Red State Revivals: Utah, Arizona, Idaho!
Plus 2 updates from stories I've shared in the past!
1. May Dates for the Red State Revivals!
Friends, these events have been so much fun. I’ve loved the hugs from readers, the singing with strangers, the 2 hours of being together and (bonus) NOT BEING ON THE INTERNET! Thank you to all the volunteers and host congregations. You’re amazing.
Most of the tour is sold out, and I’m so sorry about that - we have waitlists, but that’s the best we can do!
There are a few tickets left for March 24th in Dallas, Texas and a few for April 3rd in Lincoln, Ne.
May Dates - The Tour Goes West!: (click links for tickets!)
May 11th, Salt Lake City, Utah
Bring a friend. Or an enemy. All are welcome!
Updates:
2. Liam
Two weeks ago, I stepped down from the chancel of St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral to join the procession up the aisle, stopping at the entrance where some chairs were set up along the back wall for latecomers. When I turned around to face the front for the remainder of the closing hymn, I was shoulder to shoulder with a man who looked at me, looked at his wife, then switched places with her. She handed me a laminated card bearing the photo of a young man and then said, “I think you wrote about my son Liam”. It only took half a second to realize what she was talking about - this piece from Summer 2023:
City Park Sorrow
The cut edges of my own sorrow will always differ from yours when viewed at close range. But stepping back, way back, the shapes of loss start to favor because they share a common ancestor. From afar it takes the same shape: something or someone was and is no longer: a child, a marriage, a part of the body. We need to say “They were here and they were loved. They were here and they were a pain in the ass and they were hilarious and they were impossible and they were loved”.
I embraced her, and for a very long time, this stranger to me. The only words I could think to say was, “I’m so sorry”.
That was all the transpired between us. I know nothing of the details of her son’s death or how the shape of their lives have shifted since. But by the grace of God, a grieving stranger embraced me, and I her.
What I do know is that her son Liam was an organ donor; that from the disfiguring reality of his death: life.
I pray that it was, even in the smallest way, a comfort to his mother.
Sign up to be an organ donor here.
2. George
A week and a half ago my friend Clarence and I were in my kitchen setting up a taco bar for the 20 people who would be arriving that afternoon for a joy-filled gathering. It had been snowing all morning, but the weather didn’t stop a single soul from coming to celebrate George’s homecoming from prison!
If you didn’t catch his story, you can read it here:
Something GOOD Happened Yesterday!
That long in solitary would have broken other men. But somehow George emerged changed, not broken. Something cracked open for him when his mom died and he realized he had done nothing to be a comfort to her, only a burden. So he renounced his membership in the gang (not a safe or easy thing to pull off in prison) and applied himself to every opportunity for education, enrichment and service offered inside - without the possibility of any of it contributing to a sentence reduction or looking good to a parole board. George was never getting out no matter what.
That this sweet man is out of prison is its own sort of death and resurrection, since his sentence was effectively for life. Yet here he is. And he’s doing great.
At the end of his homecoming party, we prayed a blessing over him:
QUESTION:
What has been keeping you busy? For me: putting this tour together!
Lovely! We need these stories to warm our hearts, especially now. I keep busy knitting hats that say "resist" and sending them to friends. Their delighted responses to receiving an unexpected gift bring me joy.
I was laying here, post operation, feeling sorry for myself, not able to sleep, when I received your latest newsletter. As usual, you're writings make me cry and also realize that I make myself into my own little world. I didn't get it about those decorations along highways, now I do. I'm going to buy a bench and decorate it with a lost friend's name at her favorite Park that we used to walk around with her. Thank you again for all you do for all of us.