it occurs to me that community requires patience
utmost patience
a sense of deliberate willingness to wait
in the past week i've become very aware
that community exists in a broad sense
in a vast expanding definition
the lines are breaking up continually
while playing guitar at holy mass last week
with about 200 catholic lay missionaries present
all of whom i did not know
it occured to me that we were yet part of a great community
together
and indeed i was in the minority
for none of these people know me
yet we deemed it right and just to partake in
the same body and blood of eucharist
and i felt they were anything but strangers
this past weekend i sojourned in
lanceister county PA
and i engaged in a dialogue
between mennonites and catholics
actually a multilogue
which ended in our mutual recognition that
despite our familiarity we are divided somehow
we cannot worship as one
there's something that says
we are not the same people when it comes to
eating at this particular table
and i must say
though i knew these people better than
the lay catholic missionaries
i felt further away from them
that though every gesture had been made
to become familiar and friendly
we were still left with this gulf of
strangerness
we were uncomfortably strange to one another
yet the ray of hope emerged
and said something about
there is a possibility if you imagine together
there is a way to become closer
there is a way to bridge the gulf of strangeness
it requires patience
it requires the willingness to share at table
the food of sustenance
like fruit and coffee and tea cupcakes
and pizza and date bars
those sorts of things
i only say this as a way of utilizing
my more immediate experiences and thoughts
in an effort to entertain the dialogue here
of some sort of community minded activity
sally brings up some good points
i hope people will chime in with her
i plan to revert back to her thoughts
and respond to them in kind soon
maybe community originates in the ability to
arrange for seemingly absurd possibilities
in a somewhat graceful manner
well here's a little waiting story
ReplyDeletethat may serve as an allegory
i purchased a guitar on eBay
went through all the hoops to make sure
it arrived here safely
and tried to think in terms of a good week
for delivery
for i was to be out of town
well the thing got here in two days
evidently there was a call made
from the warehouse
but for some reason i never recieved
a message or if it came through perhaps i mistakenly deleted it
so i waited
i asked at the front desk
for i had indicated
GREAT HALL
on the address
but no
nothing
nothing for you br john
was all i heard
so last night i get this email from the person
from whom i purchased this guitar
he did a little UPS search
he informed me that someone indeed
had recieved it here
with a signature of Voss
well right away i knew who that was
so i set out to find him
turns out he is on vacation
and the warehouse is locked even though
someone is there somewhere
well my patience was turning into
palpable desire
i was on the hunt
i was going to find that guitar
after some reflective analytic deduction
through a process of subtractions
i deduced that there was a good chance the guitar was in
the mail room
i went there and behold
there around a corner
where i would not normally look
was a large box and i could see my name on it
sometimes we wait and we are blind as well
jh
ok
ReplyDeletebut now you leave us in suspense--
how does it sound ???
will i have to wait until i get back in town
on monday night to find out?
i don't know if i can wait that long!
but glad to hear that you got it all right
i was worried at the beginning of your story
that it had somehow gotten shipped back to the sender
i've been waiting for my other loprinzi
ReplyDeletei am told now she's ready to sing
i will make a trade
twangin never felt so good