May 20, 2026
Opinion
Amazon’s New Home in Louisa County
When you stream a movie, pull up driving directions or connect with a doctor through telehealth, there’s physical infrastructure behind all of it. And increasingly, that infrastructure is right here in Louisa County. Amazon’s roots in Virginia go back to 2006. Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $190 billion across the Commonwealth, including infrastructure and compensation to our employees. And we have created more than 45,000 full- and part-time jobs. In Louisa, we’ve put more than $1 billion into data center infrastructure so far, supporting more than 1,850 jobs annually and contributing an estimated $376 million to the local GDP, and we are just getting started.
Taking sides
O ur world is divided. This is neither new nor startling news. Truth-be-told, our world has always been divided.
A late ‘thank you’ to a Louisa comedy legend
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” fractured my brain as a young adolescent.
Rebranding
If you get to hang around this planet long enough, you’ll notice that most things get rebranded sooner or later. For example, my grandmother wore a girdle.
Hugh Hammond Bennett
Why does land wear out? Hugh Hammond Bennett found out in Louisa County. The misunderstood problem of agricultural land use in early America led farmers who tilled the soil to just move on to better land because there were limits with repetitive tillage and deteriorating soil quality. Things changed in 1905. Hugh Bennett and another soil scientist compared adjoining land parcels with identical soils and differing production capability. One parcel was forested; the other cultivated. The forested parcel has never been cultivated; the other parcel had been tilled and planted year after year. Surely, Bennett thought, the soils were identical in the beginning. What changed? The difference was erosion throughout the cultivated parcel with accompanying loss of topsoil. Bennett studied soils in the United States and in other countries to reach his conclusion that soil erosion was a serious and unappreciated problem for the planet and all who live on it.
What tipped you off, Perry?
We have a modest TV satellite plan and no subscription or streaming services, so we get a very basic package of programming. Sometimes I get envious when friends talk about outstanding series they follow, but frankly, we are just not going to spend the money. No, we continue to watch the basics, some ESPN, and reruns.
Reflection
Every Sunday I provide for my congregants a time of reflection. This is a term that I use instead of the standard preacher lingo “sermon”. I actually borrowed the term from one of my Lay Leaders who said that she didn’t feel comfortable giving a sermon, as she wasn’t a trained pastor. Therefore, she thought that the word “reflection” was more in keeping with what she was doing with regard to the scripture readings for that week. I thought about it for a moment or two and had to agree with her that I was reflecting on what God had spoken to me through the scriptures each week as well.
Musings on the month of May
“Once in a blue moon,”as an expression, speaks to a rare event. It rolls off the tongue much more easily than ‘once in a total solar eclipse’. Two full moons in a month is not as spectacular as the moon blocking the sun but May will start and end with a Full Moon and both of them are a bit unusual.