02/26/2005 Posted @ 11:35 PM PD/ST: "Lo Siento, Monseiur Kerensky"

Today I broke my date with Alexander Kerensky. This 1917 Russian Revolutionary figure is the topic for my next paper in History of Russia and I was going to spend my time tweaking lunisea.com and reading about his life.

SisterR had other ideas. So I broke my date and SisterR and I drove to San Juan Bautista for a school field trip and a terrific lunch at Felipe's on 3rd St. The mission itself was ... old, decrepit, small, full of history yet not completely fascinating. I wish I could say I was completely swept away in the history and the mystery of the place, but I wasn't. All I could keep thinking about was how the Spanish and the Mexican missionaries came to this place and started imposing their will upon the local natives.

There were a few moments when I went, "wow!" And, maybe, a few moments is all that's necessary.

There's a room full of priest's vestments, all beautiful. Some were French tapestry material and looked as if, with a little cleaning, they could be worn at the next mass celebrated. I said to SisterR, "200 years ago, some priest was wearing that and celebrating mass."

In the kitchen, they made their own communion wafers. The description for the display explained how they had been made. "They made their own wafers!"

SisterR looked at me with one of her patented "you goof" looks and said, "well, where did you think they came from? They had to come from some place."

I had just never thought about it. When I was an Episcopalian, the wafers were commercially bought. Perfect in their machine made symmetry. Then I joined the unwashed heathen masses and didn't think about it anymore. But to read about and see the place where the wafers for a Catholic communion mass were made, sorta stopped me in my tracks.

This is what history is about for me. Those little details that jump up at me and make the past more human.

The church itself was peaceful. We sat and enjoyed that. The cemetery out back was small but to think that it covered so many soldiers, natives and missionaries really sort of took my breath way.

Behind the mission itself, down a bit of an embankment was an unimpressive dirt road. Unimpressive, that is, until I realized that I was standing above the original El Camino Real. The long, noisy main thoroughfare that goes from San Diego, through Los Angeles and up to San Francisco was once a dirt road. A one lane wide enough for a couple of horses dirt road. Priests in Franciscan robes and sandals walked this dirt road.

So, we spent some time perusing one of Father Junipero Serra's 21 missions and I thought about what I was seeing, trying to put it in context with what I had been learning this quarter.

Then we walked a couple of blocks and happened upon Felipe's where we had an excellent lunch of chili verde, chili relleno (great fluffy eggs on the outside) with beans and rice.

Monsieur Kerensky and I will have to pick up tomorrow, and only until it's time for Oscar .

And I just finished tweaking the website, so I'm pretty happy with that.