LEBANON â Tennessee state parks hold some unusual treasures. Among them are a lake formed by an earthquake at Reelfoot Lake State Park, a mysterious stone structure built 2,000 years ago at Old Stone Fort Archaeological Park and a waterfall with a drop much higher than Niagara Falls at Fall Creek Falls State Park.
The oddest one, however, may well be a statue of a pelican at Cedars of Lebanon State Park.
It is there because a garden club wanted to honor the memory of Dixon Lanier Merritt, a Wilson County man of many talents who is most widely remembered for five poetic lines about the carrying capacity of a pelicanâs beak.
The Secret Lives of Words: A wonderful bird is the pelican
By Rick LaFleur Columnist
A young grandson proclaimed to us one afternoon, out of the blue, “dogs don’t have souls.” My ever-wise soulmate Alice replied kindly, “But, I think they do : by soul (Latin
anima) Alice had in mind what ANIMates and makes our pets the endearing ANIMals they are. And that was that. I expect the lad, now a teen who’s lived with some deeply loved and loving pups (and studied Latin!) over the intervening years, has likely reconsidered.
I was reminded of that brief exchange when reading my friend James Hargrove’s poem, “Elegy for a Brown Pelican,” in a recent issue of the