Funerals and Food

Yesterday at Judson, where we have a kitchen for a whole church that is smaller than most bathrooms in most houses, we fed close to 400 people.  The Rev. Howard Moody's long ministry was being remembered.  35 years is a long time to do anything!  The sandwiches were pear and turkey with a near pesto sauce as well as bacon crisps and apples.  They were a nice size, giving a near lunch to people after the 11 a.m. service.  What was remarkable was all the leftovers.  People brought other trays to pass, trays of hulled strawberries and sliced kiwis.  And they chipped and dipped, and chipped and dipped some more.  

So strange this week: a storm, an election, a memorial service.  Food, food, food.  Now all we have to do is figure out how to get rid of all of the bags of chips left behind  (I counted a dozen at last survey) and get them to the Rockaways, where some one might enjoy them, as opposed to wondering what to do with them.  Famine, feast, surplus, leftovers.......all among us now.

The Garden on Top of the Truck

I recently stayed at a hotel in Denver, "The Boulderado", where the room was so big and the bathroom was so big that I had an urgency to sublet the place. New York visits Boulder. When I got home to New York, guess what was parked outside my office? A truck with a garden on top of it. Yup. A Garden, with lettuce and beans growing in it. Now that was a good use of space.  

The Inner House by Edith Wharton at the Mount

When you see this play, you watch a woman governing her solitude in an open and hospitable way.  Such a trick, to be at table, as yourself, in yourself and with others.  Edith Wharton did it.  

Eucharist as an Open Table or a Closed One?

In this blog I am trying to make a simple, small point. It is that grace at table could change us and make us less inured to poverty, less afraid of our own courage, more capable of the world we want for ourselves and each other. I use the wheelbarrow as a picture because it helps us lift heavy things, lightly, similarly to prayer or grace at table. I am at the Chautauqua Institution with a glittery group of multi faith folk, led by The Right Reverend Tracey Lind, who is the preacher for the week. Biggest topic: why is the communion or Eucharist table not ALWAYS open? By the way. it is the Roman Catholic Priests and Nuns who are leading this discussion. It is an easy subject for Protestants but not for them. Tracey's point was that the feeding of the 5000 was the first Eucharist and that it was surely open. What if the stem of poverty is in the closed table that we practice ritualistically? Oh, my.

Where is my wheelbarrow when I need it?