a.d. elliott - Take the Back Roads

  Dear Henry, We heard the Parable of the Vineyard Workers a few months ago, and it has been bothering me since. You remember the story, right? A vineyard owner hires workers for his vineyard. Then, the owner goes out and brings in more workers throughout the day. At the end of the day, all workers are paid the same wage, even those who have only worked in the vineyard for an hour. I had been told before that this was a representation of heaven. It doesn't matter when you begin to pick up God's work; the reward for us all will be the same.  But it doesn't seem fair, particularly for those who have always worked in God's vineyard and have been there the entire day (which, I should say, is definitely not me; I didn't show up in the vineyard around 3pm)  It wasn't until I heard Bishop Robert Barron's Homily that I wondered if I wasn't interpreting the parable inaccurately. Bishop Barron brought up St. Catherine of Siena's famous "The way to heaven...

Dear Henry, It's been a while, but I've finally gotten back to the bucket list book adventure  and have finished "Histories" by Herodotus. Hair- odd- uh-tus.....hair-odd-uh-tus.....It's taken me a month to learn how to pronounce his name, and I still say it wrong half of the time. Anyway, let me tell you all about the Histories. Herodotus, the "Father Of History," is somewhat of a mystery. He was believed to be born around 484 BC in the vicinity of the ancient Greek city of Halicarnassus, today known as Bodrum, Turkey. Maybe. There are a lot of question marks.  His life has a lot more question marks. Herodotus traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and North Africa and was believed to be in Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. And, of course, his death is also big of a mystery. It is estimated to have occurred between 430 and 420 BC, and he probably rests in Thurii, Italy, having left Athens around 430 BC for the...

Dear Henry,  Happy New Year! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas? Santa certainly stopped here! You know that I love miniatures, right? Well, our forever home is a small cottage in the woods, and I have come to realize that I will never have the space to display miniatures. Fish and the boys came up with some great alternatives, though. I received two "tiny treehouse" kits for my house plants and a book nook kit for one of my bookshelves. I'm thrilled with the gifts and can hardly wait to assemble them.   I also got a "Reading Challenge" that contains little prizes for each book challenge completed. I had a little headstart on the "read a book about a person with a disability" task. I had just picked up Jean-Dominique Bauby's extraordinary memoir "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and earned my first prize - a refrigerator magnet. Finally, I received this awesome photo collage of Salem, Virginia, created by another local photographer, ...