Just Call Me Tevye

Some of my favorite memories of growing up were the times my grandparents took us to the movies and to the outdoor theatre, the Muny Opera, in Forest Park (St. Louis). After gazing wide-eyed at performances of My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and Fiddler on the Roof, my sisters and I would stage our own versions of the musicals in the basement of the parsonage where we grew up in Arnold, Missouri. Some of my favorite piano pieces came from those movies; I remember my Grandmother Schwab always wanted to hear Edelweiss when she came to visit. I played Sunrise, Sunset until I practically drove my mother out of the house, but as strange as it sounds, I really liked stomping around and flinging my arms out to Tevye’s If I Were a Rich Man. There was just something so satisfying about that.

I don’t know how anyone can not like a musical.

So, in the spirit of Tevye, tradition! Tomorrow, May 20^th, is Confirmation Sunday at my former church in Pittsburgh. It feels odd to miss the first one in nearly 20 years. In the Lutheran church, this rite marks the move from our baptismal faith (bestowed by the Holy Spirit when He called us by name) into the beginning of enlightment and sanctification in the One True Faith that we profess. So it's not an ending at all!

About ten years ago, while participating in an adult Bible study, we were asked if we remembered our Confirmation verse. Sad to say, I did not. Although I did remember my Confirmation hymn – Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus – if that counts for anything!

So they would not do as I did and forget, I decided to create remembrances for the Confirmand class that year and designed plaques with each of their verses, an appropriate image, their names and the date. One year led to another and it soon became a personal tradition to present the plaques on behalf of the congregation. The year there were nine in the class was a real challenge but I found the images (thank you, stock.xchng), mattes and frames and it all came together with a lot of prayer. One year I paired Joshua 1:9 (Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.) with a photo of a space shuttle just before launch. I found out later that the young man had battled a lot of childhood illnesses but always dreamed of adventure and greatness.

I thought for sure that the class of 2011 would be the last to put up with my creative efforts, but while on a visit back to Pittsburgh just before Christmas dear friends Jim and Cindy Vasil asked me to create a plaque for their son Justin, who will be confirmed tomorrow. Since I also knew the other two young men in Justin’s class, I decided to design one for each of them as well (really, how could I not make one for the pastor’s son?). It turns out that the tradition was going to live on, with or without my help! My apologies to the chairman of the Board of Christian Education, who was handed the baton, but I’ve got your back this year, Mary Lynn!

These are three, unmatted and unframed, plaques I created for the class of 2012. Each matte/frame combination was unique and complemented the plaque; I was particularly happy to find a pebble-textured/colored matte for the last one, and used an oval matte for the one in the middle. Justin loves to fish and his family enjoyed a vacation at the Outer Banks a few years ago so I thought this image was perfect.

Shortly before I was ready to ship, I got word that another person was also being confirmed so I quickly put a fourth plaque together for a young woman:

 

 

 

Tradition!