A Pampa Footnote: "Circles inside of circles, inside of circles"

Although a number of women traveled 120–150 miles round trip from surrounding areas to attend, Janice flew from Dallas to Amarillo––up and back in a day––rented a car and drove by herself the 60 miles each way to and from Pampa contending with a 50+ mph crosswind. Janice had dressed for Spring, but nary a complaint about the Panhandle weather crossed her lips.

                                           Janice, me, Pat, Sue and Danina

Thank you, each and every one who got out on such a blustery day, Saturday past, to hear me speak at Faith Bible Church. When I overheard some women saying that the bad weather had made it possible for them to attend because ball games and various outdoor activities got canceled, it struck me how hollow my prayers sound when I ask for comfortable conditions, the removal of obstacles and the wish that things I value would come easy.

Since graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2008, I have sought to discover and develop a speaking/writing platform. Based on remarks and written evaluations, I am encouraged to continue in this direction, to continue as Prof Hendricks tells his Creativity classes, "plussing," to make ideas better.

Several asked about quotes used in my talk, indicating that they wished these had been written out. Most of the quotes came from the books I recommended, titles and authors printed on the back of the outline I had prepared, then distributed.

Without repeating the full outline, here are a few quotes corresponding to each heading. 

I. Reading …
"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." C.S. Lewis

II. Writing …
"You are the custodian of your memories and they are perishable." William Zinsser

III. Creativity…
"All people are born originals, but most die a copy."
"The tragedy of life is not in the fact of death but in what dies inside us while we live." Both of these quotes come from the revered Dr. Howard G. Hendricks, who this year celebrates his 60th Anniversary as a professor at DTS.

IV. Transitions …
"The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask." Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Circles inside of circles, inside of circles …," my story reads better because of you.

Speaking of Pampa

I will be in Pampa, TX on Saturday March 27, 2010 to speak at Faith Bible Church, 10:30–12:30. http://maps.google.com/places/us/tx/pampa/w-kingsmill-ave/110/-faith-bible-church?gl=us


Which, speaking of faith, I must exercise my faith to trust I will have a voice by then. Laryngitis struck with whatever the last 60–70 mph. wind blew into Lubbock the day before yesterday.

My subject is Story. The main points are Reading, Writing and Creativity, with a post script, Transitions.

One of my favorite books, Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea, offered inspiration underlying the message I hope to deliver.

The movie, Castaway, a portion of which was filmed in the Panhandle, near Pampa, captures visually how like the ocean that part of Texas is. An intentional parallel, I might add.

Vast, with islands of inhabitants, the land creates its own geographic isolation where the treasures of friendship wash up onto the shores of individual stories.

A Gift to be part of and to know some of these stories, I look forward to seeing familiar faces, hugging necks, meeting new people and reinforcing the ties that have bound my heart forever to Pampa.

Tiny Dancer

Our revered "Miss Jeanne" retired this past May after teaching dance to Pampa people for more than 6 decades. http://focuspampa.com/Volume_27/Spring_2009/spring_2009.html

Miss Jeanne taught my eldest daughter for more than 15 of those years and my youngest daughter for a couple of years, too. Now my five-year-old granddaughter is taking ballet.

At a recent reception, a crowd comprised of former students, their families and members of the community gathered to honor a tiny dance teacher with massive heart for her art.

Pictured here, mother and daughter, Linda and Laura, both among Miss Jeanne's numerous "children," smile for the photographer. Me.

Jeanne Willingham's Beaux Art Studio functioned from nursery to graduate school for dancers she taught to perform on stage under the spotlight, learning to cultivate audience awareness. The Nutcracker Ballet in December and a Recital in May, dancers practiced to make perfect.

Along the way, Miss Jeanne improved the posture, poise and confidence of her students.

Referring to the chest area below the base of the neck as "the necklace," she instructed ballet students at the bar how to carry themselves erect.

"Show me your necklace," she said.

Instant transformation from the slouch of everyday posture to a graceful pose, dancers breathed in and pressed their shoulders back. This move elevated a dancer's stature and gained Miss Jeanne's coveted approval.

The gift bestowed by the Civic Ballet Board suited the occasion. A gold necklace to commemorate how she has enriched our lives, a delicate strand that sparkles in the light.

As a clasp that links a circle of otherwise disparate lives, scattered now all over the country, Miss Jeanne continues to inspire those who love her because she loved what she did and it showed.

Bravo, Miss Jeanne.

My Friend Pat

When my husband and I moved from Pampa, Texas to Dallas 5 ½ years ago, my friend Pat told me in the midst of our searing separation about her mother’s friend who when she moved away from Pampa said, “I won’t live long enough to make another friend like Jane.” 

Jane was Pat’s mother who died in 1978. The friend, Miss Kitty—83 on her birthday in May—has lived long enough perhaps to make a friend like Jane, but not in the right place. 

Pampa was a place for growing friendships. The 25 years I lived there established the roots of friendships that still bear fruit, not only in my life, but also in the lives of my children who find themselves dispersed from Pampa, flung throughout Texas from a place that shaped our family's values, views and experiences. Our Town. My town. I miss the people if not the Panhandle wind.

Schools and churches and businesses and houses lined unremarkable streets—from mansions to trailer parks, farms and ranches, oil and industry, old and new money—and a cemetery right across from the town's 4-A High School. I could tell you stories.

If dead people could tell their stories, the way Thornton Wilder in his play Our Town had characters speak from the grave, I like to imagine the dearly departed would want to convey from beyond the headstones and monuments and well-tended graves of Fairview Cemetery the wonder of small-town living. 

Doubtless characters who populated real-life stories would adjure appreciation for the accumulation of ordinary days. Would we pay attention?

My friend Pat went home to Pampa yesterday after spending three days with my husband and me. Never enough time for all the questions and conversations and tangential exploration into personal histories and the trajectory of our futures, she leaves me hungry for her next visit.

Because I realize I won’t live long enough to make another friend like Pat.