Our mid-west roadtrip.
It was fun & an adventure but it is also good to be home and relax at home (by doing projects) b/f we both have to head to work next week. We caravaned w/ my mom & brother across the midwest to Galesburg, IL, a small town outside Peoria for my sister's wedding. It was gorgeous. She was beautiful. It really reflected their joy-filled & family/friend-centered lives and God. was. there. In their desire for his blessing and, mostly, in their deep desire for unconditional, eternal Love.
So, we read a little of R. Niebur per my uncle's recommendation, from his Essential Writings- on his RN's life itself, as well as a chapter on "Mystery & Meaning." Had already read the essay on "The Christian Church in a Secular Age," which was excellent, better in my opinion. Don't agree w/ all his ultimate conclusions, considering how hard he is on the Catholic Church, but I think he has a lot of astute observations along the way.
We did Hannibal, MO & Mark Twain on the way north. Learned a little about his life as a writer- mostly that he was from a working class family and always had to work to support himself, learned as a printer's apprentice, actually just wrote a handful of books (which surprised me considering he is such a towering figure in American Lit, primarily for his innovation in style, of course- making it contemporary, colloquial), and didn't publish the first novel until after he was married and trying to support his young family. He wrote about what he knew, similar to Louisa May Alcott that way.
Springfield, IL & Abraham Lincoln was the stop on the way home and struck me in a similar way. I always knew he was from a poor family and a self-taught lawyer (particularly amazing to me considering I & everyone I knew paid extra to take an additional Bar prep class, after graduating law school). I hadn't thought about how successful professionally and personally he had to have been to make the climb that he did. And how responsive to God's will he must have been, first in his formation, then living his mission. No one makes that kind of journey, especially a sacrificial one- which his ultimately was, alone. He wrote his timeless pieces in the course of his work as a politician, responding to the needs of the people he served and represented. Some of the comments about Mary Todd's struggles reminded me of myself. Hope I don't suffer from such severe MDD later in life.
So, my take-away light from these men is to be true to myself as God created me to be, including my struggles with practicing & being a working-mom, including with my more spiritual desires to read, write, & reflect more than seems I have time.
