9 to 5

Today marked the 9th Annual Multicultural Festival of Owensboro - hosted by (and largely run by) First Presbyterian Church. Subsequently, I found myself enjoying the first reasonably warm summer day in a long, long time on the beautiful grounds of the church which has called me to pastor them.

The Multicultural Festival is something more of a fair or circus, without the games and with the addition of some hints dignity. In truth, the multiculturalism is hidden beneath the more palatable guise of "multiculturalism in America." Therefore, anything goes, including the opening ceremony consisting of "America the Beautiful," the presentation of the colors, a Scottish band (yes, bag pipes rule!) and a Chinese dragon you'd likely see the streets of Shanghai. That said, I was surprisingly pleased to look around at one point and notice several peoples and nations represented across the lawn. And, it is indeed a beautiful collection of cultures - everything from the slow grace of martial arts to the playful prancing of country cloggers. We even had four or five solid booths set up to taste the world - including Chinese and Filipino food, which was all fairly authentic. The Middle Eastern food was definitely true to form, and I had a great conversation with two men - one a professor of criminal justice at a nearby university and another a Muslim from the nearby city of Evansville. I - along with others - encouraged these men to open up a Middle Eastern eatery somewhere in Owensboro. The best we could get from them was an invitation to an international food day sometime in November.

I played master of ceremonies to one of the two stages set up for the day - announcing in brief the various acts: blue grass band, Aikido demonstration, Latino dancing, a Zumba class, and the "Footstomping Express Cloggers" to end the day.

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Today, also marked our 5th anniversary of marital life (Anna and I, that is). We nearly forgot to say congratulations to each other until we happened upon the farmer's market this morning. Actually, we knew it was coming up, but with multiple obligations creeping up and surrounding our lives, we had pushed hopes of celebrating our anniversary off into the coming week, which is why we suffered some amnesia. I couldn't let that stand, so we went with impromptu and bought some flowers at the farmer's market. And later we went to dine at Nikko's - the local eatery which actually seems worth finding a baby sitter, the time and the money to enjoy in Owensboro.

Wes