Corinth Fountain / Jaylin's Grandpa?

Corinth Fountain

At the Civil War Interpretive Center in Corinth, Mississippi, there is an interesting and unique fountain sculpture, which presents a bit of a history of the Civil War. Unfortunately, because of its size it is difficult to get it into one picture.

At the beginning is a large stone tablet with words from the Declaration of Independence on one side and the Constitution on the other, and water flows from that tablet. Then along the way, there are stone “blocks” that represent the Civil War battles in the path of the flowing water. These blocks, whose size represents the size of the battles, disrupt the flow of water, causing bigger and bigger waves, dividing the water into two streams. Then once the War is over, peace returns to the water. Interesting concept. And I’m sure there are some even deeper meanings there, too.

Photo location: Civil War Interpretive Center, Corinth, Mississippi
A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Jaylin’s Grandpa?

The other day as Jaylin and I were leaving school, one of the other kids said, “Hey Jaylin, is that your dad?”

Jaylin replied, “Yes, it is.”

Then when we got in the car, I guess he figured some sort of explanation was in order. He said, “Some of my friends think that because you and I are different colors, that you must be my grandpa.”

“Your grandpa?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes, they say that because I’m black I can’t have a peach dad, so you must be my grandpa.”

“So you can’t have a peach dad, but you can have a peach grandpa?” I asked.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me either,” he said matter-of-factly.

He then went on to remind me of the time when Laura’s mother was in the hospital a couple of years ago. He was playing with another girl in the waiting area, and she asked him where his parents were. He pointed us out, and she told him that we couldn’t be his parents because of our different colors. He told her, “The Bible says that it doesn’t matter what color we are. We are a family as long as we love each other.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.