Rocky Top you'll always be home sweet home to me

I have no time to form coherent thoughts because I'm on a computer in a gym on disaster relief in Tennessee. So, here are some snapshot thoughts regarding my time here thus far.

-Ross and I are sharing a room with a couple other guys. I noticed tonight that Ross' pillow looked quite tattered and meager. So I said, "Your pillow is rather pathetic." He said, "Yeah, and it gets smaller every day, it's just a sack with my clean underwear in it...But in a few days I'll switch to dirty and it will be fluffy again."

-Last night we all went to a barn dance at a local eatery here in Macon Cty. Tennessee. This is an area ravaged by storms that has been through hell in these last weeks. But you wouldn't know it from their spirits... or their dancing. When the live band played "Rocky Top," the whole crowd line danced and sang aloud, seemingly without a care in the world. Everyone was looking at us volunteers with such warm and welcoming eyes and honest hearts. This was a place that you feel hearkens back to an ancient time where the family and immediate community were the foundation of all life. The American flag on the guitar amp, the drummer with the Eagles shirt, the cowboy boots on plywood floors, the lines of chairs, the 80 year old married couple dancing to "Coal Miner's Daughter", 10 year olds dancing with their grandmothers, sweat tea for a dollar, gravel driveways, home made pies. There are still places with things such as these that you hope will never die, will never cease to exist somewhere, even if you are unable to experience it yourself.

-Yesterday, the daunting task fell on Ross and I to do an entire shingled roof. We had both done 2 shingled roofs in our lives and so we were a little concerned. So as we were about to go up to the roof to "assess the situation," a man was standing near the ladder. We asked who he was and he told us he was just driving through. He asked if we needed any help. So we inquired if he had done roofing before, to which he replied with a Kentucky twang, "yeah, I'm in construction." Well, this man turned out to be a general contractor who just happened to be driving through the area and saw our work site. He knew all about roofing, shingled roofs, repairing, etc. and told us exactly what to do. Ironically, his name was Emanuel. Ross and I even convinced him to come work with us on workfest when "The perfect storm" comes. And we are greatly anticipating that.

-Jennie danced with a boy named "Tater"

-I met a local Tennessean named Steve at dancing last night. Steve had a handle bar mustache, a flannel shirt and a belt buckle. Steve said to me, quite profoundly, "I'm so glad ya'll are down here helping us out. And fella, I don't know where you're from, but if anything ever happens to your home, I'm coming up. And I'm comin' up red neck style! - on my motorcycle with my chainsaws tied to the back! ... That's what America's about, folks helping each other out when someone is in distress"

Cheers


your quote of the day:

"Would you honor the body of Christ? Do not despise his nakedness; do not honor him here in church clothed in silk vestments and then pass him by unclothed and frozen outside. Remember that he who said, “This is my body,” and made good his words, also said, “You saw me hungry and gave me no food,” and “insofar as you did it not to one of these, you did it not to me.” In the first sense the body of Christ does not need clothing but worship from a pure heart. In the second sense it does need clothing and all the care we can give it."
-ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM