Seven Pages a Day: Living the Dream

Let me tell you the best way to read fairy tales:  snuggled under a blanket on an overstuffed couch with your favorite wiggleworm tucked under your arm. 

Let me tell you the worst way to read the Gospel of John:  in a metal trailer with the acoustics of Carnegie hall, walls the consistency of typing paper, an adorable three year old (my third cousin and favorite wiggleworm, Ivan) and an entirely edible 11month old (his little sister, Emma). 

But I did it!  I read my seven pages a day while visiting my cousins on Rosebud Reservation.  Granted, the words rattled off the page and around in my head like pebbles in a tin can.  Therefore, comprehension, like visibility in a blizzard, was low.  Memory retention was not much better…about as good as a woman deep into menopause.

Most of the time has been spent with my most excellent second cousins, Lucero and Jonathan, and Lucero’s husband Geo (cousin-in-law?) and their two aforementioned children.  Sadly, their other brother Alex, who is working in Alaska, couldn’t join us.  Lucero, Jonathan and Alex are the kids of my first cousin, Shawn and her husband Al, who is…aww, heck, forget.  We’re all just family.

Lucero works for Teach for America.  Teach For America (TFA) is an American non-profit organization that aims to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting recent college graduates and professionals to teach for two or more years in low-income communities throughout the United States.  She teaches fourth grade at St. Francis Mission School in St. Francis, SD.  St. Francis Mission is a ministry of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) among the 20,000 Lakota (Sioux) people on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota.

Lucero leaves for school between 7 and 8am.  During the day, while Lucero teaches, her husband and brother take care of the children.  I feel like I’ve been in a Language Immersion intensive all week, because Jonathan and Geo (who is from the Honduras) both speak Spanish and English to Ivan and Emma.  Last fall I took a seven week beginners Spanish class.  I’m happy to say most of the time I was able to follow some of the simpler conversations. 

While they care for the kids, both Geo and Jonathan find time to fix tasty meals of fried bread and eggs, pancakes with fried apples, fried steak and vegetables, rice and refried beans.  At some point in the day, we were taken on walks with their feisty pup, Oso (Spanish for Bear, because he looked like a bear as a baby) to tour the small town of St. Francis.  At other points we were taken on walks with Geo and their two legged feisty pup, Ivan, to the jungle gym.  This is affectionately called “Mas” for “more” by Ivan and family, because Ivan always wants “mas, mas!” 

Somehow, breakfast and lunch have appeared amidst all this activity, and then it’s time for dinner.  An exhausted Lucero arrives home around 7pm after a day of working with her youngsters.  She unwinds just long enough to eat and play with her much-loved children before we all think it’s about time to pass out.  This is Lucero’s routine except for the few nights she goes to school at the Sinte Gleska University.

Even in the midst of all this hustle and bustle, Jonathan has been a generous host.  He took the time to arrange tours of the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum in St. Francis (named for Jesuit priest Fr. Buechel).  The Museum's purpose is to show the enduring respect for the traditions, culture, and history of the Lakota of the Rosebud Reservation. Named after Father Eugene Buechel, S.J., a noted missionary, linguist, and ethnologist who came to St. Francis Mission in 1902, the museum contains many unique artifacts, images, and documents.

We also toured St. Charles Borromeo Church.  It’s a beautiful lavender structure built in 1921, following a fire that destroyed it in 1916.   It blends traditional Lakota artwork with the story of Christ told through leaded stained glass windows and the Stations of the Cross.

Jonathan also played tour director, guiding us through South Dakota to Pine Ridge in Pine Ridge Reservation and on to within spitting distance of the Black Hills.  We also walked along the edges of the breathtaking badlands.

In Pine Ridge, we visited Higher Grounds, a coffee house there that would rival any in Chicago, before going to White Clay, where we bought a quilt made by the women of Pine Ridge.   After that we visited the Heritage Center, located on the property of the Red Cloud Indian School.  This center is managed by the Jesuits, as well.  It seeks to strengthen cultural pride and celebrate, as well as preserve, the local Lakota cultural artistic and tradition. 

Then we went to Wounded Knee, a piece of American history that still breaks my heart.  The museum was closed, but we were able to climb the hill to the cemetery and view the mass grave where the Indians were tossed after the massacre.  Frankly, I was glad the museum was closed.  It seemed more fitting to simply mourn the horror of what had happened there.

On Thursday, our last day here, we talked Lucero into calling in “sick” to work so we can spend the day together and have a picnic in the Niobrara Wildlife Refuge.  Of course, it rained.  Lucero, John, and Jonathan made us apple pancakes for breakfast instead while I worked on my blog and Geo played with Emma.   Ivan played with a musical toy, which got a sick to the stomach.   I was required to fix it.  This led to Ivan’s first lesson in clearing chakras.  Oso sat at my feet eating…hey, Oso! Stop that!  No!  No paper!  Oh well, too late.

Later that afternoon we were able to visit the NWR.  I have never seen Prairie dogs before.  Boy, were they adorable!  We also got to drive right through a small herd of buffalo.  What gentle creatures. 

Geo, Lucero and Jonathan have shared with us this week their dreams of buying a farm on the east coast in a few years.  They plan to raise their own organic vegetables and start a restaurant.  Other possibilities are all a part of this dream—gardens for meditation, flower essences, essential oils and herbs, a bed and breakfast, a place to raise their children that is as close to off the grid as this country will allow anymore.   Jonathan tells me of their love for family, the importance of maintaining connections to the generations behind and beyond.  I watch Geo during these conversations, often silent because of the language barrier between us, and consider the sacrifices he has made in leaving his family behind in the Hondoras.  I am amazed  by his love for and dedication to his new, little family here in North America. 

Maybe they wouldn’t agree, but I think they have already begun to live their dream.  In order to survive a family must be generous, welcoming, hardworking, sacrificial, and forgiving.  I saw all these qualities and so many more in the day-to-day activities of my cousins—my little bit of extended family.  It is humbling and inspiring to me, especially when I consider what a shambles my own "family of origin" is in—held together in my heart right now by nothing more than grit and prayer. 

Was Jesus feeling the same sadness for lost family the last night of his life, when he prayed for the disciples that he was about to leave, and for all those who would believe in him in the future (John 17)? He probably saw the same thing happening to the family he sought to create in his three short years of ministry.  There would be disastrous betrayals that would cause irreparable loss as well as enduring commitments that would continue to draw people together in spite of themselves. 

He would pray for them all to be one in the Spirit of Love, which is God.  He would ask that they love one another, which is the gospel.  It was his dream, his most precious dream.  I’m happy to report it’s alive and well, and living in a little trailer in St. Francis, South Dakota. 

Well, that’s it for the Gospel of John.  I’d say more if I could, but I’ve been too busy this week.  Gotta go now. We’re off for another adventure…one more before I go.