Anniversary of 9/11

On the anniversary of 9/11, I'd like to share a poem by Robert Frost:

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire.
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

It was first printed in Harper's Magazine, in December of 1920.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I'm one day late -- but better late than never, I say. It was my mom's birthday yesterday (September 9). The day before was my aunt M's (her older sister) 80th birthday. They were born 8 years and one day apart.

They grew up on a farm just north of Jackson, Minnesota, along with their younger sister and two brothers. My aunt graduated from high school and worked in town for a couple of years, and then moved to Minneapolis when she was 21. My mom moved to Minneapolis when she graduated from high school, inspired at least in part, I think, by my aunt's bravery. My aunt worked for Augsburg Publishing House for awhile; they both worked for General Mills (home of the fictional Betty Crocker).

One of my aunt's claims to fame is that she worked on the classic Betty Crocker Cooky Book. There were those who wanted to spell it "cookie", and my aunt insisted that this was the way they spelled it at her house! I do think the spelling contributed to the charm.

My mom got married when she was 20, and had me when she was 21. At a certain age, I did the math, and asked her, "Was I planned?" She answered, "Let me put it this way. We didn't plan not to."

Both my mom and my aunt are smart women. Neither went to college from high school. That option just wasn't open them at the time. I remember when I was in high school, that my aunt decided to go back to school and get her teaching degree. I rode the bus with her to the University of Minnesota one day when I was looking into colleges. She took me to classes and, most important, I thought, to the college cafeteria. Then, when I was in college, my mom decided to go back and get her business degree.

On Sunday afternoon, we had a birthday party for both of them. Part of it was a surprise. My mom had invited some of my aunt's girlfriends, including one of her good friends she had worked with at General Mills, and one of her roommates from when she first lived in Minneapolis.

At one point, my aunt got up and gave a little speech, thanking her sons (she said she didn't know they were capable of giving a party like this) and my mom. She said, "For a long time we have been sisters.... but we've also been good friends."

I'm so proud to have them both as a mom, as an aunt ... and as my friends, too.

Rally Day

Today was Rally Day at church. In some ways it's right up there with Christmas and Easter. At our church Sunday School has started, and the church is filled with colorful balloons, and many children. We invite the people to release their balloon at an appropriate time for them (when they would say "amen!" if they were Baptist). I always try to carry a green balloon to match my stole.

I asked one of the youth working on the "balloon patrol" how long they have had balloons on Rally Day. "A long time," she replied. "Since God created dirt."

I think you can't really experience the full impact of Rally Day unless you have been coming to church all summer, wondering if there will be anyone for the children's message, seeing the people straggle in, worshiping with the people who don't have cabins up north. There's a small sense of eschatological hope: a foretaste of the feast to come, when we will gather together for the great feast in heaven. And I'm sure there will be great crowds on that day, all ages, all kinds of people. I love the faithful few, but on the Great Day, heaven will be full. Don't get me wrong, summer worship is lovely, but there's an energy on Rally Sunday.

I remember when I first came to this church. I started at the end of May, and all summer I worked on the contemporary worship service I was supposed to introduce in the fall. I was also charged with the children's message on that day. It was my first children's message in this church, and I wanted it to be good. The gospel was "the lost sheep", and I thought I had a good idea: the children would find a "lost person" out in the congregation (a youth wearing a corsage), find her and bring her back. Then the "lost person" would tell everyone how good it felt to be found!

At the right time, I stood up in the sanctuary, which had more people than I had seen all summer. And remember, I had just recently come from a small parish in South Dakota. I said, "Would all the children please come forward?" About 80 children surged up toward the altar steps. At that time I knew that I would have to change my plans, at least a little. I couldn't send 80 kids back into the congregation to look for a lost sheep. Instead, I chose two. They found her. It worked out. Whew!

About Cats

This post is dedicated to Barb, cat lover and one of my first blog friends.

I've been looking through old journals, photo albums and miscellaneous lately, uprooting and disturbing dust, and I came across a little poem I can't believe I wrote a long time ago.

though the cat is by nature

the most graceful of beasts

there comes a rare moment

she's not light on her feet

when she falls in the toilet

leaps and misses the chair

miscalculates distance

as she flies through the air

I don't laugh out loudly

I pretend not to see

it's just a little secret

between the cat and me.

The picture is an old one of my cat, Kiki, who died two years ago, at the age of 18.

For those who have asked about Scout...

At the vet, where they told me it was the worst "hot spot" they had ever seen, they shaved a little fur off of Scout, cleaned her sore up, gave her two antiobiotics and what my husband called "the lampshade." One good thing about the lampshade is that it is clear, so at least she can see out the sides. But she still bumps into things a lot.

The sore still looks pretty alarming. When I brought her in, and they were talking about it, I said something about it looking like "flesh-eating bacteria" and they nodded, like well, yes, it was.

The first time I tried to give her pills, she chomped down on my hand. Didn't break skin, but was clearly upset that I was putting my hand on her muzzle and sticking my finger down her throat. Usually she's ok with me giving her pills, but I forgot that the "lampshade" makes her a little fear-aggressive. But we worked with that, and now we're got a system down.

I think the sore is improving slightly, but I suppose it is too soon to tell. She still seems to be a little down, but that might be from the head gear. She doesn't want to catch the ball. She did seem to sleep a little better last night.

We really appreciate all of your prayers. And those of you who are asking St. Francis to pray as well, I say: the more the merrier!

I'm thinking about posting a picture of Scout and me together, but I'm nervous.

Interviewed by Barb!

1. WooHoo! You have just published a bestseller. What is its title (and what is it about)?

My first instinct is to say my book is: True Confessions: Lives and Loves of Parish Pastor. Because, they say, write what you know. And of course the book would be totally fictional, but something to counteract the Jan Karon Mitford stories. Because you know, the small town I lived in was Not like Mitford.

My second idea would be a memoir called Scout Is Not a Bad Dog. I don't think I need to say any more about that one. I was thinking, pet memoirs are hot right now.

Third, (and I don't have a title for this one) I would love to write a Christian book that would get really popular like The Purpose-Driven Life, but with better theology. 40 daily kicks in the butt, or 40 daily stories that make us realize that God Is Our Only Hope. What do you think?

2. What is your favorite restaurant in the Twin Cities, and why do you love it?

It will tell you something about my taste in restaurants to reveal that I miss the old Forum Cafeteria, in downtown Minneapolis, the place where, as a little girl, I could carry my own tray and have any color jello I wanted. And it had the most marvelous Art Deco architecture. They were going to tear it down, but they did save some of the inside. But now it's a real lah-di-dah expensive restaurant, and I've never been there.

Truthfully, our favorite restaurant is a place called The Good Earth. It's a kind of pseudo-healthy, organic place, and it's been around the Twin Cities about since I graduated from college. And it's not too expensive. If you come and visit, I could take you to some other, hipper places: St. Martin's Table (books and a healthy lunch), Convention Grill (50s style, burgers and other really unhealthy comfort food), Mickey's Diner (hard to explain). But The Good Earth is our favorite place because 1) most waits under an hour; 2) Husband likes the planetburger; 3) free fresh bread; 4) Good Earth tea!

3. What was the most challenging thing about serving small churches in rural South Dakota?

It wasn't the lack of money. I didn't really feel that there were a lot of expensive things I wanted to do if only we had more money. I think it was that there were three churches. Each church really did have its own distinctive personality. They had many things in common, but they were all different too, and they didn't require the same things. And, I needed to always be careful not to show favoritism.

Also, although the people were very friendly and welcoming, sometimes it was lonely. And, there are many more funerals than baptisms there, so I couldn't measure ministry "success" in terms of numbers.

4. What was your proudest accomplishment back in high school?

I was kind of a late blooomer, so in high school I played bit parts in the school plays, and sang in the choir, but never a solo. But I was on the school literary magazine in my senior year of high school, and I got three pieces published; one, I remember, was a story called The Writer's Eye.

1st runner up: the day my Comparative Religion teacher read a piece I had written aloud to the class. I was gone that day, so the next day all of my classmates were showing me new-found respect! (It was a "creation myth": everyone had to write one.)

5. If you had a time machine, where (and what time period) would you go?

This was hard! I love studying history, but do I really want to go there? (I keep thinking about things like Shakespearean England, but what about the lack of indoor plumbing, etc?) So... what I really come down to, is the 1930's. I'd like to go back to the era of screwball comedies, union organizing, Clark Gable and Gary Cooper and Cary Grant, the Thin Man... yeah, I know it's not reality, it was really the Great Depression, but I'd like to visit it for a little while.

Now, I have to post these 'rules':

1. If you are interested in being interviewed, leave me a comment saying, 'interview me.'
2. I will resond by posting five questions for you. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Why I Deleted the Last Post

I still like the poem, Birthday Poem, by Erin Murphy, and I want more people to know both the poem and its author. My motives are pure. And I thought it might suffice, as it always did in school papers, to give the title of the source and publication year. But now, I'm not sure. I need to check on what is the correct way to credit sources on blogs, because I like sharing poetry, and others' reactions to it, and I want to do it right.

I will let you know and re-post the poem when I am able.

In the meantime, I'd like to direct you to the Poetry 180 website. This website was created for high school teachers and students, to bring more contemporary poetry into high schools. There is one poem a day for the 180 days of the typical school year. Billy Collins, former poet laureate, is the creator of the website and the project.

I didn't get my poem from the website, though. I got it from the second printed collection, called 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day. The project has been so popular there have been two printed collections of the poems for the year. The preface to the book has a wonderful explanation of an "accessible" versus an "inaccessible" poem, which gives some great initial tips for interpreting poetry, as well.