Rooting in the Past
In her recent column, “Rooting Around in the Past,” (Newsweek, October 28, 2009, p. 24), Raina Kelley reflects on the way media have handled news about Michelle Obama’s mixed racial ancestry. Thanks to the research of NY Times researcher Megan Smolenyak, her South Carolina slave ancestors and the white father of her great-great-grandfather now stand [...]
A Visit to Boston – Update
On November 9-11 I will be in the Boston area. On Monday I will be at Boston University School of Theology to join in leading Tom Porter’s seminar on Restorative Justice. Wednesday, I will join with Prof. Mark Burrows at Andover Newton Theological School in leading worship in their new chapel at 1 pm, where [...]
A Table for the Roundtable Gathering
The Roundtable Worship Gathering has met at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville for over six years. I finally got around to making them a table! While other communion tables have featured grapes, wheat, doves, and related symbols, I decided on a simple, abstract design that I had already developed for a smaller table used [...]
Good Stock
I recently received an inquiry from Pamela Hanson, who asked if I knew of a poem that could be read at a memorial service for her father, Roland Hanson, who was, among other things, a woodworker. Not finding one in my files I was led to give voice to these words. Good stock cut straight [...]
William J. Everett
In my teaching career I authored eight books and numerous articles in social ethics and religion. After over thirty years of academic work — in Germany, India, and South Africa as well as in the United States — I wanted to turn my hand to a poetically written novel to probe the issues of ecological and human reconciliation.
When I am not writing, I create furniture for worship settings. For more about my work, go to www.WisdomsTable.net, where you will also find galleries of artwork by my wife Sylvia, whose ancestors were the original inspiration for Red Clay, Blood River. Click to read my complete bio...
Red Clay Blood River
Red Clay, Blood River is a story told by Earth about two brothers from Germany and an enslaved South African woman whose lives bind together America’s “Trail of Tears” and South Africa’s simultaneous “Great Trek” of 1838. Memories of their journeys through oppression, estrangement and reconciliation reverberate in the lives of three contemporary students brought together by their interests in ecology. Through their often difficult friendship and a surprising discovery they begin to unravel the mystery of their estrangements, struggles, and deep connections to each other and to the earth.
Based on extensive research in the United States, South Africa, and England, this book takes readers through a sweeping saga of love and conflict in the context of emigration, invasion, slavery, and exploitation. Through its stories we are invited to see our fractured human history from within the sensibilities of an earth that seeks the flourishing of all creatures and transcends their deaths within its life.
I welcome you to read Excerpts from Red Clay Blood River.
You can also view some Reader's Responses to the book.
If you are already reading Red Clay, Blood River, check out the Reader's Guide and Glossary of Names.
If you are in a Book Club, go to the Guide for Discussion Groups.
If you want to know more about people who helped me in writing this book check out the People Present at the Creation.