From Lucy to Ugali
When I thought about being in Appalachia for 2 weeks, all kinds of images flowed through my mind. I had a particular economic group, social class, and geographic location in mind. My time has been spent primarily in Garrett County, MD. The more people I met, the more similar they seemed to myself. One of my professors always challenges us to go deeper than the obvious, to "look under the rug." Part of this took place last night and today as those of us who spent January term here met togethe rin Morgantown, WV, at WVU with campus pastor Matt Riegel, Dr. Gil Waldkoenig (professor at Gettysburg Seminary), and Bishop Ralph Dunkin (bishop of the WV/Western MD Synod of the ELCA). One of the things I discovered was that parts of the Southern Tier of my own New York State, are technically part of Appalachia, including Jamestown, the birthplace of Lucille Ball. Hmm...that certainly caught my attention. There are those places however, which do typify what I had originally imagined. Fo...