Columbus Day, Oktoberfest, and a Poem

 Today is the 226th anniversary of Oktoberfest, a holiday which began as a city-wide celebration of the marriage of a royal couple. Raise a glass! I wish I liked beer more.

In an interesting juxtaposition of holidays, today is also the real Columbus Day and also the federal holiday. Oktoberfest and Christopher Columbus . . . surely a poem lurks there. Old world, new world, hmmmmm.

On this day in 1492, the 10 week Atlantic journey of Columbus and his crew ended when a sailor saw land.

Unfortunately, Columbus was looking for a shorter trade route, and since he didn't have a sense of how huge the planet was, he had set off on a voyage destined for failure, at least failure as he set the parameters. He had stumbled on a wealth of natural resources: tomatoes, corn, beans, not to mention lumber, vast continents of space which could absorb people fleeing from overcrowded Europe, minerals, astonishing soil . . . but Columbus never did find that trade route.

I have written many a blog post about these ideas:  my favorite one on spiritual implications is here, and for thoughts on Columbus and the creative life, go here.

I always wondered if Columbus felt a sense of failure, so years ago, I wrote this poem. The title refers to a poem by John Donne, "Good Friday, Riding Westward, 1613," which I was teaching at the time.  And yes, the title does suggest that I wrote the poem in 2001.  Columbus is not one of my touchstone historical figures, for all sorts of reasons, so I don't have a wealth of poems about him.

Columbus Day, 2001, Riding Westward


Christopher Columbus set sail in search of a swifter
trade route, an easier way to bring spice
back from the Far East. At what point
did he realize that he’d gone astray, that a whole
continent stood in his way?

Did he ever realize the value of his discovery?
I picture him grumbling. “These natives
are weaklings. I’ve never seen such a sickly
bunch.” I’m sure he never saw himself as the source
of the infection. Did he mourn the lack
of gold and spice? He had no idea that he’d found
an agricultural mother lode: beans, corn, and tomatoes.

How often do I sail upon these same waters?
Always yearning for the voyage I had planned,
not enjoying the trip I’m on. Always questing
for traditional treasures, never envisioning
the wealth before me, so simple is its disguise.

Safe in Indiana

I am sitting at a desk in the Drury Hotel in Carmel, Indiana, on the northern edge of Indianapolis.  I'm here for an onground intensive for the TEEM program, my current route to ordination.  If you've been following along all week, you know that I'm here a day early.

It's a long trip, which I make by car.  I like being able to arrive with all my stuff, and I really like not dealing with the hassles of airline travel.  For this trip, I was really happy to be able to change my travel plans with minimum hassle.

I'm glad I left early.  I got in my car yesterday at 6:40 a.m., and it was already raining.  The illuminated signs on the interstate that give information about road conditions told drivers of high wind warnings and advised us to be alert for debris on the roads.  As I made my way north and west, the rain continued, and there was already standing water on the road.

Happily, the rain wasn't heavy, and there wasn't much traffic on the roads with me.  I was able to check into the hotel with no problem, and there were plenty of luggage carts available.  I got unpacked and organized and headed down to dinner.

Before the TEEM program intensive in June, I had never heard of this hotel chain.  I am happy to return here again.  I love that they offer both breakfast and dinner.  The dinner menu changes, although I imagine there are standards.  When I was here in June, the taco/burrito bar was offered twice, which was fine with me.

Last night we had pulled pork, which was great because I had been craving barbecue.  It wasn't the burnt ends kind of experience I wanted, but it was good enough.  I got my third glass of wine, added the former pour to it, and headed back to my room with a very full glass.

Another plus to staying at this hotel is the 3 free drinks every evening.  It's not just wine, but also several kinds of beer, along with all sorts of mixed drinks.  It's an interesting business decision, and last night I was happy to partake.

I spent time reading a non-academic book as I sipped my wine.  On Tuesday, when I realized I'd be at the hotel an extra day, I got some regular fiction from the library, so last night, I started Kevin Wilson's Perfect Little World.  Earlier this year, I read Now Is Not the Time to Panic, so when I saw it in the stacks, I decided on another book of his.  So far, it's compelling.  I also got Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles, which I've read twice before.  It's an interesting look at a near-future dystopia, and I'd like to revisit it.  We'll see if this week is the week.

Today I plan to read more of Perfect Little World, along with academic reading for the coming week.  I brought my quilting project with me, so I also plan to do some sewing--my hope is that there will be something interesting on the cable stations on the big TV, but if not, there's plenty on my computer.

I'm sure Indianapolis offers many diversions, but I'm going to stay put and enjoy having time to focus on joys that I usually have to tuck in the margins of my other responsibilities.

Hurricane Remnants and Travel

Last June, when I left Indiana after the first TEEM onground intensive that I attended, I thought ahead to our next gathering in October, where I anticipated autumnal shifts with still-warm days.

I did not anticipate a hurricane affecting the weather that far inland.  But here we are.  I've changed travel plans, and instead of leaving on Sunday, I'm leaving in a few hours.  There's already a bit of rain here, but nothing like what is expected later this morning.

We are supposed to have record breaking warmth in the 80's in the early part of the week, and cooler temps by week's end.  I have packed a variety of clothes--lots of layers for my upper body, some with sleeves and some not, and shorts for my lower body which is odd-shaped and hard to fit for long pants in this time of my life.

This hurricane has turned out to be a normal-ish hurricane, not a monster that zoomed up several categories just before landfall--how refreshing!  It moved ashore as a category 2, very survivable for most structures--not a fun way to spend an evening, but likely not life threatening for many.

I am still glad I changed my travel plans.  I should be able to stay ahead of the storm remnants today, and it will be good to head into the week being better rested.

Hurricane Watching and Other Notes from This Week

I am hurricane watching, and you might ask why.  I will always keep a wary eye on any Gulf or Atlantic hurricanes--even before Hurricane Helene came to my neighborhood, I was this way.  This week-end, I'm headed to Indianapolis, and Hurricane Isaias is too.  I was going to drive on Sunday, but since the hotel could add Saturday night to my stay, I've decided to pack the car later today and leave tomorrow instead of Sunday.  

I will avoid much of the heavy weather (I hope), but there's no way to know what that weather would be on Sunday.  Maybe the remnants will park themselves over Kentucky and just produce random rain showers.  Maybe it will be a huge amount of water falling from the sky for all the midwest.  Maybe the system will scoot on out of the picture on Saturday.  Regardless of what happens, I hope to be in my hotel room, safe and secure.  I'm glad I thought to call the hotel on Tuesday and extend my reservation, just in case.  If the hurricane had fizzled, I could have canceled that day and kept my Sunday travel plans.  But I'm predicting no fizzle, so off I go tomorrow morning.

I'm taking sewing and books as if I'm staying for an extra month, not an extra day.  I'll have my laptop, and I'm hopeful I can do all sorts of writing throughout the week.

When I look back, I know I'm likely to remember this time of hurricane watching.  Let me also record some other events from early October that I want to remember:

--It's the time of year when it's time to do the HR training for not just one school, but both schools where I teach.  This year, it's been surreal to be doing the anti-sexual harassment and Title IX training against the backdrop of the frat house rape case at Cornell.

--I have continued to have such good teaching experiences.  At some point, I want to write a post about my increased use of small groups this semester.  Or maybe it's enough to note that I'm doing more, and I'm amazed at how well it's working.  A case in point:  for yesterday's Creative Writing class, I put the seven students into 2 groups.  I asked them what makes a good spooky/scary/Gothic story.  They had good conversations.  I had them each make a list of the top 5 elements.  Then I had them do the Build Your Own Spooky/Scary Story worksheet.  It went so well that I'm going to have my English 101 class do the same thing.

--I have also done a lot with setting up the classroom tables in stations.  In my Wednesday Nonfiction class, I wanted the students to see how smaller pieces of writing could be included in larger pieces of writing:  blog posts into books, Facebook lists into books, Twitter tweets into a book, teaching handouts into a book, recipes and restaurant reviews into memoir.  

Students moved from station to station, making notes, and then filling out a worksheet about insights they had.  I was impressed by how serious they were as they studied the artifacts.

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.