The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost, 2022
My post-Pandemic tilt towards normalcy took a giant leap yesterday when a brunch date with Bing opened up, solidified and came in for a soft landing almost immediately after Church. Even the Lectionary readings seemed to support the idea putting away the ordinary patterns of mortal life and lifting one's spirit toward the Heavenly Kingdom (Hebrews 12:18-29). And, no one can do that better than Bing.
I took Uncle Honore with me for security. But I needn't have. I sang the hymns lustily and stayed mostly on key much to his chagrin. I even managed to convince him to say a few words to The Rector before leaving Church. "Good sermon.", he told her, in exactly the same tone he would have used with a wine steward who had correctly appraised his weakness for sweet, red grapes.
Everyone loved his seersucker jacket and bow tie. He had a Panama straw hat also, but it was too big for me so it was mostly held in my hand or saddled on my lap as soon as we ventured outdoors. Bing and Honore have met before but his biggest fan is Colette who recognized him immediately and planted a big kiss on his cheek, in definace of all COVID and Monkeypox cautionaries.
Honore invited her to brunch with us but Colette was committed to Altar Guild. I can only imagine what a meal with The Crosbys and Uncle Honore would be like. Colette knows how to make the old man feel young again and Bing knows how to bring out the old man in me. It would be an intriging dynamic. As it was, Bing and I bent toward Metro Diner and chose seats outside next to the window. We bothordered the same thing, the vegetarian fatita. an omelette designed to look like a small, yellow pizza. I rinsed mine down with black coffee and water.
The conversation flowed like wine at the Wedding Party. Bing had missed the month-long discerment meetings that took place at Coffee Hour, just ending a few weeks ago (Kyle, the organizer, kidded me about whether i had enjoyed it - I kidded him back and said that I had.) The truth was that I had gotten into a verbal scuffle with one of the other parishioners and had to be dragged out by the lapels by Uncle Honore before - as he said later - one of us would have had to "demand satisfaction!"
Bing had just written a piece in the Bishop's newspaper about speaking out in The Church. It did seem rather a propos of what is going on in so much of the rest of America, though he is one of the few lay people in the Church to support standing one's ground irrrespective of whether it made other people angry. Honore was appallled (most people don't realize it, but he detests duels - he thinks they are "old-fashioned") even though Bing did say later that I did nothing wrong in walking away from it.