November 28 – “The Galveston gossip view of history”

 

 

OK.  It's officially very cold in Galveston.  Thirty-seven degrees when I woke up this morning.  Maybe that means we are done with it for the year.  Or maybe it means it's going to be an extra cold winter.  Wow.  Under 40 degrees.  In November.  What kind of tropical island paradise is this, anyway?

 

Mom had a visit yesterday from her two best friends in the world from her high school days.  Betty, who lives here, and Mildred, a friend who now lives in Arkansas, came by and spent the afternoon chatting and dozing with us.  They have big plans for the few days Mildred will be in town.  Their usual routine is to take a drive around town and see how things have changed, and then at some point go out to eat at Mildred's favorite hot spot on the island, Benno's.  Hope they have a grand time.

 

While they were here Mildred got a call from one of her grandsons.  He is in seventh grade in Arkansas and was working on a school assignment – a paper on the history of discrimination in the United States.  We spent twenty minutes or so reminiscing about when integration was forced on the high school students of Galveston by a court order in my sophomore years of high school.  At that point Mildred had a brainstorm.  She took out a little notebook and started taking notes.  She insisted that she was going to call her grandson back and fill him in on all the "Galveston gossip" view of history.  Sure enough, later on last night she called back and asked for my email address.  And within a few minutes I got an email from the student's Mom with a list of interview questions for me to answer.  Problem was, the paper was due today, so I had to get on the stick and send his something right away.  So much for any plans to relax in front of a cheesy Christmas movie.  Actually I did watch one of those cheesy Christmas movies when I finished my assignment.  On the Lifetime Channel.  Ah.  Romance.  Christmas magic.  Incredibly boring piano music.  The same tune, over and over.  Sleepy yet?

 

Isaiah 11:6-9 says, "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.  The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.  The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.  They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

 

Father, help that kid get his paper done.  And thanks for the cold weather.  It kind of makes it feel like Christmas.  I guess.  Amen.