If I were to illustrate My Life in 100 Objects––
(is that prompt modeled on the British Museum's History of the World in 100 Objects? --podcast at the BBC)
–– key objects from my childhood would be my first library card--(I remember the children's librarian denying me a card because I didn't know how to write my name--I was shocked--but I soon learned and went back and got one);
and also the blank Journal my mother gave me for my tenth birthday.
I was thinking about that after attending the liberal church for the third Sunday, yesterday.
(I must name it something, here, if I'm going to keep going...)
Why are these people so familiar? I wondered.
It isn't just that they're white, middle-class, college-educated liberals. They are, but that's a huge swath of the population.
They're a subset.
I. The People-Who-Grew-Up-with-Library-Cards Set
I think I'm among People Who Grew Up with Library Cards.
Further, the type who might’ve been encouraged at a young age to write down their thoughts and experiences.
SO MUCH flows from the belief that not only should you read about other people's lives, but you, your life, is worth writing about, and that you can do that yourself.
Like David Copperfield, you can write yourself as the hero of your own life.
The pastor said that the church membership is 1/3 members of the denomination, 1/3 people who used to be something else, and 1/3 atheist/agnostic. But I’d warrant they share membership in the above club.
I'm sensing these people come from that class because...
First, last week I saw my famous neighbor, the Children's Book Author (CBA), there.
Second, yesterday, an 82-year-old member of the congregation gave a personal-reflection about his life as a gay activist, including working with Harvey Milk.
At one point he said, We have a hero right here--and pointed out a man in the pews who'd been a city council-member involved in passing the 1974 non-discrimination ordination prohibiting discrimination based “affectional or sexual preference”. *
[You can read a personal history of the Gay Rights Ordinance, here, not by either of the people above, but interesting.]
Also from that era--the church seems to include the sort of people who would start a Feminist Bookstore in someone's house,
like the first Amazon Bookstore [not you, Jeff Bezos], here in town, in 1973: [via "The Pride Behind Pride"]
Third, the pastor weaves quotes from writers, thinkers, and ethically motivated do-ers into his sermons.
Last week, Andre Dubus and Paul Farmer; this week, E B White, Carl Jung, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Ann Patchett.
And there's (always?) a non-scriptural reading--so far, poems by Mary Oliver and Rumi (or, rather, Coleman Barks, the "interpreter" (he doesn't know Persian) of Rumi).
This is a little too much, for my taste. I ROLL MY EYES, "omg these old chestnuts", but have to admit that these writings have shaped my life too.
It's probably just that in this quadrant of my life, I am tired of them being trotted out. But if you're a pastor, you need material, and they are the go-tos for A Certain Class. My class.I can even predict what others are coming up.
James Baldwin. Dorothy Day. MLK. Bishop Tutu. ee cummings. Louise Erdrich. Mr.Rogers.
Robert Frost?
I guess Robert Frost because of EB White--this church has New England roots, which is not the dominant European culture here. This area was settled by farmers and laborers from Germany and Scandinavia. To an outsider, they might look the same, but they're quite different from New England Puritans like Roger Williams who cofounded the first Baptist faith.
(I lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, for a year, while bink taught illustration at a college nearby, and I was shocked at how different the culture was. I hadn't realized.)
Should I add Herman Melville, who shipped out of the whaling capital of New Bedford, to my list of predictions?
I think that's a stretch... As is Nathaniel Hawthorne.
But I'd place a bet on Emerson showing up. Louisa May Alcott. Maybe Thoreau?
Definitely Emily Dickinson.
I AM NOT MOCKING!
I am rolling my eyes a little, but these aren't just well-meaning quoters of other people, these are obviously people who themselves act for Good in the world, effectively;
who were (probably) raised to feel empowered to take action, and trained in the skills of being effective, and have learned how to make moral and ethical judgments and act from them.
It's a bit shocking to be among them, after eight years among people whose mothers taught them to survive by holding their tongues--holding up Emmett Till as a counter-example.
II. The Turmeric Water Set
I'd worried I'd be among the Turmeric Water subset of liberal white people at church, but I think not so much.
Do you remember that?
It's from Ass't Man, my middle-aged white-guy coworker who was so clueless Mr Furniture called him Opie, a nickname that stuck.
Ass't Man was far more clueless about race than I, but we shared the shock of being totally out of our depth in 2020 when the police murdered George Floyd ten blocks from our store.
The next summer, after the first Covid vaccine, Ass't Man had gone to the wedding of an old college friend. He told me later that it'd been hard to re-enter that social class, after what he'd seen and learned.
His prime example was that at one point, he heard some people complaining because the caterer had not stocked enough Turmeric Water, and there was none left.
So we shared that--coming from people who not only drink Turmeric water (could have been Perrier in my young adult life), but EXPECT it to be on hand for them.
Not because they're bad--they're not! And they're certainly 'well-meaning'.
[I see I am not done fretting about that term.]
It--the availability of Bottled Water of the Moment--has simply been their experience of Normal Life,
and if they never broadened that experience, they're stuck in it.
(while I'm glad Ass't Man left, (after his alcohol abuse started to affect our relationship), I still miss him, someone who went through that learning with me.
(And also--unrelated to that-- he was the only person I've worked with at the store who was great at displays. Man-oh-man, I didn't realize what a gift it is to assemble stuff into a pleasing display.)
So that's the Turmeric Water class, and no doubt they are represented at the church. But another factor is that most of the people there appear to be around my age--and they seem to have figured out that the world not only doesn't always supply their specialized wants but, more importantly, the world doesn't supply even the most fundamental needs of many, many people. (Age is no guarantee that people have figured this out.)
And that maybe you should not just weep into your latte, but DO something about that.
At least, that's the vibe I'm getting.
And, cautiously, I say, I am liking that vibe.
Okay-- now, having written in my Blank Book of Blog for the morning, I am off to do some assembling of stuff at my workplace.
Ciao, ciao! Have a good drink of water!
____________
*In 1975, the 1974-ordinance's phrase “affectional or sexual preference” was defined as people
“having or projecting a self-image not associated with one's biological maleness or one's biological femaleness,”--that is, not just gay or lesbian but trans and gender-nonconforming
people, making it the first ordinance in US history to protect that group.
--"The 1975 Minneapolis Non-Discrimination Ordinace", at the MN historical society)
