LABYRINTHS: Seeking the Center in Wilmington and Kennett

Saturday, May 2, was World Labyrinth Day, and I marked it by walking the labyrinth behind the Delaware Art Museum. Labyrinth caretaker Carol Maurer gave a brief talk about the labyrinth, which is situated in what used to be a reservoir supplying water to local workers' houses. She said that all around the world, people would be walking at 1 p.m. in their local time zones -- even in devastated Nepal -- which means that a wave of peace would be encircling the globe. In theory.
The labyrinth is encompassed by tall rock walls and measures 80 feet across, with a circumference of 253 feet. It's not a maze; the path edges are marked by small stones. Walking from the edge to the center, you'll make 28 U-turns (to mark the 28-day lunar cycle) and six right-angle turns (there's one right as you think you're about to get to the center!).
Choristers from the Cathedral Choir School processed solemnly in and performed two songs -- the acoustics in the stone-lined site are stunning -- while the visitors entered the labyrinth and began their walks. Some paced slowly and mindfully, their hands clasped in prayer. Others crunched through the gravel, taking the twists and 180-degree turns in jaunty fashion.
I walked to the center of the labyrinth and back out again, twice (a total of a mile). There's something rhythmic, relaxing, and almost hypnotic about it.
A few days later I did a solo walk on a labyrinth closer to home, at the Episcopal Church of the Advent, adjacent to the church's memorial garden. It's smaller and has a different pattern than the one at the Delaware Art Museum, but it produces the same sense of "centering."
This photo is from the Delaware Art Museum's website.

WEST MARLBOROUGH: A quiet month for township business

It was a quiet West Marlborough Township meeting on May 5 (well, except for the birds singing lustily outside the township hall as the sun went down).
Supervisor Hugh Lofting reported that the township road crew was working along with neighboring townships to repair potholes, including the gaping ones on Hood Road in Londonderry Township, just outside of the West Marlborough Township line.

 Hood Road before.

Hood Road after.

In reference to a discussion at the March township meeting, Supervisor Lofting said the township is leaning toward keeping its vintage road grader rather than replacing it.
"It's a very good grader," he said. "At least, for its time."
Township engineer Al Giannantonio said he received no zoning applications in April. Building inspector Eddie Caudill reported that he made two inspections and issued a building permit for a generator that is being installed at a house in the 500 block of Upland Road.
According to Officer Robert Clarke's police report, he worked seven days in April, did one investigation, and handled 21 incidents (including issuing seven speeding tickets, three parking tickets, one ticket for driving-without-a-license and five warnings).
The supervisors also mentioned the refuse dumping and graffiti that have appeared along Big Spring and Thouron Roads. They will alert Officer Clarke to the problem.

THE LIBRARY: Fallout from the Board members' resignations

Elsewhere in this week's Kennett Paper you can read the full text of the resignation letter that three Bayard Taylor Memorial Library trustees (Jim Nelson, Jerry Brown, and Carol Starzmann) wrote on April 27 to support their colleague Barbara Cairns, the Kennett Square representative on the board, who they said resigned from her position because of her treatment at the hands of the board president, Susan Mackey-Kallis of Pennsbury Township and the vice president, Geoff Birkett of Kennett Township.
The letter is long but it's worth reading. If you love the library like I do (I served on the board for 10 years, in addition to being an employee, donor and volunteer), the situation will appall and sadden you.
I posted the letter on my blog on April 28, and the Kennett Paper posted a link on its Facebook page, and it was read by hundreds of people. This week I talked to many former library trustees, employees and volunteers, in person, on the phone and via social media, and the response to the situation seems to be universal dismay.
On April 30 Ms. Mackey-Kallis, who is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Villanova University, issued a press release decrying the "inaccurate information" being reported and declaring that the remaining board is in fact "much stronger than before" (you can read her press release elsewhere in this week's paper, too).
The question that many are asking is this: How will this controversy, coming on the heels of the board's decision to change the library's name, affect the library's chances of raising the millions of dollars it will take to construct a new building?

BURR SOCIETY: The covered bridges of Chester County

On Saturday my West Marlborough friend and neighbor Helen Martin spotted a long line of packed cars headed south on Route 841 at Route 926, many of them bearing red flags and signs saying "Covered Bridge Safari." Having a well-developed sense of curiosity, she did some research as soon as she got home from her errands and found that they were members of the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania on their annual outing, which this year was here in Chester County. The covered bridge enthusiasts visited all 15 bridges in the county, including the two in the Laurels Preserve, and spent the night at Microtel Inn in West Chester.

 

STROUD CENTER: Honoring scientists Drs. Sweeney and Newbold

Congratulations to Dr. Bernard W. Sweeney, the director of the Stroud Water Research Center, who was named the Berks County Conservation District’s Conservation "Individual of the Year" on April 27.

The honor was given for his “proactive work to apply the science of riparian forest ecology," District Executive Dan Greig said.

Dr. Sweeney and his Stroud Center colleague Dr. Denis Newbold published an article last year in "The Journal of the American Water Resources Association" about the optimal width of streamside forest buffers.

(I should add that Denis Newbold has some pretty good technology skills, too: he saved the day by running a lecturer's PowerPoint presentation on his own computer at West Grove Meeting the other evening!)  

The internationally known Stroud Center has its headquarters on Spencer Road here in West Marlborough.

KENNETT SQUARE: A hair salon in the former Liz Marden space

The space at 110 South Union Street in downtown Kennett that once housed Liz Marden Bakery is being converted into "Blown Away Blow Dry Bar and Salon." A sign in the window says the salon will open this autumn and is looking for employees, and a Facebook page is already up and running.
That block is becoming a personal services hub, with the Picone Beauty & Wellness Spa, Tribe Beauty Culture, My Polished Nail Salon (which Roxann and Olen Grimes of the next-door Artworks gallery recently purchased) and Fragale's Barber Shop.
You may remember Liz Marden as the bakery that made the wedding cake for the daughter of Vice President Joe Biden and gingerbread cookies for Longwood Garden’s Christmas display but closed abruptly in July 2012.

SUMMER CAMP: Sometimes it's easier just to write a check

Krysta, one of our Kennett YMCA instructors, is such a good sport! She teaches a terrific exercise class that I attend on Friday evenings that always includes a ridiculously large number of pushups (an exercise that never, EVER gets any easier; how can that be?).
When she mentioned that she was helping to raise money to enable underprivileged kids to attend the Y's summer camp, I had the zany idea of volunteering to donate $1 per pushup that I didn't have to do. Another pushup-despising classmate immediately said she'd join me in the scheme.
Krysta jumped at the chance. And when the pushup part of the class arrived, my friend and I made a big deal out of watching her like a hawk and counting out loud so she wasn't tempted to slack off.
"WOW, did you feel that?" she asked the class after one set that looked brutal.
My friend and I looked at each other: "No," we had the pleasure of saying. "We really didn't."
By the end of class she had done a total of 50 pushups. We each wrote a check for $50, and I saw other generous classmates chipping in as well.
I'm sure there's a sports metaphor for a win/win/win situation like this: We got out of doing pushups, we had the fun of watching our instructor do them -- and some kids get to go to the Y's excellent summer camp.

CELTIC MUSIC: RUNA is performing in Hockessin

After I write about a concert I attend, people will often tell me, "Wow, I wish I'd known about that!"
Well, here's a nearby show that sounds like it will be really special: the Green Willow Folk Club will present the Irish/American roots band RUNA at the Hockessin Memorial Hall at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 18. Tickets are $25 in advance (reservations@greenwillow.org or call 302-456-3242) and $28 at the door.
The band members are Dublin-born guitarist/vocalist Fionán de Barra; mandolin/banjo player Dave Curley, from Galway; percussionist Cheryl Prashker, from Montreal; fiddler Maggie Estes White, from Kentucky; and Philadelphia-born Shannon Lambert-Ryan, vocalist and band manager. Their website is www.runamusic.com.
And en route to Hockessin, why not stop off for dinner ahead of time at the Taqueria Moroleon on Route 41?

RELIGION: The beliefs and culture of the Amish and Mennonites

In the final lecture in the "Faiths of Our Neighbors" series at West Grove Friends Meeting, Edsel Burdge Jr. discussed the culture, history and beliefs of the Amish and Mennonites. A Methodist-turned-Mennonite himself, he is a research associate at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College.
Horse-drawn buggies, one-room schoolhouses and Amish youths are familiar sights in western Chester County, but in his talk I learned a lot about the religious beliefs and rituals of the many different sects of Anabaptists that coexist. They share the belief -- revolutionary when it was first proposed in the 17th century -- that people shouldn't be baptized until they are old enough to choose to join the faith. Both groups are named after their founders, Jacob Amman and Menno Simons.
Mr. Burdge explained that the Amish don't consider modern technology like cars and electricity to be evil per se, but rather dangerous in the sense that they might disrupt the community's traditional fabric by speeding things up and decreasing face-to-face exchanges among the tightly knit group.
I very much want to read a book that he recommended, "Called to Be Amish," Marlene C. Miller's newly published autobiography about joining the Old-Order Amish as an outsider.
Let me take the opportunity to thank West Grove Meeting for presenting this second series of Wednesday-evening lectures. They have been about as varied and entertaining as possible in terms of the topics, the speakers and the presentations (everything from PowerPoint slides to ritual dancing).

LONGWOOD: Stop --- and then look and listen in the gardens

Let's say you're southbound on Route 1, it's a beautiful sunny day, and you decide to visit Longwood Gardens. You get in the right lane and turn onto the exit ramp. And then, whatever you do, don't ignore the stop sign at the end of the ramp! A friend said she was recently pulled over by the state police for failing to come to a full stop there, and she said several people she knows have had the same experience.
She also gave this vivid account of the new-ish Meadow Garden, which I haven't yet visited:
"Oh, it's wonderful! You sit there on a bench, aaahhh, you get to hear the birds, you see a hawk, you see the frogs, you see a snake. Well, I wasn't so thrilled about the snake, but you know, it IS part of Nature."

TRACK: These middle-schoolers are on the move

I watched The Young Relative in action at a Patton Middle School track meet one recent afternoon. Sitting in the bleachers, in the sun, with friends and family is not the worst way to spend a few hours. Thanks to his brightly colored sneakers, it was easy to keep track of the Young Relative as he was competing or waiting to compete.
There were some terrific young athletes, boys and girls, with graceful, effortless-looking form. I enjoyed seeing the kids outside, taking a break from their devices (yes, I know; I should talk), and cheering each other on. I especially admired the guts shown by those who got lapped and finished last by many lengths. They just kept plugging away, a skill that will serve them well in later life.