Birth Day!

July 1, 2010

I had a lot of wonderful birthday greetings today, many of which came via Facebook. Thanks to all! My birthday day always starts at 7:18 a.m. the hour that I was birthed 72 years ago. Someone bought a silver bell with an ivory teething ring for me when I was an infant and the bell has a clock on it which was engraved with the hands at 7:18. Pretty neat!

My day was good – some money came in to support the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana and I took that to the bank and sent off thank you cards. I worked on notes from the meeting of our Saint Paul Interfaith Network team that is planning a November four-week dialogue series entitled “Western, Eastern and Indigenous (Native) Religious Traditions: Dispelling Misunderstandings.” We will invite representatives to speak from Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Native peoples.

The day culminated with a nice evening out with Janet and my sons, Pete and Chris at the Nicollet Island Inn in Minneapolis. It's always a great place to go because, among other things, Chris and Pete used to work there. Chris had the longest tenure there from 1990 to 2000 (as he says, off and on) as a chef-type in the kitchen. I am proud and pleased with what great conversations we all have. Tonight we covered the foibles of politics, the issue of whether a gay or lesbian person should be outed or not, theological conundrums in the church, whether Columbus brought racism to the Americas (read "Rape of Paradise" by Guyanese Jan Carew), what I will do in this impending 73rd year, whether persons can communicate with those who are gone from this life -- just to name a few.

I have always liked birthdays! I probably have my mother to thank for that. She always made a big deal of birthdays. Each year she would have a different theme: cowboys, Indians, cars, etc. She would send invitations colorfully hand-drawn to a group of boys and invited them to come dressed for the occasion. But I was also often reminded of my baptism which took place on August 21, 1938 at Salem Lutheran Church, Albert Lea, Minnesota, with my grandmother, Lillian Hayek, my godmother, Marguerite (Petey) Jansma, my godfather, Uncle Harold Tidemann and Pastor Milton Haker. Thanks to God and to all! Paul