MAKING MOONSHINE F, 3-17-17

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from the Heart of Winter for the Years of Winter…

MAKING MOONSHINE                     F, 3-17-17                                                                                        

When our daughter, Katie [1], and her husband, Patrick, taught at U of Arkansas in Batesville, a college staff member told them what to do if they were in the woods and came across a moonshine still.

“You won’t see him, but somebody is watching you, and he has a shotgun. What you do is, you pick up a little stick, and you add it to the fire under the still, just a little stick, because the fire has to stay small to cook the shine right, and then you back up real slowly, until you’re out of sight of the still, and then you get the hell out of there.”

“But why add a stick to the fire?” Katie asked.

“Because then you’re an accomplice. You’re helping to cook the shine. It’s a sign to the moonshiner that you aren’t going to the cops, because you have broken the law yourself.”

I’m asked frequently these days to sign petitions. Mostly they are petitions to sharks asking them not to eat swimmers, and petitions to hurricanes asking them not to blow little houses away. Those sorts of petitions don’t do any good. Sharks and hurricanes pay no attention to them, regardless of how many people sign them. There are other actions I can take to try to help the swimmers and the little houses that are more effective. And I take those actions.

But I sign the petitions, too, because they are a symbol that I am an accomplice, tending the fire that must be kept burning.

JRMcF

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

I tweet as yooper1721.

1] Katie Kennedy is the author of the highly acclaimed best seller, Leaning to Swear in America, and What Goes Up, which will be published July 18. Although Learning to Swear in America is listed as Young Adult, I know people in their 90s who swear that this story of a 17 year old Russian physicist who has to stop an asteroid from obliterating Los Angeles is one of the best books they’ve ever read. Katie is published by Bloomsbury, which also publishes lesser authors, like JK Rowling. Learning to Swear in America is available in hardback, paperback, electronic, and audio editions.