“If you feel hurt, you have to recognize that [people] are not hurting you because you are you, but because they are them. You have to try not to be so hard on yourself.”
~ Krishna Das
This is the old Union Church in Cannel City, Kentucky. The community had cleared away the overgrowth, and I was able to get inside for the first time in my life. I’ve passed this church thousands of times. It’s not far from my grandparent’s home up Railroad Fork. My aunts and uncles used to go to church here before they built the new church.
The new church is ordinary, drab even, compared to the splendor of this building. The doors of solid wood are still standing, and in pretty good shape, all things considered. The pianos are still inside, though they haven’t faired as well as the doors. The stained glass windows are a mark of prosperous elegance. They harken back to when Cannel City was a boom town in Kentucky. I’m not sure when the church was built, but I suspect it was during the town’s heyday early last century. One thing I know for certain; I have always wanted to go inside, so it was a real treat for me to finally, after 49 years, have the chance. No snakes. No spiders. No wasps. Just me and God and my camera on a perfect Kentucky spring day.
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