A “Locally Made” Souvenir

A souvenir, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is “a thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, place or event”. When I have the privilege of travel, the “thihg” I most often keep is a photograph. It serves as a kind of prompt, something that jogs my memory of a person, place or event. And sometimes, this process sort of works in reverse. I’ll see a new place or have a new experience, and it’ll remind me of someone or something that isn’t there at that moment, often something back home. I’ll make a connection, and that experience can feel like a souvenir.

Because the people and shared experiences of The Table are never far from my mind, it’s not unusual for me to encounter something that brings our community to mind. This trip was no exception. When we gather this Sunday (10:45 a.m., at the Plett house), I want to share an experience I had with some unusual architecture that exists in the midst of a story of great suffering, and that reminded me of how our beliefs can get so deeply and unconsciously embedded that they even affect the way we handle the material part of our lives (the “things”), and that can make us a bit clumsy or less competent when we try to consider believing or functioning differently.