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6 November 2010
The East Coast Return 2010
After the idyll on the Atlantic coast of Florida, it has been a relentless last leg of our wanderings. We spent our first night in Georgia in Acworth with Patti and Leo – Patti being a dear friend since high school days. After the one bout of rain we encountered in Ohio just as we started the cross-country trek, the drive through Atlanta to Acworth was the first rain ever since – rain along with tornados and horrendous traffic. But ample Glenlivet and a dinner at home eased our pains.
The next day Leo drove us to the Hyatt Regency for the American Academy of Religion's conference. That night, we had dinner with Macha whom we had missed in San Francisco. The next four days were intense, stimulating and fun. Beside the sessions, the gathering is as much about reconnecting with old friends and colleagues – e.g., Barbara McGraw & Patrick McCollum, Wendy Griffin, Chas Clifton, Helen Berger, Bron Taylor, Holli Emore, Shawn Arthur, Catherine Wessinger, Jone Salomonsen, Michelle Mueller, Lilan Laishley, Sarah Pike, Grant Potts, Nikki Bado-Fralich, Phillip Lucas, Cynthia Eller, Michael Strmiska and many more. As co-chairs of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group, it was Wendy's and my last term. I felt we were fortunate to be able to bow out with three good sessions for our section: a joint one with the Men, Masculinities, and Religions Group on Pagan Masculinities (Helen Berger, Christopher Chase & Marion Mason with Doug Ezzy and Mark Lustad as Respondents), Idolatry and Tangible Sacrality: The Conversation Continues (Bron Taylor, Margot Adler and myself), Paganism, Ethnicity, and Ultranationalism (Koenraad Elst,Thad Horrell, Kaarino Aitamurto and Michael Strmiska with Mathias Gardell as Respondent). The idolatry session was essentially a conversation between the three panelists and then with the general audience. Margot stressed the idol as a 'window to the ultimate'. Bron spoke about how immanent reality or nature is sufficient for the development of a complete morality. I argued against Herbert Schlossberg's contention that ethics requires a transcendent 'God', and, while agreeing with Bron, I do not want to exclude the co-natural from our understanding of nature. In all our sessions, the level of discussion and exchange was energetic and profound, and I believe I can conclude that the present level of pagan studies is impressive and commensurate with the continuing growth of academic reflection and achievement.
Some of the other sessions I attended included New Religious Movements on New Thought and Christian Science, the interview of Elaine Pagels (Gnosticism) by Karen King, and Gay Men and Spirituality. There were receptions as well (the Welcome, the Members, the Chants Encounter, the Pluralism Project, New Religious Movements, etc.) plus a Samhain ritual that was organized by Macha, Holli and Amadea. A group of us ate Chinese one evening; Macha, Richard and I ate at Mama Ninfa's (Mexican); we had a Graduate Student breakfast; and for the last night, Patrick, Barbara, Wendy, Margot, Richard and I ate at Bacchanalia, an old favourite from previous visits to Atlanta – not inexpensive but lovely food and a marvelous time. The AAR meeting was my first occasion to be with Margot after our brief get-together at Bryant Park in New York last July. A favourite; it was a joy to see her.
Leo fetched us after the conference ended and reunited us with our car which we had left at his place. That night we went to Fusco's for dinner – Michael's Italian restaurant in Acworth – after cocktails with the Eilbacher neighbours, Bob and Penny. Also got to see Patti and Leo's son Todd. The next morning, with Patti already at work and Leo a late riser, and the front door locked, we could only exit through the garage. Using a broom handle to push the button at the top of the stairs to open the door, we could not get out without triggering the electric eye to reopen the door. We had called Chloe, my daughter, to wish her a happy twenty-first birthday and sang into her recorder. We had also learned the gist of the election results. Little was unexpected, though I was happy to learn of the victories for Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid, Andrew Cuomo, Lincoln Chafee and Christopher Coons; disappointed with Jack Conway's loss; not disappointed with Blanche Lincoln's; disappointed with the Democratic loss of the House; and disappointed with the defeat of California's Proposition 19 but not with that of Proposition 23: a sobering time and an inability to understand the consensus inability to recognize both who is to blame for the economy and how much has actually been achieved. The shores of Europe cannot come soon enough.
The drive from Acworth to Columbia, South Carolina was delayed by the fierce traffic of Atlanta and heavy rains, but in time we reached Freeman's (could I say 'wild' let alone attractive?) sister Janice in her lovely and recently refurbished home. However I might describe La Janice, she is definitely 'our kind'. We had lunch at Mr. Friendly's, and later we met Janice's husband Kent. Janice prepared a delicious curry dinner. And we were housed in the sumptuous and old fashioned Whitney Hotel – a real treat of the Old South. All in all, it was an occasion for bacchanalian exuberance.
More rain the next morning, but we reached Cathy and Barry in Greenville, South Carolina without much difficulty and after the rains had ceased. Cathy is one of my Aunt Florence's daughters, and her home with Barry is a refreshing bastion of intellectual sanity. It was Cathy and Barry who, the last time we had visited, first introduced us to Rachel Maddow. After a delicious home-cooked pasta with their daughter Katherine, we were treated to an hilarious video of Wanda Sykes ("I'ma Be Me") and the first half of part five of "God in America" covering Billy Graham and Martin Luther King. We also got to see a moving video compilation as well as photos of Uncle Ralph.
A ten hour drive followed from early the next morning to Grasonville, Maryland to Jacqueline and Hans' also recently refurbished home – this one surrounded by water. Jacqueline I have known since undergraduate days in Santa Barbara (UCSB). We were welcomed with Bombay gin and lamb shish kabob. And then slept very well. And now, with Jacqueline and Hans off sailing for twenty-four hours, we have been setup and left in this splendid house and setting – with bicycles should we wish – and a chance to re-center. We will all have dinner together tomorrow evening and then on Monday do our last leg back to Narragansett from which this mad and wonderful vagabond journey began little more than three months ago. All the different worlds and brief intersections into the lives of others have been nothing less than gifts from the gods for which I will be eternally grateful. 'Santo Expedito' stands on the dashboard of my mother's Lexus, and Richard wants to honour his blessing for our travels.