Week-end Updates

If you were hoping for an MLK post with poetry, this past blog post is a good one.  If you were hoping for some theology and/or a non-violence/social justice angle, this post on my theology blog may hit the spot.

It's been an up and down (mostly up) week-end.  Let me record a few snippets:

--On Friday, my onground intensive ended with a commissioning service for the class ahead of me that was finishing the program.  It felt strange for the experience to end at 5:45, to turn off the screen and wander around the house.  It should have been a later service that ended with a champagne reception--or a Saturday morning service where we headed out into the world with our talents.  

--Happily, I was able to refocus.  My spouse teaches a Friday evening class all spring term, and I've decided that I'm going to work on my apocalyptic novel while he teaches.  On Friday night, his second night teaching, I worked on my apocalyptic novel.  My goal is to write 1000 words a week, and Friday I wrote 1148 words.  Hurrah.

--Paraclete, one of my favorite religious presses, is creating a fiction imprint, and during my Saturday morning run, I thought about how to pitch my apocalyptic novel to them.

--After my Saturday morning run, I went to the Wal-Mart neighborhood market to stock up.  I like getting there when they first open, even though it disrupts my morning.

--Because I did the shopping, we did some cooking--and then some eating.  

--We watched One Night in Miami--excellent film.  And perfect for a week-end that ends in a commemoration of Martin Luther King's life.  Even though he wasn't a character in the film, much of the film revolves around the best ways to respond to oppression.

--Throughout the week-end, we counted caterpillars on milkweed, which is more compelling than it sounds.

--Our neighborhood friends came over late in the day on Saturday to have a quick catch up on the front porch.

--Sunday morning we went to outdoor church.  It's still tough for me, sitting outside with a mask on, but at least yesterday I didn't sweat through my mask or have my nose run all in my mask--a complicated way of saying we had perfect weather for outdoor church, which is rare.

--Because of the perfect weather, we spent much of yesterday outside on the front porch.  I wrote this Facebook post:  "This chilly South Florida day makes me want to get in the car and go look at the leaves turning color--but of course, that would be a different season in a different part of the country."

--We ended the day watching a show from the first season of Saturday Night Live, back when it was just called Saturday Night.  Paul Simon was the guest, and back then, there was a lot more music.  It ended with Paul Simon singing "American Tune," which is perhaps as perfect a lullaby for these times as is possible:

"We come on the ship they call Mayflower

We come on the ship that sailed the moon

We come in the age's most uncertain hour

And sing an American tune

But it's alright,

It's alright, it's alright, it's alright.