Inosculate 

In the search

     for a

          higher ground

One never

     travels

          alone

The past

     a constant

          companion

"New occasions

     teach new

         duties"

Love provides

     a working

          guide

Justice

     validates the

         trek

Labor

     employs the

         tools

Faith-eating

     platitudes

         censured

Moral nausea

     eased with

          compassion

Probity refusing

     to appease

          moral decay

Unrelenting care

     for the weak and

         vulnerable

Recycle anger's

     energy to

          resist evil

Visions

     tempered by

          flexible hope

*from the hymn, Once to Every Man and Nation

Covered wagons on the way up to Cripple Creek.

We pulled our '64 Volkswagen truck over and asked if we could pose a picture. I can only imagine the life and work of those whose lives were served by the covered wagon. I do know that before I owned the truck, my Dad used it to haul storm damaged walnut trees into his high school workshop to teach woodworking. The scene is a reminder of the vision and energy of those who have gone on before. The challenge is to draw on that memory as we continue our search for higher ground.