I received my first 3 recommendations from a PDX meetup group of gay Christians. I actually found the group two weeks before I planned to leave Portland, OR (March 7, 2018) and so it was a bitter-sweet time to encounter other like-minded homosexuals, half of whom had been in long-term partnerships and half of whom were alone, single, and in many cases, experiencing rejection or distance from their families. I was fresh off Miracle Sunday, and passionately shared parts of My Story with them. In some ways, they were one of my initial test audiences for my autobiography.

My final week in Dunedin had mediocre weather. I had seen most of the sites the city had to offer, and I was feeling lonely, so I threw myself into these recommendations. September 23-29 had me voraciously devouring all 3 recommendations from this group. I finished This House of Sky after recommendations #1 and #2, on Saturday September 29, 2018.

Recommendation #3 from John at the PDX Gay Christian Meetup Group

This House of Sky by Ivan Doig

From Wikipedia – This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind is a 1978 nonfiction book by Ivan Doig. A memoir of the author’s early life in Montana, it was a finalist for the National Book Award. It was Doig’s first book, written in Seattle and followed by several fiction and nonfiction books. The memoir was based on interviews with his father and others, as well as archival research at the University of Washington.

I found out the first name of the gentleman that gave me this recommendation. It is John. I actually can’t remember if he also grew up in Montana, or if I just mentioned that I did and he recommended this book to me. C’est la vie!  The experiences described in the book were nothing like my own experiences of growing up in the small city of Billings, Montana. But, This House of Sky is a very touching memoir to unlikely families, the hardships they encounter, and how those hardships can bind you together.

While I have rarely read non-fiction for my own benefit, I fully appreciated reading this book. I cried in parts, it made me want to reach out to my own father and mother, and I even related to a description of of the author’s life of growing up in rural Montana.

In regards to my own itinerant lifestyle in New Zealand – “The pattern to all this was jagged but constant: I would sleep on a couch in the living room of the moment, spend my day at school, roam town afterward as much as I wanted, come back to whichever house it happened to be, lose myself in a book or magazine until bedtime, dig the next morning’s change of clothes from my suitcase behind the couch, and settle in for the night again. I found that everyone treated me fondly if a bit absentmindedly.”

I also learned what jacketing is. Suffice to say, it’s an interesting way to encourage a ewe to adopt a lamb born from a different ewe. “Mother him like hell now, don’t ye? See what a helluva dandy lamb I got for ye, old sister: Who says I couldn’t jacket day onto night if I wanted to, now-I-ask-ye?”

I say it’s time to experience Montana!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7WnxgZ-V_w