Dear readers, I am writing to you from my writing room in West Monroe. None of my plans for this trip have worked out this time.
Pat lost her phone, so I was unable to reach her most of Friday afternoon to let her know I arrived. I finally found Donnie’s phone number and reached her through him. We got together for a dinner at Logan’s. I tried to call Carol for two weeks to let her know I was coming. Neither of my sisters have voice mails set up. It takes almost an act of Congress to get through to them. I put a note in the U.S. (snail) mail to Carol to let her know I would be in town. I missed her last trip. She was in Houston, Texas spending a few Mother’s Day days with her daughters there, when I was here in May.
I had a meeting to attend in West Monroe on Saturday, but I had the wrong time on my schedule and the doors were locked 15 minutes before I arrived, although I thought I was there 45 minutes early.
Eventually, we three sisters actually got together, meeting for Saturday lunch at Cheddars. After lunch we went to see the movie, “Book Club.” It was in all honesty pretty risqué, especially in attitude. Four old friends 40 years later still get together for their book club. The book to be read at the meeting in the beginning of the movie was “Fifty Shades of Gray.” One of the members never married, one’s husband died years earlier and she never dated again, a third was married and struggling with the fading romantic interest. The last one had lost her husband in the last year. Her daughters, having so recently lost their father, were in a panic at the realization that mom was not indestructible either. But she was far from ready to settle into the rut they were digging for her.
All of the adventures that happened to these ladies, all of whom easily qualified for AARP membership, were triggered by the reading of the raucous reading material. What it really was about was true and deep friendships among people who have each other’s back, and who refuse to let each other sit down and stagnate in this period of life when that choice can seem the easiest. It is also about women who are afraid to trust men in their lives again.
It is not a movie for the faint of heart, not our usual movie fair, but the antics of these women made me laugh and cry through it. There were parts of it that my sisters and I could well relate to. I have never read, nor have I seen the movie, “Fifty Shades” and never will. I have not been a Jane Fonda fan since the 1960’s and never will be. By the end of the movie, all of these friends came to some realizations. One of them was that “Fifty Shades” was actually about love and not just the obvious implications. And they realized that is what is worth trusting and taking a chance on getting hurt.
Sunday morning, I attended Community Baptist Church and was wowed by the service. Always good to see and spend a wee amount of time with Brother Danny and Rae Ellen. The church has added a brief time of music with worship leaders, who led one song. Then the choir sang a medley of music, beginning with “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Danny Boy,” and going into “Jesus Paid it All.”
After Danny did a brief children’s sermon and the offering was collected, the choir director played “Amazing Grace” on the saxophone, with three key changes and one entire verse in flats. It was breathtaking. Immediately following that, a lady named Robin sung a classic contemporary Christian song, “I Know my Redeemer Lives,” made popular by Nicole Nordiman. Robin’s delivery of that song was spot-on. Well before the preaching started, I could feel the showering down of the Holy Spirit. He was there! And Brother Danny, as always, delivered an inspiring sermon. Going there is like going home.
Folks, I hope to receive some news from you. I will print it.
Just leave it on my voice mail at 601-504-3146 or email it to me at gingersnapwelch@gmail.com.
