I hear the voices of my comrades calling Home! home! home!

1. When was the last time you prayed?
   last night, I suppose, as I was trying to fall asleep and failing. Just before I lay down, I'd seen a photo that a friend from my hometown posted to FB of a funnel cloud in the air above the place where he works. I was worried for my friends, for my family--and for myself, too, because a storm front hit just as I closed my eyes.
   This isn't true, though, exactly. I'm working through the idea of prayer, as I understand it, in an attempt to revise my own conception of it. Struggling with leaving behind the "big ask" method, in favor of a more "...to be continued..." sort of ongoing conversation, which feels better in my soul and on my conscience.
2. Describe your hometown.
   I still consider my hometown to be the land of my origin, the place where I grew up. It's a big town or a small city, smashed between the bluffs and some water. It is very orderly, in the sense that it's all laid out on a grid and there are deliciously square corners all over, so getting from one end of town to the other really doesn't take that long (if you know where you're going so you can avoid--horrors!--getting caught by a train.) There is not now, nor has there ever been in my lifetime, a place to shop for clothes worth a damn within 30 miles. There are, however, myriad restaurants, many of which are based in ethnicities that are both unexpected (given the predominant face of the area) and fantastically delicious. (My favorite Chinese food on the planet is from a weird little storefront on Third Street.) There are more churches than bars, but only accidentally. There are two universities and a quite well-respected vocational college in town.
   And it is, of course, the most beautiful place on Earth.
3. If you could plan your ultimate vacation, where would you go?
   I'm not a believer in "ultimate"s. It tends to let one off the hook, you know? And it also puts a heck of a lot of pressure on a vacation, which by nature can be sketchy.
   That being said, I'd love to go back to Miami for a couple of weeks. And to see Spain and Ireland. And Canada, of course--it seems like the weather would suit me. (I already know that the beer does.)
4. Show and Tell. What comes to mind first when you see this picture? Or, tell a story if it reminds you of one.
   
   
   Public Domain Photo
   this photo reminds me of the research that I did for my first big history paper, which was about an old bridge in my hometown. I spent several weeks poring through crusty (but well-organized) files, and microfilm, at the historical society, taking crappy notes about the building of that bridge. It was fascinating research and I used only prehaps 1/10 of it in the writing of the paper itself, which was quite short. The experience was invaluable, not only in learning how libraries work, but for developing self-discipline and motivation, and also learning how to stop researching (something that historians often can't get on their own). Good memories!

[from the original source; the title quotation is by William Canton]