Midlife Meditation

Three years and two months. That's how long I've lived at 6420 NW Starflower Drive. That's a long time for me to have an address. In fact, it's a record for me: my previous record for holding one address as an adult was two years and ten months. You may be thinking that's a horribly itinerant way to live. The saving grace, you may also be thinking, is that the word "adult" in that paragraph means I had a more stable childhood. And you'd be right for thinking that--but not a lot. The longest I lived anywhere before college was four years. When I tell people this, their first response is typically "Army brat?" "Preacher's kid" is my reply. And that does explain all that moving around in my childhood, an average of every three years: my father was an American Baptist, and then a United Methodist, pastor. As an American Baptist, his job was subject to the whims of his church council and the personalities that ran it. After...

I have always been itinerant. I moved for the first time when I was five weeks old. My father's career as a minister, first in the American Baptist Church, then the United Methodist Church, meant we moved on average every three years. Once I finished my schooling at the age of 30, I kept moving. The longest I've had a single address was the four years I lived in Philomath--my high school years. It appears the moving has, finally, slowed down: our plan is to remain in this house another four and a half years, then move to somewhere in inner Portland, where we may expect to spend the rest of our independent adult lives. That was my parents' story, too: my father's longest appointment was his last, and since retiring in 1990, he and my mother have lived continuously in the house they inherited from my grandmother. I've changed jobs a lot, too, and not just in my ministry years. I was technically in the Banks district for six years, but the middle two were on layo...

I was born under a wandrin' star I was born under a wandrin' star Wheels are made for rolling, mules are made to pack I've never seen a sight that didn't look better looking back I was born under a wandrin' star Mud can make you prisoner and the plains can bake you dry Snow can burn your eyes, but only people make you cry Home is made for coming from, for dreams of going to Which with any luck will never come true I was born under a wandrin' star I was born under a wandrin' star Do I know where hell is, hell is in hello Heaven is goodbye forever, its time for me to go I was born under a wandrin' star A wandrin' wandrin' star When I get to heaven, tie me to a tree For I'll begin to roam and soon you'll know where I will be I was born under a wandrin' star A wandrin' wandrin' star (from Paint Your Wagon , Lerner & Loewe, 1951) When people ask me what my home town is, I am at a loss. I tell them I've moved around a l...