Rhode Island Part 2

CAROLYN COMPOSITIONS

At about 3:45 p. m. today, November 28, 2010, Lois Kalata became the 80,000th visitor to Carolyn’s Compositions. Congrats, Lois! 

RHODE ISLAND Part 2

(Click on Rhode Island: Part 1 to read the first part.)

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     I learned a disheartening uniqueness about my natal state while watching a part of a Tyra Banks show in mid-November. It’s the first time I’d heard that Rhode Island had the distinction of being the only state outside certain Nevada counties where indoor prostitution is not considered a crime. In fact, sixteen year old girls are allowed to work in clubs as long as they were home by 11:30 p. m.

     As evidence mounts demonstrating how damaging inappropriate sexual behavior it is to young psyches, action is being taken to protect these victims. To allow sixteen year olds to dance in clubs for—well, older men—flies against this progress.

     I will address these issues in a later post. Suffice it to say here that I am pleased the Rhode Island state legislature took some action to confront the problem. On November 2, 2010, the governor signed a bill making indoor prostitution a misdemeanor crime with penalties.  

COURT CASE

     In 1673, Thomas Cornell was convicted and hung for murdering his mother based on the testimony of her ghost. (see link to Killed Strangely at the end of this post).

STATUARY and MEMORIALS

     Rhode Island has some unique statuary in addition to the landscaped topiary “statues” on the grounds of the many mansions.

     The oldest known monument dedicated to United States veterans is in Cumberland: Nine Men’s Misery. Constructed in 1676, it honors nine colonists who

26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: The Letter L

26 DEVOTIONS BASED ON THE ALPHABET:

THE LETTER  L

Monte Holland

Several persons have expressed an interest in having my husband, the Rev. Monte W. Holland, post an online series of devotions. Through their encouragement, Monte will post a weekly devotion on CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS. To read the introduction click on 26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: Introduction. Click on  26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: The Letter K  to read the previous post on the letter K.

Return to this site each Saturday to read his devotions.  Carolyn C. Holland

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 ALPHABET OF THE BIBLE – THE LETTER L

     Love the Lord, all you his saints. (Psalm 31:23)

     This verse takes on real meaning as we look at Psalm 31 as a whole. The heading on this psalm is A Prayer for Protection.

     Early on the psalmist (David) says, Listen to my prayer and hurry to save me. In addition to requesting God’s help, David  praises God: You are faithful, and I trust you because you rescued me. And further on David says, My life is in your hands. Save me from enemies who hunt me down.

     This is all back drop to our L verse.

     Many people say “Praise God!” when something good happens. There isn’t always a lot of punch behind that phrase. It often just flows forth in the moment.

     David says much more when he states, Love the Lord, all you his saints. The verses preceding Psalm 31:33 tell the story: saints are those whose lives are

My Husband’s Famous Pumpkin Pie

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

MY HUSBAND’S FAMOUS  PUMPKIN PIE

Made from Scratch

Monte W. Holland

     My husband, Monte, began making homemade pumpkin pies from scratch in 1985. To read that story, click on: My Husband’s Pumpkin Pie Saga

     Below he gives his instructions for making his specialty.

 THE CRUST

I prefer using an egg pastry recipe found in

My Husband’s Pumpkin Pie Saga

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

MY HUSBAND’S PUMPKIN PIE SAGA

     I might as well tell it like it is, like my husband Monte tells people: I don’t tend to prepare foods I dislike—like lima beans and pumpkin pie.

     Monte really likes pumpkin pie. I do not. So in defense, in 1985 he began making pumpkin pie.

     We were living in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in the Emmanuel United Methodist Church parsonage where Monte had his first appointment with the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. Being a pastor was his second career—he’d spent nineteen years as a physics professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Slippery Rock University in western Pennsylvania.

     As he dabbled increasingly successfully at making pumpkin pies, he had a brainstorm: why not

Where Were You When John F. Kennedy was Assassinated?

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN

JOHN F. KENNEDY WAS ASSASSINATED?

      On Friday, November 22, 1963 at 12:30 p. m., I was working at Doctor’s Hospital in Columbus Ohio. I’m certain the news of Kennedy’s assassination hit the lab late that afternoon.

     The following Monday someone had the forethought to bring a

26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: The Letter K

26 DEVOTIONS BASED ON THE ALPHABET:

THE LETTER  K

Monte Holland

 

Several persons have expressed an interest in having my husband, the Rev. Monte W. Holland, post an online series of devotions. Through their encouragement, Monte will post a weekly devotion on CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS. To read the introduction click on 26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: Introduction. Click on 26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: The Letter J to read the previous post on the letter J.

Return to this site each Saturday to read his devotions.  Carolyn C. Holland

 

ALPHABET OF THE BIBLE – THE LETTER K

 

Keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ into eternal life. (Jude 21)

     Couples fail at love all the time. Of those who marry, half divorce. Of the half of married couples that stay married, what is their secret of enduring love?

     Which is the better starting place to finding the secret of enduring love—God or humans?

     The logical answer to the question is God. The assumption is that if we find the secret of enduring love with God, then we may be able to apply it to marriage.

     Love is a relationship. Love is a two-way street. Each party contributes. Do we love because we are naturally lovers or do we love because we are first loved? Look at a familiar 19^th century hymn, O How I Love Jesus:

1.          There is a name I love to hear, 
            I love to sing its worth; 
            it sounds like music in my ear, 
            the sweetest name on earth.  
Refrain:
            O how I love Jesus, 
            O how I love Jesus, 
            O how I love Jesus, 
            because he first loved me!
2.          It tells me of a Savior's love, 
            who died to set me free; 
            it tells me of his precious blood, 
            the sinner's perfect plea.
            (Refrain)
3.          It tells of one whose loving heart 
            can feel my deepest woe; 
            who in each sorrow bears a part 
            that none can bear below.
            (Refrain)

     For years Christians sang this hymn. Its refrain states I love Jesus because he first loved me. What is the nature of this love?

·         First, love makes us feel like

Rhode Island: Part 1

CAROLYN COMPOSITIONS

Carolyn Cornell Holland

RHODE ISLAND Part 1

     What comes in the smallest packages, the cliché inquires.

     And the cliché answers: the best things.

     Egotist that I can be, I note that I must be a “best thing” since I was introduced to the world in Rhode Island, the smallest state.

     A 2010 Rhode Island election issue made me realize how ignorant I am about my natal state. The controversy was, and remains, the state’s name: Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Some Rhode Islanders want to drop and Providence Plantations—making the official name just Rhode Island. Of course I wrote a post about it: Change the Name of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations?

     But then I wondered what else I didn’t know about the state, which is a whole lot, starting with the names of the Native American tribes.

MIANTONOMI HILL IN NEWPORT

     I was familiar with Miantonomi Hill in Newport (to view photo click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/beaneryonlineliterarymagazine/2294677309/). But did the name Miantonomi belong to an Indian tribe or was he an Indian Chief?

     The first Indian tribe, alphabetically, was the Cowesetts. So that’s the source of the name of the Cowesett Cemetery in Brocton, Massachusetts, where my grandmother Cornell is buried. Then there is the Narragansett tribe, familiar because of Narrangasett Bay. The homestead of my 1600 ancestors, Thomas and Rebecca Cornell, fronted on this bay. I was slightly familiar with the Niantic, Nipmuc, and Pocasset tribal names. However, I’d never heard of the Manisses, Moswansicut, Pawtuxet, Sakonnet, Tunky, or Wampanoag tribes.

     Further research uncovered the fact that Miantonomi was an Indian chief, one of two (the other was Canonicus) from whom Roger Williams purchased land. Williams named his settlement

26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: The Letter J

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

26 DEVOTIONS BASED ON THE ALPHABET:

THE LETTER  J

Monte Holland

Several persons have expressed an interest in having my husband, the Rev. Monte W. Holland, post an online series of devotions. Through their encouragement, Monte will post a weekly devotion on CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS. To read the introduction click on 26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: Introduction. Click on 26 Devotions Based on the Alphabet: The Letter I to read the previous post on the letter I.

Return to this site each Saturday to read his devotions.  Carolyn C. Holland

ALPHABET OF THE BIBLE – THE LETTER J

     Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

     The older I get the more things are different. Many people I knew in my youth are no longer living on earth. My parents’ generation are all gone. It is only natural to long for the “good old days.”

     I started out on a farm in Northern New York. We lived on a back country road, but it was paved. Our contact with the world was through radio and the newspapers and magazines. We didn’t have a whole lot, but we managed fine. We never locked our doors or kept a gun in the house. We went to a one-room country school. The little town a few miles away had a store, a church and a grange hall.

     The country school is gone. The school system has changed. What is taught has

My People

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

MY PEOPLE

Nancy Briskay Cornell Lipsius

     During her lifetime, my late mother worked as a secretary for a psychiatrist. Below are vignettes of a few patients who touched this season of her life.

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   He enters the waiting room quietly, slides into a chair and sits, body slumped, eyes downcast, a rumpled, unwashed, unshaven, disheveled appearance. My greeting to him goes unanswered and he glances at me surreptitiously from under lowered lids. He is early for his appointment and the magazines on the table hold no interest for him. Nor does he converse with any of the others in the room. His posture projects dejection, sadness, loneliness, the very burden of life itself. At long last it is his turn and he shuffles slowly into the doctor’s office for an hour of therapy, and medication that appears to relieve nothing. He returns to me, and, without comment, accepts the card for his next appointment, tears close to the surface. My “Goodbye, see you next week” goes unanswered.

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     He enters my line of vision, snowy white hair, incredibly blue eyes, a man in his late seventies who for all intents and purposes may well be old St. Nick himself. His smile and gracious greeting could melt the heart of a stone. It is only his trembling hands and the slight list as he walks that betrays the

David, Our German Exchange Student: Part 4

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

DAVID: OUR GERMAN EXCHANGE STUDENT Part 4

To read David, Our German Exchange Student Part 1, click on David, Our German Exchange Student: Part 1.

     I interviewed David at the end of his year 2000 stay as an exchange student from Germany.

     “My reason for coming to the United States was to learn the language, to speak it fluently. I think I met that goal,” David said. “I also came to get to know a different people and their culture.

     “My biggest impression is that the United States is big. I didn’t really expect it. You can drive twenty hours in one direction and still be in the same country with the same language. In the same driving time in Germany you would pass through four to five countries.”

     There are not so many churches in Germany as there are here, “where on one street there are ten churches and two are the United Methodist. Church…People go to church in Germany but not really that often like here.”

     According to David, almost everyone in Germany is in the church, “I am, but I go once a year, on Christmas Eve.” He said he is still at work at 10:00 a.m., or he doesn’t go because “I am just tired.”

     “Here, Sunday is just about church. In Germany, Sunday is to