Faith & Writing Festival, 2024-Thursday, April 11, 2024
Connecting with Tricia
One of the best parts of the Festival, for me anyway, was that my sister-in-law Tricia attended. We met at the Prince Conference Center on Thursday and went to several of the same sessions. It was so fun to spend time with her. We also ate dinner on Thursday night with her mom, who lives within walking distance of the campus. It was wonderful.
A Long-Lost Facebook Friend!
(She isn’t really long-lost; I just thought that sounded clever.) On Thursday morning, I left the hotel a little early and had breakfast at Starbucks. The breakfast at the hotel was…okay…but I decided to treat myself and also have some time to look over my highlights and do some re-reading of the two books I brought along—The Evangelical Imagination by Karen Swallow Prior and Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman (both of whom I was very much looking forward to seeing at the Festival. More on that later.)
As I was sitting at a table near the door, a woman walked in with her hood up, protecting her head from the rain. She looked at me for a few moments, and I looked at her, and then she said, “Mavis?” It was Shemiah Gonzales, whom I have been following for some years now. When she pulled down her hood, I recognized her, too, but how cool she recognized me when we’d never met in real life. She had walked over from her hotel and was glad I could provide a ride to the Festival. So nice to connect.
Thanks to GPS
I always say that GPS changed my life, and it’s true. I call myself “directionally dyslexic.” Not to brag (just the opposite!), many people tell me they’re bad at directions but it’s more than that for me. No matter how often I've been somewhere, there is NO instinct in my brain as to which direction to go. At intersections I’ve been at many, many times, before GPS, I had to just guess right or left, and then I would doubt myself. I’d turn one way and think, “Oh, I don’t think I should see this. That doesn’t look right. I was probably wrong when I chose this way.” Then I’d turn around, go past the intersection and begin doubting myself on the other side. Randy just shakes his head in disbelief. And don’t get me started on maps; I need words, lots of words. But not the words North, South, East, or West. Nope. Right or left.
Anyway, I could tell lots of stories about directionlessness and GPS, but suffice it to say that if I did not have GPS, I would not have come to the Festival. The heart-pounding stress of trying to find the way from hotel to Calvin, let alone other side trips, would have been too much. Praise God for GPS.
Neurodivergence and Storytelling
Daniel Bowman, Jr.
Daniel Bowman’s book: On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, and the Gifts of Neurodiversity
Daniel gave credit to a book he relied on and recommended, Writers on the Spectrum: How Autism and Asperger Syndrome Have Influenced Literary Writing, by Julie Brown.
I found it very interesting to listen to and watch Daniel Bowman, Jr, whom I had not heard of previously. He himself is diagnosed as autistic, and he told us many facts I had not previously known about people with autism. One that especially stood out for me was that there is 42% more information being processed in the brain of an autistic person than one deemed as in the normal range. I was astounded to think of all that activity happening in the minds of a person who might even be non-verbal. He said writing (or maybe just living??) was “kind of like trying to put our spherical world onto a flat surface.” He spoke of some of Lewis Carroll’s writing being like a collage. (Daniel was not diagnosing writers from the past but wondered if some of them might have been autistic or on the spectrum because of the way they wrote.) He also referenced W.B. Yeats, Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and James Joyce.
Daniel said his book contains epigraphs, quotes, open letters, numbered lists, poetry, place as comfort items, little vignettes, interviews, and journal entries, to name a few. You can read a good reflection about the book here, a reflection I found when I googled the book as I wrote this blog entry.
Move Slow and Fix Things
Rabbi Elan Babchuck
Rabbi Babchuck’s first observation was that this session was being held in the round chapel, which is the point of his book (Picking Up the Pieces: Leadership after Empire)—”we should all be in the round.”
Rabbi Babchuck said he grew up worshipping in a chapel where there was a 30-ft. cross. The two congregations, Jewish and Christian, “created a 30-ft. quilt together and together put it over the cross every Friday, then took it off together every Saturday.
He told a midrash story of Adam and Eve’s first night. Adam saw the sunset and he was afraid he caused the sun to fall. He prayed and fasted all nigh. Then in the morning the sun came up. Adam thought of two things: (1) I guess that’s how the world works. And (2) Just in case, I’ll sacrifice a bull. Rabbi Babchuck said these are two things for leaders to remember.
Rabbi Babchuck told the story of Maurice Winley. He went to prison at 17 and decided to break the cycle of black kids going to prison. He talked about how Maurice showed Babchuck the way Babchuck, Maurice’s teacher at the time, was actually propagating the practice of hierarchy when he asked the class for an org chart. As we know, an org chart is, interestingly, a pyramid where the CEO is at the top, then those who report to the CEO, then those who report to that level and so on. Maurice’s org chart was circular rather than pyramid shaped. The rabbi talked about a cycle:
>Disturbing >
>Dreaming> > Distance>
> Leadership>
A Conversation between Ruth Graham and Sarah Hurwitz
Ruth Graham - “fell into” journalism. Secular media. Welcomed faith-based stories.
Sarah Hurwitz - Obamas’ speechwriter. They also welcomed faith-based articles. She discovered her Jewish tradition as an adolescent. Felt Obamas were trying to minister to people.
People want to be good people.
How do we think around death, sickness?
What do people want to know?
“Church of me” - simplistic, childish. Put back in higher standards, transcendence. ***Note to me: Think about writing on this for email of God’s love. Maybe connect with “tiny Jesus”?
Graham - Oil from a Bible story for Slate.
Georgia - an old man had a Bible in a tub oozing oil. January-February, 2020. Turned out the guy had bought huge quantities of oil. But felt like the thing got out of control, didn’t seem like just a story of a grifter.
Hurwitz - History of anti-semitism is so important.
So hard to talk about. It’s 4000 years of anti-semitism, especially Israel.
Tracy K. Smith
Read “Hill Country” - God in nature
Read “The Weather in Space” - Grief, a manifestation of love
To Free the Captives - prose book
Changing trust in certainty.
Wanting to find a different way of grounding - meditation
Note to me: Told Trish I wished I could write about my love of imaginative contemplation the way Tracy talked about meditation. I’m always afraid I will just bore people to death. Tricia asked if I’d ever written about what I imagined. I have not, not much. Idea to write out the imaginative stories and see what happens.
Poetry created a spacious silence
Archival research into family including serving as an airman in WWII and Jim Crow.
The error of thinking I am free. Notion of “freed” rather than “free,” with the gratitude and everything else that comes from being freed rather than free.
“Political Poem” - came from a dream of reading a poem on the wall of a building. video
“The United States Welcomes You” - urge to be protective of the many black people shot and hurt. video
Ring shout - Enslaved people singing praises, proclaimin love.
“Wade in the Water” - Greeting: “I love you.”
An Old Friend and Alum
After the plenary session with Tracy K. Smith I was exhausted and ready to head back to the hotel. However, as I came up the stairs, Susan Buist, who works at the alumni office and therefore knows me from my time on the alumni board, saw me and said, “Mavis, we’re upstairs.” I had forgotten I signed up to a gathering/reception for Calvin alumni. I thought I better make an appearance and I was glad I did. Mary Jane Baylor came and we hadn’t seen each other in years! Mary Jane and I worked at Calvin’s registrar’s office after both of us had graduated. She grew up in Fremont, like Randy. We became friends and our bond grew even stronger when we were in a car accident together. Mary Jane got an awful concussion but I just had bad bruising on one arm. We had so much fun together that year. It was wonderful to catch up with her. (I know—another Mary Jane. What are the odds?)