Just in time for August, Latifah Taormina sends this:

Hi Paul,

Here’s some news from the VISTA group in Southern CA.  The article I mention below is written by newly opened member, Jano Nightengale, a regular columnist for the local Coast News. She’s all about gardens and gardening.  (Isn’t culture about cultivating and growing things anyway?)

More about her as a columnist here:  https://thecoastnews.com/janos-garden-creating-your-vegetable-garden-with-help-from-a-raised-bed/

I felt to forward her recent column on to you, especially as there’s been much talk about “true culture” in SICA circles, that we sometimes forget the origin of it all. It’s really about nurturing what has life inside us. Maybe Jano Nightengale’s recent feature in a local Southern CA Newspaper about the Pollard’s peaches takes us back to real true culture!

“The Pollards” in her article are our dear brothers and sister, Bustami Pollard, his green-thumb Mom, Latimah, and his happy father, Rashad.  I think they’re growing more than peaches! They’re nurturing love and togetherness. They’ve been also been hosting a lovely, weekly potluck supper-cum-latihan for nearby regional members like me. Of course, eating together, worshipping together, and sharing are more wonderful expressions of our own truly human culture.

Sometimes, what we’re looking for is right there inside us, in front of us— and pretty peachy!

Cheers,

Latifah