Checking this web site, I notice we have provided no news of late. So, I will post this update and also a report on our hike last month in Shenandoah National Park. We are well. Anne is working this week, filling in for a husband and wife practice of family doctors who have not taken a vacation away from home since setting up shop several years ago. They and their tots are in a warm place this week.

The work has gone well so far, but we'll be happy next week when it is over. Anne is enjoying the experience, but medicine is always a challenge for those with the intelligence, daring, knowledge, balance, and skill to attempt it.

Anne has the car, so I am staying home. There is always too much to do when we are on South Mountain. I don't know how we managed our affairs and worked at the same time.

On Thursday I will drop her off at work and go on to attend the annual dedication day ceremony at the Gettysburg National Cemetery.  Seven score and six years ago, a tall man joined the throng walking up the hill, now known for its cemetery.   Four months earlier, this height of ground had been the bleeding heart of the Union.  The Town of Gettysburg was still recovering from the calamity. 

The main speaker struggled two hours to reflect on what had happened there on July 1, 2 and 3.  Then Mr. Lincoln, invited to make a few remarks but probably not expected to attend, stood up and made a statement that, because of its brevity and following upon so much else, was scarcely heard and appreciated by the crowd.  Mr. Everett, who had delivered the longer oration, did hear it, was shamed, and promptly said so.

The annual Dedication Day ceremony follows the form of the first.  This year’s main speaker will be the historian actor, Richard Dreyfuss.  A traditional reciter, another man tall in height, will then give the Gettysburg Address.  At the end I’m sure to be awed and confused by it.  I have always wondered if I could have supported either side in this conflict, but Mr. Lincoln made an extraordinarily strong and effective argument that a nation created with the view that all men are created equal must survive if the American dream of freedom is to have a chance.  He did this standing at a place where the cost of the abominable war was blatant in the form of devastation and fresh graves.  The dedication day ceremony remains a solemn affair. 

We have to wonder what our world would be like if the defensive position on that hill had been overrun on the afternoon of July 3, 1863.  There the Army of the Potomac, defending the capital, made its stand.  With it gone, Mr. Lee could have captured Washington and sued for formal independence for the South.  The horror of institutionalized slavery would have become even more entrenched.  Its poison would have spread beyond its borders.  Lincoln reasoned correctly that putting down the rebellion was in the best interest of the nation and its entire people, especially the many in the South for whom success of the Confederacy meant only continued slavery.

Next week we are both retired again and will take my parents to Princeton to celebrate Thanksgiving with my sister, Laurie, and our daughter, Elley.  Then we prepare for busy December, and after that for travel to Florida in January.  Meanwhile we enjoy our little log house and the trees of South Mountain.  We are thankful there are no invaders about Adams County this fine year.