Personal Surveys

Providence

The Photo Comp

Little Essex Street

Personal Calibration

2001: 52 Sundays

The Crosses of the
Northern Neck

The Wild Dogs of
Jersey City

The Crosses of the Northern Neck

Do you think of the cross on which Jesus died
Of the blood he shed for you
Are you prepared to meet him in that land of love
By his word are you going to abide 
Remember the cross on which Jesus died 
Follow in his footsteps each day 
He shed his blood for you
and he shed his blood for me 
Never cast that cross aside
Remember the Cross – Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys

Some people would say that it is the end of the road, but they would have their bearings wrong. It is the beginning of the road. The road does not go very far, maybe a tenth of a mile, before you come to a church, a church where my grandfather preached. You can't go very far down any road in Virginia's Northern Neck before you come to a church. Some of the churches are rich and some of the churches are poor. One of the poorest sits next to an orchard full of ripe peaches. It is a place of great beauty with people of deep faith. To hear a menhaden chantey sung by the 94 year-old harbormaster at the blessing of the fleet is not something you soon forget.

Yet, despite these people of faith in the Northern Neck and elsewhere, this great country of ours is now more divided than ever, with extreme acts of hate now creeping in to a church. It makes me think of the poem tacked to the wall in my survey For Pearl Starbird:

So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths that wind and wind
while just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs.
Kindness – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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