"I thought we signed up for the same thing... I thought our relationship was perfectly clear. You are an escape. You're a break from our normal lives. You're a parenthesis"
It was July 5th so Mary Ann and I went down to the river to celebrate my anniversary and Independence Day. One bein' the day I married Earl and the other'n was the day I got rid of him. It was proper to celebrate at the river. That river is where I first met Mary Ann, she bein' my best life friend. When I was a young girl I was introduced to Jesus in that river. And that river was where I was reborn the night I sent old Earl to Hell.
When I got to thinking about my life it was the men that was never there for me. In fact it was them that was usually causing me to need somebody in the first place. That person that had been there for me all these years was Mary Ann.
Last night when I was thinking about today I was looking at my wedding day gown. I decided to bring it. I was thinking that shedding it was just another way of sheddin' my old life. Then Mary Ann and I decided to do some sheddin' together with a bottle of that old Muscadine wine off'n our vines from the shed! lol :)
You see Mary Ann and I are sisters and soul mates. When you get to thinking about it marriage is really all about finding that person you want to share a life with. The good times and bad is always a little bit better when you are with that person.
Yeah, I know there's that part, the lovin' and such.
A missing person nobody misses...
But you know one thing that Earl did teach me was that you need to love yerself first. And by that I mean for real. Earl was about as quick and sloppy with the lovin' as he was at changing oil in that shitbag car of his. That got me to learnin' how to please myself so if I'm never with a guy ever again that ain't gonna bother me none.
I've got Mary Ann and that's alls that really counts.
Mary Ann this Red Neck Red Ass state ain't never gonna recognize our union but we is more than just plain old partners, we are sisters and lovers both.
"Let the weak be strong........ It's Independence Day!"
It's weird that I love these two songs so much. I guess the sence of freedom and absolution found in the songs is moving for me. Maybe I just love powerfull women who rise above the tide yet remain ladies (as the Dixie Chicks and Martina do). I guess for me it's both beautiful and scary as it reminds me that women will always have a special bond with their female friends and sisters and us guys, in some ways, are always on the outside looking in trying to figure it all out (and of course never will).
Goodbye Earl is a re-make of a song written by Denis Linde (go figure, the dude who wrote "Burnin' Love" for Elvis wrote it) and originally recorded by the Sons of the Desert. But the Dixie Chicks quickly made it theirs. It had moderate success on the country and pop charts ahead of the album it was eventually on for the Dixie Chicks. But it has become a cult classic and certainly a rallying cry for ladies tired of puttin' up crap from all those assholes! :)
And it wins the award for all time best lyric: "turns out he was a missing person who nobody missed at all..." How many of those guys do we know!
I love that Martina McBride song as well although that dip*hit Sean Hannity has ruined it by putting it on as background music to his show. I guess the song is a stark reminder of the depths some women must go to reach their Independence.
At any rate I hope you watch both videos - they are excellent. Although the Dixie Chicks video below gives me quite a pause considering how much I like Black Eyed Peas (watch the video, you'll get it).
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free
While God is marching on.
Ryan's Thoughts, Reflections, and the Best of Gettysburg
For additional thoughts on today please also visit Max at Thoughts from a Mystic Satyr and Shoes at Red Shoe's Chronicles. Max will be further discussing Gettysburg and Shoes will be talking about the siege of Vicksburg that ended on July 4th, 1863.
Check here and here for some interesting new research and perspective on the battle.
Thoughts and Reflections:
Today is the 150th anniversary of the culmination of the epic 3 day battle that changed the course of America's greatest challenge and helped forge the nation we would become. In the pristine hills of South Central Pennsylvania 160,000 young men fought and nearly 8,000 died to protect their ideals. The area today is picturesque and massive in scope. It's hard to comprehend the vastness of the battle and the hell those men endured on those fateful days.
However, as I am wont to do so often, I enjoy the small and subtle story lines that drive the outcome of the plot.
High Water Mark on day 3
Early on day 1 a savvy cavalry officer, John Buford, realized the strategic importance of the topography and chose to dismount and fight at great odds against the Confederates emerging from the West. The engagement was folly but the precious hours bought allowed the Union 1st Corps to emerge and deploy west of the town to further obstruct the progress of that Confederate line. The general of that corps (John Reynolds, perhaps the Union's best corps commander) would die from wounds received while valiantly directing infantry and artillery. But fate would be for and against the Union over the next few hours. A Major General Doubleday would take Reynold's place and hold the line for another few hours. That Doubleday would go on to greater fame in another field later in life. The Union line was bolstered by the presents of it's most famous Iron Brigade of hearty Mid-West boys. But even the Iron Brigade could not hold when boys from North Carolina flanked them. By the evening the Union had to retreat to ground south of the town. But the day's action cost the Confederacy dearly in men and time. The town they won was meaningless against the hills they now looked at to the east and south. The time won by the Union's vanguard of Buford, Reynolds, Doubleday, and those Iron Brigade men from Indiana and Wisconsin meant that the bulk of the Union army could arrive and deploy overnight along the precious protected high ground overlooking the angelic fields to the southwest of town. Upon the ground they had just recently won so dearly on Seminary Ridge the Confederates could only look east to Cemetery Ridge and know the hell they would pay the next day. That first day of action showed that the minutes you give mean something and the interest earned pays in ways you may not know of at the time; but it does mean something. Little things do matter.
The massive collision of armies on the second day of the battle is beyond the scope of anything that had or probably ever will occur on the North American continent. The Confederates on the Union left fought bravely and at great cost in actions that transformed beautiful places like a "Peach Orchard" and a "Wheat Field" to "Devil's Den" and "Slaughter Pens." And yet by the end of the day the Union had refused the line and at the extreme end of the line the battle came down to boys from Alabama charging up a hill at boys from Maine. Those boys from Maine fought out and tired and out of ammunition finally fixed bayonets and at horrific odds (nearly 2:1) staged a heroic oblique charge down the hill sweeping away the remaining Confederates and shoring up the Union left and preserving the day. Amid the 160,000 troops engaged a mere 1,000 men from Maine and Alabama determined the fate of the battle on that second day. Actions like those on Little Round Top show the meaning of the power of 1 and that small things matter in the great scope of life.
And yet life is a collection of irony. Private Wesley Culp had grown up in that small Pennsylvania town. Young Wesley apprenticed and learned to make harnesses for horses. When his employer moved to Virginia so did young Wesley. At the outbreak of the war Wesley joined his friends in what would become the famed "Stonewall Brigade." By July, 1863 Wesley was a veteran of many of the great battles of the Eastern Theatre of the War (1st and 2nd Manassas, Fredricksburg, Chancelorsville, and the famous Valley Campaign that forged the indelible image of that famed "Stonewall Brigade"). On the fateful 3rd day of the battle, Wesley Culp and the men of the 2nd Virginia looked up at the hill named after Wesley's paternal uncle. Wesley and his regiment charged bravely up the hill but Wesley would not make it to the top dieing from his wounds near his family's farm.
To the south of that Culp's Hill engagement the center of the Confederate line 12,500 strong gave one last heroic, yet fateful charge. Their goal a small "copse of trees." While a few from Gen. Lewis Armistead's Brigade made it to and briefly broke through the Union lines, they were quickly thwarted and beaten back. Gen. Armistead was killed in that attack, ironically in front of and quite close to troops commanded by his dear pre-war friend Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock.
I don't know what the life lesson is gained from Young Wesley or Gen. Armistead is, perhaps it's that you really can't go back home. That's probably not the case, perhaps it's that you never know where life will lead you and amid the massive universe the paradox is that you never know. So I guess you need to make sure you are living for the little things in life that make it worthwhile.
Civil War "hottie?"
Best of Gettysburg:
Speaking of little things it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't comment on travel or cuisine (no, today's post is not about hooking up with Civil War MILFs). Although Belle Boyd to the left was quite the little Confederate seductress, bedding many a Yank for a bit of stratgic information! So since Gettysburg is a place I truly enjoy let me speak about a few out of the way places you might look for if you care to travel to this wonderful place!
That being said while the battlefield and the central town square are beautiful don't be surprised if you are traveling north along the Emmitsburg or Baltimore Pikes and feel you are traveling through the Jersey Shore of Civil War sites! One minute you will be looking to your right and see the focal point of Pickett's Charge and then a half mile later you will pass Pop's Battlefield Fries and Ghost Tours. It's both funny and a guess a bit sad but that is what the selling of history and the commercialization of Gettysburg has become. But look around and you can find some wonderful spots.
Ryan's Favorite Battlefield Stop (Devil's Den)- If the kids are getting antsy Devil's Den is like a natural playground and they will love climbing all over the rock outcropping. Although I caution you there are some steep drops if you are not careful. From Devil's Den you can look up toward Little Round Top. One of the best known ghost stories is that of the Confederate soldier depicted in Alexander Gardner's famous photo "Confederate Sharpshooter." Later analysis revealed that the photo was staged and the soldier was moved to the site by the photographic crew (about 40 yards south of the site). Urban ledgend has it that the Confederate soldier (angered by that indignity) haunts this place.
Ryan's Favorite Restaurant (Dobbin House Tavern) - After a hot day on the battlefield nothing is better than cooling off in the Springhouse Tavern in the basement of the Dobbin House Inn. It is as if you are stepping back in time as you walk down the staircase into the natural coolness created from the spring. They have a great selection of sandwiches and all are good. A must however is the "King's Onion Soup." This is the best Onion (King rather than French) Soup I have ever tasted. You must finish with the Colonial Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce. Before you leave check out the Underground Railroad Museum at the Inn.
Alternate Places Nearby (Emittsburg/Thurmont, MD) - About 20 minutes south of Gettysburg is a wonderful area full of outdoor activities and history. The Grotto of Lourdes on the campus of Mt. Saint Mary's University is beautiful and tranquil. It is a replica of it's namesake shrine in France. If the kiddies are tired of history and tranquility they will love the Catoctin Zoo close by. The zoo is small and intimate and gives you a much better way to get near exotic animals in a way you can't do at the DC zoo. Given the elevation it is also not a flaming cauldron of Hell like the DC Zoo in the summer! If you need something to eat at the end of the day I'd suggest the crab cakes at the Shamrock Diner also close by. If you are feeling real adventurous you might just take a little detour to the west of Thurmont along State Route 77 and see if Barack and Michelle are taking the weekend off at Camp David, I hear they have great Skeet Shooting up there!
As you reflect on the battle and it's meaning take a listen to Johnny Cash's version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
I heard once that if God has a voice it's likely to sound like Johnny Cash to human ears. I believe that!
Last night when I was thinking about today I was looking at my wedding day gown. I decided to bring it. I was thinking that shedding it was just another way of sheddin' my old life. Then Mary Ann and I decided to do some sheddin' together with a bottle of that old Muscadine wine off'n our vines from the shed! lol :)
