Monthly Archives: August 2016
10. There are amazing life forms here that just don’t seem to live anywhere else, like the saguaro.
9. There are not enough plants here to fuel the fires like in California, not near here.
8. There is not enough rain here to flood for very long — it floods on over a micro area and quickly dissipates.
7. Even the name means rising rekindled from ashes.
6. It is affordable and beautiful, and there are jobs.
5. Mountains, sunshine, arid conditions conducive to outdoor enjoyment.
4. At the bleeding edge of living with heat and managing scarce water technologies.
3. The sky at sunset and sunrise.
2. The pleasant winters, fall and spring.
1. A built-in annual excuse to visit the rest of the country: the extreme heat.
♦ Not all who wander are lost. J. R. R. Tolkien ♦
Order historical fiction novel Rekindled with the button below.
Programmed by both popular culture and experience, we too often think of preachers as unworldly hot-house creatures, ill equipped to face challenges of a brutal real world. In her new book, “Rekindled,” Teresa Irizarry gives us a fresh take on a well-known character from America’s earliest days.
Irizarry, who has ties to Northeast Texas, recasts Roger Williams, one of the Baptist Church’s founders, in the pioneer spirit of a Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett while still giving due respect to Williams’ tolerance among believers and fair treatment of Native Americans.
While Williams’ story remains at the heart of Irizarry’s narrative, her focus is much broader than other efforts on the subject. Irizarry shines the light on numerous relationships, including Roger and Mary Williams.
Utilizing the historic narrative of a Thomas B. Costain and a Tom Clancy staccato style, Irizarry spins her tales of births, deaths and adventure. I only wish I had started the book from the back where Irizarry hid a handy dramaticus personae.
Williams is an important figure in American history. An early advocate of church-state separation, Williams fearless proclaimed his beliefs in the face of one of history’s greatest ironies. Puritans, who fled England to escape religious persecution, ruthlessly prosecuted in the new world all who disagreed with them on religious doctrine.
Irizarry lets us glimpse, however, not just the preacher debating arcane theological points, but a man paddling his canoe to trading posts, learning to speak the native languages and becoming acquainted with Native American leaders and history.
When authorities came to arrest Williams, he fled in a blizzard into the wilderness on skis he manufactured, dragging his canoe behind him. Williams would eventually found Rhode Island making it a haven for all those rejected by Massachusetts and other colonies. Even Jews and Muslims were welcome.
Williams would resign as Providence’s minister when another arrived on the scene. Williams did not think one person should hold both pulpit and administrative positions. He also stopped going to church. Instead, Williams went out on the hill side and preached to the Algonquian who would arrive each Sunday wanting to learn about Jesus.
A pamphlet Williams authored while back in England seeking Rhode Island’s charter in the face of Massachusetts opposition would later influence the future King Charles II who incorporated Williams’ thoughts on tolerance in future colonial charters.
A tasty treat awaits those who persevere to the end of “Rekindled.” Irizarry serves dessert in the form a fictionalized conversation between Williams and a contemporary American as both stand in line awaiting judgment. Gay marriage is one of the subjects they chat about.
If your taste runs to American history, religious freedom, dramatic lives well lived and the tap root from which the Tree of Liberty grew, you will enjoy “Rekindled.” I urge you to give it a look.
Originally published 5/6/2016 in the Jefferson Jimplecute, Clarksville Times, and Little River News (Ashtown, AK) According to Ward Taylor, who founded the Jefferson, Texas paper in 1875, “Jimplecute” was formed by writing out “Join, Industry, Manufacturing, Planting, Labor, Energy, Capital (in), Unity, Together, Everlastingly.”
Order historical fiction novel Rekindled with the button below.
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The Rio Olympics may be the athlete’s big event, but for those watching they can inspire a new beginning. As Katinka Hosszu of Hungary shows us what it its like to come back stronger than ever and smash a world record, we can dream. As Oksana Chusovitina competes for Uzbekistan in her 7th Olympics at age 41, we can say like her as we are given another day to wake up in the morning, “I can do more.”
One way to start is to envision your “dream” event, and then plan to get to it. I’m beginning with the end in mind: the Dirty Kanza. Looks like a nice ride in the country — on gravel roads and rolling hills. It appears you need to average 10.5 MPH for 19 hours to make the cut-off for the 200 mile event. Registration doesn’t open until January next year, so I’ll decide later what distance would match my likely fitness level but for now we’ll dream of the 200 mile event.
My first weeks of training appear laid back. The main drill is get up and do training at least 5 days of 7, forcing changes to schedule and priorities. The next drill is dietary — its easier to eat correctly if there is an end in mind. Diet has to be addressed in the early stages because later you have to eat to ride. On a bicycle, the goal is use to high rotations at low gears, bring speed back while building tendons and ligaments back to sporting condition.
Join me! Let’s get going.
Order historical fiction novel Rekindled with the button below.
