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How to Write & Publish Books of Blues. Hopefully.

How to Write & Publish Books of Blues. Hopefully.

Nat Finn's first series of novels / new books

You are here: Home / Essence of Blues / Why Churches Make for Great Wakes

Why Churches Make for Great Wakes

September 29, 2008 By Finn Leave a Comment

My mother told me the news in that “I haven’t had a chance to tell him,” sort of way as we rode with my grandfather to our Sunday night dinner.

I knew who my great uncle was more than I knew him. We were family though we weren’t that close. We weren’t distant – he lived along a long country street with my grandmother’s family but for the couple years he lived in Minnesota (I don’t normally mention Minnesota this much in a lifetime). Our relationship was a textbook case of happen-chance among extended family. All the same, I respected and took pride in him. He ran the physical plant services at Valparaiso University. They named the energy center after him some time ago.

A crafted stone baptismal fountain in the sanctuary of Immanuel Lutheran Church. iPhone photo by DB Fraizer
A crafted stone baptismal fountain in the sanctuary of Immanuel Lutheran Church. iPhone photo by DB Fraizer

But as we went in to Immanuel Lutheran Church to attend my great uncle’s wake, I quickly became re-reminded of the power atmospherics play in an event: thick brick walls, rustic stone floor, a sizable, soothing baptismal fountain and a big pipe organ that is rumored to have been donated by my great-grandmother (my grandfather denies the rumor so much that it only makes it plausible). I’m not saying that DaVinci’s work adorn the walls and Michelangelo painted the ceiling, but the first “Christian” churches were little hidden rooms in the back of store thatches, out of site from the Roman government that would have hauled them away had they been found.

And, yes, they were found often.

I’m not trying to claim “victim” for the Church, they were persecuted until they got power and then they persecuted until a balance was maintain (if…but that’s a story for another day), but Immanuel Lutheran Church does a great job holding to the materials, colors and tones of the biblical area, mixed with a big pipe organ. The ambiance artistically pays homage to the beauty and humility of the Church as opposed to the power, majesty or fraternity most churches project. No gold chalices and blue-eyed Jesus’ in these dwellings. Immanuel Lutheran Church has the blend of beauty and respect you can’t find in a funeral parlor, making it the archetypal reason why churches make for great wakes. That, and that metaphysical connection…

It’s those little things this lowly copywriter (or copy writer) from the Chicago, IL area tried to keep in mind, that penitent sense of beauty and respect, as I wrote my book of blues. It’s the same approach I strive for now as I try to learn how to publish a book of blues.

4 Days til I venture to Minneapolis.

Last updated by Finn at April 7, 2020.

AKIN

Previous Website Post: Plans for Minnesota – Awaiting My Cousin’s Unbiased Book Edits
Next Website Post: The damned distraction called the 2008 Chicago Cubs

Filed Under: Denom University, Essence of Blues, Life Face Slap Tagged With: Book of Blues, DB Fraizer

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