Thursday, April 10, 2008. I drove from Duluth to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul if any are reading from outside Minnesota) for a denominational committee meeting. A blizzard warning had been posted for Duluth beginning at 7 p.m. that evening and the storm was supposed to be coming from the south, so there was a bit of foreboding in the air. I knew I would be back in Duluth well before 7 p.m. and was not terribly concerned about the pending storm. Forgive my skepticism, but forecasters are mistaken often enough about the weather to make me take each prognostication with a grain of salt.

Driving to the Twin Cities, I engaged in some typical activities. I spent some time in prayer. When I was a district superintendent in Northwest Minnesota, driving 35,000 miles a year, my car became a great vehicle for prayer (poor pun intended!). I listened to Minnesota Public Radio, our state’s version of National Public Radio, and a very good one. Again, when I was a district superintendent, I knew just when I had to change from one MPR station outlet to the next – from St. Cloud, to Bemidji, to Fargo, and I knew the station location. My children thought that was a sad commentary on my life at the time. Listening to the world and praying are two vital activities for my life and faith. I listened to a cycle of the news on “Morning Edition”. Then I popped a CD into the player – Led Zeppelin IV. It is one of the great rock and roll records of all time. It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled…Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time. You can hear hard-driving blues, melodic rock, and the hauntingly beautiful “Stairway to Heaven.” By then I was in the metro area and tuned into the local jazz and traffic station.



As my meeting ended, rain was falling, and the winds were blowing with tremendous gusts – but no snow. I turned the radio on and listened again to MPR/NPR, this time to “All Things Considered.” I drove out of the rain, and as the cycle of stories began again on the radio, I put in another CD – Count Basie and His Orchestra, April in Paris. This probably isn’t a classic jazz record in the way that Led Zeppelin IV is a classic rock album, but I enjoy this record a lot. It starts with the cover art – the cool Count Basie, beret fashionably tilted on his head handing an older Parisian woman a bright red bouquet of flowers. “Flower power” a dozen years before it caught on in other quarters! The music itself is thoroughly enjoyable. It lifts the spirits and brings a smile. At the end of the title track, “April in Paris,” Count Basie encourages the band – “One more time,” and when that isn’t quite enough, he calls out – “one more once.” This is the kind of record I could listen to one more once.



When I arrived back in Duluth, there was not a snow flake in sight, though the winds were continuing to howl. If and when the snow falls it will blow fiercely. I stopped by my office and checked mail and e-mail for the day and went home to share dinner with my family. I always enjoy this, though it is too infrequent given our respective schedules.

In the evening, I spent some time reading the Bible and working on my blogging through the New Testament. I am on the last leg of a journey to read the New Testament with my congregation, five chapters a week for a year. Along the way, I have been blogging about the passages for the week.

The Twins game was cancelled for the day due to poor weather in Chicago. As evening turned to night, I turned to baseball in a book. I read Roger Angell’s essay on the 1965 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Minnesota Twins from his book The Summer Game.






At 10 p.m. the snow still had not fallen, though many institutions were closing for the following day, given the forecast. The snow finally arrived hours later than predicted, and it turned into quite a spring blizzard.

But this day before the blizzard was pleasant, enjoyable and symbolic of some of the important elements in my life – family, faith and prayer, concern for the world, music from Led Zeppelin to Count Basie, a little reading, a little baseball.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David