Manger Wetter

Reaching my age in life has one definite advantage – the seasons of the past seem richer to me with every passing year.  Relationships intertwine.  Stories of how and when you knew someone sometimes span several decades.  And friends can even become family and then back to friends.

Such are my memories of Steve and Dan.  Steve is no longer with us, and Dan is the president of a college and an accomplished author.  Still, I remember them and their friendship from all those years ago.  Their friendship started before Dan and his wife Kathy became my mentors, before the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship meetings Dan led, before the long talks and the relationship advice, before Dan married my husband and me.

Back then Steve was a graduate student in Creative Writing at the University of Dallas where I became an undergrad.  I would see him go in and out of Dan and Kathy’s apartment at the end of my hallway (they were the dorm parents).  Steve had an unmistakable profile and a shock of red hair.  Those were the years before Steve became my brother-in-law; and long before he became a fireman, then a husband and father, then a pastor.

One simple poem brought all that back to me yesterday.  Steve was a poet (among his many other accomplishments) and the kind of poet whose words and phrases jabbed into my psyche like thorns amidst a meadow of wildflowers.  They were both good and sharp, both beautiful and piercing.  Unforgettable.

My former mentor Dan has published a book, and the title of his first chapter is a tribute to his friend, and my former brother-in-law, Steve.  The poem is “Manger Wetter.”  After reading it I went in search of the one picture I have of Steve and Dan together – in Boston in 1981.  I will never forget you, Steve, and neither will all those whose lives you have touched.  And Dan – Kudos.

Manger Wetter*

by Steve Mahan

Wrinkled, Crinkled

Red-skinned Squirmer

Famished Squealer,

Manger Wetter.

Gabriel salutes you!

Michael bows!

We here in Bethlehem

Bed you with cows.

We here in Bethlehem

Bed you with cows.

*Russ, Dan, Flesh-and-Blood Jesus, Second Edition: Learning to Be Fully Human from the Son of Man, Cascade Books, Eugene, Oregon, 2013. (from a chapter entitled Manger Wetter: Coming to Terms with Our Neediness)