a.d. elliott - Take the Back Roads

Dear Henry, Wow, it's been a while. Let's catch up. I've been so busy! Several months ago, I took a part-time job at a local bookstore to get out of the house and out of my head (plus, you know, the discount). I had just begun adjusting to the physical demands of retail work when the Christmas shopping season (and working hours) began. I'm not quite sure if it's because of "the accident" or because I'm a pudgy middle-aged woman, but wow, I've been exhausted. So, I put everything on hold and dedicated myself to reading the entire 14-book Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan ( read his Everyday Patriot biography here ). I've been keeping my feet up when I wasn't at work, and I'm just now getting used to the job. This season of holiday hours has helped me feel better about my Camino plans. I've always worried that it would be too challenging, but I now know I can spend six to eight hours a day on my feet, multiple days in a row.  Now,...

 Dear Henry, In the early 1990s, I began reading Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" books and was hooked on the story. I was so hooked, in fact, that I started stalking bookstores for the latest release.   The "Wheel of Time" is a tremendously long story, and in 2006, eleven books into the series, I began watching impatiently for the next book while simultaneously hoping he would wrap the story up. But that was not to be. Robert Jordan was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis and died in 2007.    I was so disappointed that I wasn't going to learn the end of the story, and recently, I've found myself back in that place of disappointment. Years ago, when the injuries from " the accident " required an early retirement, I had anticipated earning "enough" from the advertisement revenues on my blogs and the occasional photography sale. I never expected to gain the popularity of Didion or Adams, but I thought I could earn something. I had read a...

  Dear Henry, Book 14, Euripides "Bacchae" of the Bucket List Book Adventure ( read about that here ), is done! Let me tell you all about it. Bacchae was one of the final plays of Euripides (c484-406 BC) and was not performed at the Festival of Dionysus until 405 BC, a year or so after his death, and would win the festival that year. So far, in my limited reading of ancient Greek literature, I have come to the opinion that of the three great tragedians - Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides, Euripides wrote the darkest work. (Aeschylus' " Ajax " was pretty darned dark too)  "H ippolytus " made me say 'wow,' but Euripides's play "Bacchae" really hit close to home.  The play is about the god Dionysus's interaction with Theban Cadmus, his daughter Agave, and his grandson King Pentheus. Dionysus had a beef with all three. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele, who was also a daughter of Cadmus. Hera found out abo...

Dear Henry, I have just recently finished a study on the Gospel of Matthew, and while I've gone through this gospel several times, I am always surprised by some part of the story that sticks out. This time, it was Judas Iscariot and his betrayal of Jesus. Did you know that Judas's motivation for that betrayal is nowhere in the scriptures?   Of course, we all know he received 30 pieces of silver for his betrayal, but even then, 30 pieces of silver wasn't a great deal of money. Perhaps about four months' wages and a small amount for condemning a person to death, much less a friend and the Messiah. And I wonder if the lack of Judas's reasons and excuses is deliberate.   In other words, it doesn't matter WHY Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, only that he did. His "reasons" are "beside the point." And it occurred to me, during my contemplations, that I do something similar (albeit not nearly as severe) to my husband all of the time. You see, I have a...

Dear Henry, Book 13, Euripides "Hippolytus" of the Bucket List Book Adventure ( read about that here ), is done! Let me tell you all about it. The playwright Euripides was an Athenian born around 480 BC. He began writing around 455 BC, and his first play was called Peliades.  Although he submitted works regularly to the Festival of Dionysus, he wouldn't win until 441 BC, the competition was dominated by Aeschylus and Sophocles during his early career. Ultimately Eurpidides produced more than 90 plays, and almost 20 survived today.  He is considered one of ancient Greece's three great tragedians (with Aeschylus and Sophocles being the other two).  The play Hippolytus was first performed at the Festival of Dionysus in 428 BC. The character of Hippolytus was a relatively new addition to Greek mythology, appearing in mid-500 BC, and it is thought that Eurpides wrote the first play about him. Hippolytus of Athens was the son of Theseus and an Amazon named Antiope, who had ...

 Dear Henry, Like everyone, I have good days and bad days. And because of " the accident ," bad days can be very bad. Today has been one of those very bad days, and while trying to take Ziggy for a walk, I began to doubt one of my bucket list items . Ziggy can be a challenging dog to walk sometimes. He's incredibly "sniffy" and sometimes insistent upon checking out a smell. Because he is an 80lb dog, it's jarring when he comes to a dead stop and, on the best of days, can be painful. On the worst days, it's miserable, and today, after a two-mile walk, I was just about ready to cry, and once again, I began to wonder if there was any way I could walk the 500-mile Camino de Santiago. It is about a year from when I plan to start the Camino, and it's time to begin training. The Camino would require 12 to 15 miles per day, and I need to be able to do those miles on bad days. Today I struggled on a two-mile walk with the dog, and I am afraid I won't be a...

Dear Henry, A few days ago, Fish and I headed to the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia. It's an incredible place. Let me tell you all about it. If you remember, June 6, 1944, or "D-Day," was the day Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, to retake the country from Nazi control, which it had acquired through invasion/armistice in 1940. It was a force of over 150,000 men from 12 countries and is history's largest seaborne invasion. At least 4,415 soldiers died between 12:01am to 11:59pm, and on June 6, 2001, a National Memorial opened to remember them. The Memorial was designed by the architect Bryon Dickson and built by the Coleman-Adams Construction Company. The statuary was commissioned by sculptors Jim Brothers, Matthew Kirby, and Richard Pumphrey, and the Memorial site encompasses 50 acres just outside of Bedford, Virginia. Its central feature is stunning and represents the landing itself, and it includes a fountain system replicating t...

  Dear Henry, Book 12, Thucydides's "History of the Peloponnesian War" of the Bucket List Book Adventure ( read about that here ), is done! Let me tell you all about it. The Peloponnesian War was a conflict between Sparta and Athens and their allies in ancient Greece. It began in 431 BC and lasted 27 years, ending in 404 BC. Both Sparta and Athens had significant advantages during the conflict.   The Spartans, their army, and their discipline were well known. They had fully refined the disciplined and harsh lifestyle they were known for, and the stories of "the 300" from The Battle of Thermopylae were a mere 50 years prior. They also controlled the largest land area on the ancient Greek map through alliances and direct subjugation.  The Athenians were wealthier, and Athens had a tremendous defensive advantage with their sea walls. Athens also controlled the most formidable navy.   While the war itself was caused by Sparta and Athens jockeying for the domina...

Dear Henry, When I was in Savannah a while ago, I stopped by the old US Civil War fort called Fort Pulaski, the stronghold that the Union army used to blockade the Savannah River. It was also used as a prison for Confederate officers. It has a long and interesting history. Let me tell you all about it. Construction on Fort Pulaski began in 1829 in response to the coastal assaults during the War of 1812. The Fort was named after General Casimir Pulaski, the Polish cavalryman who joined the US Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and is considered the father of the US Cavalry. He fought in the Battle of Brandywine and Germantown and was with the Continental Army during that terrible winter at Valley Forge. General Pulaski was killed during the Siege of Savannah and, like the Marquis de Lafayette and Bernando de Galvez, is one of the few foreign nationals to receive honorary US citizenship. The Fort's construction was overseen by Major General Babcock and a recent graduate o...

Dear Henry, Do you remember the old T.V. show from the late 70s / early 80s called Dukes of Hazzard?   It was about the two brothers, Bo and Luke Duke, on probation for moonshine running. The show always featured at least one (usually more) car chase between the Duke brothers and their 1969 Dodge Charger, adorned with a Confederate flag named the General Lee and relatively incompetent Hazzard county sheriff, Roscoe P. Coltrane, led by the corrupt county commissioner Boss Hogg, played by the actor and Korean War veteran, Sorrell Booke, ( read his Everyday Patriot biography here ). The television show was based on the movie The Moonrunners.  While the show was incredibly popular and was the second most watched on American Television for a while, behind Dallas, it didn't age well. The show was about illegal alcohol distribution and contained a lot of Confederate imagery, and that culture doesn't quite have the same charm as it did nearly 50 years ago. However, I daresay, the...