Roots, Poetry at Class of '71 at Orchard Lake

In college, at Orchard Lake St. Mary's, northwest of Detroit on Indian Trail and Commerce Roads, in Michigan, my instructors put me to work in English class. The Rev. Ed Skrocki taught the class and was also moderator of The Lake Oracle monthly newspaper, and The Orchard Lake Schools' annual yearbook that I cherished most days and nights as editor-in-chief. Gathering recently with a couple about to tie the knot in October, 2011, we met at Mr. Paul's Restaurant in Roseville on Groesbeck, north of Twelve Mile Road, we relished stories about college and life's vocations. The newly-wed couple about to enter "the good institution," as the pianist there tipped them off, told of the colleges they attend to major in media, and cardiac therapy. We shared yearbooks from high school and college as a way to get to know each others' stories of origin and faith. It surprised me to read what classmates noted to each graduating senior in high school and college. A poem in the 1971 Eagle yearbooks, I wrote surprised me: Life is my poem In rhythm and rhyme In the beat of defeat In the encounter we meet. Each letter in the Word Is sound to be heard In happiness and sorrow For those bettr tomorrows. Each phrase paves the Way To these beautiful days In community that shapes "me" and "thee" In rhythm and rhyme For our fulfillment of time. Roots, life as a poem, and my class of '71. Relations and religion. Much is about the good roots, relations and religion are today in praise of the Maker of you, of me. Couples to wed. What a delight to meet with them and share stoires of family, faith, and fun we are meant to savor each day amid work-a-day worlds and stress. God recreated, rested, and enjoyed daily, and, on the seventh day, as the book of Genesis notes in the sacred writ, God rested. God took the seventh day off to appreciate, I imagine, the life God created in all of the Creator's creation.