In old books, houses have names. Whether Green Gables, Villa Villakulla, Manderley, Misselthwaite Manor, Bag End, or the dreamy Pemberley, houses with names evoke a distinct sense of place and time. The house becomes a character itself. In the United States, houses are less commonly named and the street address prevails officially. Farms, however, often have the privilege of living on a road with the farm name—such as Solomon’s Valley Farm on Solomon’s Valley Lane. Everywhere we have lived we have tried to name our home. Within our family, we referred to our 1960’s colonial in Northern Virginia as Little Rivendell, the last homely house west of the Beltway, but we were never able to make that “official.”
Moving to a historic farm in Maryland’s Pleasant Valley amplified the desire to name our place. Our where. Historically, the house and the property have held several names. Friendly Hall was the most enduring and the most beloved by the last remaining members of the Boteler family to own the home. It carried the moniker Homewood while serving as a summer resort boarding house for people eager to escape the heat and mosquitoes of Washington, DC. Though an old letter from the last family member to live in the home also lists Rose Hill and The Cedars among the names, we can find no other evidence for those.
As we sifted through these old names, none were quite the name for our new farm. We wanted to keep Friendly Hall, the name it held during the Civil War, when a young Josephine Boteler was able to put aside her animosity and find a friend, and more, in Union Captain Daniel Lapham. But Friendly Hall named the house, not the farm.
Naming a place is nearly as fraught as naming a child. The fear of getting it wrong, of saddling yourself and your offspring with an unfortunate and unsuitable name is only slightly more than the anxiety as you hit the Submit button on the county form to choose a business name for your farm. We tried out many. We do have tall cedar trees. We have one scion of the Maryland state tree—the Wye Oak. We have lilacs, honeysuckle, and a proliferation of ancient walnut trees.
But as we looked out over our land through the changing days and the changing seasons, we noticed one constant: the incredible quality of the light, the interplay of sun and shadows between the mountain ridges that enclose us to east and west. Watching the rain sweeping across Maryland Heights and slowly moving up the Valley and across the south field or seeing the moon rise over South Mountain to cast long shadows in the front yard and the morning mist filtering the pink of a spring sunrise—we marveled again and again at the tangible impact of light on our land.
Learning the subtleties of the light in the Valley through the changing seasons finally gave us the name: Fairlight.
Fair is a word we hear often from children: “It’s not fair!” they’ll say with either tears or anger. As adults, we hear that cry, too, only the word is “just”. What does God require of us? “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” He is a God of justice. To be fair is to be just and righteous. To be in right standing with a God who commands us to act with justice. To do what is right and fair.
Fair has another meaning that is heard less often but is found sprinkled throughout the Bible. Just read the Song of Solomon for the enraptured descriptions of his lover—how fair she is to look upon!
Fairlight, then is a place of great beauty, of light and shadow, green trees and golden fields. It is, beyond doubt, a fair place.
It is also a place to seek an understanding of what is just and right and fair in the world. A place to ponder and to discuss what that means for ourselves and for the other. And that needs be done in the light of truth—all truth. For now we see through a glass darkly. Our vision is limited. We see through the lens of our experiences, our daily lived reality. But light can pierce the veil of our own limited understanding and shine on the truth that is lived by others. That light can illuminate and heal even the darkest wounds.
Fairlight is both a place of beauty, peace, rest and safety, as well as an idea, a virtual place, where one can learn how to bring that light into the darkness of chaos, anger and division that clouds our world today.
So we remain, Friendly Hall at Fairlight Farm, home to the Fairlight Forum.