Star-Spangled Life

July 2, 2012



It was a work in progress. Well, I guess we ARE a work in progress....





Someone asked someone else after the Star-Spangled Music Fest last night whether I cried as I was making my introductory remarks. "Yes," she answered, "during the Star Spangled Banner." It was far from a boo-hoo. A tear or two or a tight throat is pretty predictable for me when something touches my heart. But it wasn't the Star Spangled Banner, which, frankly, leaves me pretty darned cold, given the hideous renditions I've heard by rock stars at major sporting events. It was the veterans who stood to be recognized and thanked by all of us. It was memories of my dad, gone so long now, who came home from WWII a hero at the age of 24, a bomber pilot who had crashed and broken his neck and been present at the liberation of Paris, and for whom the whole rest of his life was a disappointment. It was the memory of my youngest son's year in Iraq at the beginning of this interminable war, which began in idealism at least as far as the troops were concerned. That was the longest year of my life, when I would stand in the back yard at night, my only comfort the knowledge that I was looking at the same moon he was seeing. The tears were for the many parents whose children have not come home whole and healthy as he did. And tears of joy seeing the 325 people who crammed themselves into our church, which comfortably seats 175 and whose air conditioning was utterly overwhelmed and who waved their flags when the organ and piano played John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. And tears of gratitude for the privilege of serving this quirky congregation in the middle of nowhere and where kick-butt good music is the norm. Good tears. And you can count on more of them as we continue down this lovely, bumpy road together.

A work in progress? Yes, indeed. We will do more of these events at our terrific little hard to find church. We will work on getting better parking. And we will try to figure out a much more efficient way to judge 18 apple pies. Recipes will be forthcoming for the winners. It was a great evening all around.