September 9 mother's birthday, Peter Claver, and Kieran

John and Thommy

Good morning
I love you

September 9
Your mother’s birthday – 1950

What can your father tell you about your mother? What should he? And for whose/what benefit? Maybe at 19 and 21, it’s time to read/hear more about your mother – you should get primary source information from your aunts [though I’d take whatever Natalie said with a large grain of salt; Ginger on the other hand, I would accept as from a source of authentic love and honesty] and uncle [a brother’s point of view, a much younger brother’s point of view, may be of better relevance for a son.?] There are certainly people in the Jones family as well as Robert E. Lee and neighborhood folks who can give you more about her…. It is important to know from whom you come…. You are your mother’s son – seemingly not unlike I am my mother’s son - - since each of our mothers have many of the same traits [few of which I’d recommend assimilating….]. [yes, it is likely that a boy marries his mother…. That’s why the rites and rituals of courtship – get a complete social history of your intended, long before she is an intended anything. Get to know her mother – she is likely to become very much like her mother….. but I digress.]

What can I tell you about your mother? I know some of her history – especially from 1980 to now. She told me about before 1980 – and there are pieces of paper floating amidst the four and a half tons of stuff. The sources I recommended to you have been sources for me. As were her father and her mother. As was her husband [i.e., Rick Redmon – google-able, Montgomery, AL].

Facts and figures are the least likely to be mispresented through my prism of feeloughts about your mother. But even those, like her medical history [of high importance to each of you], would be selective based on what she revealed. And any of my telling you about them might be misinterpreted as to motivation. E.g., why would a father be sure that his sons knew that their mother has genital herpes or is manic depressive?

Her academic history and her professional history, i.e., facts, are public record enough for you to cipher. High School in late 1060’s Robert E. Lee High School, Montgomery, AL. imagine what kind of school that was…. College then grad schools on to her Ph.D. in Marketing from UA – where she and I met.

The history of your mother’s and my relationship(s) with one another [plural is probably the correct noun] is thoroughly documented in the papers et al. of her divorce [a good portion of which make up much of the four and a half tons of stuff at my place in GSO]. One man’s point of view – intense feeloughts, maybe even some useful insights. Maybe the insights into your father are better reasons for reading that stuff.


What should I tell you? All the stuff I have saved is yours to do with as you please. (It may all get scanned and blogged for all posterity.) You have your experience of your mother. Valuable knowledge and lessons. And insufficient. You should seek others’, especially my, experience with your mother so that you can not only have information and analysis et al. that will serve you in your relationship with her, it will also be crucial in your relationships with all females of our species…. So, I should tell you about what you ask. And I should tell you what I believe is useful to you… that’s why all the writings have been saved – so you have my feeloughts in the moment; plus a few reflections….. good luck….



On your mother’s birthday,
September 9
we celebrate

Peter Claver, SJ
and
Kieran [Kevin] the younger.


Peter Claver b. 1580 d. 1654 beat. 1850 c. 1888

St. Peter Claver was born at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, of impoverished parents. He studied at the Jesuit college of Barcelona, entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona in 1602 and took his final vows on August 8th, 1604. While studying philosophy at Majorca, the young religious was influenced by St. Alphonsus Rodriguez to go to the Indies and save "millions of perishing souls."

The relationship between Peter Claver and Alphonsus Rodriquez is worth imbibing. Two saintly men from very different families meet in the Society of Jesus…. You, too, will meet men [and I hope lots of them] with whom you will have the opportunity to become friends – choose wisely, I pray…. And, through whom you may cipher your vocation…. And from whom you may draw the strength to fulfill your vocation.

In 1610, Peter Claver landed at Cartagena (modern Colombia), the principle slave market of the New World, where a thousand slaves were landed every month. After his ordination in 1616, he dedicated himself by special vow to the service of the Negro slaves-a work that was to last for thirty-three years.

When you find your vocation – make a vow to fulfill it! When you find the journey on which you will pursue your vocation, like Peter Claver’s serving the slaves, dedicate yourself to it! [fulfilling vows is not something you inherited from your mother; nor learned from her. Promise. Vow. Commit. Forever, no matter what. That is something more Catholic that she has to offer you. However, since Vows are fundamentally Love, reach into God’s Love of you and express that in your vocation; you’ll get it eventually….]


Through Peter Claver’s efforts three hundred thousand souls entered the Church.

Know the metrics of your vocation. How do you know you’re actually achieving what you’ve been called to do? Or at work [or any other commitment you make], be able to demonstrate [with numbers!] how well you are doing so….






Kieran the Younger
One of the twelve apostles of Ireland

Born in Connacht, the son of a carpenter. [the song… if I were a carpenter, would you marry me anyway?.... something John, our carpenter, might have to rephrase….]

Keiran studied at St Finnian’s school at Clonard. Kieran was reputedly the most learned monks at this center for the best and the brightest Ireland had to offer. [I’d say the Harvard of its time except it was a school of faith as well as learning.] Dare I say again, it does matter where you get your education. E.g., the public schools of Montgomery AL or the Catholic schools of Portland and NYC --- could be that such education does not make for good bedfellows. [I’m guessing that it had to do with more fundamentals than schools but the schools do make the person, too.]

Kieran spent seven years at Inishmore with St Enda [not with in the ‘modern’ sense ow ‘with’. Coincident presence. Shared vocations and faith. Enriching one another.] Then, Kieran went to Isel monastery and some time on Inis Aingin. It does matter, the course of your education, your training, the depth of your immersion into your vocation, the honing of your skills as well as y our vows. The place. The people who teach there. The people with whom you learn. All help our become a hindrance. But, ultimately, you decide how well you will use God’s gifts and the resources He’s given you.

Auburn-troy, Montgomery, Alabama, GW, and back home Alabama. Or, Jesuit novitiate [with side trips to Berkshire Community College, Fairfield U, and Boston College], Bama, an excursion to U Oregon; the back home Alabama.. And the trajectories crossed in an office in Bidgood ….

Kieran and eight companions built a monastery in Offaly – the reknowned Clonmacnois Monastery, The greatest Irish center of learning for centuries. Kieran was chosen Abbot.


Happy mother’s birthday
I love you

Dad