This time the trip made all the sense in the world. We set out heading southwest-ish to Bridgewater, VA, an American small town if there ever was one, just outside Harrisonburg (think JMU) off of I-81 S. From there it's a 20-30 minute ride to I-64 which we then took 700 miles or so "straight" to the Clayton Road exit right by the seminary. If I could however, and I can because this is my narcissistic blog, I would like to back up to the stop over in Bridgewater.
Usually this blog serves the purpose of my data dumping from all the things I am experiencing/learning in the context of Lutheran theology. I mentioned upstream that blogs are narcissistic. I firmly believe that. This is mostly a data dump, which in a way is very therapeutic for me, but if I wanted these thoughts private I would have kept a journal, not an easily accessible blog. Regardless of how few readers I have, a blog is what it is. I want people to interact with my thoughts, struggle with them, confirm them, or flat out tell me I'm wrong. I've more or less had all that happen, and I learn a lot from it.
Anyway, back to Bridgewater, VA. I come from an extremely large family on my mothers side. My mom is 1 of 10, I am 1 of 20 something cousins, and now second cousins coming down the road too. So my cousin Shaun and I took advantage of our large family and made a stop over in VA to spend the weekend with one particular part of the clan. This was a really great time. It was less than 48 hours, we arrived around dinner time Friday and left Sunday morning, but it was terrific. With a family so large such as ours usually when we all get together we're being tossed around from place to place on a schedule, which usually revolves around meals, and although we enjoy those occasions greatly, we rarely get a chance to just chill. This past year alone in March we had a Batmitsvah weekend (yes I am related to Jewish folk and I love them dearly), in April a wedding, and in July a wedding. Although the July wedding was more relaxed than the previous two excursions, it still revolved around a schedule and the whole giant heave mass of family was there. So the great and terrific thing about this trip to VA was getting to hang out and do meaningless things. Friday night we had pizza with our Aunt Laurie, Uncle Rick, and our cousins Amy, her husband Dan, and their two awesome little boys Brooks and Brennan, and Kelly and Lindsey. Later, me, Shaun, and Lindsey and Kelly went out to a couple bars in Harrisonburg. Saturday morning we watched College football, went to the highest point in VA, went to a Mennonite market, had dinner at a local Mexican place, then went to a parade to celebrate the towns 175th anniversary. After the parade we saw a local band called "The Hackens Boys" play country music at a fair. We were in Small Town, USA, essentially did nothing, but did much and I loved every minute of it.
Nothing theological about it really, except that in a 1st Article sense God created us to be in communion with one another and family certainly serves that purpose ;), just a wonderful time prior to school re-starting. As I stated upstream Shaun and I left Sunday morning and hit I-64 through the gorgeous mountains of VA, West VA, Kentucky, and then the boring plains of Indiana and Illinois until we found an interstate town called Mount Vernon and posted up for the night. On Labor Day morning we completed the trip to St. Louis. God brought us safely. No doubt for that I am grateful. Shaun flew back east Wednesday morning and that's that story.
Is there a great "moral" or message here? Not really. Just that if you get the chance to do something like that, take full advantage.
Now how was settling back into Concordia Seminary? Separate post. Different vibes.
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