The thing about history is
that for the people living it, it's just their regular
lives. So the report from the embedded journalist here in
Massachusetts in the early 21st century contains just our
lives and just the lives of Andover residents of the past
400 years.
Yesterday, Nancy and I attended the
wedding of one of her social work school buddies to her
partner of 25 years. It was beautiful. The UU minister
was great. The church was great. The reception was pot
luck, very reminiscent of lesbian feminist gatherings of
the 1970s. During the ceremony we sang Cris Williamson's
Song of the Soul, which has the silliest line in
all of lyricdom (Come to your life like a warrior,
nothing'll bore yer) and Holly Near's We Are a Gentle
Angry People, which is actually in the Unitarian
hymnal (who knew?) and which I frequently sing in the
shower. (If the kids are reading this they are now
screaming "AJ. Don't sing!") There was much
cheering and many tears of joy and lots of good Celtic
music. I love Massachusetts. I really do. And the more
gay people who get married the harder it will be to undo
it all.
Astute long term readers will
notice that we are not at LCK!
this weekend (The bus
speeds across the American landscape. Sal says, "I was
going home in October. Everybody goes home in October."
-- On the Road) When I noticed that LCK!, the
wedding, and a book event for Julie's book (Andover
Massachusetts:Historical Selections from Four Centuries
by Juliet Haines Mofford), were all taking place this
weekend, I thought maybe I'd just take in the
Commemorative at the Commemorative Saturday morning, but
I didn't even do that 'cause I slept late and missed it.
As for today, the opportunity to see Tom as Franklin
Pierce along with several other good actors portrayiing
characters from Andover's past, such as Lauren as
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Julie as Harriet Beecher
Stowe was too good to pass up.
Thanks to Julie's excellent writing
and Tom's outstanding performance I now have a whole new
appreciation for why Franklin Pierce was our least
effective president. Of course, Nancy pointed out to me
later that if Franklin Pierce had been effective we would
either still have slavery or more likely be two
countries. Interesting to think about, eh? And Elizabeth
Stuart Phelps gave me new insight into what life was like
for educated women in the 19th century and into the
institution of marriage and into how people will look
back on the early 21st century at all these gay
marriages. Yup, when you're in it, history is just your
life. I admit to not having read any of Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps' novels but I now have a great desire to do so.
Julie told me about a set of Feminist Press reprints that
came out in the 1980s, so I ought to be able to track
them down.
Other highlights included a local
minister as Reverend Samuel Phillips, pastor of South
Parish. Of course earthquakes are caused by the
congregation falling asleep during the sermon! Everybody
knows that! Especially the great earthquake of 1755. And
a powerful portrayal of Martha Carrier, one of the
accused witches. Ned and I could practically recite the
testimony against Martha Carrier by her daughter --
that's the part about the cat for which Tom had a hard
time keeping a straight face when he played the
magistrate in Cry
Witch
For refreshments we had
Colombo yogurt, which was born in
Andover, donated by Bob Colombosian, and Pompey's
'Lection cake baked from the original recipe, which I
found unbearably dry but Nancy liked.
Nancy is on a tear about somehow
getting Julie on the Leno show to promote the book, so
she brought that up with the MVPG
person. Me, I want to
figure out how to get the MacArthur genius grant people
to notice Julie.
