The last Preacher and other stuff.

When I was young, we called the leader of our church "Preacher". Not, Reverend Jim or Brother Smith. Just Preacher.

When I was young, I went and talked to Preacher about my gay friend. I had met a gay friend...my first gay friend...the first person I ever knew, that I knew was gay. I explained to him that I had a friend that was gay and I was going to invite my friend to come to church with me and I would appreciate it if he didn't preach anything anti-gay when I did. I was extremely polite about it. He was open to my request.

Next time I went to see Preacher, it was to tell him that my gay friend and I had had an affair and I liked it and what was I supposed to do about it.

To his credit, I don't remember him saying anything disparaging or calling me a sinner, or calling down a bold of lightening. He explained that my parents were not going to accept that. I should keep it pretty quiet. And, he didn't say anything to my parents about it.

I remember that when I came out and shared that I had already talked to Preacher, my Mom was furious. She felt that Preacher should have told them. I don't know why. I don't know what difference it would have made.

And, he was right. My parents had trouble with it. And, eventually, we found a relationship around it.

After that, I went to church less and less. It was hard to reconcile my feelings that Jesus loved me no matter what with the church's teachings on the horror of homosexual sin. After I moved away, I only went to church a few times when visiting my parents. Finally, I just told them I wasn't going anymore and stayed home to prepare a big Sunday lunch. So, not all my sinfulness was wasted...at least it resulted in a good meal.

That made Brother Glenn my last preacher.

This morning, my Mom shared in an email that Bro. Glenn had passed away a few days ago. That makes me retrospective. I'll always remember that the advice he gave me was right, even if it wasn't what my Mom thought he should do. No regrets. Just a bit of a sad feeling about the passing of my last "Preacher".

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Okay, on to happier pictures. Remember that I've had a bunch of pics that didn't get uploaded last week. Here are a few of those and a few new ones.

This is a new one. I finished these fun socks last night and am wearing them today. I love knitting socks. So portable and they don't take too long. Next pair is tan.


This is another new pic. This is the sorting ceremony at the house last night. I friend of mine lost her Parents over the last couple years and she and her sister are cleaning out the house. R's Mom was a crocheter and I got a big box of patterns a few weeks ago. They inspired me to start a rug and a doily. Anyway, this is what was in three huge bags. In the background, there's a beautiful ripple afghan that is about half done and enough yarn to make at least one more. I'll finish the one that's started for Linus and then maybe make one for us from the leftover yarn. It's a real beauty. The rest got divided between Linus and my stash. Linus gets full skeins and I get short skeins that will work great in another of my scrap afghans. The crochet thread goes to my stash for tying Linus quilts and more patterns and books. There's even a skein of lavendar cashmere that I think is going to be a scarf for Sydney for cmas.



This little quilt was a save. It was made by a Girl Scout troop and they donated it to Linus. It's the Cinderella story. In the upper right corner was a block that had Li'l Cindy crying and the block said "Dad died". That's true to the story, but what if this little quilt got to a girl who's Dad had died. Linus was going to donate it to a third world country because of that one block. So, I took it home, took it apart, colored over the words to make a black cloud and the new words say "Sad Days". I put it back together, gave it some really cool quilting and a real binding and turned it back in last Saturday.

I promised pics of the afghans I made and donated. Here they are. This is my second afghan to ever make. The green yarn with the purple highlights came from Linus with one skein of the purple yarn. I added another skein of purple and this is what I came up with.

On this one, I was going for the look of an old wool blanket. I think I got pretty close for someone that was making their third afghan.

And this one, you've seen recently. My Mom donated the brown yarn and I added scraps of the other colors. Those short skeins from R's Mom will help make another one of these.



Okay, so that's it from me on this Way Back Wednesday that has stuff from as far back as yesterday.

Take care and we'll see ya' round the www.

Lane