"Glow little glow-worm, Shy-mer, Shy-mer...."

In that place between sleep and wakefulness--a place I try to stay as long as possible--often images come to me.

This morning it was a back yard from my childhood full of lightening bugs. And with it came the song, "Glow little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer...."

Except in my barely conscious state, the words were 'shimer, shimer' and I woke up knowing exactly what that meant.

Shimer College--pronounced "shy-mer". A place I never visited but which changed my life forever and set me on a path I would have never trod had I not known about Shimer College. (Back then it was a college of 400 or so. Last year, residing on the grounds Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Shimer has 47 students. Dying, though it gave life to me in so many ways!)

It was pretty clear that I would attend West Virginia University after graduating from high School. But somehow (grace of God?) I found out about this "Great Books College" in New Carroll, Illinois. It appealed to me to simply read 'great books' for four years. Years later I tried to get Mimi to consider St. John's College in Annapolis, another 'Great Books College". But she was sold on Bennington instead.

Here's the thing--Shimer required at least one year of a foreign language. Our high school was so small there was only one language offered--Latin--taught by Mrs. Sargent. So, my Senior Year I signed up for Latin I. Most of the other students were freshmen and sophomores. One of which was a fresh-woman named Bernadine Pisano.

I'd never have taken that class if Shimer College hadn't crossed my mind and that was the only chance I would have had to meet Bern.

As I woke up this morning I realized if I'd never taken Latin I, Josh and Mimi would have never been born and there would have been no Morgan, Emma, Tegan and Eleanor.

This year, in September, Bern and I will have been married 48 years. And we gave life to the life we've shared and to Josh and Mmi and through them to four amazing granddaughters. None of whom would exist if it hadn't been that Shimer required a year of a language other than English.

I won't ponder for a moment what my life would have been like if it hadn't been for that tiny campus in the plains of the Mid-West and my thought that I would like to spend four years reading the Great Books.

Thank you from the bottom of my soul, Shimer College.

Shimer's motto is "to serve, not to be served". In this weird way, I was 'served' in ways that college never imagined....!

My brothers and sisters, where art thou?

Christian Evangelicals went ballistic (and rightly so) over Bill Clinton's alleged dalliances with women.

Where are my brothers and sisters to the religious right of me now?

I have been astonished since the 2016 election that Evangelicals were one of the groups that gave Trump the most support--a man on his third marriage and accused of sexual contact with well over a dozen women including a porn star and a Playboy bunny. And no matter how lewd things get around the President and no matter how many things he fabricates (in my Evangelical childhood, lying was up there with stealing as a sin!) there is not a whimper of protest from my Evangelical fellow Christians.

A recent article in The Atlantic by one of the few Evangelicals to speak out against the President gave the first insightful perspective of how Evangelicals have lost their way. It's titled The Last Temptation by Michael Gerson and was in the April edition.

One or two quotes from the article:

1) "According to Jerry Falwell, Jr....Evangelicals have 'found their dream president.' Which says something about the current quality of Evangelical dreams."

2) "I do not believe that most evangelicals are racist. But every strong Trump supporter has decided that racism is not a moral disqualification in the President of the United States."

3) "Evangelicals remain the most loyal element of the Trump coalition. They are broadly eager to act as his shield and sword. They are his army of enablers."

I long ago left the Fundamentalist and Evangelical branches of the church (they are not the same, but I grew up both!) but I always respected their moral righteousness and intolerance of bad ethical behavior. I no longer do.

I recommend the article. You can probably find it on line.

And I pray that my Evangelical fellow Christians can find their way back from the dark path Mr. Gerson's article describes.

(I saw a bumper sticker on one of the cars outside Emmanuel church that said:

GOD WANTS FRUITFUL CHRISTIANS, NOT RELIGIOUS NUTS.

Amen to that....)

'bide a spell

Definition of abide

abode play \-ˈbōd\ or abided; abiding

transitive verb

1 a : to bear patiently : tolerate

• cannot abide such bigots

b : to endure without yielding : withstand

• abide the onrush of the enemy

2 : to wait for : await

• I will abide the coming of my lord.
• —Alfred Tennyson

3 : to accept without objection

• will abide your decision

intransitive verb

1 : to remain stable or fixed in a state

• a love that abode with him all his days

2 : to continue in a place : sojourn

• will abide in the house of the Lord
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• Tomorrow is 'Abide' Sunday. Both the reading from the letter of John and the reading from the Gospel of John mention the word 'abide' over and again.
•  I copied the definition above from MirriamWebster's Dictionary and for some reason can't figure out how to paragraph since I started writing this. Coping things to my blog sometimes screw up the way it usually works!
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• Paragraphed! Yea!
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• I love the word 'abide'. Where I grew up people sat on their front porches and if you walked by they might just invite you to 'come up and 'bide a spell'. "Bide-ing" didn't involve any effort. Conversation was optional. You just sat on their porch until you needed to go--most often in a rocking chair.
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• I think of abiding with God just like that, just being present with no expectations. Maybe that's why I love Centering Prayer: just 'being' with God.
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• One problem with working with three churches is that I don't remember where I said things. I remember I said them, just not where.
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• I know I went off on an 'abide' rant not that long ago. I just hope it wasn't at Emmanuel, Killingworth, where I am tomorrow.
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