“If you think you’re smarter than the previous generation… 50 years ago the owner’s manual of a car showed you how to adjust the valves. Today it warns you not to drink the contents of the battery.” ~ Unknown
all smiles
Gosh, I love days like this. CLIMBS, an NSF-funded mega-project (seven projects in one, basically) that involves eight universities across Kentucky, held a morning of film reviews on climate resilience, right up my alley. As a bonus, the first person I ran into was Dr. Julie Zimmerman, who will be accepting the top award in her field (Rural Sociology) next month. Almost as soon as I congratulated her, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and there stood Ruth Bryan (not pictured)! Ruth has been intimately involved with KHERN, the Kentucky Heritage Disaster Relief Network, which focuses on saving cultural heritage items from disasters throughout the state. Then, no sooner had we exchanged pleasantries, who should I see but Morgan County-by-way-of-Berea’s own Finley Gardner. This strapping young man is working for the Kentucky Geological Survey in Lexington this summer before he returns to Murray State to finish his senior year. His parents, Betina and Andrew, are just smitten with his big brain, and from my perspective, they’ve raised one of the finest young men I know. He’s as sweet as he is adorable. Once inside the Worsham Theater, the first person I saw was my BFF, Dr. Kathryn Engle (not pictured). I think we both took a trip down memory lane when the first film played, because it was about the 2022 flood that hit Eastern Kentucky, which, as you might recall, we were pretty involved with here and here. Next to her was one of today’s speakers and one of my all-time favorite people, Trinity Adams. Ya’ll met Trinity back in 2022 when we went to Eastern Kentucky with Dr. Engle’s sociology class to help build houses on the old strip mine above my family’s cemetery, houses that would provide homes for many of the displaced by the floods in Perry and Knott Counties. That young woman completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and is currently working on her Master’s. She works with children, particularly children in or recovering from natural disasters. As a Letcher County native, she knows a lot about the effects of flooding on children. She really showed off her big brain today on the panel that followed the film screenings, and I couldn’t have been more proud. Dr. Lauren Cagle, in the last photo, was helping show off a temperature quilt. If you’re not familiar, temperature quilts take 365 days to make and the colors are based on the high and low temps of each day. You can put them together in any pattern you see fit, and this one looked to be a wall hanging or perhaps a furniture runner. Cagle is the mastermind behind the Kentucky Climate Consortium that I first talked about way back in 2023. Anyway, if you’re not familiar with temperature quilts (you can also knit the temperatures, too), you can learn more about them here. Like I said, I love days like this when everyone has opened their hearts and minds and all working toward a common goal of goodness. My people.
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