Our friend, Jeremy Zoller, left us a few years ago. (He was our only intern at the simple way.) He went, naturally, to Colorado Springs to work for Focus on the Family. (!) Over the past few years he's done maintenance, bought a trailer house, hiked a lot, and got beat up protesting the Iraq war. He and Rachel, his girlfriend, took us on a beautiful night hike the first night we were there into a canyon lit only by the moolight. We spent a lot of time trading stories and hanging out. The little Mennonite church they worship at gave us little breads for visiting.
When we got to Denver, we called our friends Cassie, Libby, Arden, and John who are in Philly but are from Denver to see if they knew of anyone we could stay with while we visited the city. Libby insisted that we call her friend Reuben and he would happily put us up for a few days. We did, but we didn't expect much more than a couch or piece of floor and certainly didn't expect to spend much time with this stranger. Well, folks, we were fooled. Rueben is undoubtedly a kindred spirit! We had a total blast with him and were astounded at his and his brother Noah's hospitality to us. Reuben had moved out of his room for us and slept on the couch in the living room. (The couches are old van seats, so you know this is a sacrifice!) They took us to Scum of the Earth Church, a poetry slam, the pizza joint where Noah is learning to be a real kickin' pizza chef, the school where Reuben is an awesome teacher, a flea market, Church in the City.... (We did so much, and even had to cancel plans to go to the mountains to snowshoe because both Reuben and Michael got pretty sick, sadly.) They also were so gracious to take us to the airport at 5am and pick us up again at 11:30pm the next week! Now that's love! We also should mention we met Doug and Leon, who stayed at Reuben and Noah's when it was too cold for them to sleep outside. Doug told lots of stories and had a great time playing Michael's guitar. He even showed Michael some new stuff! In the midst of spending time with them, we visited the Denver Catholic Worker house where we met some new friends and had a great meal and were encouraged by the guests we met there, especially Stephanie. The folks we knew we really wanted to see when we got to Denver were the Prodigal Gathering folks who run a coffeehouse and outreach to homeless and runaway kids. We finally were able to track them down and spend an evening talking and sharing with Jill and her whole new staff. It was good times, and we were glad to have Reuben join us for that as well. Finally, on our way out of the city, we were really happy to get an opportunity to spend a few hours with Vicky Heino, Cassie and Libby's mom who, along with her husband, had graciously agreed to "housesit" our RV for us while we flew back to Philly for a week. Vicky treated us to Chinese in between her shifts at work, and we enjoyed getting to know her.
Philly and Denver aren't really close, so you may be wondering if our sequence is off. It isn't. Don't worry. The Simples wanted us to come home for a little while if it seemed like it could fit with our "sabbatical" for the Family Reunion. So they flew us home for a week. Philly was a great time. The family reunion that we host every year was bigger than ever, and included more new communities. Michael and Michelle also had read (on Ton Sine's recommendation) Living Together in a World Falling Apart, a book on the formation of christian community in the 70s. So we were filled with the history of community and the way that our own journey mirrored theirs. After the weekend, Michael worked hard on figuring out the direction of summer theatre camp for this next summer. We were able to spend some quality time with the folks back in Philly, and it meant so much to us that they wanted us back for that little time. Unfortunately, Michael started to some down with a cold before we boarded the airplane... We call this the "Tragedy Tour" because we stopped
at Columbine High School on the way out of Denver to see the memorial
there. There were no longer any crosses on the hill but there
is a sign in the library window naming all of the people that
were killed 4/20/99. Then we went to Oklahoma City to see the
memorial of the bombing of the Federal Building there in 1995.
The tragedy was only supplemented by the fact that Michael was
agonizingly sick and laid in the back of the camper while Michelle
drove, or shall we say raced, through Oklahoma to get him to a
doctor or clinic before closing time in OK City. (And believe
me, the horrible drive through the OK panhandle was a tragedy
in and of itself for Michelle. She does not recommend that route.
It is an adventure in boredom, stressing out about there being
a gas station within 200 miles, and enough bumps to prevent one
from listening to music. Awful!) We didn't make it to a clinic
in OK, but we remembered that we had a friend in Dallas who was
a doctor, so off we raced to Dallas. Remember back a few months when we were in Greenfield, Illinois with the Theivagts? Pat and Charlie's children, Leah and Cary, along with Cary's wife Chris and 2 kids, have moved to Dallas. Cary is doing his residency at a local hospital and agreed to "examine and advise" Michael, who really only needed to hear that he wasn't going to die and immediately began to recover. We stayed in Leah's apartment and thankfully got to see her in the evenings after school. (She's a teacher.) Michelle also has a friend from Word and World, Catherine, who lives in this fine city, so we got to visit her and have lots of adventures. These adventures included a Fat Tuesday Pancake Dinner at her church (where we met George the Whistler, the 5th best whistler in the world), a free happy hour with her coworkers and a free movie (Thirteen) in a small movie theater in the ex-Sears catalogue warehouse apartment building where a friend of hers lives. (Michael feels it is important to mention that Erica Badu also lives in this apartment building.) Catherine has connections! It was good to get to see Catherine and Leah again, and we hear that they have begun to hang out regularly with each other since our visit. Fun Fun! A few communities have sprung up from the energy surrounding
the Mission Waco/Church
Under the Bridge movement. One of them is just an apartment
complex that M.W. bought a few years ago. The housing is mixed-income
and our friend Carrie lives there. Also, Musaki and Ceci and Casey
live together in what was an all-female community. The all-male
counterpart disbanded last year or so. We were able to hang out
and stay with the good people there, discuss community, and much
more. We were treated by spending two nights in Ceci and Musaki's
place and a special tour of Waco by Jay, one of the guys in the
other community. He also took us to the World Hunger Relief Farm,
a community-sustainable agricultural farm. (Michelle ate the just
slaughtered and BBQ'ed goat.) It was really neat. Michael kept
saying how cool it was, and when Michelle asked him if he thought
he could ever live on a farm, he just turned up his nose. Shreveport, LA We really looked forward to our visit to Shreveport. We had met Brian Lewis a few years ago when he visited our house on a bit of a whim. When he left after a week or so, we thought we had completely freaked out this nice photographer (who has a wife and teenage daughter) during his visit, but apparently his experience in Philly not only freaked him out, it was another piece of the groundwork laid on his journey toward trying to find community in his hometown. Shreveport, Louisiana is a place where racism and classism are commonplace occurrences in this rather small city, and community among middle- to upper-class white folks is hard to find. Well, Brian and his family along with several other families have managed to begin the journey toward sharing their lives in real ways. They have officially (and recently) been dubbed the Common Ground Community, and although their model of community is very different than the simple way, it is still very very much a budding community. They work together in an African American church in a poor neighborhood, and they try to share meals together as families at least once a week. They have lots of projects going on and are beginning to grapple with issues that no one else in Shreveport seems to be tackling. They were a great source of encouragement to us on our journey because they represent to us that you don't have to sell out once you reach a certain stage of life or have to deal with the "real world." That it is possible to live out Truth no matter what your situation. That community can be found in the most unlikely of places: your own suburban neighborhood. We loved meeting all of them. (Hi everyone!!) And we had a wonderful time being hosted by Brian, Charlotte and Mary Charlotte who opened their driveway to us for a week and let us use their car and fed us, and let us watch the Oscars, etc. etc. It was Michelle's birthday the day we pulled out of Shreveport, so we decided to turn south and celebrate in a most fitting way. We went to New Orleans for Thai food and to listen to music in a blues club for a little while. The food was good and the city was pretty even in the night time. We had planned on spending more than just that evening there, but the city is not very friendly to RV's for parking. So we parked in a seemingly unsafe spot for a few hours and eventually left to slept in a Walmart lot a few cities away. After you count the founding members of the simple way, there has only been one other person that had been a partner with us. Scott left the simple way and Philadelphia a few months after we left for our sabbatical to head back to Florida. Scott is starting a house church with Eric. (Eric and Scott started Cornerstone - a faith-based non-profit - a few years before Scott decided to come to Philly and Eric went back to school.) It was great to see Scott. We just hung out and spent good times talking and being with each other. We caught him up on our sabbatical and he caught us up on the church and other things he's been doing. It was especially good that we got him before he went to El Salvador to see Ruth and Alex, our friends in the struggle. For those of you who know Scott, he's doing well, growing things on his back porch, running and biking a lot.
One day in Gainesville, Scott and Melissa Stacey (a tsw friend that goes to UArts in Philly) took us for a hike in the marshes. We saw signs on the path that told us to not feed the alligators! Of course you can imagine Michael and Scott making light of the situation, but it took a dramatic turn as we walked into the clearing and saw three major ponds, each of their shores were littered with dozens of alligators! None of them were fenced in, behind any type of bar, wire, etc! We walked to one bank to look closer at the alligators. While standing there we realized that below us, in the outcropping of vegetation there could be any number of hungry, scaly beasts. We walked on, watching all around us in case we would have to start running in "zig-zags" (the recommended way to run away from a hungry alligator - they are very fast in straight--a-ways, but not as fast from side to side). Michael and Scott dared each other to go out on this sand bar that jutted into the lake, so they both posed for a picture, looking very nervous. On the way back through that area, we saw the biggest alligator of the day sunning him/herself in the very spot of the posed photo. Also on the way back we had to walk on this path through alligator country, about 6 feet wide and surrounded by water on both sides. Well, our progress was impeded when we spotted a huge alligator hanging out on the path. We stayed there, transfixed (and trying not to mess our pants) waiting to see if the reptile would allow us safe passage. Then, this angel in baggy clothes walked right by the alligator and told us to raise our arms and walk right on by. She even lined us up and walked us right by Mr. Scary-pants-alligator. It was great fun! We stopped for a few days at the newly built Brix home in Florida. Michael's sister and brother-in-law are living there while they wait for their new home to be built. They are also expecting a little baby boy! Michael's mom came down for a week and her trip overlapped ours so we were able to spend a few days with her as well. Liz and Darren took us to the zoo, out to eat seafood and watch the sunset, and we went to church at this little weird church that Liz will probably not go to again.
Immokalee, FL We had originally planned to stay in Immokalee for a month living and working with one of our favorite coalitions in the world, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. However, because of the mechanical setbacks on our trip, we could only be there for a week. CIW had just gotten home from their 2004 Truth Tour, where they rode a bus around the country to promote their boycott of Taco Bell and their campaign for a living wage and better working conditions for farmworkers. (We don't usually participate in and promote many boycotts, but we have not eaten at Taco Bell -a staple for Eastern students- for over 5 years because they have refused to pay 1 penny more per pound for their tomatoes so that farmworkers can have a living wage. Taco Bell/ Yum! Brands have made strides when it comes to fair treatment of animals, but not people. We strongly urge you to check out this campaign and get on board to Boycott the Bell!) They are terrific organizers and we were privileged to spend time with them in the office, mostly copying and filing archived newspaper articles that start in 1994 about the Coalition and their various campaigns and conditions. We got to stay in the parking lot of the guest house (they had cats) where Damara lives and Nick and Tiffany (interns) stay, until the ant colony took over our camper and we had to stay with another good friend, Gerardo, in his house. (No cats.) Our week was so full. We filed, protested the war, learned, laughed, made up songs ("Knock knock knockin' on Taco Bell's door, hey hey hey...), fought the ants, walked to work, helped host a visiting group, had dinner with Lucas, made tamales, visited with Greg and Laura, watched and were saddened at 4:30am when we gathered with Romeo to see workers flocking to busses and trucks trying to get work for the day that would barely pay them anything, tried to speak Spanish, and went to the Gulf of Mexico. Leaving them wasn't easy, and we had to really push ourselves to pull out and head back north. Not stopping back at the Brix house was a hard, but good choice as we headed up the west side of Florida and into Georgia. We stopped at a community called Koinonia Partners. Koinonia has been going on for years, since the 1950s. It was founded to be a "demonstration plot for the kingdom of God" - and a place where black and white people could live and work together. They had some resistance from the conservative south, and many times almost had to shut down. Over the years, they have moved from farming to baking and selling things through their catalog. The community has dwindled and there are many more volunteers there than partners. They don't share common purse any longer either. However, it was a great stay as we worked in the gardens (Michelle got a bad bite from a big fire ant the still hasn't gone away!), shared about our lives in community during lunch, broke up peanut brittle to sell, had Mexican food with several volunteers, shared breakfast with Debbie Mayo, the volunteer coordinator, and went on a long walk through the woods. Over all, Koinonia was an interesting place to visit. It was the first of three communities in a row that we would visit. The second community that we stayed with in Georgia was The Open Door Community in the city of Atlanta. We had known of them for years but had never gone for a visit. They gave us a wonderful guest room and invited us to share life with them. We participated in their Sunday evening worship service and rose very early the next morning (they gather at 5:50am) to serve breakfast to their homeless friends. In the midst of our time there, Joe helped us work on our bikes, Lauren showed us around the kitchen, Meredith taught us how to serve the tables for breakfast, Tony gave us the grand tour, Murphy and Ed invited us to share stories about our lives with everyone, Willie cooked us grits, Lionel shared his struggles and helped us serve food, Dick and Gladys welcomed us, Chuck reminded us of someone we know, Hannah worked on Michelle's soaz, Anthony answered our questions and encouraged us. We also got to spend an evening with Heather Bargeron, Michelle's roomie from the Tucson Word and World school, catching up on her adventures since the last time they'd talked. And we walked around the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial for an afternoon, which is very close to the community. Michael found himself sick again there so didn't get to participate in everything Michelle did, but he recovered in a few days. Atlanta is also the home of our friends Karen and Jonathan Lupton,
whom we got to share dinner and spend some brief time with on
our way out of the city. They are expecting in August, and we
are very excited or them. We hadn't seen them in several years,
so catching up was fun. (And dinner and dessert were yummy!) One of the communities that was sent out by Koinonia was this one to Comer, GA, called Jubilee Partners. Jubilee is also a community with a lot of history, so we were able to learn and glean much form there journey. They do a lot of work with refugees, taking them in and training them for two months before they get relocated to Atlanta, or another big city. "Long term volunteers" take on most of the responsibility for teaching and childcare of the refugees as the partners (9 or so) take care of other community issues. They do have a common purse, share most meals together, and they have lots of land so there are many families and children running around. We tried to fit in as best as possible, working in the garden mostly, also cleaning up after meals, leading devotions, and hanging out with different volunteers. Many of the volunteers were from Winnipeg, Canada, and are searching for community in the midst of family. One young couple (Colleen and Jay from Canada) had us over after dinner and we talked into the night. We very much enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone there and appreciated their hospitality. In Columbia we took a break from community visits and stopped in on Trish, Michael's sister, at college. We took her out to eat at Outback (the onion!) because we had some gift certificates from Liz and Darren (thanks!). Then we learned how to play a new card game called "hand and foot". The girls in her cluster were very nice to us as we were not so good at the start. After a short time checking e-mail and watching past episodes of Friends, we left to continue our journey. |
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