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New England Reflections (Cont.): The Platypus Travels Part XXXVII

Church.

We're all formed by the places we grew up in.  There's greater continuity between past and present in New England.  It's like Jackson's vision of Tolkien's Shire: things are made to endure ... passing down from one generation to the next.  I'd like to say that there's always been a Baggins at Bag End and there always will be...  Moving back to the idea of continuity, the church is like the library: a Victorian original with a modern edition discretely added in a way that doesn't detract from the beauty of the older structure.  As with the building, so with the worship and theology.  Places form people and this place and this people formed me.


It was a Thursday.  The pews were empty, but I knew the place and the place knew me.  On our way out, my wife spied a curious thing: a tiny clump of red leaves on a green tree.  I miss you too...

Burning, burning, burning
Tell me, are the leaves still burning;
Can they teach me how to burn? 

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