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The Artist’s
Almanac
July 2009
download and print this installment as
a PDF
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it here free)
Summer afternoon - summer
afternoon…
the two most beautiful words in the English language.
- Edith Wharton
Like Spanish Galleons the clouds
float across the azure yawning of the sky. Below them, endless
fields of corn roll to the horizon, leafy stalks stretching
skyward, near now to tasseling. The round bales of this year’s
hay crowd the fields to bursting, abundant beyond all memory.
July is upon us.
Barren County, Kentucky is anything but
barren and belies its name by being today the most
agriculturally productive county of the Commonwealth. I have
come here to celebrate the abundant years of a beloved aunt
whose 100th birthday falls today.
Judge and Mrs. Henry Wilhoit, with the
author, celebrate their Aunt Bernice’s 100th birthday
in Glasgow, Kentucky July 10, 2009
She is overwhelmed by the crowd that
fills the dining room of the nursing home, the mayors and judges
reading proclamations and presenting her with the keys to their
cities. Someone produces a 20 year old tape of her singing a
duet in church and her fine alto resonates once more. She asks
me whether her corsage is on straight and worries that she is
wearing bedroom shoes and not her best leather pumps. The cake
is cut and served, the minister says a prayer and it is over.
The flowers and gifts are collected and she is wheeled back to
her lonely room.
Afterwards at the lodge we three
male cousins share a bottle and memories of the life of a young
widow who worked to support a household for her only child and
our elderly grandmother. She did so cheerfully and we recall the
gatherings there and the happiness of a large family at
Christmas each year and wonder now how so many of us could crowd
together even in so a large house. We recount the good old times
and by the time we carefully descend the stairs to dinner we are
very cheerful ourselves.
July is when high summer begins. The
Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree celebrates the Fourth of July and
we keep time with our feet. Back home that night the unseen
katydids fill the night with mysterious chant as the littlest
grandchildren catch lightning bugs. The first homegrown tomatoes
are ripe and we try in vain to get enough of them. As hot as
July is, we get some days with a north breeze and clear views
reminding us that fall will come if we can just survive August’s
languor.
Then the children are home from their camps
and there is required reading, school clothing to be bought, and
calendar entries. Suddenly, there is not enough time.
To a child just out of school in June, the
definition of eternity is all summer long. Yet there is
never enough time for us children here, where all things,
including our bodies, are seasonal and wear out. Time is not
eternal; we are.
Upcoming Events
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Fall Into
Art – Third Annual Art Show benefiting Hendersonville
High School’s Academic and Arts Program, October 2-4, 2009
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View the
prospectus for our forthcoming book,
The Founding of the Cumberland Settlements, now available for preorder at
www.cumberlandpioneers.com/volume1a.html.
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