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Taking The Scenic Route Through Life

I suppose it all starts with the name. Because you see, the New River, which courses its way across the spectacular landscapes of North Carolina and Virginia, is, rather amusingly, not very new at all. In fact, it’s widely considered to be among the oldest rivers in the world, tracing its lineage back some hundreds of millions of years, give or take an eon or two.

The New River, Virginia

The irony in the name arises from the fact that when the European settlers arrived, they called it the ‘New River’ simply because it was the new river they discovered. An example of human simplicity if you will.

According to the scientists, those lovable lab-coat clad individuals who speak in terms only slightly more decipherable than an intoxicated groundhog, the New River is a venerable old geezer. It’s believed to have gracefully resisted the tectonic uplift that formed the Appalachian Mountains. The waterway’s course is a flowing testament to geologic rebellion, running south to north, in open defiance of its many eastern seaboard brethren.

Stretching for a respectable 360 miles, it meanders through gorges, valleys, and placid farmland, as if the river, not quite ready to concede to the ravages of time, is taking the scenic route through life. And what a life it must’ve been, witnessing the wax and wane of epochs, the dance of dinosaurs, the rise and fall of civilizations, all while carrying on with the soothing, persistent murmur of flowing water.

It’s a delightful spectacle of nature, whether you’re standing on the edge gazing into its depths, or better yet, paddling along its course. The section near the New River State Park in North Carolina provides a heavenly kayaking experience. With an easy gradient, it caters to a wide range of kayakers, from those with the overconfidence of beginners to the well-worn, sea-salt-in-the-veins sort of veterans. Not to mention, it’s also blessed with some of the most breathtaking scenery you could ask for, a nature’s art gallery curated by the hands of time.

As I paddled down this ancient waterway, taking in the limestone cliffs and evergreen forests lining its banks, the sun warming my skin, the water cooling my heels, I felt an immense sense of calmness. It’s easy to see why our pagan ancestors might have regarded rivers as gods. They are potent and gentle, dangerous and comforting, old and yet, forever new.

So there you have it – the New River. An old, winding trail of water with a youthful spirit, a place where time has meandered in strange loops and swirls, much like the river itself. A reminder of the past and an inspiration for the present, just waiting for us to dip in our paddles and join the flow. Because that’s the thing about rivers, they’re always on the go, much like life. And as the old saying goes, you can never step into the same river twice.

Several weeks ago, before the Canadian ‘Cannabis’ smoke came South, I shot this drone video of the New River and one of its many tributaries.

The New River “Scenic Route” w/ Chopin

Companion Post

Fox Hunters Paradise

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Celebrating God’s God Creation

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Kid ‘Thrown To The Wolves’ Says Children’s Hospital Physician

A physician reveals the nightmare of transgender ideology in a major children’s hospital

Christopher Rufo interviews a children’s hospital physician. The interview found in City Journal starts like this:

I have been engaged in an ongoing dialogue with a physician who works in a major children’s hospital in a blue city. This physician has witnessed firsthand how transgender ideology has captured the medical profession and jeopardized the first commandment of the healing sciences: do no harm.

He has now chosen to speak out, on condition of anonymity, because he is alarmed by the sudden corruption of the medical community. His colleagues, many of whom oppose transgender interventions, have so far chosen to stay silent. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

[one quote from interview]

Physician: There was a kid in the children’s hospital in his teens who had really bad Crohn’s disease, to the point where he’d already had multiple surgeries. And that kid would always be coming back to the hospital and the operating room. But one day, at the same time that we were rolling that kid back to the OR, another kid was headed to the other operating room to get an implant put into his arm so that his hormones could be suppressed. The first kid had no choice. He had no control over his condition of Crohn’s. He was born that way. There was no way to prevent it from happening. But the second kid was put into that situation because of the psychiatrists, the psychologists, the doctors, the politicians, and those in the media who convinced him that this was the correct thing to do to cure his mental anguish.

This should weigh heavily on the consciences of the doctors who did this to a child with the opportunity to live a normal life, to have a normal childhood. At some point, that child is going to wake up, and he’s going to realize that this was unnecessary, that his sexual organs are permanently mutilated, that the balance of his hormones is completely destroyed. He’s going to realize that there’s no going back, that the people who were supposed to protect him threw him to the wolves.

Read the whole thing!

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The Corruption of Medicine

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Cardinal, Archbishop: Encyclical Condemning Gender Theory Is Necessary And Urgent

Willem Jacobus Eijk, Cardinal Archbishop of Utrecht writes the following:

Gender theory seriously contradicts the nature of man and has serious implications for the proclamation of the foundations of the Christian faith by undermining the role of the father, the mother, marriage, and the relationship between children and parents. Many believers and bishops feel that a document setting out the Catholic Church’s vision is urgently needed.

With the exception of his insistence on the male only priesthood, I largely agree with his statement. And fervently hope that the Roman Catholic Church produces that encyclical, posthaste!

The basic idea of gender theory, i.e. that the roles of men and women (gender) can be completely separated from biological sex, derives from the dominant view of man in our current society. It generally limits the human person to his or her consciousness (the mind), with its ability to think and make autonomous decisions, which was gradually made possible within the framework of evolution by the development of very complicated biochemical and neurophysiological processes in the brain. According to this view of man, the body would only be the means by which the person (restricted to consciousness) can express himself. This gives the human person a very broad right to dispose of their body, including their biological sexuality.

On the contrary, the Catholic Church teaches that, “though made of body and soul, man is one” (Gaudium et spes, No. 14). The body, including the reproductive and sexual organs, is not something secondary or accessory, but belongs to the essence of man and therefore, like man, is an end in itself and not merely a means that man can use for any purpose. John Paul II writes in his encyclical Veritatis splendor (No. 48) that the human body is not a raw material with which man can freely do as he pleases.

The papal magisterium rejects gender theory, but has so far only done so in a cursory manner. In his Christmas address to the curia on 21 December 2012, Benedict XVI noted that in the context of gender theory, man “denies his own nature and decides that it is not given to him as a pre-established fact, but that he himself creates it”. Pope Francis has also said several times that gender theory is incompatible with human nature and the Christian view of gender difference. In the encyclical Laudato si‘, he emphasises that a true ecology also requires respect for sexual gender difference: “Learning to accept one’s body, to care for it and to respect its meanings is essential for a true human ecology. Appreciating one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is also necessary in order to be able to recognise oneself in the encounter with the other who is different from oneself. In this way, it is possible to joyfully accept the specific gift of the other, the work of God the creator, and be mutually enriched. Therefore, an attitude that claims to erase sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it is unhealthy” (No. 155). See also Amoris laetitia, No. 56.

In an address to the participants of the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy for Life on 6 October 2017, he warned the audience against the risks of the ideology of gender. “The biological and psychic manipulation of sexual difference, which biomedical technology lets us glimpse as being completely available as free choice – whereas it is not! – thus risks dismantling the source of energy that nourishes the covenant of man and woman and makes it creative and fruitful”.

You can read his full statement here.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14, ESV

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