My History with the Tomato

How can anyone have a history with a tomato?

I think I do. I will let you be the judge and jury while I present the evidence.

My evidence doesn't begin in the beginning. I begin when I was 9 years old, in the 4th grade at Lincoln School in Muscatine. This was our first year after losing the family farm in March, 1938, living near Muscatine.  Now Dad had rented an 80 acres bordering Weed Park on the road called "lover's lane." Our main crops were going to be tomatoes for H. J. Heinz, a ketchup factory processing and bottling ketchup, along with field corn. Both crops became a disaster ending our living on the 80 acres.

More explanation for the disaster is needed. I'll start with the tomatoes. We may have planted five acres or more. Memory does tell me if I helped plant but memory does say I helped keep the weeds down and especially pick the tomatoes putting them in hampers (half bushel baskets) and then on the horse drawn wagon. With a load we went to the factory where they were received and each basket dumped on a tray where workers could examine them to see if they were acceptable. Unfortunately many were rejected. A wet year with too much rain had left many rotting in the field and we had to pick carefully. Often we did not pick carefully enough and the crop was a wipe out. 

My pleasure in this wipe out had been to see a ripe tomato the right size, wipe it off, and eat it on the spot. It must have been good since I had more than one. 

This morning while eating a couple tomato sandwiches using tomatoes from our garden, reminiscing took over, and I remembered that tomato patch in Muscatine and the H.J. Heinz factory and the lost crop while enjoying eating tomatoes at the same time. There might be a paradox here someplace. Now I am reminiscing more as there is more to the story/stories. Tomatoes are the Mississippi River with other stories serving as tributaries.

I grew up in a garden. In the depression of 1930's with few commercial toys or sand box my toys and play area were garden centered. Pulling weeds, hoeing, and helping harvest were some of my chores. After finishing my education, getting married, and starting a family with a house we called our own, I began to garden again on a small scale. A tomato plant was often enjoyed. 

Upon retiring as a hospital chaplain I became even more serious about gardening. I was out in the country with a lake home. I began small but soon I had a 20' x 60' garden fenced in to keep the rabbits out. They still got in. The fence was four foot high and they could jump the fence. Rabbits and cats come from the same family.

I always had different tomato varieties, from cherry too large. Even a heirloom from time to time. From early days we left the tomato plant to grow on the ground but now I stake them up.

Fast forward to the present, my first wife died while were at the lake. I lived and gardened alone missing my partner who knew what to do with the produce. Then unexpectedly I met an amazing lady who grew up in a large family with a big garden. Green beens were her favorite.

Her home had a large yard with a sizable garden flat on the ground. Both of us were getting older so she decided to landscape with four raised beds 8' x 20'. The landscaper filled the beds with a combination of good growing soil. Worm castings were included. The first year our plants created a jungle. Now four years later we have plants producing like I have never seen, i.e. the tomatoes, pepper, and string beans. We know the varieties we like and they are the varieties we plant. With two three tiered grow light most plants grow from seeds. We are organic gardeners. I grow lettuce under the grow lights more than planting them outside.

This year the celebrity tomato had been hybridized. they are a little larger fruit with plants that are heavy producers. With the first frost holding off I hope to have a number of tomato sandwiches before the freeze and then more as the green ones ripen.

Since my partner has canned a number of jars of tomato sauce we will continue to have our tomatoes during the winter.

There are some additional tributaries, more history with the tomato waiting to be told. I could end up doing a commercial for H. J. Hienz.

Marlin Whitmer, Board Certified Chaplain, retired.

 

A Unitive Relational Spirituality.

 

I am asking myself, listening within, “Is there anything else?”

 

The heart as the heart of listening and spirituality is a beginning.

 

As we learn more about the Vegas nerve connecting mind, heart, and gut we can say we listen with our whole being. And the Greek word parakaleo, a called one alongside, i.e. Befriender, comes into relevance.

 

St. Paul with all his skill as a lawyer and word smith used the word nine times in five verses. His way of expressing a unitive relational spirituality.

 

2 Corinthians

^1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort (Befriending), ⁴ who comforts (Befriends) us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort (Befriend) those in any trouble with the comfort (Befriending) we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort (Befriending) abounds through Christ. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort (Befriending) and salvation; if we are comforted, (Befriended) it is for your comfort (Befriending), which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort (Befriending).

 

As we continue to learn more about our physiology we learn more about the Incarnation and our spirituality. As we view unity and oneness, a step forward was made by Hans Selye when the immune system was seen as two track. Specificity and non-specificity. Our antibiotics now acknowledge this. We have a both-and which brings unity and modifies either or since both-and brings balance. I think the Benedictines recognized balance and the researchers of the book Metaphoria included balance as one of the deep metaphors. 

 

 

 

Women’s Professional Basketball and Cultural Wars

The career of Caitlin Clark provides a pleasant diversion from the divisions my life faces in the political and cultural realm. That is what I thought in the begining. I soon found out differently. Conflict is an ever present shadow that is now casting its spell on Women's Professional Basketball.. the devil, diabola, is ready to piggy back on every new situation. And Caitlin provides a new situation as I will attempt to show over time. 

Some background

My wife and I were present at the game In Iowa City, the 20^th of February, 2023, where she broke the record for the number of baskets made in the Big Ten. She did that in the first three minutes of the game against Michigan with two 3’s and a layup. She had 47 points that game.

 

My blog will be divided into two parts as I slowly work on the writings. The first will cover her college days and the second her professional. I am starting with her professional career.

 

As a professional she will be a rookie for a year. Already in five games she is the leading scorer for Indiana Fever and she has the most assists without the team winning any games so far. They have come close in the last two games. Within three points. Clark is correcting her turn overs. Two in the last game compared to ten in one game.

 

While she continues to work on improvement being guarded well by her opponents, she is making history off the court. Her latest recorded in the Quad City Times is a contract with Wilson Sports to be an advisor on basketball equipment. The amount she will make was not given but it definitely is an ongoing project. 

 

More to follow. This is an ongoing project as women’s basketball, college and professional, will never be the same. Caitlin Clark has introduced a new day. The attendance records and 

the increase in tickets sales are bringing a new day. All will benefit.

I am behind in my writing, age 94 is not a speedy time of life, energy disappears in a sudden hurry. I shall return with the crisis of June 1 with a flagrant foul by a player from New York Liberty against Clark. A foul that wasn't called during the game but afterwards during a review. This happening has set off a "firestorm." Now there is a metaphor.

The date is now June 20 and a cultural war has appeared among the players. So much for what I thought would be quiet and peaceful. Clark remains somewhat quiet about the cultural, concentrating on what she want to do. I want to play basketball. As a black players said in response to her quietness, "we do not have that luxury." To Be continued.

the financial figures will be an indication of the change. 

March Madness: Basketball 2024

 The metaphors are different this year since Caitlin Clark has changed the way women's basketball is being played and watched. A few of the metaphors she has generated are entertainment and circus.

The records she has broken are phenomenal. And the records for attendance provides another broken record not only at Iowa but in the other Big Ten schools as well. Folks went to see Caitlin. 

Fran McCafry, the Hawkeyes Men Basketball coach says she is a "generational player." A player like Caitlin appears once in a generation. She has the highest number of 3 point shots on record in a year.

Annie and I went to Iowa City, to the Carver Field House, to see her play in a game against Michigan. We were fortunate to get tickets at a good price. We were in row 6, center of the court.

Fran McCaffry the Iowa Men's coach was in the row ahead of us at the end seat. 

At the start of the game Caitlin only need 8 points to make a record. She did that pronto with two three's. and a lay up for two points.

She is a tall thin lady, maybe 6' 1', who has strong arms the way she throws the ball across the court to another play who is open. She now holds the records for assists. When she shots for the basket sometime near center court she jump up and shoot. She defies gravity. A number of games the has over ten rebounds, ten assists, and an average of 27 points, most of the time more than that. How about 37. 

We are down to the sweet sixteen for the women's games. 

There will be more.

Shalom,

Marlin. I have been watching basketball since high school, 1945-7 Murray Weir was the outstanding player in our high school. Who went to Iowa and became an All American.