Today I’ll be driving through southwestern Indiana’s coal country and then up to the Terre Haute area to visit St Mother Theodore Guerin. As is my tradition with these trips, I will be listening to old episodes of Weird Studies. Sets the right mood, since these trips are almost always centered on some religious or “weird” place. 8:12am First stop of the day at Camp Olivet. This creek is where I was baptized.
A neighbor cut down what appeared to be a perfectly healthy, mature maple on Tuesday. In response, Rachel is planting three serviceberries and one juniper. Answer foolish destruction with a quadruple investment in future life.
Just saw a sixty-something man, no shirt, huge eagle tattoo spreading from shoulder to shoulder, chasing after a little dog calling, “Here, Cookie! Come here, Cookie!”
Working on a project for a neighbor but I need one final measurement from inside his house. I keep looking over to see if he’s up and about. Reminds me of when I was a kid and the neighbor always opened their door when they were home, which was my signal that I could go ask Timmy to play.
Mentioning “total work” earlier today has me thinking again about how strange our contemporary work culture seems to me. Strange, I think, because I never really came through the usual acculturating institutions. A bit about my background. I come from a working class lineage, through my grandparents and beyond. Well, that’s being generous about my dad’s family, which might be better described as “working-when-not-drunk class.” There are some professionals here and there among the aunts and uncles and cousins but my direct line is all laborers, secretaries, and cooks (not chefs!
It was a good night at the Men’s Warming Shelter. Papa John’s donated a lot of pizza and everyone loves pizza night. Plus, choice of chicken or beef nachos. And pop, which we don’t always have. We were also celebrating two birthdays, which meant ice cream and cupcakes. One of the birthdays was for the shelter’s top volunteer. He’s invested untold hours in the men, both at the shelter and driving them to job interviews and doctor’s appointments.
I’m really looking forward to summer this year. At the old job, I was consumed with audit work from July through September. At the new job, however, the audit is much smaller, and I have very few tasks related to it. I’ll be able to help Rachel more with the garden!
Tara Couture: “We always lived in a peaceful home, something I think of as the most important element in a home.”
As someone who has lived in both a contentious home as a child and a peaceful home as an adult, I can tell you it is very important. I’m so grateful for what Rachel and I have built.
One evening, several days ago, a squirrel was eating at the feeder outside the window, the golden light on its fur. I decided against photographing it because I knew squirrels don’t stay anywhere long. Now I sit here remembering it. The image isn’t as clear as a photograph but the feeling remains.
I always hated it when people told me not to take myself so seriously. Hated it. I’ve always been a painfully sincere person who wants to do the right thing. I heard that advice as suggesting that I was ridiculous for taking life seriously. And, to be fair, some people did mean that. But now, as fifty approaches, maybe I begin to understand. Over the past ten years I can see more clearly the ways I pose and cope—and how others do the same.