Meditation; In the Presence of Grandkids July 4th, 2

 July 4th year 2

Musings of deeptime

Meditation; In the Presence of Grandkids

bobb

The older you get, the faster time seems to fly. This last week just seems to be going by in a wink and a nod. Temps broke and the rain stopped, it was very pleasant working in the yard. I actually did a complete hive inspection of all my hives and I did it all in one day. The good news is - all my hives are going gangbusters. The bad news is - all my hives are going gangbusters. The year I decide to get out of the business, I; a)successfully overwintered more hives than in the last few years, b) successfully split more hives than typical in the past, c) hives rebounded from splits faster than normal, so I did more spits, d) sales of hives were good, but I failed to notice I was making hives faster than than I was selling. e) Stew and I run a line of swarm traps...you guessed it, we are catching more swarms this year than ever...Lord forgive me for complaining about abundance. All whining aside, things are coming together to move 100% of the biz.

This was our Sunday to “give lunch” at church. That’s a bit of a stressor for us. As both of us fall prey to overthinking things like this. And “The Give Lunch” ritual , while not dating back in history as far as the Japanese Tea ritual, in many ways carries just as much meaning (and baggage). Apostolic Christians have a history of large extended families, we travel extensively, visiting extended family that attend other AC churches in other states. So, you are feeding not only the home crowd, but also visitors minus local members who are out visiting elsewhere. The AC Church nationally still adheres to traditional gender roles, men work and women cook and manage kids. We are not immune to change, and now the men (still) work in business, (but) more of our wives and daughters hold full time jobs and they (the women) still do the cookin’ and cleanin’ for the most part. In younger families, the men help more with the domestic chores than before but it is my observation that the women do most of what is needed to do lunch. It just may be me, but I have always felt giving lunch involved much more than providing the noon meal for the congregation between morning and afternoon services. It was an opportunity for the husband and wife providing the lunch to signal to the church to what degree they were in sync with the church. For example, traditionally, how much of the baked goods were homemade was an indicator of the wife's baking skills, something valued in church culture. If the pastries were homemade but not by the wife but by the local amish community, this possibly indicated the wife was “too busy” (frown) to do home baking, it may also indicate the husband now made enough money to ease the burden on the wife (+/-), and then again, it may just mean some amish woman makes some really good pastries and the couple were sharing the booty with the congregation (+/+). The quality of the cold cuts (less expensive ham cuts to shaved roast beef) was a function of the families wealth as well as the degree the Lord was blessing them. Both income and wealth within the church have been rising in the last decade, maybe two. I suspect faster than in the surrounding communities. This has contributed to “lunch inflation” as members became accustomed to a more refined upscale diet. The lunches got fancier and fancier, which had its pluses and minuses...In some respects the fare became more nutritious, but the increased cost (borne by the providing family) could cause financial difficulties if the family breadwinner’s income wasn’t keeping up with the rest of the church families.

What I just described is a freeze frame image that comes fairly close to how I saw things were in most of our churches prior to the pandemic. It wasn’t followed universally, but most churches' lunch rituals looked something like what I described. Just prior to the pandemic the lunch tradition was coming under pressure to change and to adapt to the shifting environment within the family. Some experimentation took place. The pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt as churches stopped having services and/or went virtual. AC’s are quick to adapt innovation in the business world, but were reluctant to have up to date media broadcast capabilities in their sanctuaries. Churches ranged from dial up listening to computer audio. I don’t think any of our churches had live video capabilities at that time. The pandemic saw very quick adaptation of improved audio-only capabilities to congregations who went all-in regarding multi camera live broadcasting. A LOT of low profile discussion went on as the church and elders knew there could be unintended consequences not necessarily beneficial, that might only become evident later on. The resumption of regular services has allowed the return of a lunch meal, a meal that now meets post-covid rules. I suspect most of our churches will use this opportunity to adapt the lunch routine to better reflect the current environment.

One aspect of giving lunch is that your family members usually fill the role of wait staff and for us that meant our adult kids would come home to help us. Jacob and Rick and Carla come north from Lafayette along with the grandkids and their new dog (which I suspect doesn’t hunt). Laura and Rhett live nearby and they pitched in also. They brought their three kids along also. So my whole family was together and that’s a blessing for sure.

I’m trying hard not to repeat things my dad did when I was a young father home for a visit; a) give advice about careers in areas I know nothing about (failed). b) critique on child rearing practices (pass), c) tell grandkids about crazy, stupid and dangerous things I did when I was their age (sshhh). d) lie to the grandkids about how far I walked to school, how cold it got in the winter, how early I got up to do chores (fail), e) tell the grandkids about some of the crazy, stupid and dangerous things their parents did at their age(C+).

I don’t know about your family get-togethers becoming loud and raucous, filled with laughter and competitive punning but it must be in our genetics. We are a bunch of data junkies, which in the ol’ days meant we just sat around and wore our library cards out. Nowadays, Google data centers can detect when more than two of us are online by the uptick in search requests. I have always dreamed how neat it would be if one of my grandkids had been named “If Then” as in, “If Then Bowerman”. I notice we all seem to have a sympathetic opinion of the Pharisees when it comes to bible discussions, not that we are rigid or calcified in our thinking, but that we love to examine the logic, the application, and the unintended consequences of someone else's pronouncements. I think I remind them of the fishermen disciples, as my logic has as many loopholes as the disciples' nets, or so they hint. Punning is a respected art form here. I think my brother Bill and myself are the best of the bunch, and in truth Bill’s better than me, but Bill’s been a professional truck driver all his life so he has long hours to practise as well unlimited time to listen to country music for inspiration material. I think punning shares a lot with rap music but without the anger and use of in your face style. Our better punning usually weaves in something to do with HR depts, or county zoning inspectors or DNR stops. A good pun doesn’t knock on your front door, it slips in your side door, tickles your funny bone and is gone before you know it.

Remember, today we celebrate our Independence. This independence came at the cost of a lot of lives cut short, so don’t fritter it away. Google and google responsibly. Independence in the hands of an ignorant man is a dangerous thing.

bobb