Poetry in Motion

In a moving vehicle like Priscilla, anything that’s not lashed, tied down, blocked, bungee’d, velcro’d or otherwise Gorilla-glued promises to slide, flip, roll or go airborne around tight turns or with sudden stops. Like that large pot of Beet and Cabbage Borscht on the stove. That’s precisely why there’s a bungee cord securing it in place. Never thought I’d see that. But then, there’s a lot I’m seeing for the first time. Yesterday in Laramie, Wyoming, at still another truck stop, there was a Trucker’s Christian Chapel off to the side of the mega-convenience store. As a grateful member of Alcoholic Anonymous, who has spent countless hours in the basements and multi-purpose rooms of churches, I was intrigued. Besides, I hadn’t been to a meeting since leaving the Bay Area and this seemed like a close second. The chapel structure was nothing more than a converted semi-trailer once used as a walk-in refrigerator for a Burger King.

I went inside.

AA meetings come in every size and shape. Early in sobriety, after a particular rough night, I went to a 5:30 AM meeting close to home. There were nine of us. Six months later at the 39^th Annual ACYPAA Conference, I recited the Serenity Prayer along with 2700 others. It’s often said in the program that two alcoholics sharing a cup of coffee constitutes a meeting.

And that’s pretty much what happened. On its walls were the trappings of Christianity. And, as in the rooms of AA, there were lots of pamphlets available for the taking. AA has a pamphlet for just about everything.

Chaplain Don Martin, a beatific 67 year-old originally from Oregon, moved to Laramie with his wife in 1968. He has ministered to truckers here for some 14 years.

The chapel is open for drop-in reflective prayer Monday through Saturday from 3:00 PM until 10:00 PM. On Sundays, there are Morning Services and Evening Bible Study.

I sat down at one of the 14 forward-facing chairs, lifting a King James Bible off the floor. Like a heat-seeking missile, my fingers turned its pages to the Book of Ecclesiastes, from whence came the lyrics of The Byrd’s Turn! Turn! Turn!        

“To every thing Turn! Turn! Turn!

There is a season Turn! Turn! Turn!

And a time to every purpose under heaven…”

  

Don got up from his desk chair, taking

a seat across the aisle from me. After a tacit nod,

I read aloud from the beginning until I had completed the passage of verse Pete Seager had adapted and set to music in 1959 and that became a hit for The Byrds in 1965.

So, yeah, there wasn’t hot coffee waiting on a counter and nobody got up to read How It Works, from Chapter 5 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.

But for a fleeting moment at a makeshift chapel in Laramie, Wyoming, Don M. and Michael E. got in touch with God, As We Understood Him.

Amen!