7QT: Politics, Playgrounds and Procrastination

Last updated on: July 29, 2016 at 7:32 am by Anne Kennedy

7QT: Politics, Playgrounds and Procrastination 2016-07-29T07:32:43-04:00 Anne Kennedy

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One
Seems I hit a bit of a nerve yesterday, enumerating three small reasons not to vote for Mrs. Clinton. Sort of surprised. As usual, it’s ok to bash Mr. Trump, but not ok, I guess, to tepidly and mildly declare that I’m not really #withher. The thing that I kept tripping over, all day, as I tried to concentrate on other matters, is the sheer ridiculousness of women thundering that they are Independent and All That and Back Off Me You Men and then insisting that the state provide healthcare, birth control, abortion services, and child care. And then the tail spin onto fainting couches when anyone whispers that maybe that shouldn’t be the state’s job. Which is it? Are women strong and independent? Can they handle life? Or will a massive bureaucratic nonsense manage the essentials for them? I don’t particularly want Mr. Trump to save America and solve all our problems. And I really don’t want Mrs. Clinton to say anything to me about how women should be.

Two
Thank goodness the conventions are both over. I’m going to relapse into a baffled silence about politics, hopefully, and concentrate on the things that really concern me–like moving Alouicious’ Lego Monuments over from the old house and digging up portions of my garden. The Millennium Falcon and my hydrangea–these are the most pressing concerns of the weekend. Plus thinking through children’s chapel one more time.
Three
I’m not very good at children’s chapel. Whatever you think about children in the church–well, probably not whatever you think–Good Shepherd provides the option for children ages 3 to 8 to go out during the sermon for their own bible lesson. This is not just for parents to be able to hear the sermon without riding herd on their squirmy offspring. It’s because we have a gentle influx of unchurched small people, sometimes without parents in tow, who we want to tell about Jesus in language they can hear and understand. The main thing to remember is that no child Has to go downstairs, but many want to. And for the last month, I’ve had to go with them.
Four
What I keep reminding myself is, children’s chapel is not Sunday school. If all you have is children’s chapel–well, it’s good. It’s fine. But really, just like all the grown ups need their whole hour of Christian Ed to stop and consider something essential about the Christian life, so also the children need a whole hour to be in the atrium, working and thinking and hearing the gospel. Its the order and rhythm of the gospel at work that I love about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Telling a bible story and doing a craft–which is my task in children’s chapel–is not the same as a child coming into a space to work and pray and develop some interior silence.
Five
Not that I’m complaining about children’s chapel. Not At All.
Six
I’ll talk about something else, shall I? One of the lovely things about this new house is how close we are to a large city park. Now there’s some government intervention I can enthusiastically get behind. Binghamton may be a bit down and out, but some clever person thought a new playground with real ways to climb and play was of the essence. Not only is the layout of the playground charmingly inviting, there is a realio trulio merry-go-round that you can fall off of. There is a tall rope climbing structure. There is some sort of spinning thing that you can grasp onto and be flung around and then fall to earth, laughing and exhausted. And there are tons of children, every evening, playing wildly and shrieking. I’ve twice taken Ash and sat on a bench while the children careen from one end to another. My favorite, though, of my whole sojourn here in the northeast, is the T-Shirt worn by a pleasant looking father climbing on the rope structure with his toddler. It said,
ROME
PARIS
LONDON
BINGHAMTON
And I thought, “absolutely.”

Seven
So we are kind of settled in. And will be more so when we finally and completely clear everything out of the old house. The real mark of admitting that we are here and not still “moving” is when I give in and start exercising again, and listening to the bible in the mornings, instead of lying in bed clicking through the Internet. Don’t want to exercise. Would like to be thin and in shape without trying. But, well, life is a veil of tears isn’t it. So I will dig out my horrible plain tennis shoes and try to shove my feet into them–next week. There’s no point starting this late in a month.

Have a lovely weekend and go read more and better takes!

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