Last night’s story broadcast on WPCA-FM was Lost Wax, one of the six short stories in my paperback Six Short Stories. It’s an effective story that has produced tears at every public reading where I’ve shared it. I think I read it better in public than the radio version, where long pauses just mean “dead air”, which in radio is something to be dreaded. The story is about a painter who becomes a sculptor, aided by a perceptive, hard-working wife with vision and marketing savvy.
Marina’s book just out, Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs, has garnered several nice five star reviews and has been outselling my books by a big margin. I’m one of Marina’s cheerleaders, so I’m happy about those results. The Seeing Eye Foundation interviewed her last week for a social media posting coming out soon. The interview was followed by the comment that they would like to see her next book, which is about growing in Nazi Germany. Today’s Ukraine War brings back too many ugly memories of when the Russians came into Berlin and how they treated common people. The Gretel and Andy book is told in the dogs’ voices and is both cute and informative.
Winter seems to be rushing our way very quickly but I have been able to get many of the items accomplished that have been on my list. The pontoon boat still is in the water and I hope to be able to give it a run when my elder son, Aaron, arrives from Portugal. I think he would enjoy seeing from the water the shore of the property where he grew up. We have had some downed trees, as well as large branches, because of strong winds, so the chainsaw needs to get fired up again to produce logs for the log splitter. As a concession to age, I’ve pretty much quit splitting logs by hand.
One fun thing recently was catching the Flamenco troupe out of the Twin Cities when they came to St.Croix Falls. We were up close–second row seats–even though there are no bad seats in the Festival Theater’s Black Box space. One of my former Macalester College students had danced with one of the women in this troupe back when he formed Alfredo Y Amigos. It was fun to share a bit of time with a couple of the dancers and the cantor.
I did a fill-in preaching at Wolf Creek United Methodist Church last Sunday and received a nice warm welcome back. One of the men produced a special mug for me. It reads: “A truly great pastor is hard to find, harder to part with and impossible to forget.” In my six years of pastoring Wolf Creek I was constrained by my personal circumstances and the church’s expectations so I did not get to enjoy the kind of “kitchen table listening” that I used to do; however, I got to know enough to this man’s story to give the mug special meaning. To have been a part of enhancing a person’s spiritual journey is a special blessing for which I am grateful.
I am looking forward to reading stories at the Luck senior Center. The program has been set up by Jill Glover, Luck’s Librarian, and Friends of the Library. The reading will follow the Senior’s potluck lunch on October 23rd. I will do my best not to pig out on the lunch. Kenneth Larson’s shop is just around the corner from the Senior Center and he has all my books for sale. I anticipate Marina’s story will be available there, too.