Friday night vigil...

There were 20 of us who gathered on the town square last night to participate in the 9/11 ceremony. We carried candles from the university to the square, which was roped off...a podium had been placed on the street for the speeches...the music...the stories.

The event was of cultural diversity...I stood between a young woman of Jamaican origin and a young man from Iraq. Their smooth, dark faces were strong and serious in the candlelight. I felt proud to be among them...I felt proud of them to be empassioned about 9/11...to be empassioned about something.

I listened to their stories while holding my own candle. I thought of those who had lost lives...I thought of those among us who live...but have forgotten how to live richly or deeply. I felt the tears stream down my own face.

When it was over, we nodded to one another...words were not necessary, and I took my long walk through town. I came home to silence, lifted my eyes to the heavens and slept.

Lollygagging...

While driving home from school today...the word lollygagging just popped right into my head. I have not used that word nor heard it for a very long time. In fact, I even doubted it was a word. But, hark, I looked it up in Webster's new collegiate dictionary.

lollygag: to fool around, dawdle.

Now I wasn't exactly fooling around..but you could say I was dawdling.

I have a lovely drive home from school, especially at the end of summer. Corn fields flaunt the road on both sides..geese are gathering on ponds...Queen Ann's lace and wild chicory decorate each inch of the roadside... here and there a few farmer's markets with self service for sweet corn and cantelope or cucumbers ready to be made into pickles. I often pass an Amish buggy rather than an automobile.

Yes, I have to admit, today I definitely was lollygagging.