Diverse activities

Yesterday I went to a park in Rapid City at 7:30 in the morning to help set up for the annual Front Porch Coalition Black Hills Area Suicide Awareness Walk and Fun Run. The weather was glorious and the crow was large. I’ve participated in the walk every year since it was first organized. I have a lot of friends whose faces I see at the walk. There are always a few tears and a bit or remembering of grief, but the event is about hope. Life goes on in the face of devastating grief and sometimes just taking a walk with others is a way to embrace life. I didn’t walk this year as I had another event in the morning. Our brass group played at the local Seventh Day Adventist church’s worship service. From there it was a quick trip to the local John Deere dealer to pick up a part that I had ordered for our 25 year-old lawn mower.

One of the things that I like about my life is that there are many events that are quite different from each other. My life is not a stream of “same old, same old.” Rather things that seem, at least from the outside, to be very different are put together in ever changing patterns.

The thing about yesterday morning’s three events is that each carries with it a bit of nostalgia for me. As I was putting out t-shirts for the walk, I reflected on how many t-shirts I have from years of walking. Each year there is a new t-shirt. I have pink, green, red, yellow, blue, black, and other colors. My t-shirt draw is brimming. I have way too many t-shirts for one person. But each carries a memory and the stack of t-shirts from the suicide awareness walks is impressive. It is something I do every year.

I got my first trumpet when I was 10 years old. I played in bands through high school and college. I was a member of a brass quintet that played at our seminary graduation. I always took my trumpet with me each summer during my educational career. When we lived in North Dakota, I played in our community band. In Idaho I was in a brass quintet that often was a sextet and sometimes a larger group of brass musicians. When we first came to South Dakota, I didn’t have a brass group, so it is good to be back at something that has been a part of my life for a long time.

And my father operated a John Deere dealership when I was a youth. My first summer jobs were at that store. I swept floors, cleaned machinery, did setup and assembly and delivered a lot of lawn mowers to their new owners. I used to hang out in the parts department and help sort out parts as they arrived in the freight. I’m at home in a farm machinery store. The sights and smells are familiar. I know how the system works, I know how to get what I need.

Maybe feeling nostalgic is just a function of my age. I do lots of things that seem familiar and comfortable.

I have been thinking, however, how very diverse elements in my life fit into a pattern. On Friday I served communion in an assisted living center and made a call to a resident in a care center. I’m at home in those institutional settings with door codes and watchful staff. I know how to go into a place that is not set up like a church and lead a worship service. I’ve visited enough people who have various forms of dementia to know how to have a conversation that isn’t always rooted in the familiar.

On Friday I also took coffee and refreshments to the staff of a juvenile corrections facility. I spent time with a person who wandered into the church off of the street who was having a serious episode of mental illness and needed help. I spent several hours in front of the computer getting church communications out and preparing for today’s worship service.

These things might seem very diverse and different, but to me they are all part of a single life. I’m not a different person when I’m playing my trumpet than the person who squats in front of a wheelchair and draws close to speak with a person who has trouble hearing. The guy who wanders into the tractor parts department isn’t a different person from the one who gives safety instructions to those walking in memory of loved ones who have died. Our church’s computer network administrator isn’t a different personality from the guy who cares for law enforcement staff. It is all me.

From time to time I will have a conversation with someone who doesn’t see all of the parts of my job and my personality. That person my experience me only as the leader of worship services or only as the one who answers the phone at the church or only as the chaplain at Western South Dakota Juvenile Services Center. Those people might even comment on how easy my job seems from their point of view. Sometimes someone will speak to me about their opinion that I should spend more time at one part of my job and less time at another. My priorities are not the same as every member of the congregation that I serve. Once in a while, when I’m a bit frustrated at a particular conversation, I’ll think to myself, “If only that person knew what I really do with my time,” or “He (She) should just follow me around for one day.”

The bottom line, however, is that I have a good life. My personality is well suited to frequent changes in role. I like to move in and out of many different and diverse worlds. I enjoy being able to blend the work I do as an employee with volunteer work and home life in a complex web of activity.

And when the day is over, I’m usually tired enough to sleep well so I can get up and start another exciting day.

Copyright (c) 2019 by Ted E. Huffman. I wrote this. If you would like to share it, please direct your friends to my web site. If you'd like permission to copy, please send me an email. Thanks!