we get permits.  This has led to planning a back up trip.  Frankly I think I missed my calling as an adventure trip organizer.  I love planning and organizing trips.  Some ideas have been the 5 National Parks in Utah, backpacking around Durango, or going to Duluth, Minnesota and Lake Superior for a canoe trip.  There are so many places to go and things to do...even if it isn't the Grand Canyon. 

So there you have it, our month of June in a nut shell.  Hopefully our other computer gets up and running soon to make it a little easier to blog frequently.  Omni Vincit Amor. 

Arthur's Once-a-Year Rant

Editor's Note:  We realize that during this election year it is hard to escape the onslaught of political commentary.  The purpose of our blog is not to push politics (although politics is one of Arthur's passions and he loves to discuss it with anyone and everyone.)  However we have decided in light of recent events to share our thoughts and concerns.  We know that many who read this many not share our political viewpoints, which is fine.  This subject is something that Arthur (and Alex) feel strongly about and if we are sharing our lives through this blog we should share the tough stuff we are wrestling and discussing.  This political post is a 1 time deal (Arthur is allowed one political rant post on this blog each year).  What that being said, here we go:

 Let's get one thing straight from the beginning: Philippians 4:13 does not mean that Christ will enable me to do anything I want no more than Romans 16:16 mandates that we kiss one another during our church meet and greet.  In high school athletics, we sometimes treated Philippians 4:13 as proof positive that victory was within our grasp, but it is clear now that we were abusing the text.  It is no light thing to use God's word as a tool to manipulate or coerce, but I see many examples of it done by the very people we venerate as Christian leaders.  Each instance is abominable, but I want to focus on the use of the Bible to justify political stances.

In the same way Philippians 4:13 has often been misrepresented, I am confident that Romans 13 is not an example of the Bible prescribing a government whose sole function is the protection of its citizenry.  Perhaps that should be the sole function, perhaps not, but that passage teaches submission to the governing authorities and not Pauline political theory, and yet I know people who would scream about the misuse of Scripture in Joel Osteen's prosperity gospel who would swallow that argument wholesale.

Instead of God's Word transforming us, we have busily set about transforming God's Word; "On the sixth day, God created man in his own image.  Man has been trying to return the favor ever since."  We have claimed the title Christian, therefore our preferences must be Christian as well.  For a variety of fascinating historical reasons, a large section of the evangelical movement tend to align with the Republican party, and while we can quibble over how much evangelicalism shaped the conservative movement or vise versa, the historic link between the two is undeniable.

In an unprecedented example of the Republican party shaping the values of Christians, evangelicals this primary season are one of the most consistent backers of a man who has made fortunes exploiting gamblers in his casinos and women in his clubs.  Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, recently tweeted a photo of himself with Trump with both showing the thumbs up sign, a picture of Trump on the cover of Playboy on the wall behind them.  It is clear from Trump's numerous speeches that he sees vast swatches of his fellow man as beneath him; denying the divine image endowed by a Glorious Creator.

I am livid.  Let's make this perfectly clear: the worst possible thing that can happen for the health of  the American church is for Donald J. Trump to become its standard bearer.  Hillary Clinton couldn't do that sort of damage.  Assuming for a second that she is devising all sorts of persecutions for the church, which I highly doubt, if the church lives out its function then people will look on its suffering and praise God in the day of visitation, as Peter writes.  Tie our identity up with a man like Trump, win or loose, the justified contempt of the world will not reflect well upon the Kingdom of God, which, we should note, is not the United States of America.  It is to that Kingdom that our allegiance must lie.

Religious freedom is a huge issue, but we must not chase after a man who wants to prioritize the rights of one group over another, even if that group is ours.  Demographically, we will not likely be the majority religion in the United States by the end of my lifetime, so we better start setting a precedent for how the majority religion wields power in our society.  As Teddy Roosevelt said, "A man who will steal for me is just as likely to steal from me."

Particularly, if you are worried about radical Islam, don't venerate a man who treats women like objects the same way particular factions of Islam do.  Educated women treated as co-heirs in Christ will do more to combat radical Islam than any immigration policy that denies the divine image in the most impoverished and needy, the very people Christ speaks of as the "least of these."

Maybe you can't support Clinton, fine. But no one was requiring evangelical leaders to find some way to justify support for Trump.  Consider this hypothetical situation: Trump is running as a Democrat (because let's face it, he policies would allow for that) against a Republican Laura Bush, who has a resume identical to Clinton's.  Bush's approval ratings among Republicans (and evangelicals) would top 80%, and Christian radio would be exploding with criticisms for the godless Trump and the debauched party he represents.

I feel deep shame for the actions of the Body right now.  This is not abstract, this is not difficult to read.  Don't shut down your critical reasoning just because someone delivers a Bible quote.  You cannot gauge if people really love Jesus by their preferred fiscal policy or political theory.  One's devotion to Jesus does form a worldview best described by Lewis:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics."

Remember your allegiance to Christ and forsake all others, including the GOP if the path of Christ leads that way.  Never forget God's love for all people and his sacrifice, and let us love one another the same way, so that it may be truly said, Omnia Vincit Amor.

Home Sweet Home

We have lived in our current home three years now.  Where has the time gone?  As somewhat recent college grads that is practically a lifetime after moving almost on a yearly basis.  In fact in the year before moving to our current location I had 5 different addresses.  We are currently renting a duplex (although we have never actually signed a lease-- oh well).  From time to time we talk or dream about buying a home of our own-- someday.  However there are other times that we wonder if home ownership is really all it is cracked up to be.

I am house sitting for a friend who is gone for the summer.  My biggest duty is mowing the lawn.  Growing up I had two brothers so mowing the lawn never was one of my jobs.  I had practically earned my doctorate degree before I helped mow a yard for the first time.  This past week was my second time.  My friend has a riding lawn mower but it is not equipped with zero-turn radius capabilities.  Luckily she doesn't have many obstacles in her yard and now there is even one less since I ran over a surveying stick this week-- oops.  As I was mowing I thought that most people probably spend three or four hours on caring for their yards a week.  For us currently that is three or four hours of "free time" since my garden only takes 15 minutes of attention a week and someone randomly shows up to mow our yards.

Then we can talk about home maintenance.  As renters if we have major issues such as water gushing through the floor we call our landlord and it isn't our problem.  Since we don't own the home we don't own the problems either.  We are trying to "practice" by taking care of the less serious issues ourselves.  The dishwasher has had a certain funk to it lately so I decided to clean out the filter.  The TV show Red Green used to say duct tape was a handyman's secret weapon but I frankly think YouTube should be in the running.  A simple search brought up a 5 minute video of how to unassemble the parts I needed on our exact model and it was fairly easy to do with my handy screw driver.  Of course I had to watch the video several more times to get all the parts put back in exactly right but it worked.  I also used YouTube last year to diagnose a problem with our furnace. 

On our evening walks we often wander about town talking about houses that we like or neighborhoods we want to live in.  Usually people are out and about mowing the lawn, tending to the garden, or doing a fix-it project.  However we don't run into many others out walking in the community-- it is probably because all the homeowners have to walk behind their lawn mowers.  We aren't quite ready to trade in our free time yet.  Omni Vincit Amor. 

Weekend at the Lake

Alex has a compatriot who shares her love of camping: our sister-in-law Bethany.  I have a compatriot who fails to see the value in sleeping outside while a perfectly good bed can be had: my brother-in-law (Alex's brother) Arnold.  This past weekend, the women won.  This is not to say it was an unpleasant experience, admittedly, a good time was had by all, just to varying degrees.

Alex and I arrived at the campgrounds first.  We pitched the tent, got situated, and went for a walk along the lake.  It was  a beautiful evening, and we were chagrined to turn back due to the fall of evening.  We then sat out in lawn chairs reading until Arnold and Bethany arrived.  After helping them pitch their tent (our headlamps were a real asset here), Arnold started up a fire, the tending of which, along with fishing, would be his primary occupations for the weekend.  We stayed up a couple of hours catching up before heading off to bed.

Next morning found me refreshed and quite comfortable.  Alex and I had brought our blow-up air mattress, and with a sleeping bag that fit me (though barely)  I drifted off, oblivious to all the apparent noise that occurred during the night.  My dear Alex, I fear, did not fare as well, saying that she really didn't sleep well at all.  Arnold probably fared even worse, and with nothing between him and the ground except his sleeping bag and the bottom of the tent, he was probably the most justified in his misery (though apparently his wife slept well).  I crawled out of the tent to see Arnold had already given up on sleeping and was trying to catch something for breakfast.

We quickly ate some granola and yogurt, then headed to town to watch Bethany's sister run a half marathon.  Then, after congratulating the wearied weekend warrior, we headed to a coffee shop.  We really had but one plan on the agenda for the day: we decided to head to a local town to see a Grand State Champion burr oak.

If you are unfamiliar with champion trees, the concept is basically to track where the largest examples of types of trees are.  This particular one had a trunk 19 feet in circumference and was over 80 feet both in height and branch span.  While amazing in its own right, the poor oak was actually dwarfed by a cottonwood not more than 50 yards from it.  The Grand Champion cottonwood must be something to behold (there are actually 3 species of cottonwood), but this one was massive: at least 30 feet in circumference and easily 100 feet tall.  We were all really impressed.

The rest of the day was spent at the campsite.  Arnold and I saw a downed log of an oak tree and decided to chop off a piece of it for firewood.  Taking turns with an axe, we cut off a section and rolled it to the fire pit.  Much of the rest of the day was spent chopping this section, perhaps 700 lbs altogether (because you can't have too much firewood), into enough firewood to keep us through the day.  Arnold was very intent on this and I helped enough to get an incredible full body workout in.

Alex and I took a walk around the lake while Arnold and Bethany tended the fire.  It was a lovely evening with the temperature just right and a wide assortment of bird life serenading us with a song as sweet as any a violinist has strummed.  Back in camp, we prepared a feast of hobo packs of us and some friends who joined for the evening.  They were delicious; I couldn't believe how good it tasted.

I once again slept peacefully; my full-body workout providing the sweet sleep of the laborer in Proverbs.  I do not think that sweet sleep was had by all; but I think that everyone had a great weekend.  Alex and I have already started planning future trips with our tent, so she has succeeded in passing here love of camping on to me.  Omnia Vincit Amour.

Currently...

It's been another quiet week around here.  We don't have enough material for any single topic so we are just doing snippets this week.

- This past weekend was popular for graduations.  We attended a celebratory BBQ for our sister-in-law Bethany (I can't remember the name we made up for her on the blog-- too many aliases to remember).  She graduated from the PA (physician's assistant) at Wichita State.  We drove to Wichita for the day, did a little shopping, ate wonderful food, Arthur became friends with Arnold's friend from England, and we didn't have to sit through a graduation ceremony.

- On the way home from Wichita we stopped in Newton to do a few hiking/nature trails.  It included several native tree species we worked on identifying as well as a large garden plot I perused at the Mennonite Heritage Museum.  (Please don't be too jealous of our fun on a Saturday afternoon.)  We then stopped at the Breakbasket for the German Buffet.  We had verenika and ham gravy, German sausage, chicken borscht, zwieback, German potato salad, sauerkraut, and bohne beroggi.  Arthur is more adventurous with food than I am but I did try a little bit of everything.  I figured German food wasn't too exotic for me.  Bohne beroggi is an "endangered" recipe.  When googling it about 75% of the links are related to Mennonites in central Kansas.  It is a dessert that is a pastry filled with a mixture of sweetened pinto beans covered in a glaze-- it was really pretty good.  The Breadbasket is another restaurant on the top 35 small-town eateries in Kansas (only 29 more to go).  And while I didn't do any of the cooking I think it should count as our culture eating experience for the month.

- The Grand Canyon denied us for the umpteenth time.  For over a year and a half we have been trying to make reservations to hike at the Grand Canyon and yet again we didn't win the lottery.  I did actually get a park ranger on the phone after 7 calls over 2 days.  The National Park Service should jump into the 21st century and get an answering machine.  I did get some tips for the next time we apply so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

- In other hiking news one of our projects this week has been trying to find Arthur a sleeping bag.  At 6'6" a normal sleeping bag barely gets to his arm pits which just won't work on a backpacking trip.  The problem with backpacking is it also has to be light and pack down small so bigger sleeping bags that fit this bill are hard to come by.  We did find an extra long version that is suppose to fit up to 7' so we are keeping our fingers crossed (lots of finger crossing with hiking and camping) that this will fit and he won't feel like a stuffed sausage.

- For our weekly movie night Arthur picked a film in keeping with graduation weekend.  It is called PhD The Movie.  It is a comedy based on the struggles of life as a grad student-- working in labs and never seeing the light of day, being a TA for undergrad classes, endless hours of work on a thesis, etc.  I lived the grad student life a little but thank goodness is wasn't like getting a PhD.  Hopefully watching this discourages us from considering further formal academic pursuits as we enjoy paychecks and free time.

- My garden is officially in for the year.  I decided to put all my plants out in front of our house this year which means I will have to make the squash and tomatoes behave since they can't take over everything.  My blueberry patch, all of 2 blueberry plants, is in full swing from being overwintered in my parents' garage.  Mildred, my geranium, is also back in the sunlight after the winter under the grow lights in the basement.

As you can tell if rambling on about sleeping bags and a geranium plant is all I have to talk about it was a slow week.  We will try to stir up more activity in the future.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

   

The March of Time

Alex and I have been enjoying the wonderful weather over the last few weeks.  This has meant pleasant walks in the evenings, weekend adventures, and a variety of experiences that seem tied together by a common, wondrous theme.

One such example are the trees.  At this point, all the trees are completely leaved out and it has been truly wonderful to reflect on the time these trees have seen.  In our community park along the main road, three giant Siberian elms rise up, a reminder of a time during the 1930's when tree varieties were chosen largely for their drought resistance.  Events transpiring four score years prior still mark the landscape.  About 40 yards away, some lacebark elm trees planted after Dutch elm disease took out a large number of American elm trees rise.  It will be interesting to see what changes will take place in the community park with time, whether the ash bores will take out some of the ones in the park, how long the sole remaining American elm will last, what will be planted in the years to come.

We went back to the university we both attended this weekend and marking the passage of time by the trees gave us an outlook on campus far greater than when we attended there.  Outside of Alex's dormitory, we could see the growth of trees planted while we were still students there, and we thought of how the landscape would change during the course of our lifetime.

The Arbor Day Foundation put out some informational signs in front of some the trees, giving such information as when they were planted, appraised value, maintenance costs, monetary benefit, and pounds of carbon sequestered per year.  The information they gave was so illuminating.

There's a beautiful American elm over by what used to be the dairy barns which was planted in the 30's.  Alex reflected that her grandpa would have walked past that elm tree on the way to work at the dairy barns when it was in it's teen years.   The oldest tree on campus is a honeylocust planted in 1850 by a farmer on his homestead, land that would eventually become a public university.  The tree with highest appraised value was a bur oak valued at $108,000.  Some of the larger oaks could sequester 1,400 pounds of carbon every year, about the same amount generated driving from Kansas to New York.

We walked among buildings that seem eternal, limestone structures built as firm institutions of higher learning.  But among those building were renovations and structures built even since we left college.  My stomping grounds, the engineering complex, has received almost a complete overhaul. For all the dynamics of a living system, it is the trees that remain a type of constant that age gracefully-- never going out of style like some of the campus buildings built in 1970s and 80s (aka Bluemont Hall).

Besides trees, thinking about wine has had us contemplating the passage of time.  We watched a documentary last night about wine production, discussing new and old wine, and the history it tells.  Someone interested in such things might be able to tell you about certain vintages of wine, about how the weather and growing conditions get reflected in the flavor of the wine.  Some of the best wines are aged beyond 50 years, locked away in cellars held at constant temperature and humidity, kept away from sunlight.  This is not to lock the wine away from changing, however.  Inside that bottle, yeasts are continuing to metabolize the chemicals present.  Fungus growth is encouraged in the finest cellars so alcohol vapors from the wine can be contained.  In European wine, you have the history of vineyards cared for and cultivated since the Romans conquered the continent; of families working through generations to build a body of knowledge in this area, you have the history of wars wreaking havoc through the areas.  In America, the history is much smaller, but you still have a sense of this tradition being started over, you can see the effects of Prohibition.  We are not wine drinkers, but it was fascinating to think of history seen through the story of wine.

These were our pictures from the 1980s.

You can see the change over a lifetime in pictures.  We went to a volunteer appreciation dinner at our church the other day, where people were asked to share pictures from the 80's.  It was interesting to see the change 30 years bring, and yet how people might yet be identified by some je ne sais quoi.  It is interesting to think of a human lifespan, how things more or less seem to be as they always were, yet over a lifetime those tiny changes add up to a world so different.  A life so fleeting, and yet one life capable of such far reaching consequences.  Trees and wine are just a two examples, but think about it; I was yesterday effected by a tree planted by a homesteader 166 years ago in a way more profound than I will ever be effected by some of the great kings of Europe.  Grandfathers stored wines in cellars so their grandchildren could open it and taste what they strove to produce.

We live in a fast-paced, instant gratification society today.  With the act or planting a tree or making a bottle of wine, the "fruit of the labor" will not be enjoyed for a few decades and many times not by the person who originally put forth the effort.  However it is an investment for the future, paying it forward in a sense, so that in half a century someone can sit under the branches of a large shade tree and appreciate the beauty of such a majestic tree.

It makes me think of 1 Peter, where it talks about the prophets of old heralding a king they would never see for generations they would never know.  It is amazing to think that because our God, unlike people, unlike trees, and unlike wine, is unchanging, actions done in His service will live forever.  It is because of this truth that we with confidence may say Omnia Vincit Amor.