Sunday, February 13, 2011

Connectedness

Friday night Isaac and I went to the launch party for Rock & Sling, a journal that Whitworth University recently took over after it stopped publication a while back. One of my poems was published in the first new issue, so that's one of the main reasons we went to the reading/reception event, but I write about it to talk about how Isaac and I are getting folded into this crazy interconnected small-world community.

So we walk into Auntie's Bookstore. First person we see is our pastor, sitting up on the top floor where the reading was going to be. As we're waving, we run into one of Isaac's professors from Spokane Community College. He was also one of Thom Caraway's professors before Thom got his MFA at Eastern. Upstairs, we say hi to Thom Caraway, editor of Rock & Sling, who also happens to go to our church (which we found out months after my poem was accepted). His friend sitting next to him, an English professor at Gonzaga University, also goes to our church and was also published in the issue. When we find a spot to sit, we bump into my cousin Natalie's roommate Katie, who's an intern with Rock & Sling. Then a couple from our church small group. After a few people read, my professor, Chris Howell, gets up and reads some of his poetry. He was also published in this issue (which I was delighted to find out when I picked the journal up at AWP last week). After the reading, we stop to talk to Kristina and Ann, friends from school. A few more friends from school say hi on our way out.

Now, Spokane is not a small town. Small city, maybe, but a city nonetheless. Isaac and I are astonished and overwhelmed by how tight-knit and interconnected the community is and how easy it has been to become a part of it. It's almost like God planned for us to be here ;)