Monday, February 1, 2010

Let's go Surreal, okay?

Anyone else have those surreal moments in their past that you find - well - surreal? Things you know happened, but really? Did they really happen? And why didn't I find it completely odd at the time?
Yesterday at church, the worship leader (Hi Trish) led into a song describing it as an "old spiritual". When the music started, I knew the song immediately because I once sang it at a burial.
On top of a little Illinois hill, in a copse of trees a small crowd gathered around the burial plot. There were no relatives of the deceased. No other headstones marked the site. We didn't even know the name of the person we were there to honor. And I guess I use the word "person" a little loosely. It was his bones we were burying. Bones which had been in the ground for around a hundred years already.
Excavation for a new barn had uncovered the original burial site. And research led investigators to decide the bones belonged to a young farm hand who had died of illness and been buried decades before. There were some records of the happening, but no name was left behind.
Community leaders decided to hold a re-burial. A preacher was called, the press alerted and I was asked to sing. So on that windy hill top I sang, "Precious Lord" acapella for the burial of hundred year old bones. See where the term "surreal" comes in?
I hope I'm open to participate in the unusual. I hope I exude a demeanor of - count me in. Because that's where the opportunity for the surreal begins - someone thinking you won't think they are crazy when they tell you their idea. I know I've had ideas shot down dead due to the look of disdain and incredulity in someone's eye.
So here's to jumping in and opening up to a surreal moment happening today to think about later in life.
You in with me?

2 comments:

Jfer said...

Wow, Kay. That gave me chills. Nicely done, as always. : )

Kay Dew Shostak said...

Thanks, Jennifer - always appreciate your thoughts!