I like to jot down with a pencil on scrap paper, five or so possible
themes for writing a blog post. Doing that gives me a reminder to
take a moment and notice what has been happening, inside the mind and
in my life.
A man stood up in the final Quaker gathering, held in a beautiful and
impressive chapel at St. Benedict's College and sang "Annie's Song" in
a moving solo. I could write about the skill and courage standing up
and singing alone into an immense space filled with silent
worshippers. The song was written and recorded by John Denver and can
be heard on YouTube. It is a love song that tells a woman how she
fills up the senses of the singer but the words and meaning can apply
very well to a worshiper's feelings about God or a hiker's feelings
about nature.
I am near the end of the audiobook "Fear Itself", a history of the US
during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. The author is an
older historian and he emphasizes the questions that arose about 1939
in both the US and Europe as to whether a squabbling, argumentative
democracy was capable of dealing with the organized, swift, obedient
forces massed under dictators. It seems clear that our country was
unified, electrified by the challenges of the war. I was only a baby
but as a little kid, I remember the amazing moment. My father was
outside the dining room windows on a ladder and my mother was in the
kitchen. All of a sudden, they both went crazy. I later came to
understand they had heard an official announcement on the radio: the
war was entirely over!
But I don't want to write about either of those things today. I want
to write about a cinnamon roll with sour cream icing. If that doesn't
sound appealing, good: there will be more for me. We have a little
coffee shop hidden away on the edge of the college campus. It is easy
to miss but I advise you to locate Zest and have a cup there. Have
whatever you need to allow yourself to buy such a roll and take a
bite. You may tremble, you may feel yourself temporarily in paradise.
We both know we don't need more calories, especially not in the form
of sugar and white, wispy dough. It ain't healthy but it is heavenly.
