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| THE BENEFITS OF HAND LABELING |
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A secretary I am not. Yet, ever since giving up my day job a quarter
century ago, I've been forced into
being just that. A secretary.
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I'm not a detail person. I was spoiled by fine secretaries who put my things in order and sent them out
looking good and proper. One thing I never had to do was hand label
addresses onto mailings. I suspect that in my previous existence the
mailings were machine labeled. |
So every couple of weeks, more or less, I do one of my least favorite things. Get my few ideas into
shape for sending to friends, relatives and colleagues around the country. |
Fortunately for me, the computer rocketed onto the world scene at about the same time I started my
secretarial career. How did we get things done before we had computers
and printers and databases that we could update with a few keystrokes?
There are already two generations of clergy that don't know what a
Selectric typewriter is—or was. Or a mimeograph machine. Alas. I notice
that even my spell-check rejects the word “Selectric.” |
With my labels safely printed—never a sure thing—I begin pulling on the labels. The first one is always
for some folks in Vermont. As I go pasting on labels, thoughts of the
different people come to mind. I know a good many, even though the
years make it questionable whether I could pick them out of a police
line-up—not that any of my readers would be found there. |
It is something like doing a prayer list, not that I have time or inclination for that. But I do send out some
zaps of blessings and good wishes as I go along. What God adds to them I’ll never know. |
While doing the last mailing I paused at a name, remembering that the persons were people for whom I
had done a wedding. (I almost said, performed a wedding~” I’ve
decided its better for clergy to do weddings than perform them.) I
decided to keep track of my wedding couples as I labeled. |
More than I of every 10 labels had the name of someone in my “wedding” category. Some of these
weddings have produced long marriages with many children and grandchildren. Others, of course, have
changed course and are no longer married. My won-lost record is better than the national average, I might add. |
The thought came that I should speak an encouraging word to my wedding people. I think that
whatever wisdom or encouragement that works for my couples should work for all.
What it means to love a person or a place:
1. To want to be near it, physically
2. To want to know everything about it—its stories, its moods, what I looks like in the moonlight
3. To rejoice in the fact of ft.
4. To fear its loss, and grieve for its injuries.
5. To protect It—fiercely, mindlessly, futilely, and maybe tragically, but be helpless to do otherwise.
6. To be transformed in its presence, lifted, lighter on your feet, transparent, open to evetything new.
7. To want to be joined with it, taken in by it, lost in it.
8. To want the best for it.
9. Desperately.
10. To accept moral responsibility for its well-being. (p. 35, 36)
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Pause here and make a list of the “its”you love. Spouse, friend, parent, child, house, place or places,
country or world. Then apply Kathleen Moore’s love meanings. Especially number 10. |
I wish I had those thot~ghts available when I was doing those weddings. They would have been good to
include in the service. Since I have some of you on my label list you are getting them now. |
You see, this thought would not have come to me were I not going through my labels one at a time,
pasting
your names to the blue sheet. I’m almost looking forward to the next
mailing when I may try to isolate another category. Who knows what
belated wisdom I will choose to add? Hand labeling may be slow and
tedious, but It is mighty personal. My fingerprint is on every name,
and my thought touches every person.— Art Morgan, November 2004
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