Over the summer Josh and I gave a small dinner party for our friend Scott and his girlfriend Patty, who had just moved to Bloomington. They'd been saying for awhile that they'd love to have us over once they got a bit more settled, and then last night we finally got to go over to their place for a pumpkin carving party. Their house is gorgeous - I'm so envious of anyone who can make a space look homey. Patty's approach seems to involve a lot of textiles - they had fabric draped over their coffee table, quilts hanging on the walls, and blankets everywhere. Size also seems to help - they have a very large lamp and a huge comfy chair, which sort of fills the space. Also plants. I'll never be able to do that sort of thing myself. (Patty also decants everything into glass, like Holly Sturgis - their kitchen is full of Bell jars containing rice and lentils of various sorts and so on. I'm so envious!)
We had a very nice time carving pumpkins, chatting, and drinking hot cider. Socializing in couples always makes me feel so grown-up somehow, and Scott is one of my favorite colleagues (technically he's in HPS, like Josh, but his office is in our building and I always think of him as a philosopher) and Patty is very sweet and down-to-earth.
This morning I rode my bike three miles over hill and dale to the Bloomington Friends Meeting, which was very pleasant. I used to go to Quaker meeting regularly in Northampton, but the meetinghouse here is prohibitively far away; three miles isn't that far, I realize, but it's so hilly! I am afraid it's probably too much effort to go every week. This meeting has the children sit for the first 15 minutes, which is nice in theory, but these Quakers appear to be very much of the reproducing variety - for those 15 minutes a good 10% of the room seemed to be under 5. The traditional Quaker silent contemplation is, I find, not aided by half a dozen piping toddler voices. It's also hard for me to concentrate on anything when there are babies in my line of sight; all I can think about is babiesbabiesbabies. But then the babies were taken away and we had more the usual sort of thing, although even then these were the chattiest Quakers I've ever seen. Not five minutes went by without someone standing up and sharing. I am very pro-sharing in meeting, as a rule, but what with one thing and another I was unable to really get into a proper spiritual groove. Maybe next time.
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3 comments:
Bell jars don't seem particularly suitable for rice and lentils and such, at least not insofar as ever using them as anything but a floor-covering, which they probably have addressed in some other fashion.
I love chatty Quaker meeting! although the one on Delaware is so teensy, one rarely hears a variety of opinions.
If you're so keen on spiritual grooves, why don't you try just meditating at home? I do that in the mornings; it's very helpful.
Uncle C rather fancies himself a Quaker and, when he's described being at some meetings, it always sounded as if he did much of the "sharing". Since he is a VERY entertaining talker, that should have made those meetings quite fun.
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