Before We Go

“Oh, before we go…” This odd little phrase is often inserted into conversations as people are leaving an office, getting up from the dinner table, or going out the kitchen door to work. It’s a last- minute thought. An urgent reminder. Something we meant to say earlier, but we couldn’t get into the conversation.

David and I are in what some euphemistically term “the sunset years”—the last years of living. We are keenly, but not morbidly, aware that the days we have left to live are closing in on us. One morning, one of us will wake, the other will have—to use a term used by early Christians—departed. Some as-yet-undiagnosed cancer may be circulating in some cells in our bodies, waiting for the perfect place to land, hibernate and then grow.

In some ways, this knowledge makes these last days or weeks or months exciting, filled with a kind of urgency. What should we be spending these final moments granted to us doing? What should we not be doing?

David and I have found that after years of developing skills as communication specialists—platform speaking, radio broadcasting, television telecasting, film and video development—we still have a great deal to say. Consequently, we are launching a podcast named Before We Go. “Uh, before we go, we want to pass along the secrets we have learned as far as surviving the hard times, growing due to suffering, recovering from betrayal, finding the joy in every moment, learning from criticism, falling more and more in love with Christ, functioning as a married team, savoring the remaining hours of life given to us—well, you get the idea.

We will soon form a subscribers list. But for right now, you can download the schedules and the actual podcasts at this link: https://www.deankwilson.com/Before_We_Go.html

One of the conversations David and I have been having—daily, actually—is how to avoid the diatribe, the ill-will and the negative discourse that is surging through our American culture. We’ve developed a whole system of praying for our President and for those in power that totally avoids partisanship. This prayer approach avoids any choosing of sides, and it keeps our priorities in communities where there are political differences from alienating us from one another. Our major concern is to advance the cause of Christ, to be peacemakers and conciliators, to listen attentively to those who hold different opinions from ourselves, and thereby to learn to respect those ideas even if we do not necessarily agree with those ideas.

Years ago, we decided it was wrong for us to declare partisan alliances. We were and are predominately Kingdom of God people. We work and labor for Christ and His Kingdom. Our loyalties are not given to any earthly partisanship. Our fealty is not shared with any other earthly leader. But we are called by Scripture to pray for those in authority over us.

As for Christian brothers and sisters who find themselves in conversations that create polarization, we would like to remind them, as we remind ourselves, that division is always an Enemy tactic. Unity, wholeness and oneness are from God. And on that I rest my case.

A Vision for the World

And then all that has divided us will merge.
And then compassion will be wedded to power.
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind.
And then both men and women will be gentle.
And then both women and men will be strong.
And then no one person will be subject to another’s will.
And then all will be rich and free and varied.
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many.
And then all will share equally in the earth’s abundance.
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old.
And then all will nourish the young.
And then all will cherish life’s creatures.
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the earth.
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again.
                                                                — Judy Chicago

Karen Mains

NOTICES

Advent Retreat of Silence

We are sponsoring our Advent Retreat of Silence again this year at Turtle Creek Acres in McHenry, Illinois. This is Doug and Melissa Timberlake’s beautiful restored dairy-barn home, a place filled with lofts and nooks and crannies that provide comfort, privacy, and peace and quiet. The times and dates will be:
Saturday, November 30, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday, December 5, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
​Saturday, December 7, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Click this link to register: https://www.lifelaunchme.com/advent-retreat-of-silence

Volunteer Help

Due to the limited amount of days allotted to me (however many there may be), I am looking for volunteer help in some of the legacy projects I would like to finish before we go. Several have offered to help me pull together a national hospitality platform of some kind, but I need someone in the near Chicago area to sit on top of this as an administrative assistant. This would require several hours per week. I keep getting to the launching stage—and then I keep getting interrupted and my momentum stops. So frustrating. Let me know by responding by email to karen@hungrysouls.org.

Reminder!

The Soulish Food e-mails are being posted biweekly on the Hungry Souls Web site. Newcomers can look that over and decide if they want to register on the Web site to receive the biweekly newsletter. You might want to recommend this to friends also. They can go to www.HungrySouls.org.

Hungry Souls Contact Information

ADDRESS: 29W377 Hawthorne Lane
West Chicago, IL 60185
PHONE: 630-293-4500
EMAIL: karen@hungrysouls.org

Karen Mains

BOOK CORNER

Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it took so long, but I finally read Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Most of the time, back-cover copy emphasizes the importance of any literary classic as well as I possibly could. So to quote my Harper Perennial soft-cover edition: “Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. A truly literary wonder…”

What is good about coming late to a literary masterwork is that the analysis of its place in the canon of American novels has been concretely determined, and my paperback edition includes an excellent “Afterword” on Zora Neale Hurston, the writer and the woman, written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. that increased my appetite to know more about this gifted talent, who was recognized during her lifetime as a genius, but who also died alone and in poverty.

I spent much of the summer of 2018 fighting an eating dysphasia in which I unintentionally lost 43 pounds but used my limited physical strength to begin making my way through about twenty volumes dealing with the racial dialogue that is going on in our culture. Needless to say, despite not being able to keep much food down, with several months of reading under my belt, I learned a lot!