Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to friends and loved ones far and near. We hope these greetings find you in good health and determined spirit. News of the House:
Our fifteen year old Conrad is a Guitar Hero off on World Tour. He gets an “A” for Attitude (not a high mark), but he is doing relatively well in the classroom. He went to Costa Rica last summer with a youth mission, and will be taking Spanish 3 next semester in Escuela de Calor. He will get his driver’s license this summer, and a brand new BMW for his 16th birthday (just kidding, Conrad).
Lucy is twenty years old now and a junior at Wake Forest University — a true demon deaconess majoring in Theatre. She remains in close touch with her peeps from high school (Facebook & txting), and is a fierce culture warrior exposing the ignorant and callous with her profound wisdom. All this we hope will lead to self-sustaining employment.
After months of homelessness and unemployment in our nation’s capital, son Luke (23) now works as a “desk jockey” for Georgetown University, from which he graduated last May. We think it may be just a short hop from Georgetown Security to Homeland Security. At least this keeps him close to the action as he seeks a more suitable path to power. Luke is a skinny vegetarian now, and had a melanoma removed from his arm last fall (prayers, please).
Leslie is also skinny again through counting points and great self-discipline (her heart goes out to Oprah). She is our inside ma’am at North Henderson High School (in the library), and continues to read voraciously. She soon plans to let go of her natural hair color: no one should plan to visit.
We bade farewell to Sierra the Golden Retriever at the end of the summer. She was a calm and peaceful presence and will be sorely missed.
The week before Sierra died a black cat came to stay with us — just jumped into Leslie’s lap as she read on the front porch: Batman, the Dark Kitty.
Captain Jack Sparrow, the dwarf hamster at our house, sleeps during the day and runs all night long. It is an alternative lifestyle that I do not understand, so I leave him alone.
The Sunday before the election someone dropped a flea-bitten pupster off in front of the church who found my car and sat by it. Baracki Hussein looks like an apartment-sized golden retriever (see picture), ‘cept he ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog! ‘Racki (pronounced “Rocky”) is a booger, though he has settled somewhat during the holidays. The vet thinks he’s six to nine months old; he will be lucky to make a year.
I am now in year three of my current assignment at First United Methodist Church of Rutherfordton, NC. It is a very tolerant congregation, which, of course, is the only way someone like me survives in the ministry. I live there during the week, and see Leslie and Conrad on the weekends in Fletcher where a house owns us.
We face great challenges in 2009, staying within ours means and current clothing. We were thrilled by the election of Barack Obama (especially with his victories in NC and Colorado). If America can lose weight and get its economic house in order, I might (I say, just might) embrace American exceptionalism as a good thing. While I am hopeful about this (faith), I am not optimistic (encouraged by any observable data). I’ll let you know how my New Year’s resolutions go.
Let us keep the faith.
Ed, for House Hillman
(Cross-posted here)