Sunday, June 22

We woke up at 5 a.m., then tossed and turned until 7, hoping to go back to sleep. Skipped my exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house a little earlier than usual, so we could prepare veggies for the steamer, and to simmer stove top.

Mother went to her jigsaw puzzle after that, Hubbie went outdoors, and I did this and that until lunchtime. Close to noon, I put cornbread and biscuits in the oven. The lunch of new potatoes, tender yellow squash, green beans, and purple hull peas, all from the farmer's market, along with the breads, was really tasty.

After lunch, Hubbie accompanied Mother back to her house, and then he and I dressed to go to the museum for a program. Mother opted out of going this time.

There were two speakers today...a man who presented a slide show on Shaker furniture, and a woman, the museum director, who spoke about the Shaker religion, a sect that broke from the Quakers.

The man makes furniture and boxes that mimic Shaker designs, and he brought along samples. He presented a slide show that featured photos taken at abandoned Shaker communities that have been renovated for public viewing. He noted that there is only one living community left, in Maine.

Shaker furniture follows the rule of "Form after Function," which means that the dwellings and furniture were designed strictly for functionality. So it is plain, but is so well-built from woods native to wherever the communities arose, that it is beautiful in it's simplicity.

Shakers were celibate, so their dwellings were built symmetrically, with women living on one side, and men on the other. There were staircases on each side of the house leading to living areas upstairs. One slide showed a dwelling with dual spiral staircases that are spectacularly beautiful.

Because Shakers are celibate, there were naturally no offspring in the communities. Their challenge was recruitment, an effort that eventually failed. The groups did not refer to themselves as Shakers, but rather as Believers. The term Shakers came from folks who were allowed to witness their services, which included much stamping of feet and dancing until they eventually shook in ecstasy.

The museum director followed. In tracing her family history, she discovered that one of her ancestors was a Shaker, though she naturally does not descend from her. This ancestor was one of several female children, who found their way to a Shaker community, where their uncle lived, after they were orphaned. All but one of the girls left the community and went on to raise families. The museum director is a descendant of one of them. Her ancestor who remained with the Shakers was a woman who went on to become an eldress of her community.

The director has written a fictionalized account of that ancestor. The book is for sale at the museum, and I perused it briefly today. It looks interesting, but I opted not to buy it just now.

In the Shaker religion, both men and women equally share religious leadership. Members are governed by a long list of rules that cover even the most minute aspects of their lives.

According to information from the Public Broadcasting System, Shakerism was founded by an illiterate English factory worker named Ann Lee.  Said to have been guided by divine visions and signs, she and eight pilgrims came to America in 1774 to spread her gospel in the New World.

As millennialists, they were unified in the belief that Christ had come again, first in the person of Mother Ann and subsequently “in all in whom the Christ consciousness awakens.” It was therefore the duty of each believer to live purely in “the kingdom come” and to strive for perfection in everything he or she did.

This was an interesting program dealing with a subject about which I know little. It lasted about an hour, so we were back home shortly after 3 p.m. We changed clothes and took a tour around the yard, where I snapped photos of the flowers in bloom...lilies and cone flowers.

Spent the rest of the afternoon reading a novel on my tablet. Later, Hubbie and I watched the U.S. soccer team in World Cup play. It looked like the U.S. would win, when the opposing team scored in the last few seconds, so that the game ended in a draw. Disappointing.

During the game, Hubbie and I had a supper of leftover turkey burgers, with chips, and canned peaches with whipped topping, and cookies on the side.

Following the game, I went to Mother's house to put drops in her eyes. Tomorrow, she has an appointment with her ophthalmologist, so we should soon know if she has glaucoma or not.

Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching episodes of "The Forsyte Saga."