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Riehl Life: Village Wisdom for the 21st Century
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Creating connections through the arts and across cultures and the home of "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary." Feautures family issues and the creative vitality of the blogger's father, in his 90s, Erwin A. Thompson.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'family matters'
Blowing Bubbles: Playing to Learn
Blowing bubbles as a scientific experiment. How far away from your mouth makes the best bubble? Where on the hill? What about wind currents? Children know the answers to these questions. Do you?...
Kids Today: Supermodels! Movie Stars!
Even ordinary kids these days live lives of supermodels and movie stars. It’s all in the eyes of the parents and relatives. Doing something cute? Snap. Remotely clever? Snap. Moment to remember, maybe? Snap. Looking through old family albums th...
New Creative Catalyst Post: Fear, the Friendly Enemy
New Creative Catalyst Post: Fear, the Friendly Enemy on Story Circle Network’s blog is now up. Stephanie Farrow of Albuquerque, New Mexico collaborates with me on this column. We’ve been getting appreciative notes from readers saying how ...
“You Gave Me Dignity”
Jimmy Freeman and Tommy White at the scouting jamboree. Slept in the same sleeping bag. “Color didn’t rub off either one of them.” When Jimmy returned to visit Pop he told him, “You gave me dignity. I can stand up with anyone ...
Village Wisdom: Anchors Series on Riehlife
“Anchors” refers to the people in the Melville community that were the heart of it as my father Erwin A. Thompson grew up and as he listened to the stories of older generations of the legends that were our heritage. Here is a showcase of...
Village Wisdom: Anchors (intro) by Erwin A. Thompson
Rebecca Pincas and her family hosted a gathering at the Edwardsville Library to share the labors of several yeras of hard and dedicated work. The subject: “The early history of Melville andi ts people.” Several of the old families wer...
Abraham Lincoln
Sinta Seiber-Lane interviewed Daddy for an WUIS radio program on Lincoln. Guests besides my father Erwin A. Thompson included Chris Vallillo and Todd Cranson.....
Class Lessons from Childhood Shape Me Today
My feeling about class are complicated. I grew up in an ambiguous class environment. All three of us kids were raised to work…and work hard…on our big gardens…on wide-flung family construction projects…on our music, and homewo...
Village Wisdom: Anchors: “Melville Neighbors,”by Erwin A. Thompson
In our family collection of books I found an old Bible, with the inscription: “Frank Riehl, Superintendent of the Melville Sunday School.” One time my Uncle Ed Riehl and Aunt Amelia (Mim) Riehl were to play a violin duet for the church p...
Village Wisdom: Anchors, E. A. Riehl…by Erwin A. Thompson
Evergreen Heights, the place founded by E. A. Riehl and our homeplace still…where he communed with nature and forged paths to become one of the 8 premiere horticulturalist in the world at that time. E. A. Riehl was a pillar of the community, th...
Pop’s Come Back at Home
It’s been no time at all since Pop’s return from the hospital. We can say two things for certain: First, he’s still his indomitable self, blessing the world a little longer with his presence: playing music, finding the true game in ...
Pop Home from Hospital! Halleluyah!
In the hospital Pop received callers–visitors and staff–as if he were a host in an elegant drawing room clad in a dressing gown instead of hospital regulation. But, the last night before he left after a 5 1/2 day stay, he didn’t sle...
Inspiring Day at the Hospital with Pop and His Court
I spent yesterday at the hospital with my father (who experienced a small heart attack early Sunday morning) and my niece, Diane, who holds his medical records with meticulous care and kindness. We have a division of family labor in creating a team t...
Observable Readings: Quincy Troupe & Patrick Rosal hit it out of the park!…But, why so quiet?
This week in St. Louis at the Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood neighborhood, I attended a rousing session of poetry written and read by both the noted Quincy Troupe and another poet fried Patrick Rosal at the Observable Readings series founded by Aa...
Creative Practice Dialogue between Alethea Eason & Janet Riehl
Alethea Eason commenting on the post “Building a Creative Practice is not for whimps” said: I believe that having regular session to do creative work is essential, but it may not be practical to have this occur every day, especially with ...
