On the way to our next RV park, driving on I-75, traffic on our side of the divided highway came to a complete stop. There was massive smoke up ahead, filling the sky, less than a mile away. And we sat there, unmoving, for over an hour, with emergency vehicles screaming by periodically on the right. On our cell phones the internet reported that it was a tractor-trailer cargo fire. When we finally got underway again, from the one lane they had opened this is what we saw.
Our RV park is Cummins Ferry Resort Campground and Marina in Salvisa, Kentucky. As we approached the area, we were called by the campground staff, asking when we would arrive, and telling us which road to take from the highway. And even that road was a narrow two-lane, which promptly diminished to one lane, prompting the question of what we'd do if a vehicle, especially a big RV, happened to be approaching from the other direction. Nancy was loudly questioning my compground-picking skills. We arrived safely, then realized that the real reason for that phone call asking our arrival time was to make sure they wouldn't allow a motorhome to leave the park and meet us on the one-lane road.
The RV park is in an attractive location on the banks of the Kentucky River, the far bank of which provides evidence that a glacier in the distant past carved out the riverbed.
The area outside the park has vivid green rolling hills reminiscent of Ireland. I've always thought of Kentucky as a poor state economically, and it's near the bottom in per capita income, but driving along, it looks prosperous around here, with mostly good-looking houses set way back on huge grassy lots.
We'd been mostly lucky on our trip as to precipitation, but here we had two days of constant gentle rain, followed yesterday by snow flurries - in Kentucky, in April! The snow melted as soon as it hit the ground, but last night the temperature dropped down to 32 degrees.
Today it's a cool, clear, beautiful day. We drove over to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, which Nancy had visited all those years ago with her sister. It is today a museum on the site of a previously vibrant Shaker community. Some of the many buildings there are currently being restored.
The "United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing" was a Christian sect established in England in the 18th century. Because of their habit of dancing ecstatically during services, they became known as the Shakers. At their height, there were 6000 believers in multiple communities in the United States, but today there is only one remaining active village - and that's in Maine.
The most intriguing belief of the Shakers was that God demanded that they remain celibate. Carnal relations were forbidden. I'm no expert, but that may have interfered with their ability to maintain population numbers. The Bible tells us that spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, so moral failings resulting in pregnancies must have occurred, though clearly not often enough to replace those who left the village or died. Still, impressively, the sect has remained active for more than 200 years, by adopting children and attracting converts.
The Shakers were admirable in many ways. Reportedly, they believed that God was genderless, and therefore they did not practice sexual discrimination in leadership - although work roles remained traditionally gender-based. We're told that during the 19th century they bought the freedom of some slaves who wanted to join their religion and later became prominent in the governance of the congregation.
The Shakers felt that hard work was service to the Lord. They were known for orderly farms and villages. They were creative in developing machines, powered by horses or water, to help with repetitive tasks - woodworking, laundry, and so on. They invented a distinctive style of furniture which is well known today, and they were sophisticated in their architecture. In one of the buildings in the village, there are circular staircases on opposite sides of a hallway - one for each sex. This is the view of one of them from above.
No comments:
Post a Comment