on the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi
Our goal today was to reach the home of Elise' cousin, who is a member of the the Reverend Moon community in Mobile, AL.
We drove most of the way on Interstate 10, which is a great route for getting from one place to another. You can do the speed limit of 70 miles an hour and probably a bit more without much concern about getting stopped. Of course, it's also pretty boring, with mostly flat land on both sides and straight road in front. As we left Texas and entered Mississippi, we moved over to Rt. 90, which is considered a scenic byway and also winds through small towns and hamlets along the way.
We made the change just in time to get into Biloxi, where we stopped at a Waffle House and Elise bought an egg sandwich-to-go for breakfast. The restaurant was just up from the beach, so we took Elise's sandwich and my folding chair and went to have breakfast by the Gulf of Mexico. The beach was very wide and immaculately clean. We also had the beach to ourselves; evidently Biloxi residents don't go to the beach in October. It was a beautiful breakfast.
After Biloxi Rt. 10 was not much of a scenic byway - just a series of traffic lights and the standard highway commercial establishments.
We reached Elise's cousin,Viviane, around 1:45 and spent most of the afternoon just talking and catching up .One of the subjects we talked about was their membership in the Reverend Moon community in Mobile.Viviane has been involved with this group since she was in her twenties. She was married to someone chosen by Reverend Moon in a ceremony in Madison Square Garden with about 1,000 other couples. I think their marriage has not always been ideal, (but then again, whose is?) but they did manage to raise four lovely children, all of whom are doing well and are still involved in their community, and whatever their marital difficulties may have been, they seem to have settled into a good relationship.
They mentioned that this year for the first time, Reverend Moon told the people assembled for the marriage ceremony that they should pick their own partners this time. I would imagine that this was probably somewhat traumatic for those expecting to simply have someone chosen for them, and Elise' cousin didn't know the actual process by which couples were paired up; that was disappointing since I would really like to know just how it was done. Couples could also meet, fall in love, and get married in the traditional way (which involves parental permission and involvement).
Later in the afternoon, we went to a wedding celebration of a young couple in the community, which was held in a large yard at the house of the girl's parents. We were introduced to many of the people, including the woman minister of the congregation. They all greeted us warmly and were easy to talk with about the things people usually talk about at first meeting. They were happy to answer any questions we had about their community, but there was no attempt to convert us. We had planned to stay for just five or ten minutes, but ended up staying an hour - long enough to enjoy some food from the buffet.
We went from there with Viviane's husband Kent to see sunset an old fort on Mobile Bay, and then back for dinner and more talk.
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