A new development

Tuesday evening after River Singers rehearsal, which I got through just fine, I was sitting in the car waiting for Ellen and I was aware that my ribs were just a little bit sore, and I was massaging my ribs in the sore area, when suddenly I felt something sort of snap, and suddenly felt a very sharp pain - much sharper than anything I had felt since I fell against the stove about 9-10 days ago. That pain did not go away. Suddenly, I was virtually incapacitated by pain. When I got home, I could not get out of the car unassisted. We debated what to do? Should I go to the ER? I hated the very idea of it, knowing how long one can wait. I decided to get into bed without getting undressed, and I found I could lie on my back and be reasonably comfortable, and actually dozed off (Ellen read aloud, which helped), but that didn't last too long. I had to get up a couple of times during the night, and that was agony. Wednesday I called Dr. van Dyck and she ordered an X-ray, so we managed to get to radiology at the hospital (not the ER!), and I used a wheelchair there, which helped a bit. Then we went to see Dr. van Dyck afterward. She hadn't gotten the X-rays yet - we learned later they showed no sign of a fracture - but she prescribed a stronger pain med (delayed - Walgreens was out of stock), and so we are sort of in a holding pattern at the moment. The pain seems less intense today, but I can't imagine what is causing it. It is sort of mysterious. I guess with ribs, you just have to be patient. Coughing is particularly painful, so I try not to cough, but it is impossible never to cough, especially when you have as much phlegm as I do. I can sit and read, etc., but it is not good to be so inactive. Tomorrow is John's birthday. I hope he can at least come over for a visit, and that I will be good company! As the old joke puts it, "Patience, jackass, patience!"

We had John and Cynthia over for supper earlier this week and Ellen made souffles - delicious and beautiful.

A Cynthia eclipse photo - stunning.

Eclipse!

We ended up experiencing the eclipse right here at home. It was not total, but it was very interesting. We watched a pin-hole image - we did not have eclipse glasses - and we were also very aware of the dimming of the light around us as the eclipse progressed. It never really got dark, but the light was eerie. I also watched the NASA program on the computer, so I saw videos of a total eclipse several times at various points along the path of totality, beginning in Mexico and ending in Houlton, Maine. John & Cynthis tried to go north up to the band of totality in Vermont on I-91 but gave up - it was bumper-to-bumper traffic at 15 mph. But after they got off I-91, they managed to get into the band of totality near Berlin, VT via back roads, and had a minute and a half of totality there. My granddaughter, Katie, drove just an hour south of St. Louis with her friend, Gabby, and saw 4 minutes of totality! I had considered going with John and Cynthia, but it would have involved renting a van - they had two of Cynthia's g-nephews with them, so we couldn't all get into their Honda Fit. And there would also have been a lot of uncertainty (like availability of a toilet when I needed one). So I decided not to do that. I didn't feel too bad - I had seen a total eclipse back in 2017 with Katie in Columbia, MO. Back then, we gathered at a tree in a park where Betsey's running friends - the "running birches" (read "bitches") - had erected a plaque commemorating her. It was the perfect spot to see the eclipse. So I had had the experience of a total eclipse, whereas John never had. This was his one chance,

Ellen's set-up on the deck

An image of the eclipse projected onto a white surface

Ellen holding the pin-hole "projector."

A photo taken during the dim light. Not very dim!

One of John's photographs of the moment of totality.

Katie (right) and Denise, a running friend of Betsey's, at the August 2017 eclipse in Missouri.

Betsey's plaque at "her tree" in Columbia. MO.

Another friend passes

My friend, Bill Schoedel, died Monday. Bill was my mentor and Ph.D. thesis advisor at Brown University back in the 1960's. But he was not much older than I, and he and his wife, Grace, had three children, Ruth, Paul and Carl, who were close in age to ours, and so during my grad student days, they became good friends to both Shirley and me. We would get together every Friday evening for pizza, ad then would go to their house to play "Hearts," listen to music, and just talk. That closeness ended when I graduated from Brown and we moved to Keuka College in 1967. I very much stayed in touch by mail and phone, and we visited them in Providence once or twice, but then they moved to Urbana, IL when Bill joined the faculty in Religion at the University of Illinois. We visited rhem there in Urbana maybe twice, but mostly we just exchanged annual Christmas letters. So for over 50 years, it has been a friendship, but not a close one. Their son, Paul, died at age 63 just last year, on Christmas Eve. Paul was born May 6, 1960, so he was between my Betsey and John in age, and like Betsey, died an untimely death. In appearence, he was the spitting image of his dad. His death must have been heart-breaking to Bill. Bill himself chose to die by means of VSED - Vountary Stopping of Eating and Drinking. His wife was in touch via Facebook and let me know it was going to happen, and then, yesterday, let me know Bill had died. She said it took nine days, and it was hard work, but she had the help of the local Hospice, and her daughter, Ruth also lives nearby in Urbana. Bill evidently had several medical conditions that made him miserable. Bill was born in Canada, and was a graduate student at the University of Chicago when I was there in seminary. As a student of Robert M. Grant, he got the opportunity to learm Coptic and tranalate the Gospel of Thomas into English for Grant's book on Thomas, The Secret Sayings of Jesus. I think this was the earliest book on Thomas to come out in English, and for Bill to have his name attached to it as the translator was something of a coup for him. Bill went on to publish commentaries on Polycarp, Papias and the Letters of Ignatius in the Apostolic Fatherss series, and several articles. When I was at Keuka, he encouraged me to take on the project of writing a commentary on The Diatessaron of Tatian, and I went so far as to get a grant from the College Center for the Finger Lakes to pay for photocopying everything I could find back in the Brown Library havng to do with Tatian, so that I could do research back in upstate New York. It was a large box of materials on Tatian (I think it may still be around here somewhere!). But I left Keuka for Lawrence, and then left teaching for administration, as a Dean of Men, and that was the end of that. It was both fascinating and overwhelming as a project. The overwhelming part was that the Diatessaron (a second century "Harmony" of the four Gospels, i.e., the four Gospels merged into a single narrative) exists only in early translations from the original Greek (some say the original was in Syriac) into e.g., Armenian, Syriac, Old Latin, Arabic, Dutch, Old High German and Middle English. The original no longer exists. That's a lot of languages to have to deal with! Some, but not all, of them have been translated into English, which helps. But they were all significantly different. One of the challenges facing a commentator on Tatian is: what did the original Diatessaron look like? It seemed almost impossible to answer that question, but one would have to deal with it. I'm sure it was a disappointment to Bill that I never really got into that project, except to collect materials on it, but he never said so. I was most fortunate to have Bill as a thesis advisor. He was very patient and understanding, he was supportive of what turned out to be a somewhat eccentric thesis, he did not make impossible demands, and he saw it through with me to completion. It could have been otherwise - believe me, I have known many grad students whose Ph.D. dissertations never got written because of their advisor's attitude. Here is a brief obituary: "URBANA - William (Bill) Schoedel, 94, died at home in Urbana on Monday (April 1, 2024). Bill was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, and is survived by his wife, Grace Schoedel of Urbana; daughter, Ruth Schoedel Book (Thomas) of Urbana; and son Carl Schoedel (Lisa) of Geneva. His son Paul Schoedel preceded him in death. Also surviving are his grandchildren, Lynn Book of Olalla, Wash., Laura Book (Esfandiar Alizadeh) of Santa Monica, Calif., Katelyn Schoedel (Ryan Offord) of Evanston and Daniel Schoedel (Jillian) of Schiller Park; and three great-grandchildren. Bill attended the University of Western Ontario, Concordia Seminary and the University of Chicago, ending with a Ph.D. in New Testament and early Christian studies. He taught at Valparaiso University and Brown University before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois to start a program in religious studies. He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976. Bill was an avid reader in all subjects, particularly music and nature. He enjoyed playing chamber music, specializing in the violin, viola and viola da gamba. A memorial gathering will be held at a later date."

William R. Schoedel (1930-2024). Rest In Peace, Bill! Thank you for helping to make me who I am! P.S. I found a letter Bill sent me back in the 1960's (it is undated). It includes a report on his attendance at the national meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature at which my dissertation was highly praised by the keynote speaker! He is urging me to keep my hand in the field of biblical scholarship. I was not able to fulfill this hope, though I have certainly maintained my study and teaching of the Bible, but it has been more for and with lay persons, rather than the scholarly community. I feel okay about that.

Letter from Bill to me in the late 1960's.

Happy Easter!

We did not go to the early sunrise service or the pancake breakfast, but we did go to Easter service at Guilford community Church, and it was a wonderful service. Pastor Allyson had arranged for five members of the congregation to talk about miracles in their lives to match the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. They were quite moving stories and the choir also sang three anthems, The Angel Rolled the Stone Away, William Billings's Easter Anthem and Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. I read the scriptures from Isaiah 25 and the gospel of John chapter 20.

The Easter Sunday congregation at Guilford, passing the peace. Mary Alice Amidon and Elizabeth Christie are prominently in the foreground.

Easter Sunday. with Pastor Allyson and the Easter altar flowers.

Reading Scripture this morning.********************************** Good Friday, we went to a "union" service in the evening at Dummerston that brought together four local UCC churches: Dummerston Congregational Church, Centre Congregational Church, Guilford Community Church and 1st Congregational, West Brattleboro. The various paators gave meditatons on the seven last words of Jesus from the cross. During this time, the March Madness Basketball Tournament has been going on. The TarHeels defeated Wagner College in the first round and Michigan State in the second round, thus getting into the "Sw eet Sixteen." But then it played Alabama, who won by two points in a last-minute surge. The TarHeels' star player, R. J. Davis, had a very bad night, especially from 3-point range: 0-10. It was a heart-breaking loss, and I felt especialy badly for him, because I'm sure he felt the expectations very strongly and must have suffered for not meeting them.

Maundy Thursday

At the moment, I am at the Guilford Church while people are setting up for the Maundy Thursday service. It is called "Maundy" because it was on this night that Jesus gave his disciples a new commmandment, and the word "commandment" in Latin is mandatum which in English somehow became "Maundy." This year, our interim pastor, Allyson Platt, has decided to combine the service with a simple meal of soup and bread. So they have set up tables for forty people. Hopefully, that will be enough. Here is how it looks (using Photo Booth on the computer):

Set-up for Maundy Thursday. This has been a fairly quiet week despite being Holy Week. Earlier today I went to a Foot Care Cinic at Putney Cares in Putney - an RN takes care of various foot issues - nails, callouses, etc. Yesterday, I had a dental appointment for cleaning. No cavities! Otherwise, it has been a stay-at-home week, reading a study of The Last Week by John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg. It is a thorough and provocative study of what was actually going on the last week of Jesus' life. It is provocative because it challenges some widely-held ideas. E.g., Jesus entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was not a "triumphal entry." It was an intentionally non-violent statement - a non-violent protest, if you will, countering another procession led by the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate, going on at the same time on the other side of the city, glorifying in the power and violent oppression of the Roman Empire. Pontius Pilate on his war horse vs. Jesus on his colt. So that has been interesting!

A wintry Palm Sunday

We got quite the storm last night. It snowed a lot last evening and we thought it would turn to rain, but it didn't - it snowed more and we ended up with about 10 inches, maybe more. Parts of Vermont got 3 feet! Church was held, but many were not plowed out and didn't make it. Mary Westbrook had to do a lot of shoveling to get her car out - she missed the entire rehearsal before church and came in just before church started, exhausted. Zach had plowed our road twice, so we were fine. I led the rehearsal, and we were all set to sing everything a cappella, but at the last minute we had accompaniment. The congregation was much bigger than I expected it would be - there were even five boy scouts there - two of whom were baptized during the service (including Cameron, Pastor Shawn's son). So everything worked out and I was proud of my little choir. Today it is bright and sunny, but very cold. Ellen has been cooking food for Nan all afternoon - Nan is recovering from a knee replacement. Yesterday, before the storm, we went to the Bergh's to watch the TarHeels play Michigan State - and they won. It was an exciting game - Michigan State came out on fire and looked like they would run away with the game, but the 'Heels rallied and won handily. So the 'Heels go into the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday. That is Maundy Thursday, but we don't know what time the game will be - it will be played in Los Angeles, 3 hours earlier than here. So it could be late at night here.

The Dummerston Church Choir

Jim and Joy

We have guests! Jim and Joy Harris, who live in Cherry Hill, NJ, are vsiting us for a couple of days. They are not actually staying here at the house overnight - they are at the Hampton Inn - but we had supper out and the evening with them here at the house yesterday, and earlier today, I went on a little trip with them over into New Hampshire, and they will have supper with us this evening before Ellen and I go to a Dummerston Church choir rehearsal. Jim is Shirley's nephew, the son of her brother, Ladd Harris. Ladd died, tragically, on July 31, 1960, at age 38, when Jim was only six years old. Jim has two siblings, an older brother, Robbie, and a younger sister, Patty. His mother is no longer living. Joy is his second wife, and they are a happy couple. Jim worked much of his adult life as an assistant District Attorney for the state of New Jersey. He has a son, Matt, by his first wife. Joy has a son by an earlier marriage, whose first name, coincidently, is Harris. He lives in Boston, which is the main reason for this trip. They will go to Boston tomorrow. Jim is retired, and in his retirement, he has gotten very interested in his inner life, and has become an author. His first book, Banishing Snakes by Fire: 13 Rituals for Recovering Your Authentic Self, draws on the work he has done in his own iife to heal the trauma of his father's death and its aftermath, and he is currently working on a novel about a man whose dreams prefigure what happens to him the followimg day. They arrived just before supper yesterday, and we ate together at Panda North. I had my usual Mala Tofu ad Ellen her ginger chicken chicken string beans, and Jim and Joy shared a shrimp appetizer and a main dish I forget. We had a surprise sitting at the next tabe was Ken Burns, the well-known PBS film-maker! He was with what looked to be a granddaughter. That was cool! Today, we went over to Harrisville and Dublin, NH, which are important locations in Jim's family tree - nothing to do with the Harris family- that is another coincidence - but rather with the Townsend family - his great-grandmother was Kate Townsend Langley. We visited the house where Kate was born and grew up in Harrisville, and the graves in nearby Dublin where her father amd mother and other Townsends are buried. Harrisville is a lovely old mill town, beautifully kept amd restored, and we had lunch at the General Store, which is an extremely popular gathering place. The Dublin cemetery proved to be a challenge for me because of hills and rough ground, and it was very cold and windy, but we had a good time.

Joy and Jim at Panda, with Ken Burns in background.

The Townsend house in Harrisville as it looks today

The Harrisville General Store, outside and inside