I have never blogged before so if I don’t sound very “bloggish” please excuse me.  I am almost a week into my sabbatical and much of the first week was spent with my extended family at my sister and brother-in-law’s 50th wedding anniversary in Hot Springs, AR.  They had it there because that was where they went on their honeymoom 50 years ago.  I was twelve at the time of their wedding, too old to be a ring bearer and too young to be a groomsman, so, all I could do was see how much mischief I could get into with the grooms young brother who was about my age.  We tried to pick up with the mischief where we left off at the wedding.  But even there, with our attention on family matters, we couldn’t help but notice the neighbors.  The young woman cleaning the hotel rooms had a very Latino look to her and I wanted to ask her to tell me her story, where she came from and how it was going for her.  I took my bicycle along and did a couple of morning rides.  On one of them I passed two men who looked very much like the characters in the movie “El Norte.”  They were standing beside the road with lunch boxes, obviously waiting for someone who needed some strong arms and backs to come by and give them work.  I am passing my neighbors all the time just as you are, often without giving them a thought.  I hope that by the time my sabbatical is over, I will be much more attentive to my neighbors, and to our Lord’s command to love them.  I leave for Garden City tomorrow where I will be spending time with Tony Mendez, pastor of Iglesia Luterana de la resurreccion, and visiting UMMAM, (The United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries). I look forward to just being with them, watching what they do, and the people they love and care for. I look forward to gaining enough proficiency in Spanish that the staccato of unintelligible sounds that are nothing but noise to me now, can begin to impart to me the thoughts and ideas, hopes and fears of the neighbors who surround me.  I am almost finished with the book, “They Are Us” by Bouman and Deffenbaugh, and have started reading “Open Veins of Latin America” by Eduardo Galeano, a history of the interaction between the Europeans and the Native Americans over the past five centuries.  This book was presented to President Barack Obama by Latin American Leaders when they met with him. I would recommend both books to anyone who is interested in some good reading material for the summer.  vaya con dios and hasta luego.