BALTIMORE, Maryland November 25, 2015 - Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow, at least here in the USA. Although the holiday has a secular origin, it is celebrated, especially, by Christians and Jews, because the idea of thanking the Great Good Lord is so much a part of the heritage of both religions. Where I worship, services are held tonight and tomorrow morning. I will be an usher at the service tomorrow morning. I have much to be thankful for.
My Lord has provided me with a loving family. My mother and father are both alive and, at their advanced ages, in amazing physical health. My father is like a rock, unchanging. My mother, although a few years younger than my Dad - who turns 89 on Thanksgiving Day - has suffered the ravages of aging more peculiarly than my dad. Her memory, especially, is curtailed. Her moments of clarity are like brief, passing, breaths of fresh perfumed air. My wife is amazing in so many ways. My three children are sources of unending joy. My grandson is the purest joy. Soon he will have a playmate because his aunt, who is my oldest daughter, is pregnant.
I am very fortunate to have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit and with it, the understanding and comprehension of my faith in Christ. It is as if a new and wonderful gift is presented to me every day of the year. It is a precious gift, and I understand its precious nature.
I am thankful for these United States. I have learned that the gift of a wonderful country is never to be taken for granted. We have suffered through a spate of years with a President who loathes the nation and citizens he governs. Our Great God knows why this is so and I know that I do not understand those reasons. I trust that the Lord knows why things happen as they do. I will always be thankful for the gift of a beautiful and timeless Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. I will always be thankful for the men who drafted those documents. There were times when I was overly critical of these Founding Fathers. Maturity has enabled me to understand that these men are human beings, born with gifts of intellect that I can only dream about, but also born with faults that are obvious. I have also come to understand that they were citizens of a different time. Almost all of them were haunted by the institution of slavery even though some held slaves. Most knew if they tried to abolish slavery at that time the nation would not have been able to break free from England. As a citizen, I thank God for all these men and all they did to provide these United States with a framework born of idealism and formed in such a way that good would always win out over evil. As a Christian, I thank God for each of them and ask God to forgive them their sins. I also thank God for the sureness that he will forgive them and, in fact, already has.
I am also thankful for the folks who read these essays. You cannot know the joy you bring.
An Ancient Ocean is Discovered One Thousand Feet Beneath the Floor of the Chesapeake Bay
The folk at the United States Geographical Survey were doing core samples beneath the floor of the Chesapeake Bay. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the geography and topography of these United States, the Chesapeake Bay is a body of water that runs inland from the Atlantic Ocean, beginning in southern Virginia and extending northwest through Maryland almost to Pennsylvania. The Susquehanna River empties into the Bay at Havre de Grace, not far from the most northern and western edges of the Bay. The Bay is saltwater, although there are times when the salinity of the Bay is challenged when the Susquehanna's flow is increased due to melting snow and rain.
The USGS scientists conducting the core sampling made an amazing discovery. Some thousand feet below the bottom of the bay is a gigantic deposit of what was once the nascent Atlantic Ocean. But the remnant of the Atlantic discovered by the USGS is a far different ocean than the one that today laps up against what Marylanders call the "Eastern Shore" or Delmarva Penninsula. The Eastern Shore is, as the other name suggests, a penninsula of land that juts out from Pennsylvania and Maryland into salt water that, to the west, is the current Atlantic Ocean, and to the east is the Chesapeake Bay. The Atlantic Ocean that is represented by the deposit below the Chesapeake is far saltier than today's Atlantic Ocean. The reason, the USGS says, is that the Atlantic was actually far smaller than it is today, and, most amazing, was actually landlocked. Says the USGS:
"Twice as salty as modern seawater, the ancient seawater was preserved like a prehistoric fly in amber, partly by the aid of the impact of a massive comet or meteorite that struck the area about 35 million years ago, creating Chesapeake Bay."
The asteroid or comet that created the Chesapeake is not the same one that killed the dinosaurs. The huge space rock responsible for that deed crashed into the Gulf of Mexio some 65 million years ago. That event marked the end of the Cretaceous Period and the beginning of the Tertiary Period. This geographical boundry is called the "K-T Boundry.
College Basketball: Maryland Beats Back Illinois State, 77-66, after trailing by 8; Valparaiso Stuns Oregon State, sending Beavers to First Loss
Watching Maryland play Illinois State Tuesday night was not a pleasant experience, at least not until the final five minutes. For the third straight game, the No. 2 Terps, now 4-0, struggled just to stay within striking distance of the fired-up Redbirds. The MAC opponents spread the taller Terrapins out, ran, gunned, and then ran some more. Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon admitted after the game that he was still learning how to coach this supremely talented bunch. And, to be fair, the Terps are not making the coach's job an easy one.
Melo Trimble, the preseason Big Ten MVP, was nearly scoreless at halftime before exploding in the second half. Rasheed Sulaimon, the Duke transfer who has been embraced by Turgeon and his Terrapin Teammates, also took a while to get started. With about seven minutes left, Maryland trailed, 57-52. They couldn't hit the side of a barn door from three-point range. Diamond Stone got himself in foul trouble. And then, just like that, Maryland rallied. Trimble and Sulaimon started to find their range. So did Jake Layman and Jared Nickens. Damonte Dodd had a career high 13 points (but thank the Lord that Maryland doesn't have to depend on his free throw shooting).
Sulaimon ended with 16 points, Trimble with 15. Layman had 12 points and Robert Carter chipped in with 11. Nickens had 6. Mikyle McIntosh had a game-high 17 to lead Illinois State, and Paris Lee added 15. The championship game between Maryland and Rhode Island - which defeated TCU - is tonight at 8:30 pm.
Out west, meanwhile, Valparaiso improved its record to 6-1 with a convincing 63-57 victory over Oregon State at Corvallis. Shane Hammink and Tevon Walker, from the Netherlands and Canada, respectively, led the Crusaders with 15 points each. Valpo had suffered its first and only loss of the season on Sunday night when it was upended by Oregon after leading at the half and at the mid-point of the second half. Despite the loss, the Crusaders continued to collect votes in this week's AP Top 25.
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