Peace of My Mind: Come back with some seasoning

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Shortly after my parents were married, they moved to Lapwai, Idaho, to work among the Native Americans there. Times were tough in the early 1930s, and they survived on a steady diet of potatoes and venison. Before they moved to Oregon in 1934 for my father to finish college, my mother was given a precious gift a book published in 1871 in the Nez Perce language. It has been a family treasure ever since. It was presented by a tribal member, Stephen Reuben, as a Christmas gift in 1933. I need to do more research, but Stephen may have been related to one of the honored chiefs, James Reuben, a contemporary of Joseph, White Bird, Looking Glass, and others who led the unsuccessful fight to retain their sacred tribal lands in Idaho and Oregon.

Thirty-six years later, I found myself standing in the pulpit of the old Methodist church in that community. Built of solid rock, it was no doubt the same place my father had preached decades earlier. It was humbling but I did my best job. Actually, as I recall, I felt quite proud of myself for being so eloquent. You must understand that I was new to such endeavors and still very wet behind my ears. The people were kind and affirming as they left the building. However, one older couple remained behind. The wife was an attractive grandmotherly person. Her husband had a regal presence, a calmness and wisdom that needed no words to convey.

He gently asked if I had time to talk, and when I said, "Yes," he escorted me to the front pew, politely asked me to sit, and began the most eloquent speech I've ever heard. I remember few of his exact words, but the gist of his message is forever embedded in my memory. He praised me for my correct grammar. Then, with not even the slightest hint of judgment or criticism, he suggested I would benefit greatly from another decade of living. He offered that I had all the right words but lacked the necessary depth and heart and soul. Interestingly, I was not at all offended. OK, maybe I was a little bit impatient. After all, it was well past noon. I was hungry and had a 40-mile drive up to our Camas Prairie home. However, he was just warming to the task. Forty-five minutes later he finally came to the conclusion.

As I made my way back up the steep canyon highway, I had time to reflect. His basic theme was you can go to school and learn all the mechanics, but you must eventually integrate that knowledge with your emotions and weave it into your heart. Knowing is only the first and perhaps easiest step. I didn't receive this profound lecture so much with my ears as with my soul, which may explain why it's still so fresh in my memory. He taught me in those brief moments together that experiencing life's ups and downs is part of our human condition and that I needed to rise to the heights of joy and descend into the depths of despair, patiently endure physical and emotional pain, become better acquainted with success and failure and struggle with life's inevitable ambiguities and unfairness. Then he said he'd like me to return to Lapwai to give it another try. Perhaps some day I will.

P.S.: I believe this wise elder I encountered in late November 1969 may well have been the same Stephen Reuben who befriended my parents almost four decades earlier. Isn't life fascinating when you stay awake and pay attention?

Kel Groseclose is the retired associate pastor of the Wenatchee First United Methodist Church. His column appears each Thursday. He can be reached at kegroseclose@gmail.com.

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Additional information:

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