Pastor Don's Ponderings

 For today's blog post I am bringing back one of the most requested reprintings of an article I wrote for the St. Paul UCC, Lebanon, newsletter, 'The Caller', in 2002. The picture here was not included then, but is courtesy of Pixabay Free Photos and just seemed appropriate. This article is being revisited today to set the stage for an upcoming blog post which just seems, in my heart, to need this prequel told. I hope you find this story something to ponder on your journey: Superman has left the house. We took Raymond to the University of Kansas last Sunday and helped him move into his new room. Six round trips of about a quarter mile each way to bring all of his earthly possessions to the dorm, then up five flights of stairs with each load, joining with about a thousand other students and their parents (just in his dorm building) to set up a new way of life uniquely designed to last only nine months. Somehow, there must be a correlation between the nine months of pregn...

 While looking through a few of my Mom's photos this morning - she took thousands of photos over the years - I came across Mom's early version of a panoramic photo, most likely taken with an old-fashioned Brownie camera. Two photos taken in as close to symmetry as humanly possible, while  holding a Brownie camera, then carefully cropped and taped together to create one scene - and this scene takes away my breath. Just for clarity, I am the one in the stroller, so my personal memory of this moment in time is fairly non-existent. Still, this scene takes away my breath, both for the scene which is captured and the people who are there.  In the foreground is my Grandma Triefenbach, who died when I was three, and Grandpa Triefenbach, who then lived with us for many years. My Dad, who is carrying all of the cane fishing poles, recently passed, and my cousin, Jack, with whom I became friends before his family moved away. In the background, Uncle Elbert, my Mom's brother and Jack...