Good morning everyone I'm Maureen
Wittmann and I'm here with my friend
Vicki Darkey Vicki is a Chestertonian and we are hanging out in Rochester
New York at the conference this weekend.
There's an annual conference in
Rochester just on Chesterton. So Vicki
tell me what is a Chestertonian is. Well a
Chestertonian is simply a person who
loves Chesterton or a person who sort of
develops characteristics like Chesterton.
Yeah. So you are the coordinator for the
American Chesterton society for local
societies, for local chapters, local clubs.
Why would I want to do that?
Why would I want to start a local
Chesterton Society? Simply because it is
fantastic fun. Yeah? There's really a lot
of fun. Yeah. And so what do you do
to start a Club? What am I gonna do?
Well local Chesterton societies usually
just meet together and read Chesterton,
and talk about Chesterton, and eat, and
drink. And not necessarily in that order.
And so how could we meet? You start a club. How big of a commitment is this? Most
Chesterton societies meet once a month.
Some meet through the year. Some meet just
during the academic year. Some meet more
than once a month.
It's really totally up to the local
group to decide how frequently, or the
leader really, to decide how frequently
they want to meet. But once a month is
perfectly fine. There are some
groups that occasionally have met, maybe
quarterly. Yeah, so make it
whatever you want. It's flexible. It doesn't
have to be real hard. It can be fun. And Chestertonians inmy experience are
just really interesting people. I found
that to be true too. Why do you think that is?
Hmm, I don't know. I guess maybe because
Chesterton himself was such an
interesting person and the more we
learn to know about Chesterton and
learn to know Chesterton we become more
interesting. So how do I do that? So
you've convinced me I want to start a local Chesterton Society. Sow do I
go about doing that? Well, it doesn't hurt
to say a little prayer. Yeah that always helps.
Then go to the American Chesterton
Society website, which is Chesterton.org
and there is a drop-down tab for
local societies. And if you open that tab
you'll find a link to my email and send
me an email and let me know what you're
thinking. Um, the one thing that we like
to request is that people who start a
local society be a member of the
American Chesterton Society. Okay. So
probably, which is easy to do, join the American
Chesterton Society. You can do it right on
the same website. How much is that? Twenty
dollars a year or something? I'm not sure.
I think it's a little bit more that. But
that gets you connected and it's a good cause
to support. It gets you connected to the
worldwide network of Chestertonians
and local societies. And discounts on
books and the magazine. Gilbert magazine, twenty
years. They're celebrating their 20th
year, right? Yeah. With the magazine. and you
write for the magazine. I have a column.
So what do you write about? Local
societies. If I don't want to start a
society, but I would like to join one, I
can do that too. Sure on the same website
that where you'd find the my email below
it is a map, an interactive map, you can
toggle it, and find a find a society near
you. And by all means start attending.
Okay, that would be great. So we are here
at the conference. Great conference, wasn't it? Fantastic! Yeah they have an
annual conference in Rochester. It's a regional
conference. There's also a national
conference. There's also one in
Louisana.
Yep. In Louisiana, they have a life-size
statue, huge, of Chesterton, right? Yeah.
And Chesterton square. He has his own
square. That's so exciting.
um well is there anything else we should
talk about? That you want to let people
know about? Read Chesterton. And when you
read Chesterton, you're probably gonna
find that it goes better if you do it in
the company of other people who are
like-minded and you'll gain
something from it. You get to know
Chesterton and you start to understand
his holiness and his sanctity and his
spirituality. And he is currently being
investigated, or his cause is being
investigated, for the sainthood, right?
I think they're investigating the
possibility of opening the cause.
Something we should be praying for. Yeah.
Praying about. You know, praying for
those who are who are looking into it
and that God may guide them. But it would
be awesome if just we had our own
St. Chesterton. Well thank you. You're
welcome. It's good to see you. God bless you.
God bless you all!
 
