River Of Earth

When I was little I attended a summer school for dyslexic children in Hindman Kentucky called the James Still Learning Center. Named after the well known Kentucky author, James Still. Over the summers my younger brother Jacob got to know and become friends with a kind, little old man that would come out of his log cabin and down the hill to the cafeteria to eat with us kids. His pockets were always packed full of different types of herbs. This old man would get a kick out of "spicing" up each child's dinner that sat down at his table. I never really talked to him much because I was an incredibly shy child, but I loved listening to the stories he would tell the select few that sat at the table with this strange little old man.

Over the years my brother Jacob continued to attend the summer school each year and later went back to be a counselor in the boys dorm. Slowly the identity of the little old man became known. It was James Still himself!! He ended up writing an Appalachian mother goose book and dedicating it to my brother. He even had one of the first copies sent to us. We also attended his birthday party on at least two occasions.

Even though I knew who he was I never really KNEW who he was. Being dyslexic I hated reading because it was so difficult. That was the reason for going to the summer school. Now that I'm older and better at the whole reading process, I can't stop myself from reading. I love it!! It is safe to say that I have a passion for reading! And if you know me, you know that I am obsessed with the author Wendell Berry. AMAZING!!! But for christmas my husband bought me the well know James Still book "River of Earth." It's so good!!

I can't help but think about how AWESOME it is that I went to a summer school for years to learn how to read, met a man that amazed me by his stories, later found out that that man was James Still and now I am sitting in my living room reading "River of Earth." How strange life is!

One summer our Dad decided to transfer his work (he's a state auditor) to Hindman so that we could all rent a house and stay together instead of me and my brother staying in the dorm. We rented a house on a hill near a log cabin. We had to park WAY down the hill and walk up a path that looked like a goat path through the woods. Each day after school we would wonder through the woods playing make believe. One day we came upon the log cabin that the mysteries old man, that we would later found out was James Still, lived. The door and all the windows were wide open. The wind blowing the curtains. We stepped in what seemed to be the living room. There were books EVERY WHERE. No bookshelves, just books laying stacked EVERYWHERE. We heard a noise, got scared and ran out.

Now here I am reading one of his books. I can't help but wish that during all those summers that I would have known exactly who he was. All the questions I would have asked! I know that we all have those what if moments and this is mine, "What if he was still alive and I was still little and I knew who he was?"

So, amazing!!