Emmanuel and Amana

As promised by the voice of the nonviolent worm last night, I will soon post a report on the cosmology conference with links to web sites for the speakers. However, today I want my story of the universe to focus on my two young friends, Amana and Emmanuel, who celebrated their birthdays today, 8 and 5 respectively.

I got to know their mother, Deus, many years ago when her family had come to the USA as refugees from Ghana and were staying at one of the houses near Casa Maria, the Catholic Worker house of hospitality. I had seen Deus at prayer services at Casa Maria during the years when Amana and Emanuel were born but then lost track of her and the children.

To my surprise one day I saw Deus and her children at our small Catholic Church on the north side of Milwaukee. The children had grown and at first were bashful in my presence. But starting with Amana the shyness with me broke down and soon they were going around the church with me shaking hands at the sign of peace. Soon I was Uncle Bob to them and my wife was Auntie Pat, something they as other African friends understood, even though they were born in the USA. We shared many a doughnut after Church in the hall together.

Today Pat and I were invited to a birthday party at their house near our church. We were some of the first to arrive, and soon the three of us, Amana, Emmanuel and I, were having a good time on the front porch acting silly and playing simple games. The mother, Deus, is not a bit shy and was dancing inside, making a distinctive African sound with her tongue and chanting, “God is Good.” After a while many came, neighbors, old friends from Casa and relatives. I noticed that Amana and Emanuel became very quiet and shy as the numbers of people and noise of the party increased. At one point Emmanuel just stood in the corner with me quietly holding my hand. But after a while, the two children started to lose their shyness and got into the party spirit. However, their initial shyness, which their mother did not share at all, reminded me of myself as a child. My mother was very much a life-of-the-party kind of person whereas I, as a youth, was very quiet and shy. No one would accuse me of being quiet and shy today, but for a few moments today these two children of African ancestry reminded me of how I was at family celebrations, mostly with persons, like my mother, of Lebanese heritage.

I celebrate these two friends who, along with my other young friends and my grandchildren the Graf Kids, remind me of how simple joy can be and how noise can scare.

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