MISSIONARY INDEPENDENT SPIRITUAL CHURCH
Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 1
06-06-06
FUTURE HOME OF MISSIONARY INDEPENDENT SPIRITUAL CHURCH
666: THE NUMBER OF THE CHURCH
Today, June 6th, 2006 -- 06-06-06 -- siva and i awoke to a beautiful sunrise and decided to found our church. We decided on the name Missionary Independent Spiritual Church as best suiting our aims and goals. The acronym "MISC" -- which stands for "miscellaneous" in common parlance -- reflects our commitment to all forms of sincere spiritual belief and endeavour, and our interfaith ideals.
WORKING ON A BUILDING
On May 31st, 2006 we broke ground for the little candle shrine we are going to place outside the shop. Some of my students have heard about this building, and some have not. Some have actually contributed money to the Building Fund, for which we are most grateful.
Here's the story on our new building:
In 1961 a man named Mr. Don L. Burgess, who was a commercial advertising artist and a graphic designer, built a little private bus stop for his daughter Debbie. He made it out of used lumber from his old farm house which had been built in the 1880s. He designed it to look just like the Victorian farm house, with a four-square cross gable, clapboard siding, and neat trim. It stood there for years, on Laughlin Road, which was way the heck in the middle of nowhere in Sonoma County, next to a grove of Eucalyptus trees.
In the 1980s a small county airport was put in right near the Burgess property. Debbie had grown up and married. She lived nearby. Her dad died and her mom stayed on the old place, but no one used the beautiful bus stop anymore.
Fed-Ex started flying out of the little local airport in the 1990s and because siva and i work in the comics business, which runs on tight magazine deadlines, we'd drive to the Fed-Ex drop off at the airport twice a month or more, taking the back way, down Laughlin Road, past the little bus stop and the big Eucalyptus trees.
I loved that little building. I wanted to copy it on my own land. I wanted to photograph it. But for some reason we were always in a hurry, and i don't own a camera, and so we never did anything but say, "Isn't that a great little building?" whenever we passed it by.
Then, about a month ago, siva stopped the car and said, "It's all smashed!" -- and it was -- Debbie's husband was trimming up Eucalyptus trees and he had felled a limb right on top of the little building and crushed it! I was heartsore. I could tell that the people were not intending to save it.
I decided that all i could do was to make measured drawings, hoping that i could some day reconstruct the idea from my sketches. I was sitting inside, drawing away, when Debbie and her mother, Mrs. Burgess, drove up in their truck. They asked me what i was doing, and i said i loved the little bus stop and wanted to make drawings before it was chainsawed up and burned as trash. Debbie was sad that it had been crushed, and so was her mother. They told me about Mr. Burgess, and how he had built lovely porch gliders, and swings, and a big Victorian playhouse for Debbie (which she still has), and how talented he had been as an artist. So i asked them if i could buy the wreck of the bus stop and they said i could have it for free.
Next week a team of men will load it onto a flatbed truck and drive it here and a team of carpenters will rebuild it.
It will be restored and turned into a tiny temple. It just fits exactly between two beds of roses and naked ladies on my property, right outside my office door where there was nothing but a patch of blackberry bushes.
Fred Sampson, whom some of you know, has dug the blackberries out and established the new site perimeter. He will pour concrete for the pad by the end of this week. He will lay a flagstone path edged with brick and will be in charge of painting the building as well. Greg Sanford (who looks exactly like our statue of Dusty in the shop) will lead the moving crew and his team member Robert will lead the reconstruction crew.
We are going to paint it red and green, like the Mendocino joss house and other old Chinese vernacular joss houses in California. I am going to inter my mother's ashes under the floor, since it is her money that is paying for the thing.
It will have four candle altars and lots of gaudy, wonderful, colourful altar stuff, all packed into a tiny space about 7 feet by 7 feet and about 12 feet tall.
Photos of the ruined Burgess bus stop are here:
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/missionary-independent/photos/browse/4e8e?b=1&m=l
And i will post pictures of the beautiful tiny temple it will become as the work proceeds.
And here is a song that goes along with this project:
If I was a preaching man, I tell you what I'd do:
I'd preach the truth throughout the land
and work on a building, too.
I'm working on a building, I'm working on a building,
I'm working on a building for my Lord, for my Lord!
It's a Holy Ghost building, it's a Holy Ghost building,
It's a Holy Ghost building, for my Lord, for my Lord!
If I was a carpenter I tell you what I'd do:
I'd work all day and work all night
just to work on the building, too.
I'm working on a building, I'm working on a building,
I'm working on a building for my Lord, for my Lord!
It's a Holy Ghost building, it's a Holy Ghost building,
It's a Holy Ghost building, for my Lord, for my Lord!
If I was a ramblin' man, I tell you what I'd do:
I'd stop my rambling, stop my gambling,
and work on a building, too.
I'm working on a building, I'm working on a building,
I'm working on a building for my Lord, for my Lord!
It's a Holy Ghost building, it's a Holy Ghost building,
It's a Holy Ghost building, for my Lord, for my Lord!
If I was gambling man, I tell you what I'd do:
I'd throw away the Queen of Spades
and work on a building, too.
I'm working on a building, I'm working on a building,
I'm working on a building for my Lord, for my Lord!
It's a Holy Ghost building, it's a Holy Ghost building,
It's a Holy Ghost building, for my Lord, for my Lord!
If I was a sinner man, I tell you what I'd do:
I'd stop my sinning, start my praying,
and work on a building, too.
I'm working on a building, I'm working on a building,
I'm working on a building for my Lord, for my Lord!
It's a Holy Ghost building, it's a Holy Ghost building,
It's a Holy Ghost building, for my Lord, for my Lord!
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