JOSIAH Chapter Nine, Well Done, Billy Graham

Volume XIV, Issue IX

Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2018, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 9: Spoiling the Garden

As Josiah related it to West on Earth, it was not so clear how it started. He began with a bit of background, “You know, we now were ready to create a new evolution of human institutions so we intentionally cast off a lot of the ‘archaic’ rules of the past. Our society became a pragmatic one. We don’t force monogamy, for instance, insisting only that the society as a whole take responsibility for the needs of the children. Well, most of the settlers simply paired off like in the old days. They raised their own kids. They lived quiet lives. But there were some of the APOLLONIUS faction that were not content to stay within the lines. Human jealousy, I’m afraid, is still very real and when a man lies dead and another stands with a bloody stone in his hands asserting his boundaries, the institution’s response is not so clear anymore.”

What did you do next?” West asked.

Well, we don’t believe in capital punishment, so the question was how to deal with the crime. The killer was simply restricted to his portion of the greenhouse and was informed that if he ventured forth he would simply be forcibly returned. It was an answer, but it was not a good one. Over the years you can see the tension between his people and the people of the victim. Our society, I fear, is a very fearful and unsettled one at the moment. I’m beginning to wonder if we can actually achieve the vision APOLLONIUS left us with and I don’t say that lightly. Mr. West.”

So, should we begin to evacuate you? We can only move ten out in the transport that just landed, but we can send others. We can resupply the colony as we gradually get you home.”

But there are those who see this as home, and the life they’ve fled so wretched, that I believe they will not come.”

Think about it, Josiah, and we will formulate a plan for your evacuation and reassimilation.”

I will discuss it with the Counsel.”
(to be continued)

The Tomorrowland Problem
Study for a Fictitious Future Road


Classical columns mark the entrance to this Tunnel. [click to view]. Here is a graphic of a possible project by Zimmerman Bridge and Highway to complete a 'gap' in the United States Interstate System. Graphic by Bob Kirchman.


Leon Krier's 'City of Tomorrow'

Building on the Past
Poundbury, Leon Krier's Future City

Poundbury is based on some of the timeless principles that have enabled many places around Britain to endure and thrive over the centuries. It is a high density urban quarter of Dorchester which gives priority to people, rather than cars, and where commercial buildings are mixed with residential areas, shops and leisure facilities to create a walkable community. The result is an attractive and pleasing place, in keeping with the character of Dorchester, in which people live, work, shop and play. Commissioned by the Prince of Wales and designed by Leon Krier, Poundbury offers a vision for the future returning to a more human scale in its design. Therefore, Poundbury, in its mission, overcomes the ‘Tomorrowland Problem’ by specifying an architecture that transcends a small contemporary period. In many ways it creates a timeless place for its inhabitants. Even more important, the people love it.

An economic assessment completed by Dorset County Council has concluded that the Poundbury development has already contributed over £330million in demand for goods and services to the local economy and will contribute a further £500million by 2025. Poundbury is an urban extension to the Dorset county town of Dorchester, built on Duchy of Cornwall land, according to timeless principles of architecture and urban planning as advocated by HRH The Prince of Wales. It is currently home to 1,500 people in different types of housing, including social housing, as well as providing employment for some 1,000 people. The report estimates that the construction activity that has taken place in Poundbury since 1994, when the development began, has created the equivalent of 1,877 person-years in employment and 1,049 business-years of work for firms including the self-employed. These figures will grow over the next 15 years as the development is completed. The assessment indicates that when Poundbury is completed it will be supporting over 430 new full-time equivalent jobs and 121 new businesses in the local area on a long-term basis. This means a contribution of around £40million per annum in increased demand for local goods and services and a net equivalent of about £20million per annum added to the local economy.

Simon Conibear, Poundbury Development Manager said: “We have always been aware that Poundbury has been a major source of employment and economic activity, for Dorchester particularly, but it is interesting to have this quantified. The important thing is the legacy we leave, and it is encouraging that even after construction activity ceases in 15 years time, there will be a continuing major economic benefit to the Dorset sub-region.”Anne Gray of Dorset County Council said: “Poundbury has already had a positive economic impact and there is more to come. A long-lived project such as this is really important to the area both throughout the construction phase and in terms of the permanent impacts which will be felt in the sub-region.”

Over the course of the development, Poundbury is expected to increase the population of Dorchester by about one-quarter, by approximately 5,000 people. By early 2010, there were 931 completed dwellings, with more than 25 per cent social housing, and a population of around 1,820 . More than 1,100 people were employed in businesses located at Poundbury. Poundbury is now more than a third built with plans for 2,466 homes by 2025. Poundbury has proved increasingly influential, attracting international interest and generating hundreds of organised tours every year from architects, town planners and others. The success of Poundbury has now been recognised far beyond Dorset and many of the principles have been incorporated into the Government’s Planning Guidance Note (PPG3). Poundbury was also highlighted as an exemplar in “Living Working Countryside. The Taylor Review of Rural Economy and Affordable Housing” a report by Matthew Taylor MP, published in July 2008 and commissioned by the Government.


Human-scaled Poundsbury.













A Royal Revolution
Is Prince Charles’s Poundbury Vision Having Last Laugh

[click to read]

In a room of raw concrete block walls and exposed steel beams, a man with a long hipster beard takes an order on his iPad and froths up a flat white. Young mums and retired couples sit at long communal tables among Wi-Fi workers. It could be a trendy east London cafe in a repurposed industrial space, but this is the centre of Poundbury, the Prince of Wales’s traditionalist model village in Dorset. And there’s not a doily or tweed jacket in sight. (read more)

Loving the Arab and the Israeli
A Loving Understanding of the Middle East's Peoples

[click to read]

Two narratives exist today in Christendom about the Middle-East. Depending on your church affiliation, you may hear one or the other. If you attend a mainline Presbyterian Church, say in the PCUSA, you are likely to hear a narrative such as this: “The poor Palestinians have been oppressed by the Jewish ‘occupiers’ of their homeland.” In that point of view, the Palestinians are the victims, the state of Israel is a ‘modern invention’ and has nothing to do with the work of God today. Visit a more Evangelical branch of the church and you may find what seems quite the opposite, a devotion to the modern state of Israel as fulfillment of Prophecy. In this scenario the Arab population often seems to be portrayed as the villain. So, you ask, “Who is ‘right?’” Michael Onifer and Joshua Charles take on this complex and often confusing question in their book: God, Israel and You. Rather than present a pre-selected narrative and plug in Scripture to affirm it, the authors approach the subject with a very open study of history and Scripture, acknowledging the warts and wrinkles. You will emerge from this book loving the Arab people. You will emerge from this book loving the Jew. (read more)

On Calling and IMAGO DEI
Discerning the Strokes of the Master

O Master Maker! Thy exultant art
Goes forth in making makers.”
—George MacDonald

If George MacDonald is correct in asserting that all wickedness tends to destroy individuality, then the Christian should have more individuality than anyone else. Purged of the encumbering weight of the wicked self and knighted by the accolade of the All-Sufficient, he should demonstrate daily the abundance that is repeatedly declared to be in Christ. Macdonald says of the white stone with the new name in the Book of Revelation that it is given because it expresses “the character, the nature, the meaning of the person who bears it. It is the man’s own symbol—his soul’s picture, in a word—the sign which belongs to him and no one else.” The great Creator Artist wants to render not only a Christian in His image but at the same time produce a portrait of the real qua man (for it is man and not the angels who are saves) relieved of the debilitation and devilish self.

Among devoted young Christians seeking the fullest possible service of God, the personality is frequently weighed in precisely the wrong manner, or perhaps we should say ignored. Urged to “empty the self” and submit to God’s consuming fire their most prized possession, they sometimes tragically withdraw from the very talent that God has uniquely given. This in part accounts for the number of failures in Christian service. It is as if a man with obvious talents—let us say in bridge building—should convince himself that bridge building is the one thing not to undertake but rather that he must become a poet. Christian young people ask with a soul-stirring devotion to God, what shall I do with my life? And are told in effect to become a missionary, become a minister, or become a Christian businessman or housewife. What a tragic dearth of imagination. Not, of course, that there is not room for a great variety in these categories, but that the method itself is constrictive.

One suggestion is that we spend less time telling young Christians and more inquiring of them with a view of entering, and having them honestly enter, the crepuscular (dim) world of their motives and talents. Then we need to remind young people often that patterning their life after another—a common practice in all men—has some advantages and other decided disadvantages. I had the privilege of talking with Grandma Moses, the primitive painter, and she told me her agents disliked for her to go down to New York City and particularly for her to go to art galleries. They were afraid she would lose the delightful naiveté which makes up her native genius. Young people should be similarly cautioned to look for God-given uniqueness in themselves and when discovered (and I feel there is much more of it than now appears) warned to guard and cherish it.”
—Clyde S. Kilby, Arts and the Christian Imagination

A Little Inconvenient History
by George, from WashingtonsBlog [2.]

[click to read]

George writes: “I was raised to be against guns. My parents hated guns, and believed that they only lead to crime and accidental shootings. I was raised in a blue state, and I have long been deeply influenced by leading voices for non-violence, such as Gandhi and King. So – until recently – I was pro gun-control. As such, I was stunned to learn about the historical background behind gun control campaigns.” (read more)

Well Done
Good and Faithful Servant

Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

At 99 years of age, Billy Graham has stepped into the presence of the Lord. He has heard the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant!” from the Master’s lips. I do not think it is coincidental that the great man has left us at this time. Remembering the Spirit that drove his life is exactly what we need right now.

Our world is a mess. We have serious problems. No amount of brilliant engineering or institutional solutionism will renew the human heart. Graham’s life work was bringing people to God. God changed the hearts. In Graham’s heyday, secular society at least nodded to the positive influence of Faith. Today the hosts of a major network TV show call Vice President Pence’s devotion to his Faith a “mental illness.” The secular academy largely promotes that notion as well – and yet, when we breathe our last or face challenges beyond our comprehension, that academy and that popular culture fails us. All they can offer us is comfort in accepting the present. They can offer us no life beyond this one and they can offer us no help beyond our own strained resources.

Graham ministered to a succession of Presidents. The leaders who had to forge earthly solutions looked to the friendship of a man who’s citizenship was Heavenly. The fact that Graham was a trusted friend to so many Presidents says volumes about the true stature of a man of Faith in the halls of power. Like Pence, Graham made sure his dealings with women were above reproach. It is said that when Graham travelled he was never alone. Upon entering his hotel, his aides would enter his room first lest someone be hiding there with the intention of creating a sordid story. He knew the stories of other men’s fallings and did not think himself better than them. Rather, he made sure his life on the road was an open book.

He considered himself a simple preacher of the Gospel and usually avoided political issues. Still, in the days of Watergate, he was sharply criticized for standing by his friend Richard Nixon. He clearly taught the Scriptures and in that way he did indeed comment on the issues of his day. His son Franklin is more direct in applying those same Scriptures to the issues of our day, but this is a different time and we perhaps need that directness as popular culture and the academy seek to deny the power of Divine Principle. Thankfully Reverend Graham’s passing gives us as a people the opportunity to look at the great gift that Faith is to us – and that most Americans still acknowledge. I see a race…

It is a relay. The baton has been passed. It has not been passed to Franklin, but to us. Each one of us is called to run our ‘Anchor Lap’ in this great race. Before Billy Graham ran his lap, there was Paul. He put it this way: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” – Phillipians 3:13,14


Martin Luther King and Billy Graham.

“Removing the Ropes of Racism”
Billy Graham Integrated Crusades in the 1950s

In 1957 the Reverend Billy Graham invited Dr. Martin Luther King to pray at his 1957 Crusade and later to speak at a ministry retreat to help his staff better understand America’s racial divide. In the 1950’s Graham insisted that his crusades be integrated. It was often customary to divide audiences comprised of black and white people with a rope. Graham removed the rope. He made it quite clear that we were equal before God and that at a Billy Graham Crusade, that meant equal access.

We must remember that this was the America of the South, struggling out of its Jim Crow past toward Civil Rights, Massive Resistance and Affirmative Action. In such context, Graham’s friendship with Dr. King can be seen as a true step forward. Modern observers say Graham didn’t go far enough. In the 1960s he personally bailed King out of prison but did not join him in his Washington rally. In retrospect Graham himself lamented “missing the mark” here.

He chose to focus on his work of evangelism, feeling that true reform would spring forth out of true revival. While his son Franklin is often criticized for political involvement, his father is criticized for holding back. I think it is clear that Billy Graham felt the causes were important though. When he went to South Africa, he insisted the crusades be integrated their as well. It was but a beginning. The great task of true reconciliation has become ours, but Billy Graham showed us how to take the first steps.

JOSIAH Chapter Eight, Billy Graham Dies at 99

Volume XIV, Issue VIII

Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2018, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 8: Déjà Vu All Over Again

That ship never came. For decades the little band struggled on. Josiah struggled to lead them. A small core of APOLLONIUS devotees were always perturbed that the collective mindset originally prescribed was not adhered to. They were led by Mark and Sergey, who had barely made it through Elizabeth Zimmerman’s vetting process. Though the group as a whole dispensed rapidly with addressing each other by number, Mark and Sergey resisted that change to the bitter end. Finally it was only them referring to each other by number anyway. Then they gave it up.

The problem was that the two of them brooded together privately and stirred up some dissention publicly. Sergey would often interrupt Josiah with the statement, “that’s not by the book.” He was committed to restoring the purity of the original colony mission as he saw it. Josiah’s leadership was necessary now but in the long run it would have to go.

The two doctors gravitated to this mindset. They arrived at the colony both expecting and when their babies came they attached themselves to some men of the APOLLONIUS faction. APOLLONIUS was not the only person on Earth pushing for colonization, they reasoned. Others would follow and they would be the charter village of the new order when the latecomers arrived. Josiah had inventoried the remaining stores and they were actually not in any immediate danger of depleting resources. The doctors, for their part, did not strongly resist the change to home education. They considered their children the rightful heirs of APOLLONIUS and intended to raise them as such. Combined education might indeed get in the way of that.

Then there was the Allison/Josiah faction. They held rule of the colony by necessity and because of Josiah’s giftedness in that area. Even their enemies acknowledged this. The loss of APOLLONIUS had left most of the colonists quite rudderless if the truth be known. Steeped in the Progressive thought that had been overshadowed by a rebirth of Faith in the North Country, they were quite capable of creating institutions but clueless as to the deeper stirring of human nature that seemed to make them run so wretchedly.

The new colony was to have no prisons, but it became clear over the years that the folly that necessitated them was still present in humankind. Though they had cast off all of the antiquated beliefs and institutions, they were surprised at the dark shadows that had followed them across the solar system. Josiah dealt with the raft of petty crimes within the community with an application of something very much resembling the old ‘Golden Rule.’ When thievery was discovered, restitution was expected. Abusive and violent situations were not so easy. Initially mandatory separation of the aggressive parties seemed to work, but then there was the murder.
(to be continued)

Billy Graham Dies at 99
America's Pastor Now in Glory


Many of us thank Billy Graham for introducing us to the Kingdom of Heaven. At 99 years of age, he has now tasted it in its fullness.

Winter at Wrightsville Beach
Nineteenth Century North Carolina Ocean Playground


In 1853 the Carolina Yacht Club, currently the second oldest east coast yacht club (NY Yacht Club established in 1844), was founded on The Banks, which later became Wrightsville Beach. Here an azalea blooms in February on the leeward side of the Yacht Club building.


A Winter morning dawns over the dunes of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.

Nineteenth Century beachgoers flocked to the shore on a streetcar line that ran from Wilmington, North Carolina to the beach. In 1889 A trestle across Banks Channel was constructed and by 1906 there was direct Pullman service from Atlanta, Georgia to Wrightsville Beach. In 1901 Consolidated Railways, Light and Power Company was formed. Not only did they power the trolleys, they provided free electricity to the residents of the beach. It remained free until 1917!

In 1905, Lumina, the “Beautiful Place of Lights” was built by the power company as an entertainment destination. The three story pavilion featured a magnificent ballroom with the first scientifically designed band shell on the East coast. It became known as the “Showplace of the Atlantic.” It was damaged substantially in 1954 by Hurricane Hazel and was demolished in 1973.

Wrightsville today is a community of beautiful beach cottages and some nice hotels, but the name of Lumina Avenue recalls a day when Wrightsville was an ‘Electrical Prototype Community of Tomorrow!’ [1.]


Guests Enjoying Moonlight Bathing, from a turn of the century tinted postcard, at Wrightsville Beach’s Seashore Hotel. The Seashore Hotel, considered an early showplace on the island, opened with 180 rooms (150 with fireplaces) on the current site of the Blockade Runner Hotel. The Seashore Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1919, but rebuilt in 1922…


…the Contemporary Blockade Runner Hotel replaced it in 1964, becoming the largest hotel on Wrightsville Beach.


The Gardens of the Blockade Runner Hotel in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.


The space under a porch on Wrightsville Beach's Lumina Avenue becomes a special place for children, touched by the hand of an unnamed muralist.


The Lumina Pavilion, from an old post card.


Direct Pullman Service from Atlanta.


The Atlantic Ocean on a Winter Morning. Photo by Bob Kirchman.

The ‘Tomorrowland Problem’
by Bob Kirchman


Disney's Tomorrowland in 1955.

Basically, when you create a detailed vision of the future—it’s the PRESENT! That, in a nutshell, is the ‘Tomorrowland Problem.’ In 1955 Walt Disney opened the ‘Tomorrowland’ portion of Disneyland, complete with a ‘TWA’ passenger rocket that resembled a German V2. It was exciting in its day but a mere 15 years later man had walked on the moon. The exhibit was dated. Epcot’s futuristic ‘permanent world’s fair’ created a similar problem. Tomorrowlands all too quickly became deco visions of the past attempts to visualize the future.


Disney Paris's Jules Verne Imagery.

For Disney Paris, a wonderful solution presented itself. Harper Goff had created a Jules Verne submarine for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which was a wonderful study in what Victorian and Edwardian engineers might have come up with (Verne’s own illustrations of the Nautilus were of a sleek and simple boat). In Disney Paris, the huge canon from From the Earth to the Moon launches riders on a variation of Disney’s popular Space Mountain. The whole Jules Verne concept was intriguing and quite successful.

Now Disney Imagineers looked to Tomorrowland in Disney World, Florida. They saw the glow coming off of that park’s iconic Space Mountain and so they painted over the white sculptural mountain in greens and browns. It was an awkward modification—eventually reversed, but it taught us something about the soul of the architecture.


Chicago's 1893 World's Fair.

In 1893, Chicago hosted its world’s fair and presented an America bouncing back from a devastating Civil War a pristine ‘White City’ based on classical forms. Here the past was invoked to influence the future. Chicago kept some of the classical buildings as public structures and inspired a great building of classical architecture across the nation. This continued well into the early decades of the Twentieth Century and enriched many an American small town and city!

But in those same decades, a modern architecture developed. Some of it, unfortunately was sparse at best and at times brutally ugly. Even Albert Speers’s ‘Germania,’ though classical, was brutally scaled and diminished the human inhabitant. A dark, monolithic vision for the future emerged. With the defeat of the National Socialists, Europe rebuilt herself with the help of the Marshall Plan. A lot of Europe’s beautiful architecture was rebuilt, but a lot of charming neighborhoods, destroyed by war, were rebuilt in Le Corbusier style apartment blocks. (Thank HEAVEN the Nazis did not burn Paris)! In the United States, the same design was applied to public housing.

In 1964, the New York World’s Fair became a vision for the future as well. The buildings were bold and some of them seem quite outlandish today. Those who remembered the 1939 New York fair might find it quite similar to the 1955 Tomorrowland in the way its imagery has aged.

When I started creating the future world of Big Diomede for the PONTIFUS series, I purposely looked to the past—a lot like the architects who built the ‘White City.’ The Disney Corporation never built EPCOT as an inhabitable city like Disney originally envisioned it. They later created ‘Celebration,’ a decidedly more traditional community. Even in Brazil’s futuristic capital, traditional style homes have popped up in its outlying neighborhoods while in the center workers struggle to maintain the ultramodern government buildings.

The lessons to be learned are probably that the future arrives all to quickly and overshadows our attempts to render it and that the past is always a good resource as we seek to go forward.


The Chapel in the Big Diomede Biosphere under construction.

JOSIAH Chapter Seven, Ash Wednesday, Lent

Volume XIV, Issue VII

Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2018, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 7: Generations

Having quite likely spared the colonists the agony of the Pilgrims’ first year, Josiah and Allison divided the greenhouses into plots. They encouraged the building of mud houses on one’s own section and the mere expediency of being on the land gave each settler a sense of purpose when he or she awoke in the morning. There even developed a bit of healthy competition in keeping one’s rows straighter than that of her neighbor. The result was, of course, a better yield than the original collective method might have produced.

The artisans who ran machines that wove cloth, the repairers of pressure suits, the makers of fired pottery and plates all collected in houses close to one another and although this was to have been a cashless society, a simple accounting and currency system emerged nonetheless. Eventually a little cookhouse developed into a tavern. The owners fermented a bit of grain for ‘personal use’ at first but as the years passed, they made enough to share and then sell. Their skill in preparing food did not go unnoticed and soon they were a regular stop for the settlers. There much discussion and business would be transacted.

There were no movies. There was no radio. All of the really high technology had been destroyed in the explosion, but somehow the noisy engines of agriculture and production had been relegated to the fringe… and that is why they survived. Evenings were quiet and the settlers eventually produced children. Although APOLLONIUS was originally planning to raise them in collective nurseries, the simple life of the settlers made it more logical for small family groups to raise their own children. In the decades that followed, those children had children. That is why the colony now had 122 souls. Obviously that part of colonization worked pretty much as planned.

As the years passed, youthful Josiah found his hair tinged with grey. He now watched grandchildren play in the yard of the much enlarged mud house. He vaguely remembered a phenomenon that someone in the Zimmerman Organization had referred to as ‘White Dog Thinking.’ It seems that in his younger days, Zimmerman had known a couple who were so convinced that the world was so awful that they decided to have no children. Instead, they lavished their affections on a series of large white dogs. The colonists, for their part, were so steeped in the mindset that they needed to be fruitful that as bad as things seemed, they never succumbed to ‘White Dog Thinking.’ Surely another ship would come and the colony would go on. The world they had left was really a bad place, they reasoned. It was only a matter of time until Mars became what APOLLONIUS had envisioned – a new home and hope for humanity!
(to be continued)

Stones of Remembrance
Remembering G-d's Mighty Works in Our Lives


Angus Dei (Lamb of G-d), by Kristina Elaine Greer. [1.]

One of the greatest challenges to our Faith is our forgetfulness. Pastor Seth Hankee preached our sermon one Sunday about how the people were instructed to remember the great things G-d had done for them. G-d separated the Jordan, as He had the Red Sea, for the people to walk across and gave them the following command:

And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.

Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your G-d into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.

And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day." -- Joshua 4:1-9

The Passover meal had already been instituted as testimony to G-d's redemption, so that a child would ask: "Why is this Night Different from all Other Nights?" The story in a meal gave illustration to the miracle that had carried the people out of Egypt.

For the Christian, remembering deliverance from sin is the greatest miracle. In preparation for Easter, the Church observes Lent, reminding us of the deliverance Jesus brought us by way of the cross: 

Ash Wednesday emphasizes two themes: our sinfulness before G-d and our human mortality. The service focuses on both themes, helping us to realize that both have been triumphed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During some Ash Wednesday services, the minister will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads of worshipers. The use of ashes as a sign of mortality and repentance has a long history in Jewish and Christian worship. Historically, ashes signified purification and sorrow for sins."-- —Adapted from The United Methodist Book of Worship

So it is very important to tell our stories of redemption, using reminders that will stir our minds to recall times when we were vividly aware of the Divine reaching out to touch our lives. Pastor Seth showed us a little children's book he had saved from his first house... on closer examination you could see the tire print on the page, a reminder of how when a car careened into his living room, it had narrowly missed hitting his wife and young child. Certainly G-d had protected his young family and that little book now told a much bigger story!

So now it is time to commit ourselves to the telling of the great stories, the ones that end in redemption and deliverance from our present condition. The Book of Judges follows the Book of Joshua and gives a sober warning: "And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.

And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." -- Judges 2:8-10

The importance of stories and their redemptive narrative cannot be emphasized enough. Passing the torch must always be a priority in every generation.

1. "I did this with a sheet of 8.5"x11" computer paper some ashes from my fireplace and canola oil. I mixed up some of the oil and ashes similar to how they are mixed on Ash Wednesday and painted them on the paper in a cross then sprinkled the rest of the dry ashes on top. I then found one of the music compositions for "Agnus Dei," Latin for Lamb of G-d, on www.hymnary.org [click to read] and cut out strictly the music overlaying it and changing the opacity over the picture of my ash cross. Then I added the Latin words meaning, "Lamb of G-d, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us, grant us peace." This piece is to remind us that we are sinners made up of dust, but G-d loved us so much, he took mercy on us sending His son as a sacrificial lamb, to take away our sins. If we believe and accept his sacrifice we are granted this eternal peace and life with Him. May the Lord bless you all and lead you closer to Him during this season of Lent, looking forward to the promise of Easter. Amen." -- Kristina Elaine Greer

Ash Wednesday and Lent
A Time For Reflection and Redirection


Sunset in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Guest Post by M. K. Hand

You might notice people walking around with cross-shaped smudges on their foreheads. There is no "mystical" attribute assigned to this practice. The ashes are a physical reminder of our need for repentance, and a symbol of the dependency of humans on G-d's mercy through Jesus Christ.

Why ashes? The Bible speaks of man returning to dust and ashes (from whence he came), and Job smeared himself with dust and ashes as a symbol of atonement. Also, in the Old Testament, animals were sacrificed to G-d for atonement, and they were burnt to ashes. When Jesus came as a living sacrifice, the Law was no longer applicable, and animal sacrifices were no longer needed for atonement. Jesus was the final sacrifice...He ushered us into a time of Grace through Faith, once and for all.

Lent, the season leading up to Easter, is a time of increased attention to charity (love), prayer, and fasting for Christians. It is a special time to reflect, repent and rejoice. It prepares our hearts to fully take in and celebrate the sacrifice, atonement, and grace made possible by Jesus' crucifixion, and the restoration of our relationship, broken by our sin, with the Father. Many people fast, give up something meaningful to them, or turn away from a sin that has taken hold of their life; fasting is also a way to identify with the sacrifice made by Jesus at Calvary. May this time leading up to Easter be a time of reflection, repentance, and rejoicing for you!

Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your G-d: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." ~ Joel 2:12-13

The Real Saint Valentine


Saint Valentine baptizing St. Lucilla, Jacopo Bassano, 1500s

Valentine or Valentinus, is a Christian martyr. The most common story is told that Valentine was a priest in third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death in 270 AD. While in prison, Valentine is said to have sent the first “valentine,” a letter that he signed “From your Valentine.”

Sherando Lake Winter Scene
Photo by Bob Kirchman


Reflected trees by the spillway of Sherando Lake Dam.

JOSIAH Chapter Six, The EPCOT Never Built

Volume XIV, Issue VI

Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2018, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 6: And there's No One There to Raise Them

An hour or so later, Allison heard voices. Then the two stepped into an open area where the remainder of their colonists stood assembled. A heated discussion was underway about the future of the colony. Men and women who had been subjugated into numbers struggled openly with the task before them of leading the colony. The two Russian doctors had tried to take charge but that had obviously gone badly. There was already emerging a faction that blamed APOLLONIUS and anyone associated with him for the present calamity. Another faction, equally as vociferous, blamed the AAR. The truth was that no one at the moment really trusted either. As Allison and Josiah stepped into their midst, they became silent.

In the reality of farming a new world, it was already obvious that there were those who labored harder than others. It was also obvious that there were those who felt their status allowed them to live off of the labors of others. Here, many miles from Earth, was a scene from the time the Pilgrims set foot in America. The ‘Common Course and Condition’ had resulted in general lack of initiative among the colonists as a group. Josiah stepped forward. Relating the story of his and Allison’s survival, he then suggested a division of labor more in keeping with the flight director’s world that they inhabited. Each colonist would be given a section of greenhouse as their own. They would be responsible for their own sector’s productivity.

Indeed, they would need to cooperate and work together, but Josiah had now insured that each area would have a responsible person over it. In doing so, he unwittingly ‘elected’ himself leader of the APOLLONIUS Colony on Mars.

Josiah then asked how so many of them were in the particular area that survived. Amazingly, all but APOLLONIUS and a couple of launch officers were here intact after an event that might have destroyed them all.

It seems that APOLLONIUS had chosen to launch his missile at the time of an important farming lecture. The whole colony turned out, concerned that they really were confused and they wanted to learn more as a matter of survival. Even the doctors showed up, skeptical of the health claims in the course’s description. They would, they thought, weigh in to discredit it. The result was that the colony itself was quite uninhabited at the time of its destruction. Had APOLLONIUS planned this? That might never be known, for he and his launch technicians perished quite suddenly in the explosion.

Ironically, the basic farming methodology for the colony was from a text known as ‘Squanto’s Garden,’ which had guided the Northern greenhouse culture. It invoked the simple methods of early farmers and avoided heavy use of pesticides.
(to be continued)

Winter Trees
Photos by Bob Kirchman











Winter Trees
William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
– Isaiah‬ ‭55:10-13

Harper Goff, Imagineer


Harper Goff.

In 1951, my wife and I were in London. I was always a miniature train fan, so I went to Bassett-Lowke, Ltd... I was trying to find something I could bring back as an antique. I found one, and the man said, ‘There’s a gentleman coming in this evening who’s shown some interest in that. I can’t sell it to you, because I think he may think it’s being saved for him.’” That is how Harper Goff begins his story of meeting Walt Disney! Indeed Disney came back and bought the train, but he met Goff and got into a conversation with him. Disney offered Harper Goff a job and the rest is history.

Goff was a talented artist, watercolorist, set designer and musician. The Disney organization was a place where he would flourish.

Harper Goff was born on March 16, 1911 in Fort Collins, Colorado. As a boy he was artistic like Disney. After studies at the Chouinard Art Institute he initially became a magazine illustrator. He worked for a while at Warner Brothers before his fateful meeting with Walt.

Disney was embarking on a project to make a full-length feature film of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Goff found himself designing the iconic ‘Steampunk’ submarine for the movie. Years later he wrote:

I was assigned the task of getting together a 'true-life' adventure film using some exceptional underwater footage shot in a laboratory aquarium, by Dr. McGinnity of Cal-Tech's Marine Biology lab in Carona Del Mar. Walt (Disney) thought inasmuch as "20,000 L.U.T.S." was in public domain we might do worse than use the title for a current True-Life adventure short subject. Walt went to England and I stayed in Burbank and made a story-board of a live action version of the classic using McGinnity's footage as a sort of ballet episode where Nemo shows Aronax the wonders of the deep. Walt liked the story-board well enough to have me give an 'A.R.I.' (Audience Reaction Inquiry) to a group of exhibitors who were in town. They were enthusiastic and the rest is history.

In motion pictures, the text of a classic like this subject is sacrosanct like the Bible! The 'word' of Jules Verne is not to be made light of, so the duty of the production designer like myself is to take the sometimes arbitary discriptions of the Nautilus as recorded by 'J.V.' and "make it work".

a. Jules Verne while foreseeing brilliantly the atomic submarine of today, did not at that time invent the periscope, the torpedo tube, or sonar. He did not prophesy closed curcut television. According to Verne, if Nemo wanted to see what was going on the surface, he simply poked the glass ports of the conning tower out of the depths and took a direct look. He risked his vessel, himself, and his crew by ramming the enemy at frightening speed. If he wanted to study the marvels of life under the surface, he reclined in his elegent bay window lounge, and passed the hours studying the marine life outside the amazing pressure proof window of his luxurious salon. These items dictated much of the direction of my production designs.

b. Nemo is quoted by Verne as telling Aronax that "I need no coal for my bunkers. I have instead harnessed the very building blocks of the material universe to heat my boilers and drive this craft". No one can doubt Verne meant Atomic Power.

c. It is not sound economics to study and design obviously unnesscessary parts of the Nautilus if it will not appear on screen. The crews quarters were thus unaccounted for. In Verne's original text Nemo from time to time leaves the chart room and steps directly into other diversified areas of the submarine. Directors do not like to slow down the action and clutter up a dramatic moment by showing actors leave a room, lift a hatch, enter another room.

d. At the time Captain Nemo constructed Nautilus on Mysterious Island, the iron riveted ship was the last word in marine construction. I have always thought rivet patterns were beautiful. I wanted no slick shelled moonship to transport Nemo thru the emerald deep and so fought and somehow got my way. On Mysterious Island Nemo had the white hot heat of a volcano to help him build his dreamship, but I am sure that flat iron plates profusely riveted would have been his way. His stock pile of material was always the countless sunken ships uniquely available to him alone. Even the Greek amphora and the works of art that graced his great salon was salvaged from wrecks.

e. The free diving suits - (self-contained) were developed by myself with the assistance of Fred Zender, and exceptionally able underwater man. The helmets were souped-up Japanese pearl diving helmets. We masked the scuba gear, let water into the helmet, put a breathing tube in our mouth, the clamps on our nose and one night in 1952 Freddie and I walked slowly from the shallow end to the deep end of the Santa Monica pool. Lead around our middle and 16 lbs. shoes...it worked! Many had predicted failure. This formed the basis of the suits that appeared in the film. We spent 9 hrs. a day, 7 days a week for 8 weeks at Lyford Key in the Bahamas, underwater! Never lost a man, Fred was in charge of safety.

f. 20,000 Leagues was the second cinemascope picture to go into production. Fox had the worldrights to the anamorphic lenses developed by a French inventor named Cretien. This lense "squeezes" the horizontal dimensions of a scene into half the normal area on a cinema frame. If projected thru an anamorphic projection lense it "unsqueezes" this image and the resulting image is widescreen. Fox had only one lense to lease and this meant that Disney could not shoot miniture set ups while the main action sequences were before the cameras. I hit upon the idea of having the prop miniature shop build a "squeezed" Nautilus miniature. The model was built half as wide and half as long, but just as high. Even the rivets were "squeezed". This one miniature was shot with a normal lense. If care was taken to insure the Nautilus remained on an even keel, the resulting footage was more than adequate. When "unsqueezed" by anamorphic projection, the image of the Nautilus was stretched to normal proportions. Of course the bubbles looked strange, but no one seemed to mind. The success of this experiment made it possible for the special effects department to make its necessary footage of many of the underwater miniatures simultaniously with principal photography of the actors.

g. My idea has always been that the shark and the alligator were the most terrifying monsters living in the water. I there for combined the scary eyes of the alligator that can watch you even when it is nearly submerged....with the dangerous pointed nose and menacing dorsal fin - its sleek streamlining and its distinctive tail. The disgusting rough skin of the alligator is well simulated by the rivets. As Verne insists that the Nautilus drove its way clean threw it's victim, I designed a protective sawtooth spline that started forward at the bulb of the ram and slid around all outjutting structures of the hull. These included the conning tower, the diving planes, and the great helical propeller at the stern.

Sincerely,

Harper Goff”

Goff’s creativity played in a lot of Disney’s projects. He was part of the creation of the original Disneyland Park. Not only did he create the visuals for park attractions, he played banjo with the original “Firehouse Five Plus Two” band. He even earned the ire of Disney as the band, in keeping with their name, began playing sets in front of the fire house on Main Street. Disney’s private apartment just happened to be upstairs in the fire house and Disney did not appreciate the band disturbing his ‘power naps.’

Eventually Harper Goff went on to freelance and designed parts of the great world’s fairs in the 1960s. He returned to Disney in 1975 and created pavilions for Epcot. Harper Goff passed away in 1993 and was awarded the Disney Organization’s highest honor: Disney Legend.


Harper Goff's Nautilus. Disney Photo.

Improving on Jules Verne
This 1962 Film Actually Told a Better Story

[click to read more]

Jules Verne’s first published novel was Five Weeks in a Balloon. It details an expedition across Africa and was very well received by his readers. It reads more like a travelogue than an adventure though. Verne’s publisher, Jules Hetzel, would later ask him to include more adventure and even romance in later works. The story of Aouda, the woman Phineas Fogg rescues in India, is in answer to that criticism.

The Twentieth Century Fox film, made in 1962, adds adventure and romance to Verne’s original novel. Rather than a mapping expedition, the trip as rewritten in Irwin Allen’s screenplay becomes a race to stop slavers from occupying a piece of territory. The cause becomes more heroic. (read more)

The EPCOT Never Built
Disney's Unrealized Magnum Opus

Walt Disney died before he could begin construction on what might have been his Magnum Opus. His brother Roy continued his plan to build the Florida Magic Kingdom and EPCOT eventually was built as a permanent world’s fair. Look at these renderings and models, however, and it is quite clear that Walt had bigger things in mind when he laid out the concept for his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.

The Original EPCOT Vision [click to view]



Conference on Rural Prosperity
White House Conference Addresses Heartland Issues

[click to read more]


Terry Kelley, Beverley Manor Magisterial District Supervisor attends the White House Conference on Rural Prosperity.

How do we arrive at such things as the lowest minority unemployment rates in history and a strengthened economy in the Heartland? Behind the scenes work like this conference attended by Beverley Manor Supervisor Terry Kelley are part of the process of returning America to the people who make her robust. (read more)


Vice-President Mike Pence addresses the delegates.

Bright Light in Darkest Hour

[click to read more]


Elizabeth Layton Nel, Churchill's wartime secretary.

This past weekend I saw ‘Darkest Hour,’ Joe Wright’s film about Winston Churchill in May of 1940 and his facing the challenge of Europe’s fall and the immanent threat of invasion faced by Great Britain at the beginning of World War II. It is a wonderfully inspiring story of a great and flawed man who was indeed the man history needed in a time so overwhelming. Gary Oldman is very convincing as Churchill. His rendition of the “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” speech to Parliament had me fully invested in the story. (read more)