With all of us needing to be outside on an extraordinarily lovely spring day, my guy and my dog and I drove up the mountain late yesterday afternoon to the small, isolated, and well-to-do community of Sewanee.
The sky was an unbroken blue and with temperatures 15-20 degrees cooler than they were only a week ago the weather was perfect.
Passing through the extraordinarily beautiful campus of the private college known as the University of the South we turned left onto a very narrow and hilly and tree-lined paved road that we both knew led to the Memorial Cross.
This is a link to our visit not long after we arrived back in Tennessee:
The cross was erected in the early 1920's as dedication to the military service of local residents who had fought and died in war.
The cross itself is massive.
It can be seen long before you arrive at the park while driving that long and narrow and hilly road close to the university.
It can also be seen down in the valley far below.
The starkness of the huge white cross standing alone against a backdrop of endless hills filled with endless hardwood trees is striking.
At night it is lighted.
Whenever I am up in Sewanee I feel compelled to come to this place.
The quiet park-like setting in gorgeous.
The cross is beautiful and a respectful place that recognizes and honors the service of its residents.
The valley far below wills you to look out over the signs of seven or more area communities, and on a clear day you really can see forever.
Once you move away from the cross there is a complex series of trails for those who like to walk or mountain bike, including the 20 mile long Perimeter Trail that circumnavigates the entire circumference of the college grounds.
I swore months ago that I was going to walk the Perimeter Trail soon but have not yet done so................
The last time I stood in this same place was sometime in February.
I had spent some time in a coffee shop close to the university catching up with an old friend who I used to work with in Tullahoma.
She has changed very little but I was shocked to see her daughter, who has transitioned in only a few short years from a creative, smiling, laughing, dance class and art class attending little girl into a fashionable young woman who is now taller than I am.
She was beautiful then and she is beautiful now, but it was still a shock to see her as it always is to see a young child who has mysteriously and unexpectedly grown into young adulthood during the time you have been gone from each others lives.
On that day I had planned on heading straight home after coffee.
Instead I walked and talked with the woman I had known, and then drove out to the cross.
The weather was awful.
Raining, overcast, foggy.
I had the entire place to myself and I stood happily in the rain and fog, alone with my thoughts and the cross.
On that day I stood in this exact same place and looked out over this exact same valley.
Only on that day the heavy fog obscured the entire valley and all I could see was the barely visible outline of the trees in front of me.
The rest of the world was buried in rain and heavy white fog................
After the stark and bare hills of Wyoming, seeing the hills of Tennessee filled with green is still disorienting.
I recently looked back over blog posts that I wrote only a month ago when the trees were still bare, when the grass was still brown, and when the bushes and flowers were not yet blooming.
It is stunning to see such an extraordinary change in only a few short weeks...............
As I walked closer to the cross to take pictures I looked back over the valley behind me and saw my Mountain Boy and my sweet Jamie-dog wandering together in the grass.
I watched them for a few moments and found myself smiling at the sight of them.
The three of us are extremely close - all loving each other - all loyal to each other - all understanding of each other.
For a man who has been married three times and a woman who has been married twice and a dog who simply showed up on my doorstep years ago and refused to leave, it makes for a strange and unique family unit that seems to work.
I am happy that this man and this dog are in my life.
They please me and comfort me and provide me with both strength and joy...............
I watched over LC and James for another few minutes, took one more look out over the valley far below me and then turned back to the cross.
There are plaques embedded into the base of the cross dedicated to those who served in WWI, WWII, Korean and Vietnam.
Sadly the base ran out of room before our country ran out of wars, and so there is another plaque embedded into the walkway close to the cross dedicated to those who served in Desert Storm.
I have no doubt that there will soon be plaques for Iraq and Afghanistan, and doubtlessly, inevitably, there will be others..................
As I looked at the wooden sign indicating the start of the Perimeter Trail I also looked out over the valley again.
I wish that there was an informational sign in the grass providing details on the many towns that are visible far below.
Perhaps even some history or geological information or flora/fauna information about this section of the plateau...............
Not a native of the Cumberland Plateau but a beautiful animal none-the-less..............
We read the books, we watch the movies; read newspapers... maybe write
a line or so, of poetry; or watch on TV, any night
something, somewhere, of some War... the Media Circus, we all know;
but, to see the cost; then to the North of England, you should go.
For you can pick up any map, choose any town or village there,
and should you travel to that place, then you are quickly made aware
of what War really is about... for each place has its own Stone Cross...
The War Memorial; all closely carved with the Communal loss
of a Generation... all the young men from close-cobbled lanes,
who volunteered to fight for King and Country... few came home again.
From the poem Some Corner Of A Foreign Field by David Mace 2008....................
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