Photos by Luke Frazier
There are roads you take and roads you avoid; roads that are widely written about (Route 66) and roads that roll on in obscurity. There are designated coastal byways and scenic routes, entire books written about certain kinds of roads (e.g. Blue Highways), too many songs about taking one road or another, and tortured metaphors about bumpy roads in plenty of mundane poetry. We’re On the Road with Jack and the Allman Brothers tell us the Midnight Rider’s road goes on forever.
One local road far shorter than forever is tucked along the western edge of Lady’s Island. Meridian Road is barely one and a half miles long and connects Sea Island Parkway and Lady’s Island Drive, a stone’s throw east from the Beaufort River. You can take Meridian Road if you want to launch from the Beaufort Yacht and Sailing Club, need some work done at a small engine repair shop, are looking for plans to be drawn up at an architect’s office, or for some reason want to arrive at Beaufort High School from the back and not the main entrance.
It’s a pretty stretch, worth a meander in its own right, let alone
as a shortcut to avoid the Harris Teeter/Publix/Island Square Shopping Center commercial cluster on your way to the McTeer Bridge. In fact, if all you are doing is using it as a shortcut and aren’t appreciating Meridian Road for the dappled light, mossy oaks, water glimpses and green abundance then maybe you should stick with the stop and go of the long way around. When you’re ready it will still be there.
What might also be there at some point is a new church. At about the midpoint there is an undeveloped lot that wants to be the future home of St. James Orthodox Church. A bright vinyl sign declares the intention, and placed strategically around the overgrown field are a twelve foot wooden cross, a post-mounted bell, sitting bench, and a small hutch perched several feet off the ground with a peaked roof and red templar cross, looking a bit like one of those little free libraries you see around town, only religious. I’ve driven and biked by the lot several times, but only recently decided to investigate at the speed of wander, walking up Meridian after parking down by Lady’s Island Drive. It felt like the right way to get there.
After enjoying the sidewalk-less ramble for about ¾ of a mile I arrived. My first thought was that I hoped they don’t remove the huge, gorgeous oak that stands so proud right behind the altar-ish hutch when they go to build, though I’m not sure how it could be avoided. Maybe the Lord will work in mysterious ways.
Inside the hutch are the two pictures on display, a jar with a votive candle remnant, and plenty of cobwebs, leaves, and loose dirt. I noticed a little brush hanging off the right side of the structure, so I decided to channel my inner good Samaritan and clean up a bit.
The pictures are about eight by ten inches and mounted on wood. Quick research reveals that one is the Icon of Christ the Merciful and the other is of the Virgin of Vladimir Icon, evidently an important and venerated piece in Russian Orthodox tradition. It is said to be a miracle-working icon and a protective image, with the early 12th century original (including at least five restorations along the way) hanging in a Moscow gallery.
Both pieces are somber in the way of certain religious art but create a positive force field there in the recessed shade on this sunny afternoon thousands of miles from Mother Russia. It’s true we were on Meridian road, and in acupuncture a meridian is a pathway in the body along which vital energy flows, so there’s that as a stitch of sorts. More likely it was simply the quiet beauty of the area that made this little hutch area seem to glow and take up more space than it physically held.
This isolated little structure was an offering of sorts, a graceful wish for imagined real estate where voices are raised & community made in a worship space that was not yet realized. The dream of a future state when Meridian Road will be used as a way to get to church.
I stayed a while longer and rang the bell just once (it was satisfyingly loud). I took in the rest of the magnificent oak tree limbs reaching into the sky. One branch reminded me of the Angel Oak up on John’s Island because it ran along the ground for a stretch. I thought of how we humans reach from the earth to the heavens in formal and casual ways, and how I was unexpectedly absorbed in an in-between, liminal state on a random afternoon in an overgrown lot. I thought of all the connections that brought me to this point; from personally adrift and wondering for decades to engaged and woven into the fabric of this life across both sacred and profane dimensions.
I thought of my friend Dana telling me one time that he believed there was only one God but 500 beautiful names you could use, and how that might strike some as monotheistical and restrictive but to me expanded the whole shebang away from words, pointing beyond the my God is better than your God thing. Here on Lady’s Island I found a shortcut to the realization that pictures on display can constitute a vision, no matter what you call your icons. Meridian may be called a road, but really it’s a way.
Walking back to my car, I noticed a sign that said there was a deep water lot for sale. Although I’m pretty sure I lack the cash for such a transaction, in another sense I already own it, and if I just keep walking I’m certain to reach the unnamed shore.
