A touchstone of sorts

I left the hotel early this morning in order to walk the York Place campus with the camera before the board gathered.  Although I go to York frequently (at least three times per year), I have a tendency to focus solely on the meetings, letting exploration wait until another time, for a visit when I have "more" time -- a chronic tendency, I'm sad to say.

The barn is my favorite building, a central feature of campus and the backdrop to those who live, work and visit York Place.  It isn't perfect, but functional, useful.  I don't know when it was built; I don't know who built it. 

That plain building, simply by standing there, gives me such pleasure.  It's an odd touchstone in my life, and has been for a rather long time -- since before having left South Carolina for seminary in the fall of 1989.  I look for the barn when I turn onto campus, not the adminstration building or the pavilion or the dining hall, but the barn.

Of course, it might reach the end of its usefulness one day.  The plot of earth it stands on might be needed for something else.  That will be OK.  But, if I'm still around, I'll miss it.