Revelations ~ October 2019

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these 
in-depth interviews for us.

     What makes Chelsea, Chelsea? As she is wont to do, she took the question to heart, and I swear I could see her highly charged brain begin to spin around inside of her head! She began “soul-searching.” When you get the opportunity to meet her you’ll soon realize that Chelsea is a beneficent soul. She is passionate about humanity. She wants to make a positive impact on people’s lives. She thrives while working together with others, creating a more benevolent world. Administering love and compassion.

     Chelsea has recently been contemplating a deeper intention toward the journey inward. Chelsea has carved out a little space for an altar, with the intention to be mindful of her place in the world. Thus far, the altar holds mostly pictures of her family and rocks that she and Ethan have collected on their travels.

     Family is very important to Chelsea. Hers is not the traditional nuclear family. Hers is wondrously varied and blended. She is the oldest of six siblings. Her sister Emily was born during Chelsea’s fifth year. Emily is Chelsea’s best friend. This summer they spent three weeks in Europe together – Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland. Among the highlights were witnessing the Berlin Philharmonic, exploring Leipzig which is home to many classical musicians, and participating in Kraków’s annual Dragon Festival while stuffing themselves with pierogis. Chelsea is anticipating Emily’s senior clarinet recital in October. The entire family is planning to meet at George Mason University to hear her perform.

     Chelsea and Emily’s dad, Agostino, was mostly absent. Chelsea, and then Chelsea and Emily, would visit him some during the summer and on weekends. Her dad had two children with Chelsea’s stepmom Allegra –  Ariel who is now 17, and Thalia, 13.

     Chelsea’s mom, Rachel, married Chelsea’s ex-stepdad, Erik, in 2001 when she was eight years old, and divorced when she was 14. Chelsea’s brother and youngest sister were born during this period of her life – Niko, who is now 15 years old, and Maeve, 14. Niko identifies as male transgender and is currently transitioning.

     (Aside – in high school Chelsea started referring to Rachel as Madre instead of Mom. It caught on and all of Rachel’s children call her Madre.) 

     In 2016, Madre married Liz, at their UU church. They met on an online dating service. Liz was an over-the-road truck driver. They had their first date at a truck stop restaurant. Rachel went on a week- long truck haul with Liz early on in their relationship. They hit it off, and fell in love. It was a nourishing kind of love. A comfortable, celebratory, complementing kind of love. Liz is a very calm and capable person, and tends to balance Chelsea’s somewhat dramatic family. Liz is now working in IT, so she doesn’t have long periods away from home.

     Chelsea is a cat person. She and Ethan have a large, black, short-haired cat called Pablo – Pablo Piernas. Piernas is Spanish for legs – when they first adopted him, he was so malnourished that his legs appeared impossibly long. Pablo loves going outside on his harness and leash. He’s not much of a snuggler; he’s very active. They refer to him as “action cat”. Ethan recently traveled to North Carolina to celebrate his grandparents 60th anniversary. The first night after Ethan’s departure, Chelsea was lying in bed and Pablo was lying on the back corner. Chelsea turned around in bed so that she was facing in the opposite direction, in order to draw a little more comfort from Pablo.

     Chelsea is very close to her grandparents Tim and Leslie – Papa and Grandma. They are very supportive of Rachel and her children. Some of Chelsea’s favorite memories are visits to Papa and Grandma’s house. They helped provide musical instruments for all of the children, and whenever they visited they would arrange a recital. They were especially helpful during Chelsea’s early years. When Chelsea was three, she and Rachel lived with Papa and Grandma.

     Rachel was a single mother. She was in college when she had Chelsea. Occasionally, when she couldn’t find a babysitter, Chelsea would go to class with her mother. Rachel likes to say how she would bring Chelsea to her evening astronomy class in a baby backpack. After graduation, Rachel started teaching high school science, which she does to this day. She would later go back to school part-time to get her Master’s degree, while continuing to teach.

     Chelsea Elizabeth Craine was born on June 8, 1993, in Northampton, Massachusetts. In the early years Rachel and Chelsea lived in various apartments in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and a year with the grandparents in Windsor, Connecticut. When Chelsea was five they moved to West Hartford, Connecticut. Rachel married Erik, and a couple years later when Chelsea was 10, they moved to Willis, Virginia. 

     Willis is in Floyd County, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia. There is one stoplight in the entire county, and it isn’t in Willis. They lived on a 36 acre farm, accessed by a gravel road. They had chickens, goats, a million (outdoor) cats, and of course horses. Chelsea’s chore was to take care of the chickens. Every morning and every night, watering and feeding and whatnot. She loved the cats. And she loved to ride horses. Her first horse was a beautiful pinto called Pony Boy, but he was mean and would butt his head into you. Her second horse was Princess Rhubarb – Ruby. She was skittish and could make for an interesting ride when she got spooked.

     Rachel considers herself agnostic. Technically they are Jewish but you have to go back generations to find anyone practicing the faith. Chelsea also considers herself agnostic, though as an 11-year-old she would’ve said atheist. In Willis, EVERYONE went to church. Where do YOU go to church? Emily and Chelsea started coming home from school with stories of children telling them that they were going to hell, that they were bad people. Rachel decided to start looking for a church so that the children could fit in.

     Rachel found a church she thought might work, in Blacksburg, an hour’s drive away. The UUCNRV – Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the New River Valley. (And we thought our church name was long? We Unitarians tend to like our words!) It didn’t take long for the family to fall in love with the congregation. Every Sunday it was a half day event. 

     Chelsea joined the middle school RE program. It was an eye-opening experience for her. They were using the Neighboring Faiths curriculum, where they studied the different religions and visited different local faith traditions. Yet, the fact that they allowed, and even welcomed, differences of opinion during discussion was most surprising of all. It was okay to express your own way of thinking. It was okay to express your own particular set of beliefs. Imagine that.

     The congregation did not offer religious education for high schoolers. Chelsea wanted to stay involved with RE, so she started volunteering as an assistant teacher for the pre-k and kindergarten group. She was also involved in the teen youth group that got together weekly on Sunday evenings and for special events.

     Chelsea’s first instrument was the violin, but when they moved to Willis the school didn’t have an orchestra. Chelsea learned the flute. When Chelsea entered high school she wanted to join the jazz band, but the school didn’t think the flute or the violin were jazzy enough. Chelsea learned the saxophone – the jazziest instrument of them all. The social world of high school was not easy for Chelsea. High school was not generally the happiest of times. One of the highlights was Jin, a foreign exchange student from Thailand that her family sponsored. They shared a room and became very close, best friends for a year.

     Chelsea attended college at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, just outside of Columbus. Chelsea played the saxophone in the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and jazz band. She also played in the flute choir, and sang in a women’s choir and a mixed choir. She also attended the local UU congregation and taught RE classes for two years. She taught 4th and 5th grade using the Harry Potter curricula, which she adored. She earned two degrees – in music, and English with a specialty in creative writing. In her final year she took a linguistics class that left her enthralled – so much so that it would lead her across the country to grad school in Colorado.

     After graduation Chelsea returned to Virginia, and was living in Blacksburg. She was working at a music store, teaching music lessons and running the register when she wasn’t otherwise engaged. One day she met an intriguing young man buying strings for his guitar. A few days later he returned for a pick. Then he returned for more strings. His name was Ethan, and he was very shy. It turns out that they went to high school together. Ethan was a year younger than her so they didn’t cross paths very often. However, they had been involved in the same philosophy club during Chelsea’s senior year.

     Chelsea looked Ethan up on Facebook and sent him a friend request. And then she messaged him her phone number. And he called! They planned to meet for dinner the following week, on the night of the September full blood moon. Well, it was a cloudy day and the moon was nowhere to be seen. After dinner they decided to go chasing the moon. They drove into the mountains. They drove and talked and drove and talked, for hours and still no sight of the moon. They found each other. They found out that they were both complete nerds. They also had similar tales of woe. They bonded. A year later they moved in together, into a small cabin in the woods on the outskirts of town. The only heat was a wood stove and they didn’t really know what they were doing, so they did a lot of shivering.

     A year later Chelsea left for grad school, and Colorado appealed to Ethan so he joined in the adventure. After all, they were partners now. Chelsea attended the University of Colorado Boulder where she received her Master’s in Linguistics with certification in culture, language, and social practice. During her second year she found time to teach the preschool RE class at the Boulder UU congregation. Chelsea enjoyed linguistics, yet as graduation neared she began to realize that she did not want to continue in academia. It was Madre who opened the window into thinking about becoming a Unitarian Universalist Director of Religious Education. During phone conversations Chelsea always appeared to be happiest when talking about her experience working with the kids at the Boulder UU. Rachel brought up the possibility of becoming a DRE.

     Fortunately, Chelsea chose the UUCGV. She felt welcomed. She felt wanted. Chelsea was looking for more than a job – she wanted a community.

                                           Life goes on…         in endless song…