Tonight, the Monday Night Football crowd gathered for the first time this year. When we first started getting together more than a decade ago, we were eight adults. Now we're big and unwieldy: fourteen adults and twelve children (with two more on the way). At times this leads to chaos.

Rather than meet every week, the MNF group has decided that this year each couple will host the gathering only once. (We'll also meet one week sans children for a nice meal out.) This seems like a good compromise: we still get to gather for fellowship, but not so often that it seems a chore.

For the first several weeks, the group will be quieter than normal. Sabino is coaching a soccer team at 91 School, and several of the kids — Antonio, Harrison, Ian, Tristan — meet with him for practice on Monday nights. With the four oldest boys (and Sabino) absent from the first half of our gatherings, things are much more subdued.

It was good to see folks again. It's been a long time since I've seen Roger and Kristin, for example. I like to sit at the kitchen table and listen to the women catch up on their lives (even if what they talk about is mostly kid-related). These are people I've known since high school. I may not see them often, but I feel close ties to them, and love to hear what is happening in their lives.

I spent much of the evening quizzing Steve about Africa. Steve was born and raised in Kenya, and most of his family still lives there. He told me about the game reserves. He told me how odd it was to be one of only two black kids at boarding school. He told me about the different tribes and languages and people and customs. He told me how strange it was to listen to his father negotiate his sister's bride price (in cattle) when she was married. (Strange because Steve's family is mostly a modern family, so that this old custom seems antiquated.) He told me about the African concept of the extended family, with untold aunts and uncles. Everything he said was fascinating, and I'm glad he was willing to sit there for an hour, answering my questions.

"You'll have to come with us next time we go to Kenya," Steve told me, laughing.

"Don't tempt me," I said. "Don't tempt me." Because I just might do it.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2003 — Pantheism   In which I learn about scientific pantheism.