Neighbors

I've now officially met more neighbors in my country house than I ever did living in the city.

There's the YardGuy* and his lovely wife, the Conversationalist. They live up the hill from us, and are delightful people. The Conversationalist gave Paddy a number of lovely plants, which are now merrily growing in our cottage garden.

There's the Mule Guy. He is what we call around these parts, a character. He goes to the local fairs with his mules, and has a mustache that simply will not quit. He's got that way of speaking that is at once incredibly odd and endlessly fascinating.  There's a bit of curmudgeon in there as well.

There's Elk Jewelry Girl and her German Beau. Interesting folks who are renting the property that simply has a great big garage/workshop on it, and living out of their RV.

Yesterday, we met Terminal Preacher and her husband. She runs a home church for terminally ill people, and has cancer herself. We had a fascinating conversation, about the similarities between Pentacostalism and Johannite Gnosticism. There are more than one would think initially: The personal nature of the relationship to divinity (in their form symbolized as Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit), the nature of the gnostic experience ("slain in the spirit"), and the primacy of the individual relationship to the divine over doctrine.

There are differences, of course. Their approach is more emotion based, ours is more intellectual and we have a ton more ritual, but we came to that common ground of helping those who are seeking find the Divine. It was a lovely conversation, and I can't wait to take in a service of theirs.

*All names are changed to protect the innocent.

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