In size 26.5 font, I write, “Another one of my teeth are wiggly,” for Evelyn. Written with an orange Crayola on white sketch paper, I’m not sure who note is for, but seeing her words all crammed together has me thinking: maybe ten minutes a day practicing letters would help.
After forgetting to reset the font size, typing now feels like one of those giant-font library books or like making a missing dog poster. Luckily, it’s neither of those—I’m just lazy, and the big letters give my words this sudden importance.
The last time I set foot in a church was my grandmother’s funeral a year ago, and today, I walked into two: a Unitarian Universalist church and a Greek Orthodox one. I’ve been to a UU church a few times when I lived in Washington state and wanted to visit again after seeing a flyer at the local Pride festival. If you’re not familiar, it’s a non-faith-based community, welcoming everyone from Buddhists and atheists to Christians. We sang a couple of songs, one about the power of community and another about the freedom of thought, and then a university professor gave a talk on the intersection of politics and religion.
I appreciated his quick refresher on the Constitution’s clear separation from religion—especially relevant today, with so much talk from fundamentalist groups about needing a “return to Christian ideals” and claiming they’re the “true Americans.” I think there’s a lot of value in different perspectives, especially in a diverse country like ours, and this kind of rigid mindset feels more bullying than anything else.
Under the big wooden arches and stained glass, I felt right at home, and I’m planning on going back. The sense of belonging was strong, and it’s a space even if Dave and Evelyn stayed home I’d want to be in.
As for the Greek Church, they hosted an event with food and dancing outside their building. After Greek fries, a gyro, and a sausage wrapped in pita Evelyn and I joined in with a group dancers to hold hands, and leg kick around the periphery of the picnic tabled center. After, we were allowed to scope the building’s interior with its incredible stain glass depiction of an angel and its incredible architecture.
Once again, it’s late, and I’m staring down a 5:15am wake-up call for morning walking. I better get, and hope your day was as lovely as mine was.
Love, Jaclynn
Going On 40 