Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

Friends & Taking A Vacation

I am often surprised when asked if Carl ten Hoopen is a real person. Be assured that he is. Any doubts that you have may be due to the photograph he asked me to use on this blog. I thought his request odd, but no less peculiar than the title of his occasional post THE JIMPLECUTE REPORT that he submits for inclusion on this website. Carl has a dry sense of humor.

Carl and his wife Éva Lheureux met at the University of Toronto. He was at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Éva was a student at the Centre for Medieval Studies. Terri and I met them while attending a theological conference at the university. Carl cheerfully guided Terri around Toronto while Éva and I attended meetings. During the hours together, we gossiped and laughed, and discussed the courses we wanted to teach. Our lives have changed as all lives do. We raised our families, attended the weddings of our children, exchanged correspondence. They visited with us when Terri was at the Darmouth- Hitchcock Medical Center. They stayed with us while Carl was conducting research at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor. He attended my last lecture at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

“What will you do now?” Carl asked as we drove back to the house that evening. I didn’t have an answer for him. I felt like a baseball player who has played his last game. After the last inning, when everyone has left for the locker room, he steps out of the dugout to stand on the field visualizing the texture of games played, the crowded stadium, the sounds so cloying that he tries to convince himself that he may have one more season rather than a long off-season waiting for him.

I assisted Carl with his research for a few days. In the evenings we went for walks along the Huron River. We didn’t say good-bye on the last day. Carl and Éva left for Washington. Carl was working on a book while covering politics for a Canadian paper. Éva, now an Episcopal priest, was in discussions about a parish assignment and hoping to teach pastoral theology.

Matilda Flores, a friend since our time together in graduate studies at the University of Michigan, suggested I take a vacation. Oddly enough, Carl was thinking along the same lines. Terri concurred with their suggestion. “You should take a rest. The past five and a half years have been hard on you.” Matilda suggested writing a blog once a week about my travels. Carl and I discussed Matilda’s suggestion, which Terri fully endorsed. “What about you?” I asked. Terri responded that she had been with Matilda in California, and was planning on a trip to visit our oldest daughter.   

“You should go,” Carl wrote to me in a text. It didn’t take much more to convince me. after Carl said he will pick up some of the slack now and again.

The easel and paints are packed along with a few books, and the necessities.

Academic terms come and slip away with the changing seasons. We change. “What if” and “But” tend to come to mind more often forming doubts to those forever dreams and possibilities that we had as children. Looking back with questions and doubts tend to blind us to the possibilities that are before us. There are times when it is better to turn one’s back on the playing field and head to the locker room, then load the car for the six hour drive and to answer the question Carl asked, “What will you do now?”

Postscript: The View from Hermits Pond

Plans changed, as they usually do with me. I took down the original post as my attention was drawn to things that had to be done around the house. There was a friend, Arie Staal to visit, and a few letters to get off before leaving. I arrived early this morning at Hermits Pond for a few days of painting and reading. Heat and humidity drape the landscape. Severe storms are expected later today. That said, it is time to put life beyond the Pond on hold for a few days.

Photograph:

Time to Relax Copyright © 2025 Charles van Heck