Soup-er Saturday

As the temperatures drop in our part of the world, we’ll pack away our shorts and tank tops with a sigh, and most of us will grudgingly consign our flipflops to indoor use. We’ll also adjust our eating habits as we welcome back hearty stews and soups to our culinary menus. When I last asked, McDonalds hadn’t yet pulled out their soup kettles, but I’m hoping that will happen sooner rather than later, as their broccoli cheese soup is a tasty drive-through option for lunch on a chilly autumn day.

While I will miss the fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes of summer, I am ready to savor soups of all kinds over the next few months. One of my Western New York memories is chowder from the volunteer fire department fund-raisers, a mish-mash of vegetables, beef and chicken that had cooked all night over a wood fire in huge cauldrons. My attempts at replicating that remembered taste have been in vain, but the soup’s still flavorsome and filling. And as an added plus, I’ve discovered that Chellie Pingree is right: “There's great value to knitting or digging up your garden or chopping up vegetables for soup, because you're taking some time away from turning the pages, answering your emails, talking to people on the phone, and you're letting your brain process whatever is stuck up in there.”

Among my other favorites are Italian wedding soup, lobster bisque, clam chowder, chili with cheese and onions on the top, and the broccoli cheddar filled with tiny noodles – yum! When I go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, I’m tempted to skip the entrees and fill up on soup. A bowl of soup and a crusty heel of bread are always welcome at my table.

If only soup was always a pleasurable, filling option on the buffet, rather than the tasteless gruel of famine or what a young girl in war-torn Syria calls “water soup.” A recent video on YouTube captured an interview of a ten-year-old girl from Al Hajar Al Aswad, who sat on a street lined with destruction, picking crumbs of bread from the rubble. When asked what she was doing, she indicated that her family was always hungry, as they ate water soup, or spice soup, accompanied by whatever scraps she and her younger brother could scavenge.

When faced with such abject hunger, we do what we can in the form of humanitarian aid and missions offerings, but realize there is little we can physically do to ease the suffering of children in Syria, Liberia, or North Korea. Yet right here in Ashland County, we have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of families who, even though they may have a SNAP card (food stamps), do not have a safe place to live or a pot to prepare soup in. While we wish homelessness was only a big city or third world problem, it isn’t, and scores of families have been housed and cared for over the last few years since ACCESS (Ashland Church Community Emergency Shelter Services) began to offer temporary shelter to those without a place to rest. Our arms may not reach around the world, but our arms can reach down the block in the provision of a meal or transportation, or by sitting prayerfully through an over-night vigil, keeping watch so others might sleep.

ACCESS is sponsoring a Soup-er Saturday fund-raiser today, and it’s all about soup, which makes my heart – and my stomach – happy. It’s happening at Grace Brethren Church, starting at 11 a.m. and continuing until 8 p.m., and will offer soups of all kinds, breads and desserts. It’s their first attempt at a community fund-raiser, and I’m hoping it will become an annual event, much like the Ashland Christian Health Center’s chocolate extravaganza. October – soup, April- chocolate –I’m good to go!

Do you remember Marcia Brown’s book, Stone Soup? From its inception, ACCESS has been a Stone Soup kind of ministry. One by one, Ashlanders have contributed their carrots, cabbage, turnips and spices to the making of a nurturing soup that has enriched the lives of the ACCESS guests and of the helpers. We, as a community, bow our heads in thanks.

So much for a penny saved . . .

Yes, the unexpected has happened in my lifetime. Gasoline prices in our corner of Ohio have dropped below three dollars a gallon. I’m writing this on a Thursday, so it’s possible that by the time you read these words, the price will have climbed up again, but for now, gas is under three bucks. Woohoo! Too bad I can’t stock up like I can when cereal is on sale.

For most of us, gasoline is a necessity rather than a luxury. Gone are the days of the 60s when parents would load the kids in the station wagon for a pleasure ride on Sunday afternoons. Those excursions often ended with a few verses of “Show me the way to go home, I’m tired and I want to go to bed.” In retrospect, it was probably not the best song to sing with children, as the next line explained, “I had a little drink about an hour ago and it’s gone right to my head.” Not the best sentiment to share while driving a car, even in the days before Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Just to clarify, the song, written in 1925 by James Campbell and Reginald Connelly, was purportedly reminiscent of a London train ride, describing a tipsy passenger, not driver.

No matter what song we’re singing, those of us outside of large metropolitan areas are dependent upon automobiles, and therefore, dependent upon gasoline. When I work from home, I just walk down the hall from my bedroom to my office, but most people have to drive to work. We have no trains or subways in Ashland, so if we want to get from place to place, we usually do so in a car, unless we hitch a ride with an Amish friend.

I do get excited when gas on our end of Main Street is a few cents cheaper than near the highway. Saving five cents a gallon nets me a measly sixty cent savings on a twelve gallon fill-up, but it’s the principle of the thing, as I feel I’ve gotten a bargain and somehow beaten the system.

I’ve often wondered who gets to figure out gas prices. Yes, I know they are somewhat based on the going rate for a barrel of crude oil, which has been plummeting in price since June. Why the decline? It could be as simple as supply and demand. Local conflict in some countries had resulted in lowered production for a time, but that’s improving. But at the same time, the demand for oil from Germany and China is decreasing, thus, lower prices at the pump.

But what about local prices? Gas was under $3.00 for about ten minutes a week or so ago, but by the next morning, the price had increased again. Two weeks before, it had fluctuated by thirty cents overnight. What’s up with that? Surely there was no off-shore well that ran dry. I wonder if the local stations get an e-mail from the great price fixer in the sky, saying, “Up your prices. JoAnn forgot to get gas tonight so we can soak her for an extra buck or two tomorrow.” How intriguing that within an hour of one station raising its prices, every station in town has adjusted their prices to approximately the same level.

Some say that falling gasoline prices may increase the demand for gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, but I believe we’ll continue to practice the conservation techniques adopted when the prices kept increasing. Careful use of natural resources will benefit our grandkids, and I want to do what I can to protect the environment for the lovely Madelyn Simone and her children.

So I don’t see a new truck or SUV in my future. Instead, I’ll be glad for a financial reprieve at the gas pumps. However, it’s not likely to help out much with the family budget, for now a pound of ground beef or a gallon of milk is more expensive than a gallon of gas. So much for a penny saved . . .

A University Town

There’s excitement in the air on Saturdays as nearly 5000 people stream into Jack Miller Stadium for Ashland University football games. That same electric atmosphere is felt at the women’s basketball games, as Sue Ramsey will coach her players to victory one last season before retirement.

Visits to the Coburn Gallery engage our artistic senses, and community conversations with the Center for Civic Life are invigorating. The Center for Non-Violence raises an important voice as well, extending the gift of mediation as it seeks reconciliation in matters small and large. The “town and gown” music ensembles, the theater productions, and the annual Madrigal Feaste all add to the ambiance of a college town in mid-Ohio.  

Yes, Ashland University and Ashland Theological Seminary were two of the main reasons Larry and I remained in Ashland after we completed our service at the Salvation Army Kroc Center. Sure, Ashland is someplace special and also the self-described world headquarters of nice people, but I’m not sure that would have been enough to sway our decision towards Ashland had the buildings on Claremont and College Avenue or 910 Center Street (the seminary) been vacant. Our lives are enriched because we live in a college town.

It’s easy to take these many benefits for granted, including the economic impact of its hundreds of students and staff members. So when headlines report financial concerns at AU, we have to pay attention, for the health of the university directly impacts the Ashland community.

Like other educational institutions, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations, Ashland University must pay attention to the financial bottom line in its decision-making. As interim university president, Dr. William Crothers has been tasked with developing a fiscally and academically strong university for the future. To do so, an overall academic prioritization of departments is in process.

But before that was completed, cuts were made in the name of fiscal responsibility. Those current cuts, reported in the Times Gazette on September 26, were operational decisions, for Crothers noted that over time, the university had hired too many people. Crothers explains: “It’s all strategic. We are not cutting the budget when we do the prioritization, we are simply reallocating money . . . whereas I am cutting the budget [now] and getting us back to a solid financial state.”

The university’s actions have led to a fair share of finger-pointing, and have raised questions about the decision-making process as well as the university’s ability to maintain its distinctive academic degrees, smaller classes and personal attention to students, all valid concerns. How much extraordinary can happen on ordinary days (current branding) if faculty are terminated and open positions left vacant? Tough questions.

Those cuts mean that fifteen faculty members will be without employment at the end of the school year. They are not the first to lose their jobs at AU, as other employees have walked that difficult road over the past few years, but this is the first large cut to faculty. The frustrating irony is that the goal of long-term sustainability for the university causes good people to suffer. We are personally connected to these good people. They live among us, worship among us, and teach our children. One in particular has been a tremendous influence on the life of my son. Thanks, Tim, for who you are and what you do, words that can be spoken to other departing faculty members as well.

As disheartening as the lay-offs seem, I am glad the university gave advance notice, allowing these good people to begin their next job search with adequate time to find other employment. As HR departments often advise, university leadership could have sent security guards to the classroom on the last day of the semester with personalized pink slips and cardboard boxes, but they didn’t, a small grace.

It’s time for the people of Ashland to stand in the gap for our brothers and sisters of the university community. “Live United” is more than a United Way slogan – it is the way we live. Here’s to speedy job offers for our friends, thoughtful dialogue among stakeholders, full enrollment and fiscal responsibility for the university, and a gridiron win over Malone. AU strong, Ashland strong.