16th July 2012, Monday

Pictured are 3 headstones from a cemetery in Gee's Bend. I had been to Church the day before in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. King Solomon's wisdom was the subject of Bible study for the day in the tiny country church. The story was about 2 harlots living in the same house; they had each had a baby boy within a few days of each other. One night one of the women "overlaid" her baby, smothering him. This mother then tried to claim that the living baby boy was her own baby. The women went to King Solomon to resolve the dispute. He proposed that they split the living baby in half with a sword, and each keep one half of him. At this point the true mother says that the other mother can just keep the baby. This is the moment when King Solomon knows that the woman who would give the baby up is the true mother as she possesses the depth of feeling for the living baby. As I had never read this section of the bible, I was a bit surprised and disturbed. But then the reflection and conversation among the congregation was quite deep and sensitive. A few women reminded the group of the need for us to be empathetic and careful, as some had experienced various issues with parenting infants. One woman recalled an accident that had happened when her child was an infant. After joining in on Sunday school at the little wooden church, I was taken down the road to a bigger brick building for church service. As I didn't have a bible with me, the woman I was sitting next to let me look over her shoulder at her smart phone. She had an app that enabled her to pull up any verse of the bible. Although she was fully and enthusiastically engaged in the service, she managed to text frequently during the 2 hours that we were seated next to each other. ,,,,