A Last Minute Idea

Last minute idea. Chuck Meeks of the Rome - Floyd Library is videoing my storytelling for the library's summer program. We've videoed stories during the pandemic with only imaginary in-person audiences but now that Viv and I are fully vaccinated we'd love to have a live audience of kids. So here's a last minute open call: Do any of my friends have some youngsters ages 6-10 who'd enjoy a story at Arrowhead tomorrow (Thursday) morning?

We'll be in the Ed Center at Arrowhead and will start at 10 am tomorrow June 3. Accompanying adults will sit at the back. Attendance presupposes permission for child to appear on library video.

Please text or pm or e-mail* me with age, grade and name of kid(s). I'll be happy with eight or ten, but will cut it off at about 20 or so if we are so lucky as to have a big response. We'll likely video two stories of 20 minutes or so each with a short break between stories.

Then, weather permitting, I'll be thrilled to lead a nature walk around the lake for those who'd like to stick around for it.

Or bring a fishing pole, some bait, and your Georgia fishing license and fish with your kid at our beautiful lake afterwards.

Poem: Sweet Things from Corruption

I've been fascinated with the irony of good arising from evil; of beloved events resulting from that which horrifies, nauseates, disgusts. What greater good is there, from my selfish perspective, than my own existence? Had Alois and Klara been distracted from the passion that resulted in the improbable coincidence of sperm and egg that produced their son Adolph Hitler, millions would likely have been spared terrible deaths. And my perverse brain ponders: my own birth required an improbable aligning of billions, or perhaps nonillions, of accidents AFTER the war precipitated by Hitler and his buddies. What are the chances that I could exist if Adolph didn't? Infinitesimal I suspect.

This Compost

Walt Whitman - 1819-1892

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1

Something startles me where I thought I was safest,
I withdraw from the still woods I loved,
I will not go now on the pastures to walk,
I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea,
I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me.

O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?
How can you be alive you growths of spring?
How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain?
Are they not continually putting distemper'd corpses within you?
Is not every continent work'd over and over with sour dead?

Where have you disposed of their carcasses?
Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations?
Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat?
I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv'd,
I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through the sod and turn it up underneath,
I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.

2

Behold this compost! behold it well!
Perhaps every mite has once form'd part of a sick person—yet behold!
The grass of spring covers the prairies,
The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden,
The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward,
The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches,
The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves,
The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mulberry-tree,
The he-birds carol mornings and evenings while the she-birds sit on their nests,
The young of poultry break through the hatch'd eggs,
The new-born of animals appear, the calf is dropt from the cow, the colt from the mare,
Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark green leaves,
Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk, the lilacs bloom in the dooryards,
The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above all those strata of sour dead.

What chemistry!
That the winds are really not infectious,
That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea which is so amorous after me,
That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its tongues,
That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited themselves in it,
That all is clean forever and forever,
That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will
   none of them poison me,
That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease,
Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once a catching disease.

Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless successions of diseas'd corpses,
It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from them at last.

The Last Graduation for Mr. Shaw's Stars

(Under construction) 

When I arrived at Bancroft Elementary School in the tiny mining town of Bancroft, West Virginia, in the late summer of 1969 I intended to complete my masters degree and two years of teaching in the National Teacher Corps while I sought to discern my true calling in life. It took a number of years for it to penetrate my thick skull that teaching was and is my calling. During the next five decades I was privileged to have my life enriched by hundreds of pre-teen youngsters, many of their parents, scores of fellow teachers and administrators, and all sorts of other folks who have served as resources of one kind or another for my teaching. 

In the eight years since I retired from full time teaching I have relished the world's greatest retirement job as a "storyteller/naturalist" at Arrowhead Environmental Education Center introdub=cing hundreds more children to the wonders of the flora and fauna of Georgia.

But today marked a sentimental final close of one chapter.: The very last group of "Mr. Shaw's Stars" graduated, most from Armuchee High School. I have tried the last years to attend the AHS graduation to celebrate this special day with those beloved ten-year-olds now on the cusp of their adulthoods. I wish I had made that a tradition from the beginning of my career.

Gleaning Facebook: Last Day of School

 I led a nature walk at Armuchee Elementary on the very last day of school...

One class beginning the nature walk near the bus entrance on the stairs and bridge built as an Eagle project by Thomas Fitzpatrick.

On the first Eagle project bridge built on the trail. Jesse Crider was the Eagle Scout.

I love this spot along the trail right at the Crider bridge. The bluff above the creek here is covered  with interesting plants and is especially beautiful early in the year when the spring ephemeral - Dwarf Crested Iris, Toothworts, Hepatica, etc - are in bloom.

I can stand in the creek and talk to a whole class gathered on the bridge.

And happy kids as they leave the trail.

Spiny Softshell Mama

 Mama Spiny Softshell Turtle never learns, bless her heart. She is laying her eggs in the driveway again this year.

These turtles look prehistoric to me.

Thea is a budding wildlife biologist.

Last Day of School Nature Walk

I led nature walks at Armuchee Elementary on this very last day of school, 2020-2021.

The first group started at the stairs and bridge near the bus entrance. This "new" entrance to our Armuchee Elementary Nature Trail was built as an Eagle Project by my former student, Thomas Fitzpatrick.

 

This bridge was the first Eagle Project for which I got to serve as the school coordinator. Eagle Scout Jesse Crider was the builder.

With the kids on the Jesse Crider bridge I can stand in the creek below the bluff...

...and point out the wonderful botany and geology there.

Field Days 2021

Participating in our SIXTH field day of the last week, this one at Cave Spring Elementary. What fun to watch these kids learning ‘in the context of the real world around them’ —-that’s learning that sticks.

Gleaning Facebook: Dr. Fernando Molina

About half my life ago I was in need of a new primary care physician. Dr. Culbreth had retired. (I would not see $5 office visits ever again.) Somehow I ended up in the brand new office on Fifth Avenue, about where Fourth Ward School had stood not long before, and under the care of a young immigrant doctor named Fernando Molina. We hit it off well.

I told him that I have a fairly rugged tolerance for aches and pains and I didn’t want him to be overly concerned with easing symptoms but to always concentrate on “keeping me alive.” My family history includes lots of heart attacks and some pretty early ones.

Well, I have to say he’s done what I asked and kept me kicking into my 75th year. He moved long ago into the Family Practice at Harbin Clinic and I stuck with him.

And now he is retiring on me. The nerve!

Here’s to many happy years of playing with eight grandkids, golfing, traveling, and relaxation.

From my last appointment with Dr. Fernando Molina. He's a good guy and I'll kiss him.

Comments

Sandra Pride
I know the feeling. I've outlived 2, and working on more.

Debbie Reece Grigsby
PM me your new pick. I have a feeling I’ll be in the same boat in a few years. 

Claudia Kennedy
Thank you Dr. Molina!

Thomas Middleton
I knew Dr. Molina well; he lived 2 doors down from me on 6th floor Dana at Berry. Last time I saw him was at Redmond in 1980 when I was just starting out in respiratory and he was an intern fresh out of med school. Glad to hear that his practice turned out so well.

Lydia Trimble Peters
It’s sad when the really good ones go.

Clare Lacey Gilliland
He is my doctor too. I have not been informed yet of his retirement. Is that official?

Terrell Shaw
Well, Clare, I hope I'm not blabbing! He just told me this morning. I assumed it was common knowledge. He may be telling his patients one on one as they come in for appointments. He said he was 100% my doc till the last day if I need him and that that will come before my next regular appointment. I'm gonna give his replacement a shot at keeping me going a while longer. 

Susan Childers
Boy do I hate to hear that news....He's cared for my family for many years.

Julie Adair
What a great story!

Barron Kirkpatrick Frazier Brown
You are fortunate. My primary, a young Khurdish women who loved to travel, decided to sign a year's contract with the health service of New Zealand. Fortunately her friend, a young Pakistani woman, is my new primary and thus far I'm pleased.

Joan Ledbetter
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Dr. Molina is MY doctor!! He cannot go anywhere! I have my appointment with him tomorrow. We will have words!

Terrell Shaw
I hope I haven't blabbed... maybe I should take this down. I figured, as usual, I wuz the last to know!

Joan Ledbetter
Terrell Shaw No, I imagine he will tell me the same thing tomorrow. I am not really surprised. I just ‘selfishly’ hate it. He is such a kind doctor,

Samantha Bishop
Joan Ledbetter , please let him know that I am not happy with him.

Joan Ledbetter
Samantha Bishop I told him that he had a fan club on FB 

Samantha Bishop
Joan Ledbetter , I have an appt with him on Wednesday.

Marilyn Murdock McLean
My Dr is retiring on me too! Guess I’ll have to be looking for a young whippersnapper!

Chad Watson
As a 7th grader with streph throat that wouldn't go away after a few weeks (or test positive) , I was referred to Dr. Molina . I was very sick and very scared and very weak. He tested me for mono and the result was positive and he started aggressive treatment right away. I went to his office for what seemed like 3 days a week for about 6 more weeks, but he kept me from having to be admitted to the hospital.
I lost touch with him after moving away to college.
Happy retirement Dr. Molina !! Thanks for all you've done serving our community!

Samantha Bishop
I adore Dr. Molina! He is my doctor as well and he is wonderful! I’m this is the first I have heard of his retirement. 

Joel Todino
Terrell, the scary thing for me is, that I trained him in his Internal Medicine skills; and now, he is retiring. I must really be getting old!

Peggy Davis
Finding a Dr after yours has retired is a daunting task!
Welcome Dr Molina!

Detrick Prosperous Redding
A great doctor!

Charlene Payne
John and I ask our doctors every time we go for a check-up, "Your not retiring any time soon are you?" It is a husband and wife team who are just a little younger than we are (why does 75 and 71 sound so old?? I am thrilled we made it this far without any big problems!! We still think we are in our 40's until we try something and muscles start yelling and we can't remember why)

Terrell Shaw
Charlene Payne I often say I feel young till I get down and havta get up! Hi to John. Y’all stop by if you ever make it back to Rome.