27 December 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2964: sacred place

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“So, how do you do that, Dad – like, how do you just freestyle all this family history like this? Where do you go in your mind?”

Nine-year-old Milton Trent had questions. Sgt. Vincent Trent had to find some answers.

“Hold on, son,” he said gently. “I gotta go back to wherever that is that I didn't know existed to find the answer.”

“OK, but, if you didn't know where it was, how do you know you are going back there?”

“I suppose it is time to talk about place, space, and time, son. To you, there's gotta be a room where I'm changing into my superhero clothes.”

“Well, of course, and you have at least two: there's the Bronze Eagle set where you go pounce on folks to rescue them from themselves, and we have a bunch of cousins that know about that now, and then there's the new SGT set where you probably have some gold chains and a hat you wear backwards and some real nice Jordans from when Michael Jordan was actually playing back in the prehistoric days of basketball.”

“OK, I'm not going to make it eavesdropping on this,” Mrs. Melissa Trent said as she went away into her bedroom to laugh.”

Sgt. Trent just smiled.

“OK. Let's go this way. Do you think that a church building is the only sacred place there is where we can worship?”

“No, because if it was, God would have torn up our tickets to Heaven in April, because nobody is going to church during Covid.”

“How do you think this works, then, son?”

Milton had to stop and think about this.

“I think God is everywhere, so, if you know the Lord Jesus and doing what He says to do with people who are doing the same, you can kinda worship wherever you are.”

“And that's pretty much what the Lord says in John 4:24, Milton. He was asked what temple people should worship in, and He said that the day was coming when His people would worship in spirit and in truth without a temple. Both of those temples would be destroyed, but He never ordered any Christian to build a new one, so, people had church just as you said. Now think back to what you asked me.”

Milton did, and then his dark eyes and bronze face lit up.

“Oh – the sacred place can be anywhere and everywhere, and so can the creative place!”

“It's all about how you live, Milton, and keep it real. I think about your grandfather, my dad, every day. I think about although he didn't quite rhyme like I do, he said what I said in the song – we had that conversation. He knew our family was chasing the American dream in the American slave-making way, doing anything for a dollar and not caring about the people dying along the way, and imagining it was going to work out for them because it worked out for white men … but it didn't. We call that the Civil War. Our version was just the turf wars and the War on Drugs – and my father knew his brothers and any of his sons, nephews, and cousins who didn't listen were going to be casualties, because they were going to lose the war.”

“Yeah, Dad, I mean, our cousins who don't listen just stay losing.”

“And the loss doesn't stop with them. You do not have a single Trent uncle or great-uncle. You, Melvin, and I are alone in three generations of Trent men.”

“So, you just kinda live with all this, anywhere and everywhere?”

“As the survivor, yes. I stay focused because, as my dad said, love is my inspiration. It just so happens that I do have an ability to throw down a rhyme as well – so I work from where I live. It's like when you dance as the silhouette in Melvin's music videos: you work from where you live as an active boy who hasa feel for music but it comes through rhythm and movement. You can bust a move anywhere and everywhere – it comes from how you live as who you are.”

“OK, I get it, Dad. The good thing about being grounded is that I have a ton of time to practice my moves and learn some new ones, because this is real because it is how I live. I'm grounded, but it doesn't actually make any difference.”

“Place is not as important as people think it is, Milton. You make space and time to live how you are built and called to live, anywhere and everywhere.”