def: Pillar

 "A supporting, integral or upstanding member or part." Thus says my Merriam-Webster Dictionary and thus was our Sister Miriam Mashank.....truly a pillar. See her obit and prayer card here.

I an always showing you all the beautiful and lovely parts of Erie, our lake and surrounding areas, so in the interest of fairness I should show you some of the more, well I should say, not overly attractive attractions, too!  

Here is part of our resident turkey raptor--they can be called a flock, but isn't this unusual word better! They are very common around here, especially close to the lake, where they congregate on the Peninsula and surrounding shorelines. We have them in our own woods, but this "flock" is near a friend's apartment complex, right on a bluff overlooking Presque Isle Bay. Ugly things...but oh so delicious!

Somehow

 OMG, Anne Lamott has a new book, Somehow, and I just got it. She is one of my favorite writers: great spirituality, creative writing, laugh-right-out-loud humor, and a healthy dose of irreverence in between beautiful reflections.

Here's the back cover:

"One day at a time, and somehow one hour at a time, love will be enough to see us through, get us back on our feet and dust us off. Love gives us a shot at being the person we were born to be." Anne Lamott

A summer outdoor concert by Key West Express, a Jimmy Buffet-type group,

 seen here in a gazebo in the small town right next to ours, Lawrence Park. 

Very Norman Rockwell-ish.

                                          A mushroom in our front yard, just missed stepping on it.                                               I think the red coloring must have caught my eye.

St. Bonaventure University

One of the students who went to high school with the shooter in Butler, PA this weekend gave an interview where he talked about how the shooter was bullied in school. "He was bullied every day, every single day," he said. When pressed by the reporter on why, he responded that he ate alone at lunch and the kids made fun of him because of the clothes he wore and other things. That story and the fact that this is the Feast of the Franciscan St. Bonaventure, took me back to a memory of the one year I spent at St. Bonaventure University, located in western NY about 100 miles from Erie.

I didn't get bullied, but I was pretty lonely those first couple of weeks, and remember eating alone in the cafeteria. Since I was quite shy at that point, it was an odd feeling to not know anyone and have to eat alone in a dining hall full of other students.  It mustn't have lasted too long for I only recall it at the beginning, plus I did make friends, one that I still have to this day! Four of my good friends had entered religious life that year and I was sent off to college. Loneliness and the feeling of being all on my own were my constant companions that year. 

I can't imagine what today's bullying does to children in schools, especially, in high school, where they are in the midst of finding their identity and young adult selves. "Every day he was bullied, every single day."

P.S. What happened to the four friends who had entered when I went off to college? All four left religious life within maybe 10 years; all four married; one divorced and has a new partner; one is a widow; one died a couple years ago after many years of "battling" cancer and the fourth is the primary caregiver for her husband who has Parkinson's disease. And here I am, entering one year later...some 60+ years now, taking picture of leaves after a summer rain! Go figure! 

Sunny weekends

This weekend was just beautiful here in Erie. Sun, warmth, blue skies, slight breeze--just beautiful both days. So Anne and I thought that a walk along the creek path, which we hadn't been on in a month or more, would be just the perfect way to spend an hour or so: down at Glinodo. Here are three of the many things we saw/found along the way.

A downed tree right along the path. Guess the mushrooms found a gold mine!

At the end of the trail was Lake Erie. Here is a mother duck and 6-7 of her ducklings, out for a  weekend paddle--along the shoreline. Wonder if they came from the peninsula or are living along one of the many creeks that feed into the Lake around here?

 And here's the real gem: the children's picnic table is still surviving. Well, not as a usable picnic piece, but at least as a nostalgic remembrance of other years and times.

France and England

 

An unusual announcement in our paper this week: one of the twenty-four houseboats on Misery Bay sf for sale. Most of the time, it said, they are passed on through the families, not put up for public sale. Price?  $300,000  But I know, because of a friend that owned one, the yearly maintenance is the biggest part of ownership--everything needed is underneath the  boat. Keeping it working/in good condition is quite the task!

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Today I share with you some summer entertainment options that we have been enjoying recently.

Through PBSPassport, a benefit when you join your local PBS station (with a minimum of $5/month), you can get access to everything, and I mean everything, that has been broadcast on Public TV. The index of programs is seemingly inexhaustable! Nature, documentaries, mysteries, dramas, news, etc.

We are into the mysteries: the acting is suburb, the settings beautiful and unique (we watch a lot that are set in Europe), and the storylines are great.

Here are two that we've been watching this summer: The Paris Murders and The Tunnel. The first is set in Paris, obviously, and the scenery alone is wonderful. The second is about crime that takes place between England and France, either in the English Channel or in the tunnel under it. Both have closed captioning in English, though the scripts, esp. The Tunnel, have a lot of English in them. The closed captioning doesn't bother us a bit.

We love these shows. The different venues than American cities is refreshing and the relationships among the detectives in each of them make their appeal more than just the solving of a murder.

Still awaiting, however, for the newest seasons of Astrid  and Professor T. ....our #1 favorites!