Another post in the countdown to Dan and Donna's 25th anniversary this coming June, which I began back in December. It is my plan to post a story, remembrance and/or poem once a week for 25 weeks leading to the big date. And now, now that we are down to our final 30 days to the Big Wahoo, I think I'll begin posting a photo a day from our life together...
So, Jordan was born in 1991. We were attending Baptist Tabernacle near our home in the West End of Louisville. We still had people living with us for Jordan's first few years. Our "unintentional community" wasn't panning out exactly as we'd hoped, but we were still looking for community in some form.
While Donna was pregnant with Jordan - and for a while after he was born - we met with a group of folk who were talking about intentional community. Amongst these people, there were two friends who had connections to our current church, Jeff St. More on that later...
At this point - after the Reagan administration and into the Bush administration - Donna and I had both grown a bit wary of those self-identifying as "conservatives." Nonetheless, we were not exactly calling ourselves liberals, either. I'd say that Donna was the first to start thinking that the liberal tag might come closer to fitting her than the conservative - at least if Reagan was the face of conservatism. I believe at this time, I was sort of in a netherland between the two, not really identifying fully with either group.
This is one of the blessings of our life together. If either of us were as "liberal" as we are perceived to be today back when we first met each other, neither of us would have considered the other a good match (ie, we would have RUN from that flaming liberal as fast as possible!). If either of us were as "conservative" today as we were back then, we'd be in an ill-matched marriage. But instead, we've grown together over the years. What a miracle!
The year Jordan was born, I went back to college (or "started college," might be the better phrase, since my first attempt at college really didn't take at all). Donna had graduated from the Seminary in 1988 and at that time, she was working both at her current job (Volunteers of America) and as a church social worker at Baptist Tabernacle, while I did college and worked various jobs (UPS, Zip Express, woodworking at different shops).
When Jordan was born, I was still with my Christian band. Or at least the shattered remains of it. It was really down to Ed and I, by that time, although we had a sometimes lead singer named Fred. But it was clear that that time was coming to an end, after ten years in the band and community called Remembrance. There was no real falling out to speak of, we just each went our own way.
Although I sometimes joke about how bad that band was, it was in a very real way my first exposure to community. We went through a lot together and grew as people during those first ten years of our adulthood. I shall forever be thankful for that time and those fellas.
But life moves on. It was clear that I had a new community, a community of three: Donna, myself and our precious firstborn son, Jordan.
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