Silas Shotwell's Blog

Living in an orchard at the foot of Mt Hood has its blessings . . .

and its problems!

I know you can't read the fine print, but the article above was on the front page of the last week's Hood River News. The "Upper Valley" is where we live!
During springtime, the orchardists bring in beehives to help pollinate the fruit trees. There has been a lot in the national headlines about a bee shortage. Actually, in our area, there have never been so many. The bee colonies are healthy and quite active. So active that Meagan usually stays inside when the hives are in place.
This year, we also have an abundance of bears! They sometimes come down in the Fall and eat pears. This year they are coming in the Springtime to raid beehives.
We haven't actually seen any bears at our place. But they must have crossed over because orchards on both sides of us have been hit. They have smashed over 100 hives over an eight mile area. There are probably several bears involved.
Last year, up on Red Hill Rd. (5 miles from our house) I confronted a bear while picking huckleberries. I was on the opposite side of the bush. I thought it was a person picking berries because I had seen a red pickup parked when I got out at the berry field. I heard someone picking and called out, "Are you finding any berries over there?" The bear stood up on its haunches, eye to eye, about 10 feet away, and was chewing vigorously. He didn't want to talk so he went back to eating berries and I made a hasty exit. I never did see any other people so I guess the truck belonged to the bear.
We have lots of cougars here too. But they don't like the orchards. They don't like open spaces. Not even the quail come into the orchards. But when you get away from the orchards the quail are everywhere. When you go toward the mountain, the cougars are too.
When you confront a bear you are supposed to do different things than when you confront a cougar. With one of them you make eye contact, with the other you don't. With one you yell, and the other you don't. When I met the bear I couldn't remember which was which! Thankfully, he knew what to do: ignore me.
They've taken the beehives out now. The fruit is set, and it looks like we'll have a wonderful crop this year. I think the bears will ignore us now. At least until we invade their berry patches in the Fall.
Oh yes, when people drive up to see us, I usually tell them to take Highway 35 south of Hood River to Woodworth and turn right. Then take Woodworth to Dee Highway and turn left. Then we're on the right. The last bear spotted this week was walking down Woodworth, heading this way. If he insists on your guest room I'll let him have it. (If you don't mind.)
Silas

This American holiday is 99 years old this year. I think it's a good holiday. Since Edna Mae died, my two worst days of the year are Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. But it's still a good day. Today is particularly hard for Meagan.
It is my spiritual birthday. It was 58 years ago tonight that I was baptized in Ft. Worth, Texas. My mother and my grandmother had a lot of influence on my decision. They were both godly women that brought their own husbands to the Lord. Both the husbands became great men of God and they had their wives to thank.

James Edward and Laura Belle Perkins
"Grannie and Granddad" as I knew them. Her name always came first. They were farmers, a Kentuckian and a Texan. They were bigger than life to me. I just cannot exaggerate how much influence they had and have on me. My Grannie was one of those pioneer farm women who took care of the needs of her household. For instance, before the sun came up she would kill a chicken, gather eggs, build a fire in the wood stove, make the coffee, fry the chicken, make biscuits, fry the eggs, and get ready for the rest of the day. All this with a prayer in her heart, and a smile on her face. She wouldn't sit down through the day until it was time, in late afternoon, to sit and listen to her radio shows. She liked "Ma Perkins" since they shared the same name, and "Just Plain Bill." I know that for a fact because I often sat on her lap as a 3 or 4 year old. She softly sang a song about a "foolish fly" that Edna Mae would later sing to our children. Grannie was the daughter of a Confederate soldier (Cpl. Wm. McGuire Whitt) who was with General Lee when he surrendered at Appomattox. In the Restoration Movement her roots went back to Barton W. Stone. After my granddad died she lived with Edna Mae and me for a time. She was blind by then. But she saw more in her blindness than most people do with sight. A giant of a woman. Happy Mother's Day Grannie! You and Granddad showed me the way!

Allen and Lora Shotwell.
"Mother and Daddy" as I knew them. Her name also always came first. She was a housewife, the baby in her family of four. She was born with a serious speech defect and was always treated with preference because of it. She just sounded like "Mother" to me and I never had any trouble understanding her. When I was born I weighed 9 pounds and 14 oz. She weighed just over 100 before me. After I was born she lost three other babies in childbirth. They all went full-term. She never got over that. So she lavished all her love on me. She spoiled me, there's no doubt about it. My mother was a good wife and mother. Her whole world was my dad, me, and the church. She was social and joined lots of women's clubs and organizations. She was an accomplished gardener and grew iris commercially for a time. My parents always had a big garden and she canned enough each year for an army. It was a joke around our place that even though the Israelites were supposed to pick up new manna every day that if my mother had been there, she would have figured out some way to can it. In my mother's last days she wasn't able to walk or talk, a victim of medical malpractice. But we spoke to each other with our eyes. She was so dear to me. Happy Mother's Day Mother!You and Daddy kept me on the path!

Edna Mae Shotwell
Mother to our five children. On Mother's Day I always have women plead with me not to preach on Proverbs 31, the passage on "the worthy woman." They think it sets an impossible standard. I can honestly say that Edna Mae was such an exceptional woman that her life exceeds that described in Proverbs 31. Talk about bigger than life! When our kids were small I was so busy, preaching for large churches, traveling, doing gradate work, etc. I tried to be a good dad, but often failed. But I was always consoled by the thought that Edna Mae was the perfect mom and that she would make up for my deficiencies.
I won't say more about her now because she was my wife, not mother. But her children, as Proverbs 31 says, "rise and call her blessed." She was my life, and theirs.
Happy Mother's Day, Sweetheart! You give me my destination!

More Word Trivia
The term "Alma mater" means "bountiful mother."
The word "girl" appears only once in the Bible.
The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
Other Trivia
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Have a good week!
Silas

Dear ones,
I think I could have died yesterday. Perhaps we could say that often. But I don't have much doubt this time.
I was driving home from Turner Oregon, where I had spoken at the Releasing the Power of the Smaller Church conference.
I was tired, having had a very busy week and a short night on Friday. I was rushing home, hoping to attend the last part of the Noble Goss funeral and expecting to visit with his family after the funeral. I was eastbound on I-84, near Multnomah Falls. I was on cruise control, 65 mph.
I went to sleep!
The first I knew it was when I BANGED into the concrete center median. I had drifted from the right lane to the left, and further left into the median. I woke up suddenly! My car was then moving sharply to the right, having been driven in that direction by the impact against the median. Thankfully, no one was to my right. In fact, there's lots to be thankful for. I was thankful for the median, else I would have crossed over into oncoming traffic. Just 100 yards farther, veering to the left, I would have hit the wall of a tunnel. I could have rolled. Lots of things could have happened.
My left arm was resting on the car door and may have a chipped bone or something. It is very sore. But that's the extent of my "injuries."
Well, it certainly woke me up! The adrenalin rush I got was with me the rest of the day. It's STILL with me when I think about it.
Amazingly, the car wasn't even damaged. I figured the whole front fender and bumper were crushed. But they weren't. I must have hit the tire and the hard plastic bumper primarily.
Meagan wasn't with me. I had left her with Mike and Leigha In Hood River.
So there's LOTS to be thankful for. I guess God has some more stuff for me to do.
On other topics: I'm spending a minimum of two days a week writing. I'm also making two studio visits a week to do recording. I actually have no one scheduled to come here for the whole month of May, so I'm trying to take advantage of the time. I'm excited about it. The words may not be profound but they're flowing freely.
In my monthly Safety Net newsletter I wrote about the history of May Day. Lots of response. Bill Free, one of my good friends and Christian brothers, asked me about "Mayday" as an international distress signal. I remembered that the distress signal actually has nothing to do with May 1, but actually is a French word spelled ""M'aidez" that means "Help Me." It is actually pronounced "Mayday." Having written that to Bill, I thought, "How or why do I even know that?" My answer was, "I've always liked TRIVIA."
So, I've decided to add a little trivia each time to my blog. Some of the trivia will involve the quirkiness of our English language. Some of it will involve little known facts. I'll normally just include two or three. But I'll give a few more today to either "whet your appetite," or "turn your stomach."

WORD TRIVIA
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable."
The highest scoring word in the English language game of Scrabble is "quartzy." If will score 164 points if played across a red triple-word square with the Z on a light blue double-letter square. It will score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares with the Q and the Y on those squares.
The English word with the most consonants in a row is "latchstring."
The only word that consists of two letters, each used three times is the word "deeded."
The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." It is a pneumoconiosis caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust. (You can actually pronounce this word if you try.)
"Stewardesses" and "reverberated" are the two longest words (12 letters each) that can be typed using only the left hand.

OTHER TRIVIA
Coca-Cola was originally green.
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
The percentage of Africa that is wilderness is 28%. The percentage of North America that is wilderness is 38%.
The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000.
Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden." Thus the name: GOLF!

With knowledge like this, do you wonder why God spared my life yesterday???
Love,
Silas

As the month of April draws to a close I thought I would just give you a peek into the kinds of things that are occupying my mind and time. It has been a good month. I'm always grateful for good health, wonderful family, and the place where I live.
This is a particularly beautiful time in the Hood River Valley. The orchards are in bloom (pear, cherry, apple, and peach, in that order) and we've had the early spring flowers like daffodils and tulips. Now we are into the bigger stuff, like dogwood (white and pink), lilacs (many colors), wisteria, and lots of different flowering trees.
Two wonderful friends, Mike and Leigha, have come to help me get ready for the summer. The lawn is green and manicured, rocking chairs are in place in the breezeway, earthboxes are ready to be planted. I'm so blessed with young friends that help me each Fall and Spring. Shane and Holly did it last, but they are vacationing in Spain. Mike and Leigha are helpful to me in every way.
I've had people here this week from California, Idaho, and Washington. I've also spent quite a bit of time in grief counseling since I've got three different families dealing with recent loss. I was honored to do the memorial services and did my best to do justice to the loved ones who've gone on. I think it's one of the most beneficial things that I do, helping people deal with various kinds of losses.
My teaching in the local church is confined right now to one sermon a week and one class. I'm in a sermon series on "Revival" and am looking at a number of basic things, like fasting and prayer. I've stressed that revival never takes place without people humbling themselves. Most of us have some things to learn about humility. It's not hard to act humbly when someone pays us a compliment. But the Bible stresses the need to SEEK humility and that is a totally different thing. In praying we are also told to SEEK His face, and that is also a very different thing than simply saying a table grace or a Rotary Club Invocation.
In my class I'm doing a light-hearted thing on Life and Customs in Bible times. We've talked about building, water, farming, weaving, etc. I'm enjoying it and hope that others are too.
Next week I give a presentation at the Turner Convention Center on unity. It is part of a conference scheduled by Standard Publishing on working in small churches. They are having these conferences all over the country, but I am just involved in the Oregon one. My specific topic has to do with the conflict that often results from change in the church. With years of experience and countless books read, it is going to be a challenge to give a one hour presentation. I have done LOTS of reading lately in this area, including lots of exciting stuff from Harvard Business School and other secular sources. Pray for me in this preparation and in the presentation.
I'm also preparing for a series of sermons/lectures that I'll give at the Central Church of Christ in Sacramento in June. I'm plowing some new ground in this series and am eager to hear these lessons myself. (That's a joke.)
Tomorrow (April 28) Meagan and I are attending the wedding of Jeffrey Hamm and Melissa Mortieau in Tigard, Oregon. This looks like a match made in heaven. They are both delightful people. I've long said that marriage should not be two "half people" getting together and trying to become a "whole" person. That doesn't work. But with Jeff and Melissa, there are definitely two whole people coming together to form a whole and healthy marriage. I can't think of anything more beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing a number of the Henegar clan who are coming in for the wedding.
I hope things are going well for you. You're definitely in my thoughts and prayers. Call, write, or email when you can. I'm busy, but never too busy for those I love.
Silas

From the Serious to the Trivial