Reunions

Reunions of the family sort and the school kind are as close to heaven as it gets, I think. Being of Finnish decent on all sides, my parents were a little dismayed when I married a Norwegian. But coming from such a scarcely populated area in the High Plains of northwestern South Dakota, the only Finnish boys I knew were cousins. I had to seek a mate farther south, in the Black Hills. His school was our competition in sports and I met him at a basketball tournament dance. He was a good dancer and a soft mouthed kisser. I was impressed and still am, but I digress.

Things are always better than I expect them to be. Before we left for the Black Hills, we spent a little time at the Omaha Downtown Art Fair. I enjoyed a little visit with a blacksmith from Grand Island, NE. He probably thought I was lying when I told him my dad spent some time teaching me to weld. I never got to the smithing part using the old bellows forge and the anvil but I was interested. Smithing is an art being revived today. I have found classes for women that sound interesting. Maybe I should start lifting weights. This is not exactly a craft for wimpy women. When my dad was teaching me, I suppose I was at 5'2" and about 110.

I digress more...there on the street at the art fair was my favorite music group, BRULE', from Worthington, Minnesota and the Lower Brule Indian Reservation of South Dakota. This family group, Paul LaRoche, his son and daughter, and a Cherokee drummer are incredible. He was chosen as musical ambassador and speaker for the 2000 UN Peace Conference held in the Hague Center for Peace, has won awards including 2003 "Best Instrumental Recording" at the Native American Music Academy for "Night Tree," with his daughter Nicole on flute with BRULE'. If you like soft spoken people, music that stirs your soul and transports you to the stars, go to a concert and buy a CD from either his wife or his sister. The experience is one of those thin places, that Marcus Borg talks about. Thin enough to allow the Spirit of God to move you. It is a bit startling to hear a soft spoken Lakota with a Norwegian Minnesota accent, startling but good. It is another thin place.

I have digressed so much I can't recover. Reunions will come another day. Google distracts me and my neighbor came to visit. I like her so much even if she goads me over politics. John-John, my eye. Then there is Jazz on the Green at Joslyn Art Museum and I 'can' go if I can make potato salad before then. I just hate "if so then there" bargains. A quick bottle of wine would suffice for me.