On this island a kid can have a pitching coach at eight and a tutor for a test three years off. As adults, we get graded too, at work and at home, and even the watch on your wrist sometimes has feedback about how you slept. A lot of us know it’s too much and can’t see how to be the one house on the street that slows things down. This Sunday is about where the never-ending scoreboard came from, which is older than the country, and the one hour a week where nobody keeps one on you. On the country, we absolutely will, for the next seven Sundays. Before the kids head to their first classes, everybody gets the year’s first homework, kids included, due anytime. If you’re behind on everything, come anyway, since nothing here counts against you.
The Company We Keep, a series through the election
The Mayflower was a business venture. Investors in London owned the voyage, the people on it owed them seven years of work, and that company has had a lot of different names since. Starting this Sunday, Rev. Israel’s seven services between now and November 8 tell the story of this country one piece at a time, each week built around one thing you can hold in your hand, starting with a report card, and each week asking what people did anyway, then and now, and who we’re still becoming. Come to one or all seven. The last one ends at a potluck, the Sunday after the election.