Coffee and Stuff
Old men sat in the streets; they all talked together of good things…
1 Maccabees 14:9
A handful of Trinity women who have come together to begin a new Women’s Group™. I am thrilled about this, and it is taking all my self-restraint not to meddle. If you are a woman—and only you get to decide that, by the way—you should talk to Nancy Nicolson, Stephanie Foy, or Meg Gardner. There are surely others by now, but those are the names I know as of this writing. They want to create a fellowship, go to museums, have conversations, and generally build relationships in a Christian context. Deo Gracias!
Meanwhile, I have been thinking quite a lot recently about folks who are not self-identified women. We have many folks at Trinity, mostly retired men, whom I would love to see do something similar for themselves. An article in this week’s The Atlantic magazine talks about the impact of retirement on people’s health, especially men’s health, and the importance of building one’s identity beyond job and career, something women tend to have more practice doing. I wonder whether there are men at Trinity who would be interested in getting more practice.
The Atlantic article talks about a lot of things, but I was especially interested in the paragraph about Gary Givler, a 77-year-old retired Episcopal deacon in Batavia, Ohio who runs a group of retirees who are men. They meet every Monday morning for breakfast and conversation. It reminded me of my friend Mike who leads a group of men at his church up in Phoenix who call themselves “Men Who Do Stuff.” They get together regularly to pick projects around the church and grounds they want to work on together. Conversation may or may not happen for these guys. Mostly they just do stuff: spread mulch, touch-up paint, scrape the grill, trim some trees. You know, stuff. They’re happy as clams—and so is their sexton.
My sense of the men at Trinity is that they are more stuff-doers than conversationalists, but I could be wrong. I wonder what it would be like if a bunch of our guys got together one morning to figure that out? I would initiate it, but I am firmly identified as a woman who is not retired. Besides, I’d just turn it into a Bible Study. What about you? I bet there’s a table at the Towson Diner just perfect for a few guys, coffee, and stuff.
In peace,
