Snapshot of the Weekend

Life at 4403 Meridian these days leaves a multitudinous sea of impressions:  from unvarnished seriousness to wacky, rollicking, over-the-top humor, crackling through the family and friends like an out-of-control power station.  In other words, pretty normal.

Pam, of course, is power central, respecting the challenge of the day but determined to beat it.  I am tempted to use her vivid language, but I’ll simply invoke Mark Twain’s sage observation, remembering someone who had struck his thumb with a hammer, that colorful language sometimes can provide a measure of relief denied even to prayer. 

The overriding impression of activity at 4403 Meridian is many moving pieces:  Kendal making wedding plans, Kaylin breezing in and out as a young professional, Ellie laughing delightedly between bouts of seriousness as she thinks about college, Lauren beaming happily from a computer screen as she reports on her sojourn in Rome.  While Greg is off to Alabama to run in a marathon, Pam joins me for a movie that turns out to be a portrayal of wolves devouring people in the Alaskan wilderness (don’t I know how to pick ’em!) 

There is another layer of this experience.  Beneath all the activity and the good humor is an awe-inspiring tidal wave of affection, found in the many kindnesses of family and friends as they rally to Pam.  I won’t dwell on this, because there are no words that can describe it, except to say it is an amazing source of strength.

Many lovely moments:  Friday evening, chatting in the living room with a fire in the fireplace, as Kendal and Kaylin vie gracefully for a comfortable share of radiant heat on the rug in front of the hearth; Kendal and Greg speaking about surgery and other medical matters in the slightly foreign language of doctors; friends Pam Ross and Trudy lighting up Flynn’s on Saturday night with their raucous good humor, inspiring Kaylin and Ellie into a comedy riff of their own; Pam exasperated as her beloved Pacers fail to maintain a run that might have given them victory; Scott holding Kendal aloft in his arms, crossing-the-threshold style; a wonderful video of Pam’s family, prepared for her Mom’s 80^th birthday. 

One event will remain in my memory as a kind of snapshot of the weekend.  Ellie asked me if I was familiar with “Pandora.”  I remember Pandora from childhood as the mythic owner of a box with all the troubles of the world, troubles that flew out when Pandora opened the box, leaving only hope behind:  a gloomy story.  The name “Pandora” received a happier association two years ago when Lauren joined me to see “Avatar” in Chicago.  In that experience, Pandora was the name of a magical world where one could tame and fly dragons.  Ellie’s Pandora, however, was neither of these.  Instead, it was a website where one could enter a favorite song or composer and the website would play similar songs or pieces.  Far from being a source of troubles, Pandora, with Ellie’s guidance, became a source of music.

As I reflected on the activities at 4403 Meridian, it was easy to see how a world of troubles could be transformed into music.  If gloom dared to show up here, it would be so bewildered and frightened that it would turn at once and flee.  Pam showed me a list of things that cancer could not do, which concluded with a paraphrase of the Apostle Paul’s observation that there was nothing that could separate us from the love of God.  There was no separation here.  Instead, there was laughter.  And there was much affection.  And these things were the best music.

Carlisle a/k/a Uncle Carlisle (husband of Greg’s first cousin, Mary)