I recently accompanied my wife Jeanne to a teachers’ convention in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The Smokey Mountain scenery there is magnificent, but I didn’t care much for the commercialization. There were multitudes of stores and vast multitudes of people milling about like so many houseflies on a watermelon rind.
While wife was at the meetings, I stayed behind in the motel room and worked on a paper I intend to deliver in mid-November at a scholars’ conference. By placing a small table at my patio door I could enjoy the outside air without the rain falling on me. From that vantage point I could also keep an eye on the Episcopal church across the street, which I found inspiring because it brought Anglican history to mind–men like Jeremy Taylor, Lancelot Andrewes, and John Wesley.
The high point of the visit, second only to my wife’s company, was an afternoon trip to Townsend to see the Wood & Strings Dulcimer Shop. Fine folks with a lot of fine instruments.