What do you do when you find yourself in a rural town without access to the internet and without an open library or coffee shop? You call the only person who likes small rural towns more than yourself!
Adam: “Beau, I’m standing in Dixon, IL between the Disciples Church, the Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Baptist Church, and the Library.”
Beau’s response: “Wait, I know exactly where you are. What the hell are you doing in Dixon, IL?”
It was a great question – and what I’m doing is really enjoying it. Heidi was on the search committee for the Bishop of Chicago that created a slate of candidates. At the Diocesan convention in two weeks, the assembly will vote on which of the candidates is the new Bishop. To prepare for the process, the candidates travel around the diocese and meet with Episcopalians in various churches. Heidi is a “shepherd,” which means she travels with the candidates and helps them at the locations. So we drove over to Dixon, IL after our church services.
This town reminds me so much of my time in Keokuk, IA. The Library is always closed on Sundays; people you’ve never seen before ask you how your day is going – and they ask it right next to the stores that have handwritten “No Loitering” signs in their windows; storefronts list their numbers knowing that no one needs the missing area code in front of the seven digit phone number; spiders lazily let their tethers dangle across the sidewalk in hopes of latching onto the grand prize (a truck’s antennae). I have a crush on this town’s charming simplicity.
My life has been very good recently. I enjoy working in my teaching parish. My relationship with my girlfriend is amazing. I have three of my closest friends constantly giving and receiving feedback. My family’s healthy and I’m anxious to make it home for Thanksgiving. School is a steady throb of major assignments/sermons due … so it’s manageable. Life is very good.
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