(l-r) Grandpa, Lou and Great-Grandpa, showing their game faces before we dig into the feast.
On the menu: chicken, meatloaf, green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, broccoli salad, two kinds of fresh, homemade pickles, fruit salad, zucchini bread, raspberries, cantaloupe, blueberry pie (two, actually), blackberry pie and chocolate chip cookies with toffee bits. Soda, ice tea and water to drink. And the best weather you could imagine: 75 degrees, hardly any clouds, no humidity.
Not bad for an impromptu picnic that wasn’t even on the calendar this morning at 8:30. (We just supplied the super-cute kid and the raspberries. The Klein women can cook up a storm when they put their minds to it.)
Originally uploaded by Occasus Pars Clamo.
The Grand Rapids Press has an article on the front page of Weds. July 19th’s paper about vegetable gardens at various GRPS elementary schools being vandalized. And yes, it is a shame that some sub-morons would destroy a vegetable garden just to spite 8 year-olds.
But when I reflect on what a good portion of our popular culture teaches kids today, the first thing that came to my mind was this passage from C.S. Lewis’ Abolition of Man:
…[A]ll the time – such is the tragi-comedy of our situation – we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive,’ or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity.’ In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
