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Chilmark Town Column
Christmas week is a little like being suspended in time, in a rosy cotton-ball world of tinselly lights, red and green balls and drifts of pretty wrapping paper, all to the strains of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!" rising and falling in the background.
Visiting families have departed, or are about to, in a rush of packing and making boat or plane connections. Those who celebrated off-Island are straggling back. Back to school and work and back to the realities and priorities of life on our fragile planet. Like making New Year's resolutions - and wondering how long we'll keep them - like how to save energy other than buying new light bulbs, and not driving down-Island every day. Figuring out what we'll do better in 2008 - Christmas shop early, for one thing - and what to do about the digital box that Comcast now tells us we need in order to get several favorite channels we've been getting with no problem. (What IS a digital box? Don't we already automatically have one?)
Here's what the church group is doing:
The adult study group at the church, led by the Rev. Vicky Hanjian, will resume discussions this Sunday with a new text, Patrick Palmer's "The Company of Strangers: Christians and the Renewal of America's Public Life." The group meets every Sunday at 9:45 am and will address such topics as The Stranger as Spiritual Guide; The Congregation as Community; Political Power, and Private Contemplation. The meetings are open to all members of the community. For more information, please call the Rev. Hanjian at 508-696-8225, or Ann Deitrich at 508-645-9506.
The church soup suppers begin next Tuesday, Jan. 8, from 5 to 6 pm in the Fellowship Room. Everyone in the community is welcome. There's nothing like a bowl of hot homemade soup with homemade bread on a cold winter night. The suppers will continue throughout the winter months.
Phyllis and Bob Conway have returned from reunions and holiday celebrations with their extended family and friends in Basking Ridge, N.J., their former hometown. They celebrated with their daughter Robin Morley and her family and their son David Conway and his family. They then went on to New York City to see their granddaughter Tara Morley in her Bleecker Street apartment before taking in the sights in the city. They report that the holiday show at the Bronx Botanical Gardens of trains and more than 10 N.Y.C. bridges built to scale with sticks and plant materials was "fabulous."
The Farm to School Initiative, sponsored by the Island Grown Initiative, is holding another meeting to figure out the best way to improve lunches for the students in all Island schools next Tuesday, Jan. 8, from 7 to 8:30 pm at the Co-Housing's common house in West Tisbury. For more information, please call Randi Baird at 508-696-5335.
A friend called recently to ask why I had not been using the news she was sending for the column. The answer was simple: I never received it. She had never been informed of the "bounce-backs" and in any case had the wrong e-mail address. So if there is anyone else who has a pre-Comcast address, here is the current one: jschil01@comcast.net. Yes, I know it's up there at the head of the column, but people don't look at it if they think they already have the address; and, anyway, the type is pretty small.
It would be wonderful if everyone would make a New Year's vow to send me lots of news this year. Your comings and goings and accomplishments and travels are what keep the column going.
Happy New Year!
