Midsummer Nights Dream

In the morning Roland and Sharon picked us up to go strawberry picking. They had been to a wedding last week and the conversation in the car was about the meaning of marriage vows. The minister had said that the primary task for the newlyweds was to serve and take care of each other. Sharon quite rightly says no, the primary task is for each individual to take care of himself, becauses only then will he/she be able to give. I agree with this. Caring for another should be a gift given in freedom and love, not a chore or obligation. Marriage should not be about chains that tie a couple to one another, but about journeying through life together as partners, and companions.

In the afternoon we went to see the musical Beauty and the Beast. That play moves me. The themes: that love cannot be about ownership (Gascon wants to own Belle, the beast keeps her prisoner to try to force her to love him); but about getting under the other persons skin, seeing beneath the surface (Belle discovers the vulnerable, the struggling human under the surface of the beast); allowing the needs of the beloved to come before ones own desires (the beast lets Belle go even though he risks never becoming human again, because she needs to help her father).

In the evening Mother and Father's midsummer potluck and bonfire. Before everyone came we celebrated Sharon's birthday (of last week) with presents. A variety of people came to the potluck: old friends of my parents, a couple of ladies from the German folksong group, a family from the Waldorf school, there were young children and a couple of girls in their early 20's that Ingvild could hang out with. There was lots of good food: vegetable curry with rice, macaroni and tuna salad, green salad, baked beans, boiled carrots and pickled red beets. For desert there was jello with pears, strawberry shortcake, and Sharon's carrot-coconut cake with cream cheese icing! When it started getting dark, we all went to the back garden here Father had prepared the bonfire, and as it it burned we sang rounds, the kids made s'mores and roasted marshmallows. Fireflies were flitting about. And in the summer sky, the moon, Venus, and Jupiter like jewels among the other stars...