Forty years ago this year, we went to Israel, to the Weizmann Institute for part of Bob's sabbatical. There, we became friends with our French downstairs neighbors, Martine and Jean Weissenbach. Our friendship has spanned these forty years. Over the years, we've made many visits back and forth and our children regard Martine and Jean as their Parisian aunt and uncle. Last week, they made the trip from Paris to Detroit for a week long visit to celebrate our forty years of friendship. It was fun to show them our favorite Michigan sites. We went to an MSU football game, toured the campus and visited the Broad Art Museum. We went east to Detroit (on three different days) to see Greenfield Village, the Henry Ford Museum, Cork Town (Detroit's historic district written up in the Michelin guide) and the African American Museum. We went west to Grand Rapids where we visited the Meyer-May house, a wonderful Frank Lloyd Wright house and Meijer Gardens and then on to South Haven and the shores of L. Michigan. Most of all, we enjoyed spending time with our dear friends and celebrating our precious friendship.
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Football is a big deal in the Midwest. Folks from all over Michigan come into E. Lansing on football days for the game. People even buy houses and apartments here in E. Lansing just so they'll have a place to stay on game weekends. Paula says it's because there's not so much else to do around here. Yesterday Paul and I took our French friends from Paris who are visiting us to the MSU Homecoming game for a real American experience. Early in the morning we could hear the drum corps from the Marching Band playing in the downtown. The town grew crowded and by noon our neighborhood was completely parked for the 3:30 game. It was a perfect day, 75 degrees with hardly a cloud in the sky. We walked the path along the river toward the stadium following the crowd like fish in a stream. The wide green lawns of the campus were filled with tailgating parties. People in groups were playing a bean-bag tossing game, barbecuing, eating and drinking in every available space. Everything--the tables, the chairs, the ice chests were green and covered with MSU logos. Everyone was wearing green or white MSU shirts, little babies in MSU shirts, old men in green and white striped over-alls. We got to the game in time for the beginning of the spectacle as the MSU Marching Band, nearly 200 strong, marched out double stepping with a quick hop every other step. They filled the field and played a 5 minute concert. The cheerleaders and Pom Pom girls and the mascot, Sparty came out too. Last, but not least, the MSU team ran out of the locker room, emerging through a fog cloud, like Demi-gods. There were 74,114 people at the game cheering the team. Indiana just quietly appeared on the field. The MSU fans impressed me, they are loyal, well behaved and serious in their cheering. The first half of the game was truly lack-luster. There seemed to be no offense, but no matter, the fans still cheered and stood up for each MSU first down. When the many television breaks and time-outs happened, the cheerleaders came out on the field and did amazing gymnastic tricks and Zeke, the wonder dog, caught frisbee after frisbee in thrilling leaps into the air. At the half, the score was 3-3. In the second half, Indiana scored two more field goals and so with 6 minutes left in the game the score was 9-3. Finally MSU scored a touchdown and the crowd went wild! We were ahead, 10-9!!! Another touchdown by MSU clinched the game. We won 17-9. We joined the masses flowing out and walked home, happy for the whole amazing football experience.
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Yesterday Bob and I travelled to E. Lansing as we do twice a year to visit our family here. We were greeted with a grand grand welcome, squeals of joy and big hugs from our two granddaughters here and the Stokstad male greeting from our son (a hug and three pats on the back). We put our suitcases in our house (next door to theirs) where Sonja had hid a pumpkin she picked out for us. We had to hunt all over the house to find it, guided by her excited hints of "hot", "cold", "burning hot", to the closet where it was hidden. Erika had picked out flowers for us and Paula had cleaned and set up the bedroom for our French guests, arriving today. She stocked the house with gourmet food like I never buy. What a treat! Later, over at their house, Sonja read me her latest story and I was amazed at her literary prowess. Erika played us the National Anthem on her clarinet which she is learning to play in 6th grade band. After the girls went to bed, Paul showed us all of us latest pottery - microwave popcorn poppers and juicers plus lots of mugs - all amazingly beautiful and perfectly made and Paula caught us up on all the latest happenings. Best of all was the feeling of being wanted and welcomed with such love. It surely makes me very very happy to be here in E. Lansing.
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It was windy up here Sunday night. Very windy. Bob woke up after 3 am, smelling smoke. Going out on the patio, he saw the sky lit up over the nearby trees to a ghostly red. He got me up and we went outside to assess the situation. At first, there seemed no fire trucks, but then they started coming up our road and parking on Ajax Place, the next street up the hill. I counted 5 trucks, plus police cars. There was a brush-grass fire between the houses and the Golf Course Road. It was freaky to be standing out on the dark street chatting with other very concerned neighbors. At one point a policeman was walking up and down our street making sure everyone was awake. He told us "we should evacuate, but it's not mandatory." We checked on our housebound neighbors letting them know we were here to help. Thankfully as time went by, the red glow eased and it seemed that the fire was under control. By 5:30 we came in and ate breakfast and went back to sleep. Bob walked up there this morning and said the area is still full of fire engines and crews cutting back brush that might fuel any flare-up. It burned an area where we walked last Spring with Sonja and Erika less than a block from our house. This fire, our worst fear living here, really made us realize how vulnerable we all are in the face of fire. Thank goodness for all the fire fighters who came from far and wide to help put it out before it could burn up all our houses!
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It is a time of rapid cultural change. Most of us hate big changes. It unsteadies us causing us to withdraw in pain or to just hold on or perhaps harden our hearts. I think our country is sick. So much attention, so many resources of money and people have been spent to stop the Islamic terrorists, but it is home grown white American men who are responsible for the gun massacres that occur with sickening frequency. Gun lovers say it isn't the gun, it's the person that pulls the trigger that is the problem. I agree they are a problem, but I know if our country was not awash with guns, there wouldn't be so much gun violence, so many gun-caused deaths. And now the sickening epidemic of opioid caused deaths and opioid addiction afflicting many white middle class communities is revealed for us all to see. We thought drug addiction was mostly a problem for poor minority communities. The News Hour last week had an in-depth week-long series about this big problem. Guns and drugs. Our country is sick. Institutions I love are crumbling. The national office of my church, the UCC, has just cut its staff once again, deeply threatening vital programs. All churches are shrinking. People are increasingly isolated from each other on their I-Phones, with superficial social media a poor substitute for face to face relationships. I fear for a future I cannot yet see while what has been is becoming lost and gone forever. More disruptions, bigger and worse ones are coming. I fear what our very unstable lying President might do. What has been is being destroyed, what will take its place is unclear. How hard it is to hold on in these chaotic trying times.
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We all woke up to the horrible, terrible, awful news of a massacre in Las Vegas. Over the day today, the story has come out. An older white guy, a gambler, holed himself up in a hotel room, with multiple guns and rifles mounted on tripods and lots and lots of ammunition (all legally bought) and began to shoot people at an outdoor concert like fish in a barrel. They say he probably wanted to commit suicide, but who knows. 59 dead and 529 injured is the current toll. What is our country coming to? The massacres of innocent peoples just keeps happening and will keep happening, year after year, until the guns are taken away. I'm ready to give up my 2nd Amendment Rights for gun safety, but the powerful NRA will never let that happen. The Republicans will never let any gun legislation pass. Nothing is going to stop this parade of horrors. No changes. Kai Risdahl on NPR's radio show "Marketplace" said there are more places to buy guns in our country today than there are Starbucks in the whole world. My most cynical, compassion fatigued self says well there are too many people in our world. How can I keep from becoming cynical when this just keeps happening? What will it take to turn our guns into plowshares?
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This morning I preached at the San Rafael church I served for 4 years. I've been deeply retired for 4 or 5 years now, which means I don't even want to do ministerial things like preach or lead retreats so this was a stretch for me. The sermon was titled Remembering. In it, I recalled some of the great things this little church has done over the years. What I came away with was a sense of the great love so many showed for me. Maybe that is the best of all. Ministry is all about love and how wonderful to have that be remembered. When I made the switch from teaching to ministry, I remember some of my students asking me why I was leaving teaching. I replied that I had figured out that the energy of my teaching was my love for my students and for my subject and I wanted to be in a place where I was able to talk about that love. They looked at me blankly and said, "but we knew that." How had they seen that, I wondered? When I began serving churches, it was clear that the congregations just needed to be loved and so I did that among other things. It was a privilege and also a challenge to love even the most irascible people. Maybe, just maybe, the secret of life is love. Maybe, just maybe, when we love others, we forget about ourselves and open to love. Love is catching, like yawns. When someone around us is loving, we tend to become more like that. As a docent at the Botanical Garden, it is my privilege to share my love/passion for the plants and the natural world with the children and adults on my tours. The Botanical Garden is now one of my happy places where I go and get filled up with energy and peace and love. I am so very grateful to be in places where love can be shared and grow.
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