Church was thought-provoking as always. Adult discussion centered around Martin Luther King, Jr. Unfortunately, all the songs were the usual spirituals, which was squirm-worthy just like when we sang Hava Nagila for Rosh Hashanah.(0h-God-no-they're-NOT), let my people go, which also prompted some dancing (which I also thought was squirm-worthy, but Jamie liked it!) The choir did Langston Hughes, (love him! but Jamie always feels compelled to point out to me that he was a communist and I always say, "So what? So was my great-grandfather" because he was.) But, we learned some new things, from the minister, the speakers and from each other, and it reminded us that we've been planning on driving with Claudia (the littles are too young, yet) to Memphis to visit the Civil Rights Museum (and also, hopefully, get to see all of my family while there!). We've heard the museum's excellent and we've talked to some good friends from Texas (who are also the parents of Claudia's best friend) about joining us at the museum.
Also, there will be barbeque and Jamie will be happy because he likes the slaw on the sandwich.
So we're going to do that soon-ish as we can-ish because it's really not that far. Along the same vein, I just downloaded MLK's Dream Speech and Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit.
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
As much as I loathe Wal-Mart and avoid it whenever possible/practical, I like their 88 cent music downloads quite a lot.
Church for the littles was learning about dreams and about Joseph and how his brothers tossed him down a well. We like the religious education there very much. Claudia's class is going on a field trip this next weekend to volunteer at a homeless shelter. Jamie and I are having coffee with the religious education director one night this week because we've volunteered to organize activities for the fifth and six graders. We're excited!
This afternoon we picked out a group of soldiers at anysoldier.com to send a care package so that's something we'll be working on for the next little while. They so often need just basic things, like soap, and want letters from home and I can't stand the thought of a deployed soldier not getting any mail.
The only photos I took this weekend are of the littles writing thank you notes. Aren't they cute and industrious?!?
1 comment:
Yeah, I've been thinking about sending some things via anysoldier.com too. I would love to check out your church if/when we come to town; I'm sort of sick of mine, as it's the same thing every week (give! give! give! Give time, give money, here's why!) DH says I am actually in search of a comparative religion class, not church, but I disagree. At any rate, I'll stick around for the religious education for Lilybug down the road.
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