1. I didn't have any real plans for today when suddenly Jeff Steve texted me. I knew Jeff was spending a week or so out on Cd'A Lake, knew we'd get together some time, and I was stoked when he wondered if I'd like to come over to CdA and meet him for a beer and then go to his place overlooking Cougar Bay and have some dinner.
We were going to meet at Daft Badger, but a text from Darrell Dlouhy reminded us that the Badger is closed on Mondays. We started to make some other plans and then, to our delight, Darrell, one of Daft Badger's owners, invited us to meet him at the brewery, that he'd open the doors for Jeff and me, and we could enjoy some beers and conversation out on the patio.
And that's exactly what we did.
Jeff, Darrell, and I have criss crossing histories beginning in 1972 when Darrell and I were at NIC together and the three of us have countless parts of our past in common thanks to NIC, Whitworth, First Presbyterian Church in CdA, my first marriage, a relationship I was in back in 1984-7, Jeff and I living in Eugene at the same time, and any number of other intersections. So, we had a lot to talk about -- mutual friends and acquaintances, the evolution of our thinking and experience around religion, our respective acceptance and rejection of religion, how history works, what we embrace in life that is good, and, the most urgent topic of all, beer.
As far as beer goes, I was in the mood for a lighter beer, so instead of drinking one of Daft Badger's awesome IPAs, I drank Daft Badger's Final Mile Golden/Blonde Ale and a tiny pour of their killer stout, Josiah's Revenge. Darrell sent each of us home with a bomber of Daft Badger's Imperial Coffee Stout, a powerful beer I'll keep on hand for when I can share it with someone who loves stouts.
2. Jeff and I made our way out to his family place overlooking Cougar Bay. Jeff grilled chicken for us and made a fresh, crisp salad and we continued the conversation we started with Darrell and branched out in other directions. We reminisced a lot about Whitworth. We both had invigorating experiences at Whitworth, both met people and were involved in things that profoundly shaped the direction of our lives, and it was warming and a lot of fun to talk it all over -- and to know that what we enjoyed so much continues to happen on Tuesday evenings as we join other Whitworth grads among the people who tune in for Bill Davie's Treehouse Concerts.
3. A theologian from the late 16th and early 17th century named John Hales delivered a sermon at St. Paul's Cross in London that begins with a beautiful elaboration upon the nature of goodness. This passage has been living inside me for about thirty-five years and I wanted to post it on the website I'm building in support of the comedy project I'm working on with my Zoom friends.
I wasn't sure, though, if I had a file of this passage anywhere. When I plug my Seagate external drive into my MacBook Air, there's no search function -- when I plug it into a PC, there is a search function. So, I tried to reason out with myself just where this file might be and I succeeded! It didn't really take that long and I was happy to post this passage and imagine that one day, during one of our Zoom sessions, we'll be looking at John Hales' passage more closely.
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