Lewes, Delaware

St. Peter's Episcopal Church

We love that we live close to Rehobeth Beach.  It is gay friendly and anyplace where the gay community feels safe and accepted makes me feel safe. That sounds selfish but at our core I think we always do an unconscious, if not conscious, check within to see how we are doing.  I know I do well when I feel safe in a community.  I also love creative and eccentric people and I think an open mind, and diverse communities of race, cultures, and lifestyles fosters that.  

So, yeah, I know the picture above is in Lewes, Delaware, and not Rehobeth.  And it's of a church, and a church is a place often of intolerance, a place that often oppresses people who don't toe their lines.  Churches have been responsible for fostering hate and not love, hate that has oppressed and even killed women and gays and people of color.  And I'm not "hating on" just christianity.  Many religions foster a we-they ethos that often gets out of hand even if originally well-intentioned.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.  I think it would surprise religious people to have to consider that their behaviors and those expressed due to their specific religion condemns them and not those who don't adhere.  If all the world's murders and deaths throughout the history of humanity that are either blatant killings or deaths caused by others' neglect or greed, in other words, all the deaths caused by true immorality, were added up, most would be placed in the column under religious beliefs. And personally, I think religions should examine their history (and current culture) to look at that and see if they want to really change that going forward.  That would take a lot of courage. 

So one thing I love about blogging and using my pictures is it motivates me to look things up and then I learn more and I also remember longer.  I took the picture of St. Peter's because it was just incredibly beautiful against the early spring evening sky.  A lady was walking her dog just out of the picture, walking right to left and paused for me to take the picture before she walked into it.  I wouldn't have minded her being in the picture.  She was kind.  We spoke.  That added to my sense of safety and contentment.  Kindness counts.  

So I know Lewes is not Rehobeth, and I haven't lived in the area and learned the culture and politics in detail yet. Yet. But they are right next to each other.  Lewes has an old village feel.  A perfect complement to the relatively new and beachy feel of Rehobeth.  I like choices.  I like variety.  I like charm.  I like beauty in many forms.  

St. Peter's was built in Lewes, aka, "The first town in the first state" in 1808 though it existed in other forms and local places since the late 1600's.  It apparently houses a silver communion service still used occasionally, made by a Philly silversmith and considered to be high enough quality that it's been exhibited at the Met.  Woo hoo.  I'm not really into silver per se but I respect quality workmanship and am interested in history.  

And as a sad-sack sorry-assed romantic, I stood to look at St. Peter's in that early spring evening and feel the decades of humanity that passed in and out of and past that church, people of different races, different levels of freedom, people of definitive genders and intersexed, people who oppress and/or prey upon others' sexuality.  Kind people. Hateful people. People passing between kindness and hatefulness. Young and old. Wealthy and poor.  And as I think of all the harm that's been done and can still be done in our country, I still feel some contentment because Lewes is the connecting town to Rehobeth and I feel safe. Safe enough.