"The sun rises and the sun sets"

Today was an easier driving day (we only covered a couple of hundred miles) but a little more difficult emotionally.  Lots of days on the road - lots of uncertainty ahead.  I found out today that the one class I had been scheduled to teach through a Bethesda synagogue adult education program - a six week session on Judaism and Healing - might be cancelled due to lack of registration.  I had the feeling that might happen when I saw the stock photo they chose to pair with my class description:  a picture of a woman sitting cross-legged, meditating in an open field.  Jeez.  I don't know if I would have signed up for it myself.


Reality is going to be setting in soon.  I won't be able to hide out in my car forever (Nor would I want to -- another week of this and I'd need a team of chiropractors and massage therapists to un-contort my body.  And I don't even want to think about the amount of partially hydrogenated oil that I've poured into myself in various forms since Tuesday.).  Two days from now I'll be lying in my parents' house, my possessions boxed and tucked into various rooms and locations, and wondering what the hell I'm doing.  And I'll need to remind myself:  one day of creation at a time.  It won't look like much of anything for a while.  And, unlike God's story, it's going to take me a hell of a lot longer than six days.


This morning we woke up in Jackson, TN, home of one of Dan's student pulpits (see posting below).  I drove over to the synagogue to snap a photo.  It was in a cute neighborhood of older, well-kept homes.  Each one had a sign in front listing the family name and the year of the home's construction.

Congregation B'nai Israel

Marc and I planned on doing a tour of Mammoth Caves north of Bowling Green, KY, which was the reason for the abbreviated driving day.  On the way, there was time for catching sights of great import, namely several of Tennessee's leading pink elephants.

Pink Elephant of Madison, TN

Spotted out of the car window in Madison.
I could hear the service going from the road.

Sweet, Sassy 'n out of business

Drive Thru:  that's really quick cash!

Pink (-ish) Elephant of Cross Plains, TN

Tonight we are in Bowling Green, KY, a town that was clearly home to money over the decades.  But there's a sadness to the stately homes and grand downtown:  the beauty is giving way to shabbiness.  You can see a shifting economy chipping away at the town's wealthy facade.

The theme of the sights along this drive seems to be the inevitability of decay.  A very "Ecclesiastian" message:


"Before the silver cord snaps, and the golden fountain is shattered, and the pitcher breaks at the fountain, and the wheel falls shattered into the pit.
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God, Who gave it.
'Vanity of vanities,' said Koheleth; 'all is vanity.'"