Yesterday was Sunday so I went to church. I didn’t just go to a concert at a church, I went to an actual church service, vespers! I just had to look up exactly what vespers meant, an evening prayer service. So why did the Jewish atheist go to St. Peter’s Church last night? It was jazz vespers featuring the amazing Anna Dagmar. Anna is one of the Chicks with Dip, a favorite musician, and good friend. I was joined by Fred.
St. Peter’s is not the Catholic basilica in Rome, it’s the hypermodern Lutheran church at the base of the Citigroup Center. I always thought it looked like one of Dr. McCoy’s scalpels on Star Trek. It’s the rare piece of modern architecture that I love. I dream of doing a folk coffee house series there.
It’s a Lutheran church in Manhattan, that pretty much makes it a hippie church. The homily, is that what it’s called? Was on how the conservative churches are wrong when they say that Jesus was preaching about the apocalypse that will come if they don’t toe the church line, especially about sex. The last time I was there it was about being welcoming to immigrants. My favorite part was when the pastor said, “The whole Megillah.” Everyone who lives in New York is part Jewish, even Lutheran pastors.
Years ago, I went to some concerts of Bach liturgical music performed in churches at the appropriate time of the year. I asked myself, “Would I have gone to church regularly if I were alive then and could hear a new Bach composition every week? The fact that I’d go to a service to hear three songs by Anna indicates that I would. Of course, Bach would probably not give me a hug.
One of Anna’s songs was about her daughter who was in the audience along with Anna’s husband John. Her daughter is preternaturally cute and reminds me of Anais Mitchell’s daughter. I don’t like giving the names of kids here, but I’ll say that they both share names with little girls that are the protagonists in a Kid’s Lit series. That’s how I remember Anna’s kid’s name. My trick for Anais’s is that it’s a song title, the actual source of the name. Anna’s parents were there too. It was a family affair. I love Anna’s whole family. I love her music. It was clearly worth going to a really cool church for.
After the service, the socializing, and the wolfing down ginger cookies, Fred and I went out to dinner. Google directed us to Schnippers a few blocks away. It’s one of those inexpensive restaurants that are a step above fast food though just as fast. I enjoyed the technology. You order at a counter and they give you a disk to bring back to your table. It signals what table you sit at and a waiter brings you your food. I had excellent chicken fingers and fries. This is now filed away in my head as a good place for a quick bite.
The commute home was simple, just the E train to the D, but there was a long wait for the E train. Fred was waiting for me then so that was fine, it was more time to talk. You might have noticed that I like to talk, at least to the right people. If I’m doing it right, you haven’t noticed that I don’t like talking to everyone. There are times I’d much rather just sit by myself and read but I don’t want anyone to feel slighted. That’s the kind of socializing that’s wearing. With Fred, we’ll always have substantial things to talk about.
I should get some things done today. Will I? I don’t know. That’s my problem. I was talking to a friend about a project she’s working on. It’s a project that’s very similar to a project I wanted to work on. I couldn’t get it done, she could. I had to tell her how much I admire her for that. I have some amazing friends.
Here’s a disclaimer I haven’t made in a while, when I discuss unnamed people, the Wise Madness style guide says to use female pronouns. I experimented by flipping a coin each time and with inventing gender-free pronouns but decided it’s easiest to just do the opposite of what I was taught in school, to use male pronouns. I’m trying to make up for all the years I did as I was taught; ironically by female teachers. Now it’s time for breakfast, bacon and eggs.
Wise Madness 