In these day I am recalling my 65
years since I was first commissioned as a teaching minister in the church. The
focus of this reflection is the places we have lived. I have actually lived in
14 different apartments or houses during these years. The casual reader would conclude,
“Mel was unable to hold a job!.” It is really a bit more complicated. One
reason for the different places is because I often lived in “church supplied
housing”. So my quarters were determined by church budgets and sometimes
even by a committee, which chose an apartment without ever having
listened to any of our considerations.
The locations of those houses included California,
Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Hong Kong. Each had much to
love and enjoy. Tracy California in the 1950’s had a population of some 10,000.
So I got to know many of the residents and when one walked down Main Street one
was likely to be called by name. Hong Kong is my favorite place in all the
world. I love the Chinese people. The energy of the place carries one along.
The food options are unlimited. The streets are safe. If one has air
conditioning (which we did not have) and good solid windows (which we mostly
had) then one can ignore the heat, the 96 inches or rain per year or the
terrible typhoons. New York comes close to Hong Kong as a favorite and if I had
lots of money (and a different wife) I could enjoy living in Hong Kong or
New York as my place of choice even for today in retirement. Chicago was
great. It has excellent public transportation, great art and entertainment and
every imaginable type of food. Ann Arbor, Michigan (even in the tumultuous 60”s)
is a place of intellectual stimulation, roads cleared of the worst snow
imaginable, and not too far from Frankenmuth chicken dinners. And we now
live in San Diego county California by choice. The weather, the multi-ethnic
communities, the golf courses, the range of political opinions, the beaches and
nearby mountains… It is great!
Of course there are “places”
other than just our residences or the cities that contain them. My life has
been spent in classrooms. I love teaching. 65 years ago that meant 45 kids in
one classroom of 4th –8th graders. Later on
those classrooms were found in colleges and seminaries in Hong Kong and several
USA campuses. I have given the keynote address or lead a workshop in each of
the Districts of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and all the Regions of the
ELCA.
Work with Effectiveness Training
gave me the opportunities to teach or do business or just stop in on places
like, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway, Sweden and best of all Finland.
There were plenty challenges (and good people) awaiting me in Australia, New
Zealand, Tahiti, Pakistan.
In retirement I was blessed to
lead some tours with incredibly wonderful cadres of friends. These tours took
us to China, Tibet, Germany, The Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Brazil,
Argentina, Israel and Palestine.
Places I visited (usually
with Jane) just for fun and to be with family and friends hold special niches
in my heart. Before we were frightened off by drug wars we had wonderful times
in Mexico. Visiting son John and his family in Barcelona, Madrid, Taiwan and
England were special. Lena and Ruth Galster were wonderful hosts in Bangkok. And
since we were careful not to break the law by chewing gum in public we had a
great time in Singapore
Just naming these places stirs up
masses of differing feelings. There is admiration for those poor kids who
attended our rooftop schools in Hong Kong. All they got was rudimentary stuff
of the basic three “rs”, but they took that and became wonderful citizens of
the world. I think of the children sitting in out-door schools without textbooks
in Pakistan and how they are now being challenged by the Taliban et sim. I
admire the great work we witnessed at Christmas Lutheran Church and school in
Bethlehem and the God-blessed incredible work of Pr. Raheb. I pray that the
improvement in wealth distribution is bringing hope to the many, many poor
people I saw in those long lines awaiting treatment in small Wheat Ridge supported
clinics in south India and I hope that all of them will some day get the
opportunity to just visit and admire the Taj Mahal in the heart of their own
country.
None of the above places would
be so favorably remembered were it not for Jane, family and friends. Jane has
made each of our homes places of refuge from stress, centers of beauty, locales
of peace and the abode of love. No matter where else I may have been in the
world the thing that kept drawing me forward was the anticipation of being
safely home. Even today when she is there and also if by chance some or
all of the kids come join us I have no desire to be any place else. For as my
family always reminds me “Home is where the heart is.”
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