Life Perspective: Reviews & More

 Fall 2025 is here, a time to celebrate God’s beauty and prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here are a few snippets from some autumn poems to get you in the mood for a festive fall. If a poem catches your dance, click Read More to enjoy the full poem.   We will be adding more poetry throughout the season, so check back for more autumn poems for 2025. All poems are (c) by their respective authors   November Nostalgia November Nostalgia  The last golden leaves  Fell from the trees  And blew in the breeze.  The colors so bright,  Multi-hued delight.  Autumn took a wrong turn;  Colors we rarely see In Tennessee –  How the hillsides burn… Read more October Musings—a Fall Poem ~ October has become the month of all things Halloween, so it’s time to reclaim it for the light ~  October Musings—a Poem for Fall  In a dark woods on this October night  An owl hoots his haunting lament.  No wonder Stygian nights like...

  William A. Darden’s Hydrology Expertise: Advocating for the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers William A. Darden, Jr. circa 1965 ~ Grok takes a look at the hydrology career of William A Darden ~ Civil engineer William Allen Darden Jr. (1910–1993), a Nashville native whose career spanned over four decades with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Nashville District, was a pioneering hydrology expert dedicated to sustainable river management. He was a prolific engineer whose career spanned civilian, military, and post-retirement roles, heavily focused on waterway infrastructure in the Nashville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Raised in Nashville on the family farm on Murfreesboro Road, Darden’s early life amid flood-prone waterways informed his practical approach.  After high school in 1927, he began civil engineering work at age 18 through family connections, conducting field surveys of sediment loads in the Tennessee and Cumberland basins from 1928 to 1932—pr...

Young Bill Darden sounding the Tennessee River circa 1931 ~ A look back at the history of dredging in Tennessee: Could some of the damage from the devastating Nashville flood of 2010 have been offset by regular dredging? ~  Dredging Up History Long before Tennessee’s rivers bore steamboats, Cherokee tribes navigated their shallow, muddy waters in canoes, using the Tennessee and Cumberland for trade and travel. These rivers, vital arteries, carried life but also sediment that would challenge centuries of human ambition. In 1795, Tennessee achieved statehood, and with it came dreams of commerce. By 1830, Nashville’s merchants, frustrated by shoals choking the Cumberland, petitioned Congress for help. Federal crews took action, blasting rock at Muscle Shoals to carve navigable channels for paddlewheelers. The Civil War in 1861 turned dredging strategic. Union forces deepened the Cumberland at Fort Donelson, floating ironclads past Confederate batteries. Sediment became a weapon, and d...