All About Me

All About the House Next Door
a home-made cake for Alice's fifth birthday

 Lunch with Lorraine Wright included an all-about-Arta talk.

I couldn’t tell her everything, though I tried. 

She had three questions of me, all of which she might have asked at any lunch.

The first was how are you doing in these pandemic times?

She asked me the question a number of ways and each time I added to an already privileged gratitude list: I have access to any kind of food I might wish for; I have fabulous books stacked by my side waiting to be read; I have access to the internet, to read, to send messages, to blog; and I have learned enough Zoom technology that I can go to Zoom church with people. I give myself a 10/10 on the scale of possible happiness.

She asked me again how I am doing. I had to think if there were any chinks in my happiness scale, and there might be one – Richard, Miranda, Michael, Alice and Betty live next door. Now four of the five of them have gone to the lake, so my previous happiness scale might be down a bit. I explained to her that not only do they live next door, but I have an open invitation to eat with them every night. Every night. When I told Lorraine this, I looked into her eyes, just as I look into the eyes of anyone I tell this to. I want to see how amazement registers on people’s face. Lorraine just leaned over, put her hands on mine and said, “Arta, you are at 11/10 on the happiness scale.”

All About the People in the House Next Door
... 3/4 or the cake gone and everyone is full...

Lorraine’s second question to me was about the church. How are you doing with the church, she might have asked. I don’t remember the exact formulation, but I tried to capture the intent of the question. I told her that in the past two months, I have had the best job in the church. She asked me how so. I told her that my new bishop telephoned me one night and before he could do much more than identify himself on the phone, I had interrupted to tell him that I am fine, not to worry about my family-of-one during these hard times, and to take care of those needing his outreach, and I assured him I would call on him in times of need.

I couldn’t even have interrupted myself; I went on and on for so long. When he got a space to speak, he said, “Actually, I wasn’t calling to ask if you needed my help, I was calling to see if you could help me.” An instant review of my skill set, and I couldn’t think of what he might need that I have, but I am all in for helping where I can.

Bishop Hampshire: “Will you help me produce a bi-weekly newsletter for the ward?”

Arta: “I think you have the wrong person for that.”

Bishop Hampshire: “No. I think you are the right person.”

Arta: “Bishop Hampshire, I think you are wrong. And I think all my children would tell you that you have the wrong person. Whatever made you think I could help you that way.”

Bishop Hampshire: “I don’t know you well. But your name came to me as someone who might help me.”

Arta: “I do blog. Why don’t you go out, take a look at what I do there, and get back to me. I don’t think I am the person for you. I know I don’t have the skill set for what you are looking for.”

We said cordial good-byes. In 10 minutes, he got back to me saying yes, he had read enough of the blog to believe I was the person who could help him.

In the interest of making a long story short, here is why I think working on the newsletter for 13 issues was the best job in the ward.

1. I had a direct email-line to the bishop, anytime, day or night. No subject was off-limit, no opinion unheard. “No opinion?”, I asked him. “No, he said, “if you have an alter-opinion, I want to hear it.” I tested him out. He was true to his word. Her is open to hearing every side of a story.

2. I interviewed people about their lives and heard details that seemed so precious to me, so dear, ideas that were so full of experience and maturity and wisdom.

3. I got acquainted with the other person who does the behind the scene work: Natalie Berg. In 100 years I could not have imagined our spring-winter pairing, me in my 80s and she in her 20’s. For me a deep friendship occurred with her.

4. The pandemic times require forward-thinking. Bishop Hampshire has created a weekly 4 page newsletter and seen that there is a facebook page for our ward. I don’t know what to call him. The newsletter did publish a photo of him beside his motorcycle. #BikerBishop could be one handle for him. Or how about #ProgressiveBishop. Find a ward keeping up with ours as far as maintaining social connections are concerned. I think we are onto our 15th Issue of Ward Newsletters. Maybe I will just say #BelovedBishop, #NewsletterBishop, #COVIDawarnessBishop.

All About the People in the House Next Door
... is this slice the new normal for a birthday cake? ...

I liked this ward job.

Dale Hampshire made me feel as though I had something to contribute.

 I made a mistake.

I was giving up my exercise time, and my family blogging time because I was figuring out how to do such an open-ended job.

The ward newsletter was on my mind most of the time.

Always there were questions in my mind: is the newsletter creating diversity? are we finding an expression for all of the voices in our ward? is the newsletter maintaining focus on the personal in people’s lives? do the columns help us to know each other better? are we hearing the voices of the children? the teens? the graduating students? the mid-career adults? are we valuing artistic expression as much as literary work?

Actually, the questions were weighing heavily.

Who wouldn’t want a job like that?

I had to give it up.

If I get my own life under control again, that is the job I hope someone will ask me to do again. So that is my answer to how I am with church. Bring it on when I have time.

And that is the end to some of the questions asked and answered at lunch.

Arta