When Jesus Plans Your Family Reunion

On Sunday, I went through my old files looking for a St. Francis poem that I thought I had written--but I was thinking of an Ash Wednesday poem.  While searching, I found an old manuscript of Jesus in the world poems, many of which I had forgotten writing.  

Because my time is short this morning, I'll post one of them here.  Let me make sure to mention that the people in this poem are not based on real friends and relations.  It is published for the first time here.

Reunion



We let Jesus plan our family reunion,
and we won’t be doing that again.

He searched through the stunted
branches of the family tree and invited
them all: Weird PopPop Walter, who went to war
and was never the same, Cousin Buddy
who married that poor little black girl,
Aunt Leona, who we never forgave
for stealing all of Mamaw’s silver.

And then Jesus went and invited strangers
to our feast. People we didn’t know
from Adam’s housecat. We’re lucky
they didn’t rob us blind.
Where Jesus thought all these people
would park, I don’t know.

We usually cater these events, we told
him that. But no, Jesus had to go and change
things. Price of admission, he informed us,
was that we had to bring our favorite food, enough to share.
How could I do that?
My favorite food was Mamaw’s sweet
potato pie, and no one’s made it since she died.
But one rainy day, with restless
children to entertain, I set
one to work peeling potatoes and taught
one the secrets of pie crust.
The smell of those pies baking made me weep
with missing her, which alarmed
the children. To distract them, I dug
out the old quilts she made, and we lost
the rest of the day to looking at photo albums.

Fired by insider information, the children pestered
everyone at the reunion, and we told each other stories
we hadn’t thought of in years. I hope my girl stopped
thinking of herself as fat and sees herself as sturdy
like her Great Aunt Lillian who did the plowing
herself after flu felled all the menfolks.

But the greatest miracle of all was the singing.
Descended from northern Europeans, we keep
our mouths shut to keep from freezing, but Jesus
got us to open up. Jesus built a big bonfire,
and we spent the night singing while the leftovers multiplied
to feed us again.

Jesus planned our family reunion,
and we might let him do it again.
Maybe in five years or so.

Purchases and Vaccinations: The Witch Hat Edition

Yesterday was an afternoon of purchases and vaccinations.  My witch hat (with a veil!) was the most fun:

My school will have a week of various Halloween activities in late October, and I had been thinking about a witch hat, the easiest costume.  I thought about making one--after all, I have a lot of fabric.  But after seeing the prices on Amazon, I ordered one for less than $10.00.

Our other afternoon purchase was much more expensive:  2 mattresses for our fixer-upper in Spartanburg.  We have bed frames arriving soon that won't need box springs, but we still needed mattresses.  So off we went to Mattress Firm, where we could test mattresses in Arden, buy them, and have them delivered in Spartanburg.

If you're thinking of mattresses of your youth that were much less expensive than today's mattresses, they still exist; the lowest end mattress was $295.  We bought more expensive mattresses, made by Sealy, firm, no memory foam.  They were still much cheaper than the high end mattresses at the front of the store.

Then we went to get our flu and Covid shots.  I often wait until later in October, but I've seen several articles that note that flu and Covid outbreaks are arriving earlier this year, so earlier shots are best, if possible.  October is a heavy travel month for me, and yesterday offered a good window--no evening plans and no Tuesday morning commitments, should the shots hit me harder than usual.

I'm happy to report that they did not hit me harder--just the usual soreness at the vaccination sites on my arms.

I spent the evening sewing strips of Halloween fabric together while watching the Ghostbusters movie with the females.  We think we had seen it before, but I had little memory of it.

This morning, I did more experiments with my witch hat and different lighting.  Here's one with less light:

And here's one with more light, which lets you see the veil, which is made of a cobwebby looking material:

I realize that future generations may see this witch hat as all that is wrong with our modern society of disposable things made half a planet away and sped on its way to me.  But I also know that I'll still be using it in spooky seasons 20-30 years from now, or for as long as I'm alive.

Week-end Update: Expected and Unexpected Joys

I have had a good week-end, good in ways both expected and unexpected.  

I began the week-end by driving down to Columbia, SC to meet up with my parents so we could go to the James R. Crumley Archive banquet together.  In past years, I had seen people post pictures of the banquet, and I always thought it sounded interesting, the kind of event I would be sure to attend if I lived nearby.

I've lived nearby for several years, but this was the first year I could go.  Past years had seminary classes, minister commitments, and of course, Hurricane Helene disruptions.  As I got ready to go, I realized that I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I wondered if there would be people I would know.  I was happily surprised to have such a good time, which I wrote about in this blog post. 

I knew that the week-end would have good family moments, and it did.  It was great to be with my parents.  We are all old enough that I feel the passage of time keenly, that each good time together might be the good last time together.

My maternal grandfather's family farm is in Lexington, SC, the county next to Columbia; a lot of relatives still live on the family farm and surrounding farms, although they no longer farm the way they once did.  On Saturday morning, we joined a group of them at Lizard's Thicket, a local restaurant, for late breakfast.  What a treat!  It was great to catch up with beloved second cousins, and great to meet folks who are newer to the area.  And I had an amazing breakfast with some of the best restaurant biscuits I've ever had.

We've talked about future reunions, and I hope that we can do it.  One of the unexpected sorrows of moving back to the Carolinas is that I don't get together with friends and family as often as I would like.  We're still somewhat spread out, and my work schedule makes it complicated in a way that it wouldn't be complicated if I was retired.

Yesterday we got back from church and settled in for our post-church sermon watching.  We made pizza.  I thought we were in for the night when my cousin called.  

It was a happy phone call.  He was passing through town after being in Utah at a conference, waiting for his family who was picking him up on their way to the beach.  I offered to come get him, and he said yes.  We were able to offer him pizza; I would have made a different meal if I had known he was coming, but he was happy.  We had a few hours to catch up, and he had time to take a walk around Lutheridge, which he was craving after a morning and afternoon traveling by plane.

I feel very lucky to be at this point in my life.  Many people don't make it this far, to their 60's.  And many people don't have as many loved ones, friends and family both, alive when they are in their 60's.  While I wish I had even more time with them, I'm grateful for the time we do have.

The Feast Day of Saint Francis for Creative Types--for All of Us

Today is the feast day of Saint Francis.  For those of you who want a more spiritual meditation, head to these posts on my theology blog, one without photos, and one with photos.  For those of you wondering why we should care about a medieval saint or for those of you wanting to celebrate his life with your creativity, read on.

Francis continues to speak to so many of us, and for so many reasons.  Let's look at the various reasons and how they might inspire us in our creative lives.

--Francis is most associated with love of animals, which may explain his enduring popularity.  Churches across the world will celebrate his feast day by having services where people are welcome to bring their pets for a blessing. 

In our art, how could you take something traditional, like a worship service, and subvert it?  I'm thinking of the short story told via PowerPoint slides in Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad.

Today is a good day to think about the role of pets in our lives and to think about how we feel about less cuddly animals.  The symbolic possibilities may seem obvious--how could we use animals in a less obvious way as symbols in our work?

--Francis has come to be associated with the environmental movement, in part because of his love of animals, in part because he liked to visit ruined parts of society.

Today is a good day to think about our planet, much of which is already ruined.  We might think about the fact that we're living in the Holocene Extinction, one of 5-7 times in our planet's history where we know we're losing species at a far faster, and perhaps catastrophic, rate.  How can our creative endeavors address the situation? 

--Francis came from a very wealthy family, a family he renounced in solidarity with society's poor and outcast.  He lived amongst the lepers, the lowest of the low, and ministered to their needs.

Who are society's lepers today?  Can our art help humanize them?

--Francis worked to help end the Crusades. 

How could our creative work help end wars?

--Francis created three religious orders, two of which exist today, centuries after he created them.

What kind of community could help us in our creative endeavors?  Does it exist already?  If not, could we create such a community?

Several times during his life, Francis had to write a rule book for how the communities would live together.  If you created such a rule book, what would you include?

--Francis created the first Nativity scene, what we might today call a living Nativity scene, complete with real animals.  His scenes were inspired by paintings of the Nativity scene (think Jesus in a manger, surrounded by those who loved him and some animals).  He wanted visitors to feel the full engagement of all their senses.  We might think of Francis as an early performance artist or maybe someone who created a piece of installation art.

If we've been working in a certain medium for many years, we may have gotten complacent about trying to have all the senses of our audience engaged.  What can we do to change that?

If you're not a performance artist or a person who creates installation art, what could you do to move into that area?  It's an exciting time for collaboration and for exploring technology.  And yes, it's a scary time too.

--The life of St. Francis shows us the transformations that can happen when we dare to dream.  Dare to dream today.

A Banquet and Archived History

Yesterday I drove down to Columbia, SC to meet my parents so that we could all go to the James R. Crumley Archives banquet.  In years past, I've seen pictures of the event, and I've always been curious.  This year, schedules aligned, and we could go.

Each year, as far as I can tell, the banquet is held at a different place.  So far, the Archive has not had a permanent home.  That's about to change:  Newberry College has donated land for a building and now the capital campaign begins.  We heard a bit about that new development last night.

(l-r Don Poole, Ina Berkey, Jane Mitcham,Tom Berkey)

But most of last night's banquet was to celebrate the accomplishments of the honorees:  an individual, a church, and a synod of the ELCA.  It was enough of a program to justify the banquet, but not so overwhelming/long that people started leaving early.

(l-r Honoree Dorothy Jeffcoat, Don Poole, Ina Berkey)

Before the event, we had been invited to be part of a program that told the story of African American Lutherans in the southeast.  That program turned out to be a documentary that's available to all (go here to watch), along with some segments about Atlanta from a forthcoming documentary in the same series.

It was a lovely evening with good food, good stories/speeches, and even better, the chance to reconnect with others from the region.  I was happy to be reminded of all my connections:  to individuals, to various churches, to synods from the southeastern United States, to Newberry College, and to church camps.  But more than that, I was happy to hear the stories of all the good happening in the world, in small ways and in big ways.

Celebrating the Arrival of October with Fabric

I spent much of yesterday attending to tasks that I often don't find time for during regular school days:  a dermatologist appointment, some grocery shopping, and a hair cut.  But I also did some fun activities.  Last year, I went to Asheville Cotton, one of our local fabric stores, on the first day of Fall Break.  This year, I continued the tradition.

I don't really need fabric, but I wanted to buy a few small pieces to keep me feeling inspired, and I really wanted some fall or Halloween fabric.  

I saw this bag but didn't pick it up immediately--after all, I could choose my own fabric, couldn't I?  I could, but I found it a bit overwhelming.  And I didn't get a price break on the mystery bag. 

I went to the remnant section and was uninspired.  I picked up a piece or two and headed to the cash register.  At the last minute, I added the mystery bag to my purchase.

I am happy to say that I am delighted with the fabrics--some of them even glow in the dark!

It's strange to me that I got more delight from the mystery bag than I would have from taking the $40.00 and buying my own selection of bits and pieces.  I was happy for someone else to have made the decision for me.  And the surprise element was fun.

It reminded me of a time that's beginning to seem very long ago.  When I lived in Hollywood, Florida, I bought my fabric at Jo-Ann's, because it was easy and had what I needed.  Occasionally, my quilting friends and I would go to a huge store that specialized in specialty quilting fabrics; the prices were too high for my budget at the time, but I did splurge on backing fabric once.

The store sold plastic bags of scraps, many of them too small to be useful.  But occasionally, there would be one worth the $10 price.  I loved dumping out the bag and seeing what was actually there.  Even better was when one of my quilting friends bought one too, and we could trade.

Last night, I didn't work with any of the new fabric I bought.  I'm trying to get a quilt made by Thanksgiving, so I worked on that.  Plus, I like having the new fabric for a bit of time before cutting into it.  It's a way to stretch the joy, and who can argue with that?  

Rough Drafts and Fall Break

We are at midterm at Spartanburg Methodist College--which means it's Fall Break today and tomorrow.  My spouse and I will have a day of working on different projects:  he's putting polyurethane on the sanded hardwood floors in the fixer-upper house in S'burg, and I have various appointments today (dermatologist, hair, Zoom session with one of our onground intensive instructors).

Yesterday my spouse and I went to S'burg in different cars, so I had some time alone at the Arden house.  What did I do with my alone time?  Cooking and baking, of course.  I have a lot of apples which aren't getting fresher, so I made this apple cake; it's a strange recipe, with mashing the apples with a mixer to get the crumbly batter into something that is more like a cake batter.  The finished cake is very moist.  When I first took it out of the oven, it seemed more like a bread pudding.  It's delicious, both iced and un-iced.

I also made dinner with the ingredients I bought on Tuesday for this Smitten Kitchen recipe that uses frozen ravioli and fresh spinach. It's similar to another Smitten Kitchen recipe that includes tomatoes (I use a small can of petite diced), cooking on the top of the stove, with a last-minute broil.

You might think I would do more writing during a time in the house when I knew that the T.V. would stay quiet.  I did write a draft of the paper that is due Oct. 5.  And while my Nonfiction Writing students worked on their next assignment, I did write a rough draft of my Mary in a Time of Climate Change,  poem (see this post for the original inspiration).  It went in surprising directions, although I didn't have much of a vision, so the main surprise was having any direction at all.

It reminds me of a similar process a few weeks ago.  I had been trying to write about Nancy Drew taking up quilting.  I was leafing through A. E. Stallings' Afterlife, her wonderful collection of mostly published poems, and came across "Medea, Homesick."  I thought about Nancy Drew, homesick for her youth.  And a poem just tumbled out of me.

This morning I've been looking at rough drafts of poems that I've composed in the last 2 months.  My goal for Fall Break is to finish one or two.  I am delighted to realize that I've written more than I remembered, although some of them are just some lines that may or may not have potential.

Well, let me get ready to go on my walk.  I'm eating extra apple cake calories--plus, I want to enjoy autumnal weather before it turns rainy/wintry.