I would never have believed how wonderful it would be to attend a reunion among the special people who were my high school friends...and they remain my friends, although distant in space and time, my friends just for my being me--not anyone's wife, mother, employee, donor, or member. I do so value my classmates of HEHS '59--there are no finer folks.

I have done so many different things since '59:

Life don't give me time to think
Of Yesterday, when on the brink
Of north and south I chose the one
Only to be on another to be blown.

In smug overconfidence, without a sense of direction when inside a building, and defying common sense, I entered the ladies restroom to find myself in front of a row of urinals. Making a hasty U-turn and exiting, I faced Tom Hunter who in utter glee persisted endlessly in taunting me in my utter humiliation. He was so like a brother in so many ways...

Spain, Switzerland, Germany

Reality of Jesus


Jesus' story is evidence of a reality
That is waiting for us after this life.
Believing Jesus' story frees us
To focus on being Jesus
To others in this reality.

Learning how Jesus treated, taught,
Valued, admonished and loved others
In his earthly time
Can be our examples and source
To guide us as we pray to follow Christ.
Following his ministry is a path to others
And to self
As we model our lives after his.

Believing the deity of Jesus and his Jewish identity
Can send us also to the uniquely Jewish scriptures
To learn what he was taught
And to compare his reaction to those scriptures.

I accept that I cannot expect to live long enough
For scientists on earth
To communicate with beings on another planet. 
Those scientists will be able to ask the question:  
“Did the Creator of the universe make himself known to you?” or
“How did the Creator of the universe make himself known to you?” or
“Did the Creator of the universe also come in person to you?”
Or answer their question with
"The Creator of the universe walked among us
As an earthly human."

Because I won't be around when those questions can be asked or answered,
I want to go where the Creator did touch this planet in human form. 
I want to be in that reality,
Walk in that space,
Put my feet on the stones that his feet touched,
See the dessert where he was tempted,
The seaside where he cooked fish for his friends,
Be where he healed,
Where he raised,
Where he taught,
Where he prayed,
Where he was crucified,
Performing the self-sacrifice that lets us be
Forgiven and
Accepted and
Loved and
Guided
So that we may also
Forgive,
Accept,
Love and
Guide
As we have learned from our Creator
Who touched this planet
In our own human form.

Carolyn Zuttel
2017

I completed my fourth unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Duke Raleigh Area hospital in North Raleigh, NC. The last unit was orthopedics, where I was really productive compared to pediatrics. Then I sought endorsement by our bishop, which took six months. While waiting, I bought a 4-BR house to renovate and share. Now, I'm too busy to look for a chaplaincy. Maybe someday again...

Our majorettes, our school spirit, my best friends.

The lousy job the hairstylist did for my senior photo. (I must be too vain.)

fresh-ground black coffee in the morning, champagne with friends, iced sun tea or cold beer after I've been in the sun, hot lemon/ginger tea in the winter, good wine with good food, margaritas before Mexican food, Xel-ha (pineapple juice with creme de menthe), Stewart's root beer in a frosty mug with their hot dogs...my list could go on. Life is good!

I'm a public radiophile; hardly ever listen to CDs, but I do buy from groups I've seen, the last being Chuchito Valdez, third-generation Cuban jazz pianist.

Mickey Rooney and Bob Hope (at age 5 introduced by my father), Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson (while working in the State Department in DC), Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, two NC governors: James Hunt who awarded me and my husband an Industrial Waste Management award in the early '90s for recycling at our business, and the newest, Bev Perdue--we were both members of Christ Church (Episcopal) in New Bern. At our business in New Bern, our guests included an astronaut, and a US cabinet secretary, US senators, and John Weyerhaeuser, of the lumber company, was a regular.

In WV, took aereal photos strapped to the floor of a two-seater with the door removed. My brother-in-law, Sandy Rogers, was the pilot. In Switzerland, I skied on a glacier after three cable rides upward. With my son, hiked a Swiss pass from French to Italian sections of the country. Caught a lobster with my own bare hands while snorkling off of Culebra, Puerto Rico. Saw a pair of whales leaping between the British Virgin Islands. Skied with my sons from their age 3. Took belly-dancing lessons from my 8-year-old sister-in-law in Tunisia. Saw my eldest son wrestle, play football and LaCrosse at St. Stephen's in Alexandria. Filmed on the sidelines the youngest as football defensive captain at Parrot Academy. Worked the football chains for the school where I taught. Took a photo of the first Anglican female priest to celebrate the Eucharist legally--she was from Hong Kong, and the photo went on the AP wire around the world and was on the cover of "The Virginia Churchman." Published a book of my family's letters: Mabel's Letters.