Presidential Ponderings: 9-3

When El Gordo was 12, his parents let him name his baby sister.

He named her after the Hot Dog Queen at the county fair in Danville, IL because she was "so pretty."

When I ask my mom how I got MY name, she explains casually that my dad named me and I never asked him where it came from. The census data says that Rebecca was the 12th most popular name in 1977 so I figured it was just the zeitgeist.

Cheryl told the story this week that during her last trimester preganant with me, El Gordo got 4 tickets to see Dolly Parton. I was later than expected so I was 10 days old on the night of the concert. Mom declared that she couldn't sit in the front row, right in front of Dolly, with a giant breastfeeding bosom and feel good about it so they gave the tickets away.

I learned last week that Dolly Parton's middle name is Rebecca and all I can imagine is El Gordo's excitement to name another baby combined with his excitement for the concert. I think maybe it's safe to say that I figured out my namesake.

A smiling woman with short dark hair and glasses wears a colorful paisley blouse in the foreground, with a blurred outdoor background of trees and a railing.

Dolly famously advised folks to "Figure out who you are, then do it on purpose."

During my last book group with El Gordo, we both read Richard Rohr's Falling Upward, A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. Father Rohr offers a similar thought, “When you get your 'Who am I?' question right, all of your 'What should I do?' questions tend to take care of themselves."

Last week, because of this newsletter, I got to have lunch with one of my dad's oldest friends on a beautiful restaurant patio. He was telling me about his spiritual practice of morning meditations and poetry, then he quoted for me this line from Mary Oliver, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

If there is a benefit to the way that my father's death and my ex-husband's abandonment upended my life in my mid-40s, it is the chance to discern again who I am and what I should on purpose with this one wild and precious life.

I am a mother and a daughter and an artist and a neurodivergent intellectual and I am made in the image of a God who will never stop loving me.

And last week I finally distilled my vocation into a list:

To quilt and to write and to walk alongside the legacy of my dad.

Thanks for walking alongside me as I build a living out of doing all three.

Sincerely,

Rebecca