Thankful to spend some time in Arkansas with soldiers, veterans, and military contractors whose hospitality and service were displayed.

The commander drove me around, narrated more of the history of the post to me, and took me out into the woods to show me more training areas and hunting areas.

Not sure what it is about landscapes but once I have a picture and memory in my mind of a place, I can associate things and ideas with it incomparably more effectively.

When we were at range control, I was struck by this garden bed … of sorts. It didn’t grow azaleas or roses or any other southern plant. Instead it was the resting place of racks and skulls and bones of some of the deer harvested.

Some might think it macabre; I found it wonderful: a testimony to the care and appreciation with which the soldiers and vets here tend the garden of creation in their neck of the woods and the ways their caretaking is repaid via bounty.

Happy Thanksgiving to these men and their families. May your tables abound with venison and benediction.