Find Your People - Episode 125

Mandy, hello Katie, and Maggie, and Mercy. Listen, it's just them and them and them today. Uh-huh. Meanwhile honey just sits there looking at me like I told you not to bring her here. Trying to warn you. Yep. So tell me about the things. How are you? I'm fine. Oh excuse me. I'm tired. I don't know why I'm tired. I am tired. Yeah. Maybe just because I'm always tired. Listen. Same. It's just who we are. Who we are. Here in the, you know, middle ages of our lives. In our country where, you know, we get to spend days just pondering existence. Yes. It makes it hard for me to figure out what to say on Sundays. Like do we? Listen. Because by the time I wake up Sunday morning something else tragic has happened. Yes. Yeah. Listen. Listen. But I will say I spent last Thursday and Friday. So I think I told you I was going to Montgomery and we have talked about the big boo cast quite often on our podcast. That is Sophie and Melanie. Sophie lives in Birmingham and she had talked about a visit she had taken to a bunch of sites and how moved she was by it. And so, you know, that's been on my list of things to do. But when Sophie threw out on her Instagram stories one night she was like, hey listen, would anybody be interested in doing like a group field trip to the EJI sites? If you are, please sign this Google document. And so we'll see what happens. So we got the behind the scenes of it all. She was really inspired to do it because of everything happening in Minnesota. And she said, I can't go to Minnesota. But I can see if some people want to come to Alabama. And so she had met just online through, you know, being online friends for years and years, a woman named Laura C. And Laura is a former undergrad professor, I think at Baylor. I know she went to Baylor. I can't remember if she was also a professor at Baylor. But Laura is just wicked smart. And so Sophie reached out to Laura. Laura is a historian, a political science professor, you know, sort of all the things. And Laura actually majored in African studies and undergrad. And so Sophie reached out to Laura and said, hey, if we do this, would you like help me facilitate? And Laura said, sure. And Laura said, it wasn't very long after that conversation that Sophie put it out on Instagram. And initially 200 people signed up. So Sophie's like, oh, God, no, what do I do? But then we had to change the date to be there like Easter weekend. So it was like Thursday and then Good Friday. We actually toured all the sites on Good Friday. And so when that happened, lots of people had to drop out because they just couldn't do, you know, Easter weekend. So it ended up being like 25 people, 24 women and Bob. Bob is a lawyer who worked for a bank who has just retired. And when he retired, he will and he's also sort of a journalist. And he had actually interviewed Sophie and Melanie years ago. And his daughter-in-law saw Sophie's post on Instagram about it and signed him up for it. Because she said, you're retired, but you still need to do meaningful things. You need to get Listen, he was the best sport. So it was women from all over the South, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Nashville. Most everybody had come by themselves, which I was a little nervous about going and doing all this by myself. But it was sort of all of us. We're all like, nope, we're gonna do it. Two, it was funny, two women, there was a woman from Knoxville and a woman from Atlanta. And the woman from Atlanta used to live in Knoxville. And she and the other woman from Knoxville used to be in a book club together. They didn't know they were both going until they both got there. And then there was a pair of sisters. And then there was, in addition to Sophie, Jamie Golden was there. Really? And Aaron Moon, who is also on Jamie's podcast, the Popcast. And then another one of their friends who's an educator. So she's not famous, but so like the four of them, Sophie and those three knew each other. But other than that, everybody was strangers. And yes, it was difficult because I went in, I had to drop Mercy off the board that morning. And so my plan had been to drop her on the way out of town because it is hurt the new boarding places on the way out of town. But they had to go drop her off in the morning and then come back and finish work and get packed and all that. So of course, I left out of here on two wheels and rolled in there about 30 minutes before we were supposed to be at dinner. And I was thinking dinner was on site. So I wasn't not worried about it. And then I realized, oh no, dinner is at a restaurant. So anyway, as I was checking in, I was checking in behind Aaron, who I was not as familiar with as Jamie and Sophie. But I thought, I think that's Aaron Moon. Don't say anything. Be cool. Be cool. Be cool. And then I looked across the lobby and there's Sophie. It's like I'm seeing famous people. My friend Leslie used to give me about, I would get really excited to see soap opera stars. And Leslie would be like, they're not really famous. But I'm like, yes, they are. They are famous. That is Marlena. What do you mean Marlena is not famous? Did you have a jaunty edge mama? Well, I didn't. I stayed. I didn't yell across the lobby. But that is that feeling of like, oh my god. Oh my god. So anyway, so then we went to dinner at a great place in Montgomery called Perennial. Everything in the restaurant other than the wine is from Alabama. And so they do locally sourced spirits, all the food is all from Alabama. So it was really cool. So that was super fun. And, you know, it's that awkward thing where you walk in and you don't know anybody and everybody. But so I ended up just kind of saw some people getting seats at a table. And so I was like, okay, I'll sit at this table. And ended up being Sophie's table. So then I'm sitting next to Sophie for dinner. And I'm like, oh, yeah. And I was like, Sophie, is it really weird for you that everybody in this room has a very parasocial relationship with you? And she was like, I'm used to it. It's fine. But I was like, okay, good. But so then and then the best part was she pulled out her readers. And then I pulled out my readers and I looked at her and I said, well, I guess these were a five favorite because they were the exact same gigantic green glasses. But also was Anna, who's from Atlanta and her daughter May, which how cute is that name? May. Love that name. And May is in the eighth grade and was like on the beginning end of her spring break. And so tagged along with her mom. And so that was delightful. We loved having May. And Anna is her husband is a Southern Baptist preacher. Okay, so yeah, there was a lot of so we started that like we ate dinner and then Laura had sent us we were supposed to read Just Mercy. Yep. Before we can. I have some sylvodine on my finger in case you're wondering. I've earned it. But so we read Just Mercy. And then Laura had sent us a couple of questions. And the one we talked about was what tell us a time when you've changed your mind about something. And so we have I guess we probably had three tables. And so we went through table by table and introduce ourselves. So we were from and talked about a time that we had changed our mind. And so you know, that gives you sort of a good idea of people. And it became very clear early on that many of those women were there because of the church culture they grew up in. And that was something that a lot of them had changed their minds about in various and assorted ways. So lots of them were dealing with that lots of them were dealing with like parental, you know, realizing that the good guys that we have been told were the good guys all our lives by our authority figures may not necessarily be the good guys. I remember Erin saying, you know, talking about how she is so patriotic, she has always been so patriotic, and how hard it is to remain patriotic for the last 10 years. And I thought, Yep, that sounds like me and Katie, for sure. Definitely. You know, so it was to be in that room with these people from all over. Who are all really struggling with a lot of the same things that we all struggle with all the time. First, you know, that just set the tone of like, okay, we're all here for the right reasons. And which I knew, I knew that was gonna be the chair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And volunteer to go to the EJI sites. Like, you knew that was gonna be the case. So then we got up. Next, they have built a hotel. So Bryan Stevenson, you know, he wrote Just Mercy. At that point, his focus was on death row, getting innocent people off death row, getting children out of prison were sort of his priorities. And so he started the Equal Justice Initiative to sort of do that. It has since broadened into a more educational branch of you have to understand how we got here to want to adequately fix it. Yeah, right. And so initially, he did a museum, they said the first museum was like in a small little house. And then I think the first memorial site they did was the lynching memorial. And a lot of people have seen that a lot of people are familiar with that because you can take pictures there. That's the one where they have memorialized every lynching they can document it by county. And so, you know, Colquitt County has like four or five documented lynching. Right. So you walk in to this space and they have these big rectangular things hanging from those stones hanging from the ceiling and engraved on each stone is the county and the names and the dates of the people who were lynched. So that was sort of what he first did. He has since moved the museum to an old cotton warehouse. Oh, wow. Okay. And it is large. It is so well curated. It is akin to the Holocaust Museum if you've been to the Holocaust Museum. I can't do it. Or the 9-Eleven Museum. Okay. It has done that. I mean, it is that well curated. Okay. And it is that heavy. And it's, we're talking Montgomery, right? Like y'all didn't do the Birmingham section. Is that correct? We didn't do what? The Birmingham. You were just in Montgomery. Yeah. That's totally separate. All of it. All of this stuff is in Montgomery. Montgomery. Okay. So, you know, and it draws a straight line from slavery to Jim Crow to civil rights to the current mass incarceration problems that we have in our country. And it's so heavy. And it's so weird to be in there as a white woman reading about all this horror while standing next to a black family. And a lot of the lynching stuff is just beyond. It's all, I mean, slavery, come on. But it's sort of like, we all at least learned about slavery. Like we all at least learned about how horrific slavery was. I myself did not learn so much about the lynching and the horrors at practice. And so they've got this giant wall with little paragraphs, little blurbs about, you know, different lynchings. And so you're just seeing they're kind of reading, taking it all in and then boom, there's one from Colquitt County. And as he was hanged, he was singing nearer my God to thee. God Almighty. And it's just like, you know, that's what it, when it's like, oh, and then the next two were from Coweta County. And it's like, okay, yeah, this is, this is me and mine. Like this, you can't, you can't back away from it. One of the projects they have started doing related to the lynching is they have sent descendants of the lynching victims to the sites where they believe the lynchings occurred. And those descendants have gathered dirt from the site. And so they have a wall that is full of glass jars of dirt from the sites where these lynchings occurred with the name and the date and the place. And then they also filmed some of these descendants going through that process. And you want to talk about, whoo, there we all are, sniveling, crying, and again, sitting next to these black people. And it's just like, all you want to do is say, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. One of the best things that I got to do at Candler, there's a really vibrant black church studies group at Candler. And one of the joys and, you know, the best classes I took were always with either race and religion was one of my favorite classes. But where I got to just sit and listen and learn. And it was very, very hard some days to sit and listen to the atrocities that my people, people that look just like me, people I'm descended from, people in my gene pool did to other human beings. And so I'm really jealous that you got to do this. So then after we finished the museum, we went and grabbed some lunch and then went, there is another site. You take a little boat ride down the Alabama River. Who knew? We all knew. We all knew, actually, because if you'll remember, I think it was last year, the whole event with the folding chairs and the riverboat cruise in Montgomery. This is, we rode right by that site. But they have built a sculpture garden on the banks of the Alabama River. And so you get a taste of this is how, you know, there was the, was it intercontinental slave trade that, you know, is how they came from the Caribbean and from Africa to the States. And obviously most of those landed, you know, on coastal towns. Well, then there were various and assorted ways to get them from those coastal towns, like to Montgomery. And one of those ways was only, here's a thing I had never thought about before. All these riverboats, you know, you go to Disney World and you go to steamboat sprays on a riverboat. Y'all, those things were packed full of slaves from New Orleans to Montgomery, from Mobile to Montgomery. Before they built the railroad, that's what they were doing with those riverboats. Like, what are we, what are we celebrating here? But so they have now built this sculpture garden. You can't take a lot of photography there, but it's beautiful. It's full of art. And then they also have a couple of slave cabins. They have like a typical railway car that they would have been on. And then towards the end of that, they went in the first census where black people could choose their own names. They went and pulled every name that was chosen in that census. And it's almost like sort of like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with just the names on the walls. It's sort of like that. But then they say a lot of the slaves kept their masters, like chose their masters last name as their last name in hopes of being able to reunite with their families. And so guess what? You can probably find your last name on that wall. Yes, because my dad's family is from Montgomery. So yes, my dad's great, great grand somebody was a sheriff. Yeah. Well, this is from all over. Oh, from all over. It's not just the local. Wow. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, we have, I mean, it's not something that I cherish or that I have in my possession or that I would ever frame and put on a wall. But we have copies of the wills of my ancestors, poor, dirt poor ancestors from Twiggs County, and where they bequeathed people to people. And, you know, if you think that your family was too poor to have slaves, you're wrong. You are dead wrong. Everybody did. And, you know, you don't get out of it. And yeah. So then we left there and went, took the boat back and went to the lynching memorial, which is the one that most people are familiar with. And then they also have on site a hotel. So the sculpture gardens a little bit right away, but everything else is sort of right there on this campus. And it's just so admirable what Brian Stevenson has done to, you know, buy up all this land in Montgomery and revitalize the community. The date is right there. It's gorgeous. Apparently, it can get more expensive because another reason why they move the date was that one of the dates they were looking at the rooms were like $600 a night. Girl, I can't how sweet for like 220. Yeah. So like, it's not expensive. You could tell these folks have been trained up that everybody that works there is just going out of their way to be like super hospitable. There's a restaurant on in the hotel. There's also like a little cafe and coffee shop in the hotel. But so we had a couple hours and then we had dinner and again, discussions at dinner sort of about what we had learned that day and what we wanted to do sort of moving forward. So it was just great. And I can't like there's also a fourth site that I didn't get to because I was so hot and tired. It's brand new. It's just opened. It is memorializing the Montgomery bus boycott because it actually started the the second march from Selma to Montgomery, the one that was successful, not the one that ended on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. But the second one actually came into Montgomery right there. And so that's they have done a new memorial for that. And yet those people, it reminds me so much. The thing that kind of reverberated in my head throughout the weekend was history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. Girl, I'm going to use that. That's going to be quoted in a sermon. You wait. That Montgomery bus boycott reminded me so much of the Minneapolis thing because it was I mean, they want to work for a year. Y'all as Jamie dinner, Jamie was like, we can't stop buying from Amazon for a week. And these people want to work for a year in Montgomery in August. And they hate, you know, like, come on. But anyway, I just I cannot recommend a visit to the EJI sites enough. It's just it is it's incredible. Definitely something I want to do. And to kind of piggyback on that, I think it's important that I do it because over this Easter week, we went and did a community Easter egg hunt with our brothers and sisters down the street at St. Mark's Missionary Baptist Church. We were the only white congregation that participated. And they were thrilled that we were there. They want to be in partnership with us. They want to break those racial divide lines in this community. I got a phone call afterward from the lady that was kind of in charge of the event. And she just said we have got to do better. We've got to be the ones that show the rest of this county what it could look like and what it should be. And I think that starts with me continuing to do the work that I need to do. And I think part of that would definitely be going over there to those sites and learning because, you know, listening is and learning and absorbing what it means to be in that community is one of the ways that we can start to build those bridges. And so I'm so thankful that you did this and are bringing it to our attention. It is necessary work. It is hard work. And it's really, you know, as heavy as it all is. Yeah. It's also hopeful. Yes. Yep. You know, Bryan Stevenson insists on hope. He's, you know, hope is a superpower. It's the only way that you can stand to live through it all and keep going. Yeah. And, you know, it's inspiring to see, you know, Bryan Stevenson have this idea and then execute it. And even like I kept telling Sophie, I'm like, Look, you're a mini Bryan Stevenson. You had this idea and you executed it too on, you know, this much smaller scale. But like, this is kind of what we have to do. And we can't part of what we all came away with understanding is we all have to have those conversations in our lives with people. Because that's, you know, yelling and screaming on Facebook or like, that didn't work. That didn't work. And being angry at people for thinking differently, that didn't work either. Like, we have to have conversations because we really are more alike than we're not. But we just have to remember that. So it's, you know, I can't recommend it enough. I was some my old choir director, you know, moved to Mobile. And I saw on their Facebook, they did a like book club at church where they read Just Mercy. And I think we did that here several years ago. I think we did that at my church several years ago. So you could do that and then do a church trip. Yep. Montgomery. Yep. That and then the book. I don't want to give away your books with the book that you have is so good and so important as well. Like there are several I still have looking at me on the shelf because I don't really want to read it. The barn. You have one of it. So one of the women I met grew up with Wright Thompson. Okay. He's my boyfriend. I know, right? I know he's married. He has children. He's my boy. She was cracking up. I love it. Well, thank you for bringing that to us. I think it's so important. It really like I can't say it enough this work. One of my dear, dear friends at Candler. We had a lot of deep conversations about it. She is black and beautiful and wonderful. And she taught me a lot. And one of the things she taught me is that people still cross the street when they see her coming. A beautiful black 50 year old. Unassuming like she's not scary looking like there's no excuse. And people still cross the street when they see her coming. Yeah. And that's you know, she said not everybody's like you. Okay. Not everybody runs up to me and hugs me. People across the street. I know. And if that little like it's not little, that's a horrible thing to do to someone just because you see them and see the color of their skin. But you're right. That's that is indicative of where we are. And it's not a good place. And so, you know, whatever we can do to change that. And the ladies at the church even said, you know, we used to have a lot of Hispanic people that will participate in this Easter egg hunt. And they are afraid to be on a major road out in public hunting Easter eggs. We need to create a space where they feel safe and they know that they have a safe place with us. And I was like, I'm all in. I'm all in. So I can't wait to see the beautiful things that happen all because one of my members said, we need to do this. And I said, we're doing it. So we did. And yeah, it's those little things. Yeah, it is. So thank you so much for bringing that to us today. I appreciate that. And then I left Montgomery and drove an hour north because of course I did to go have lunch with the nephew. Love it. Which let's just talk for a minute. Okay. My 20 year old nephew was like, you mind if we go to Walmart while we're out? I need some groceries. Let's go buddy. Let's go buddy. The child is meal prepping. So when we went to Walmart, we bought three pounds of ground beef, three pounds of boneless, skinless chicken, some bell peppers, some Greek yogurt, some frozen berries, some lime juice, and some bananas. Because he already had plenty of potatoes at home. And he told me that his buddy Tom is eating like 21 cups of rice a week. He also meal plans. And Tom cooks at their house. So Katie, when we got to their house, he said, oh yeah, Tom's here. Walk in, Tom's bent over pulling chicken out of the oven. When he stands up, he looks like he is the epitome of that meme of the llama looking up out of their hair that says this is what all teenage boys' hair looks like. Tom is that? The child had, I don't know, seven or eight takeout containers already laid out with rice in the bottom that he had cooked. And then he was cutting up the chicken. What are we doing? I said, have y'all ever had a hamburger helper? What is happening? Ramen noodles? What the hell? Cup of soup? I love it. Anyway, I did that. Then I came home and picked up Miss Mercy, who had gone to a new boarding facility for Thursday and Friday night. And it went well. Good. She got along well with her dogs. When I got there, she had said, quit licking. Quit licking. She had stayed there when I got stuck in Montgomery because my dog said her, Alexis, works at the doggy daycare on her off days. And so she had been there and they had met her. And so Alexis had told them, no, she can't have her own sweet. She's got to be in the kennel because she's destructive. So I brought her bed and they're like, that ain't she got to be in a kennel. I was like, oh, okay, no worries. She's used to that. She was asleep in the kennel every night. But what she did great, she did fine. She did open every door because they have the handles, you know, that just flopped down. Who dainty she is. She was in a room. She was in the playroom and apparently they had not told the woman that was working that day that Mercy can open all the doors. And so she left Mercy in the playroom to go outside and do something else, at which point Mercy let herself out of the playroom. And, you know, it's a house they've refurbished. And so she let herself out of the playroom and she wandered around and then they have a door that leads to like a closed reception area. She let herself into the closed reception area. And then y'all, she let herself out the front door of the clinic, of the boarding facility. Of course she did. Who dainty she is. Apparently somebody's car door was open. And it just taken off down the road. In my head it flashed like one of those scenes of somebody had a bear in their car that destroyed it or something. Yeah, that's Mercy just gone. And thank God all the other dogs were not in that room with her. Can you imagine? All of a sudden we got ten dogs running out the front door. Running out everywhere. Oh my God. Mercy is a business. But when I got there they were like, yeah, she has to stay in here. She can't go in there. She has to stay in here because she can't open that door. I'm like, are we going to change the doorknobs up in here? Because, you know, she ain't the only dog that can open doors. No, I'm sure. Other than that, that was great. They got home at about five thirty and then I had to make two batches of sausage balls because, you know, when we sing at both services we bring stuff to have Easter dinner, you know, have brunch in between the services. So I made my sausage balls and then I got up and went to church the next morning. And we were saying we typically we do sort of, you know, some sort of special something. And even though we have traditional and contemporary service, we just do our special music for Easter and Christmas at both services. Now most of the time what happens is like the hymns that we sing will be different from the traditional service to the contemporary service. But, you know, the rest of it's sort of the same thing. Well, y'all, we sang just a regular old anthem. And I knew and I had prepared somewhat because Chris, our choir director who I love, had given us, he always gives us, you know, we always get our hymns that we're going to be singing too and we go over those in case somebody doesn't know the hymns. So we were singing Christ the Lord is risen today, but then he had also given us like a just version of, you know, it's the same words, but it's very karaoke Jesus. So he, which I know is your favorite. Oh, my God. So I knew that was coming, but I didn't know is that at both services, every other thing we sang was that trash. I'm sorry. I hate it. I hate it. I didn't call it trash. I'm, I'm glad for those of you who love it. I am glad you have it. The way it dysregulates my nervous system. I cannot. So, okay. So we had our Christ the Lord is risen today. We sang two verses. We sang two verses on Easter Sunday. That's the only Easter hymn I got to sing was two verses of Christ the Lord is risen today. We sang them all by the way. Then we had our sermon and then we had our offertory and we, or maybe we have the offertory and then the sermon. I don't care. Remember it was a little weird, but we sang during the offertory our hymn, our anthem. We sang our anthem. Then we had communion. So we had the, you know, liturgy that goes with communion. And then as people started taking communion, the praise band behind us starts playing. Were there drums? Yes. Oh God. Oh, Mandy, I couldn't do it. I could. So it started at the beginning of communion. And Katie, it went through all of communion. And yeah, there were a lot of butts in seats because it was Easter. Yeah. Went all the way through communion. Yeah. Amping up because he started out reverent, as reverent as the praise band can be. But then as it, you know, then then it was sort of like we were singing the closing hymn and part one of part of one of them was like a, you know, how they incorporate. Yeah. So that I knew. But then like the end, the last song, I didn't know that song. And I'm sorry, I can't sing it from the words on the screen if I don't know it. Yeah, I couldn't. I'm staying there. I can't sing because he had the, you know, we didn't get the music. We got the music on the zhuzhed up Christ the Lord. I could sing that one. I hated it. I could at least sing it. I could. I'm just staying there going, please work on your face, work on your face, your your face. It's Easter. Yeah. People left. People are clapping. There were exhortations from behind me for people to clap their hands. Let me tell you what a bunch of Methodists don't need to be doing. We're clapping on the one and the three if we're good. And we're clapping on the like two and a half and four and a half. Yeah. I know. I am sure I will be called eventually to a church where there's contemporary worship. And I'm sure that I will dread it every week. And I figured I've been doing a lot of thinking because then I had to go like we were like play our, you know, service on Facebook. And so I had to go back and look at just how bad my face was. It was everything y'all would expect it to be. Sure. And so I posted on Facebook about it because I was laughing so hard at my face. You know, because anybody who grew up in what was formerly Moultrie First United Methodist Church, which is exactly what I posted on Facebook. Yeah, I saw that. I was like, get a girl. You know, we we are all and we're all like this. It's not just me. It's all it's all of us. Who are like this. You sing, you know, up from the grave. He rose. Yep. Has to be one of them. Yep. Usually Christ the Lord is risen today. Oh, he lives cause he lives like, you know, these very traditional Easter hymns. You sing those Mr. Jane, our organist does a key change before the last verse to take you up a half step final verse. We usually got some sort of desk camp, whether it's an official desk camp or we're just making it up. Most of the time we're just making it out because that's who we are in Moultrie. And then the anthem is always the Hallelujah Chorus. If my dad ever tried to do anything other than the Hallelujah Chorus, Dr. Tucker was going to have his butt. Like you have the Hallelujah Chorus on Easter. Dr. Tucker was the first one to stand up. It just that's that's Easter. That's how it works. Yep. So of course we've all had to adjust because we don't all affect. Nobody goes to Moultrie First United Methodist Church anymore because it doesn't exist. Nope. But anyway, so but my face, I just, when I saw my face, I just died laughing, died laughing. It was, I was in misery to the point, Katie, that I was like, I can't do it again. I cannot do it again. So when they started having communion at the second time, I was like, I'm out and I left. I don't, I'm surprised that they did it for both services. Well, and that's what we talked about last night. To his credit, Chris last night at choir practice was like, so in the future, would y'all be interested in having like a more traditional service and yeah, yeah, everybody in the choir was like, yes, yes, please. And most of them were laughing at me going, Mandy, do you have any thoughts on that? And what I have figured out is I think part of the reason it affects me so much is because I associate that type of worship with the Christian nationalism. Yeah, those churches that are taking over that are eroding everything I love about my faith. Yep. I think that's what it is. I think that like anybody who's ever enjoyed that type of music in a church I have attended has always been a threat. Yep. Which I shouldn't think of it like that. I should be open to new things and different things, but that's what it feels like. I love that eventually left and gone out of their own church. Like it just it happens every time. I think I love that work that you've done. I think that's important on a lot of levels, but I think I've never thought about it that way. So I like that perspective. So thank you for sharing that with us because it's very true that, you know, truly all it does regulate. Yeah, like I had to come home and like have a glass of wine with my Easter lunch because I was so between the Atlanta crowd. Yeah. And that I was so my nervous system was fried. It's not just that I don't like it. It is like, yeah, that assaults me. I mean, we've talked about it on here. I follow that account on Instagram pastors with props and it's funny. It's really funny. But at the same time, it's also really sad. Oh, and I truly am. I am like, listen, the foundation of our country is that we should all worship however we want to worship. It is not that we should all be Christians in spite of what some people will try to tell you. It is that we should have the freedom to worship how we worship. And so I am happy for people who enjoy that and get fulfillment from that to have it. I just don't want to be subjected to it without choosing it. It moves quickly to me. It moves quickly from worship to performance. And I think that's that's the other thing. You know, when you're raised that there's nothing about that that feels reverent to me. There's nothing about that that is introspective that allows for any introspection. Right. Yeah. And if it does for other people, that's great. Any for me? No. I love it. So anyway, that was my Easter. How was your Easter? Traditional. You should have come up here. It was beautiful. Yeah, it was great. Last we talked, I was going to sit in some pews. I did that. So that was wonderful. I talked about the Easter egg hunt with St. Mark's. That was fabulous Easter Sunday. It was glorious. You know, we it was just a beautiful Holy Week. And I got a good balance for me of filling my own spirit and being the vessel for filling others. And so that was really good. I'm going to try to remember that as I move forward in ministry that I it is very important for me and my spiritual journey to be fulfilled as well. Not that sermon writing doesn't fulfill me or standing in the pulpit does not fulfill me spiritually, but it's not the same. And so I appreciate that I need that balance and it made this week really, really beautiful. It also wore me the hell out by Sunday afternoon. I was tired. Tired. And then Monday morning I got up and I took Maggie to the vet to have what I thought was one tooth removed. No, no, it was five. Five. Fortunately, they were on the back as the the special. Can you hear me? The specialist, the dentist specialist said that it was like having our wisdom teeth out. So they were all in the back. There were not any teeth are used for eating. So that was good. But she was drunk and high as hell. Monday when I got her back was like falling over. It was hilarious to watch. I got a great picture of her, but she did great. While she was out, they did x-rays. We thought her hips were bad. We thought it was hip dysplasia. It is not. She has arthritis of the spine. So yay for that. Okay, Maggie. So we do have some supplement. Yep. So we're on the cosec one. We'll probably add one later when it gets worse. But it's from being overfed and carrying around that extra weight. All the things. So she's doing much better today. She's asleep in my lap right now. But it also, not that this was a factor, but it did not cost nearly as much as I had planned for it to. So praise be. Once I put them in there, that's the real, that's the best. So was just so thankful for my vet team. Our favorite vet tech was in the room with her when she had her surgery. She loves Maggie and honey. So anytime they go in, she's like they're mine. Their files both say, owner requested DS, which is her initials. And so I'm just so thankful for that. So Maggie's doing better. And then this week is the Masters. And so I'm really excited. My hometown fella is back in it this year. Rusty Henley. If you're not following it, some great stories. I saw this morning a piece on the amateurs for this year. So there's some really great amateurs. Some, most of them are young. One of them is still in high school. Could you imagine still in high school playing in the Masters? And then one of them is 34. So the amateurs are fun to watch. So follow them in their stories. You know, little Mason Howell, who was at the prom last weekend. His parents, his dad grew up in Moultrie First United Methodist Church. He probably like me is very particular. And then his mom, Lauren, was one of my very dear friends. She was 808 to my Lori in Oklahoma. There we go. Rob actually broke up with Lauren. Lauren's a year older than me. Rob's two years older than me. Rob and Lauren had dated, I think they started dating, I can't remember if they started dating in his junior year or senior year of high school. But they had dated for, you know, at least a year. And then he went to Valdosta on a tennis scholarship. And they continued to date. But then he broke up with Lauren the Saturday afternoon before our Saturday performance of Oklahoma. Stop it. And listen, Lauren has forgiven him for this action. I have not. I may tell him every time I see him that I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to forgive him for doing that. So they broke up and Lauren went to Georgia. She moved to San Francisco, fancy job out in San Francisco and somehow or another, he wheedled his way back in. I love it. And they eventually got married. He went to Georgia Law School. They got married. They were in Atlanta for a bit and they moved back to Moultrie. And that's where their daughter Meg and Mason were both born in Moultrie and they lived in Moultrie for a long time. They lived in Moultrie like the kids went to Arby Wright Elementary School. And then they eventually moved to Tallahassee and then they're now in Thomasville. So anyway, it's just so fun. I know all his grandparents. Isn't that great? His grandparents went to church with me. His mom was my favorite teacher in pullout, which was our gifted program. It's just so fun. And I just keep messaging Lauren just being like, oh my God. She posted a picture yesterday. So yesterday was the par three. His sister Meg, who is I think a junior, was his caddy for that. And so she posted a picture of the two of them. And I was like, oh my God, I hope y'all are having so much fun. And Lauren was like, just pinch me. Just pinch me. Well, he has teed off. He's gotten through the first hole at par. So he's even after one hole. And we're so excited. I know it is so cute. So there are lots of great stories about the amateur. I know. So go find them because he's in them. I love it. Rusty Henley is. He was at the prom last week. It's so funny. Rusty Henley is through two and he's one under. So watch all the Georgia boys. I think it's great. Get some pimento cheese. And yeah, Ben, Ben English. Yeah, he's, you know, he also his, trying to think his dad was married to, I think it was his dad. It was either his dad or his uncle was. No, it was his dad was married to a woman from Moultrie. So he went, he also went to RB Wright Elementary School for a little while. So I love that. I think he now lives in Thomasville because they were showing he and Mason played a practice round together. And you know, it's so funny because Moultrie is always sort of Thomasville's, you know, little brother. And now it's like, everybody's like, they're from Moultrie and not from Thomasville. Yeah, they always put that Russell is, lives in Columbus and he is, but they put he's from Columbus. And there are people on the interweb that go batshit crazy because now he's for bacon. So Mandy, tell us about your books. So two books. One I bought at the amazing gift shop at the EJI Museum. I bought it. That was Maggie. I didn't hear anything. There was a, there's several video components to the museum. And one of them was my Anjali reading from this book. It's a James Baldwin book. And I've always been like, when I see a James Baldwin quote, I'm always like, oh, and then I'm always intimidated about how to get into James Baldwin. But this is a very small little book and it's called The Fire Next Time. And it was first published in 1963. And it's just a collection of different, like it's got some poems, it's got some letters, it's got just some essays. But the quote from my Anjali that led me to buy it so that I could read the whole thing was, and it was showing pictures, I think of the boycott, maybe of the best boycott, but it was talking about relatively concerned whites do not falter in their duty. And I was like, oh, yeah. But it was talking about how, relatively concerned blacks and relatively concerned whites, like the whites cannot falter in their duty to, as another quote from Dr. King spoke to the participants in the Montgomery bus boycott the night before. And he said, we must apply our citizenship to the fullness of its meaning. Anyway, I'll let y'all know, I hadn't read it yet, but I bought the James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time. And then the other book is, I also have not read, but I heard several people talking about it. I think especially if you have things you want to undo in your faith life, if you feel like there are lessons that you need to unlearn, Jesus and John Wayne is a book that several people had mentioned. And apparently, I think this one, this author, I think she just released a new book yesterday. Oh, good. Oh, let me see if I can find it. So we read a lot of this book. I read it in several classes, my race and religion class, especially we read. And I need to get a copy. We would just read chapters. So I've basically read the whole book, but just like a chapter at a time that we would get from the library, online, whatever. So I need to get a copy of the book. She just released a new book yesterday, Live, Laugh, Love, The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made. Okay. All right. My TBR is getting really, really... It's a little light reading, y'all. Just a little light reading. Just a little bit. Wow. Yeah, I cannot recommend Jesus and John Wayne enough. It definitely shows the way that we ended up in this patriarchal, hyper-patriarchal mess that we are in. One other thing I have to... You might just... This is... So Laura, the intellectual person with us, said that her preacher ended every Sunday service with this blessing. May the Lord bless and keep us. May the Lord's face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May God give us grace not to sell ourselves short. Grace to risk something big for something good. Grace to remember that the world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. So may God take our minds and think through them. May God take our lips and speak through them. May God take our hands and work through them. And may God take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen. And may the blessings of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be with you now and forever. Wow, I love that. I'm also going to recommend and I can get you some specific books. That's William Sloan... William Sloan Coffin, by the way. Okay. Sorry, go ahead. Good, no, I love that. Howard Thurman. Anything by the pastor Howard Thurman. I also suggest that you go online on YouTube and listen to his voice. He's got one of those beautiful melodic black preacher voices that I just crave. It is soothing and inspirational. And what he says is wonderful, but to hear his voice. But his name is Howard Thurman. He's preached in the 50s and 60s and he is just phenomenal. I used him a lot at Christmas. There's a book that he put out about Christmas liturgy, but there's also a lot about race relations and all of that. So add Howard Thurman to your reading list as well. Will do. What about your favorites, Katie? So I was sucked into the TikTok world. I did not order it off the TikTok shop. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to start doing that because I'll never stop. But I went on to Clinique and you may have used this back in the day. I have never. So my mother thought it was too expensive. So I never did Clinique. But I have found the lipstick and I don't normally wear lipstick because you know, I don't want to stand out. I want to blend in. And but this black honey color is yeah, very natural, but I've also gotten the mascara. They're doing mascara now. So I got the bundle of the lipstick, the lip gloss and the mascara. Love it. Love the color. They also have nude honey, which I might get in the pink honey. So there are several different options in that honey collection, but I'm enjoying the black honey. Um, after Easter service every year, my one of my parishioners has a giant oyster roast. And so, oh my gosh, it was fabulous. So I ate my weight and oysters that day and went all went last night and finished them off at her house. Just the two of us. But we also had a drink called the French blonde and I've linked like several different recipes for it. I don't know what her recipe is. It is strong and it is good. And I only had one because the preacher can't be drunk at a party on Easter. But it was so they're so good. They're so, so good. She made it like a slushie. So it's great for summer and I just really enjoy them. So there's that. And the other thing I did yesterday was I went and got my hair cut and colored. And let me tell you, having your hair washed and your head rubbed is about the best thing you can do for yourself in this life. And so that's one of my favorite things on my list. It's just it. And I got a bunch chopped off too. It was time I said, let's chop it. And she said, let's do it. So anyway, it's just one of my favorite things in this world. So those are my favorites. Well, thanks, Katie. What have you got going on this week? So this week today I'm going to run up to the station because there are charmin sandwiches today and you know a sandwich is always better when somebody else makes it. And so I'm going to go and get a sandwich with my favorites. And then I'm going to go back on Saturday because she's having an art festival. And the fact that in small town Pitts, Georgia we gather local artists and showcase them is just a beautiful thing. And so there will be barbecue, I hope. And there will be my favorite local farmer and there will be art to look at. And I'm so excited about that. And so that's what I am doing. And this is Doubting Thomas Sunday. So I get to revive Thomas from his doubting status again. Good. We get to sing. He lives at church on Sunday. We are too. I feel like we have chosen all the same hymns from afar. I love that. Well, not all of them, not all of them. No, that's true. Yeah, but I only have to do the 845 service this week. So amen and amen. Well, what about you? What are you doing besides singing in church? I'm just trying to survive it. Lay in a week, y'all. Listen, Sunday night some kids to say they were just going to start knocking on doors. Oh, God. I kept hearing this racket in the hall and I was like, what is happening? And so I like peeped out the peephole and there was a man out there without a shirt on, yelling at somebody like down on the street. And I was like, okay, whatever. Well, then it happened again about 30 minutes later. So I went out there and there was a different man standing at a different spot. And I was like, what is happening out here? And he said, these kids keep knocking on our door. And so I looked down and there's all these kids on bikes and one of them, who will obviously be a politician one day, says, are these kids knocking on your doors too? They're knocking on mine. I'm staying right there. They keep knocking on mine. Don't you worry about it. I live here full time and I've got the sheriff on speed dial. And when I call, they come fast. And I just called him. So they're on their way. So don't you worry. We're going to take care of it. You can imagine what then ensued. Uh-huh. Lickety split out of here. I love it. She had. And I just looked at the man. I go, don't yell at 12 year olds. Just call the sheriff. Yeah. Why don't you get in trouble? I was like, they're not going to send them to the pokey. They're going to deliver them to their parents where they should be. Yeah. Yeah. It's Atlanta week. This is the worst week of the entire year. Um, so once it's done, it'll be better. Yeah. I'm doing avoiding having your door knocked on. I mean, literally I'm not going. I didn't go get my allergy shot this morning. I'm not leaving. I'm not checking my mail. Yeah. I'm not leaving the house. I went to choir practice last night. I will go to church on Sunday. Yeah. There we go. Anyway. All right. All right. All right, everybody. Y'all have a great day and a great rest of your week and watch plenty of golf. Bye.