Something every day

Since my last post, which was last Wednesday, something important has happened every day. Thursday was a memorial gathering for violinist, Peggy Spencer. Peggy was concertmaster of the New England Bach Festival Orchestra, which for decades performed with the Blanche Moyse Chorale, of which I was a member for over 30 years. It is no exaggeration to say that I have performed Bach with Peggy over a hundred times. Peggy was married to cellist, Zon Eastes, for decades, and had dementia for the last decade of her life, though judging from things said at her memorial, her experience of dementia was gentler and sweeter than many, and Zon was a loving caretaker. The memorial gathering was held at the Brattleboro Music Center, and brought out people I have known for years but haven't seen for quite a while, including former Chorale members. One of those was Meredith Morgan, the wife of Jerry Morgan, a former minister of the Dummerston Church. Meredith was also Deborah McKean's roommate at Mt. Holyoke College back in the 1960's. There were several others. So this was a meaningful gathering for me at several levels. A lovely aspect of the service, not surprisingly, was music - specifically a string quartet, who played before, during and after the service. Peggy had two sons (by a husband who died before she married Zon), and one of them led the service, which had ample opportunity for anyone to speak who wanted to. We learned that in addition to being a world-class musician, Peggy loved games, and had a delightful silly side (which was not evident in her concertmaster role!).

Peggy Spencer (1941-2024).

Friends at Peggy Spencer's reception.

More friends.

Meredith Morgan and Beth-Ann Betz, former members of the Chorale.

Calvin Farwell, Me, Beth-Ann and Margo Lacey, all Chorale members. ****************** After the memorial service, we met John and Cynthia at Panda North for supper, which was very nice. I had my usual- Mala Tofu - which I enjoyed twice, at Panda North on Thursday and at home as a leftover on Friday.

My platter of Mala Tofu at Panda North. ****************** Ellen went directly from Panda North to a GCC Council meeting, and J&C took me home. Friday we listened on NPR to "The Daily Antidote of Song," which was being led by Peter and Mary Alice Amidon. The DAOS was a creation of the COVID-19 pandemic era, and continues to this day because people love it. At noon, on public radio, someone leads 15-20 minutes of singing. We don't listen faithfully every day, but try to be there when people we know are leading. In the afternoon I had a follow-up blood test, because the test I had on Manday showed I was anemic - i.e., I have a slightly low red blood count. In the follow-up, they were checking my Folate (B-9) and B-12 levels. Then in the evening, we had a Dummerston Choir rehearsal. We rehearsed The Rose, which was sung on Saturday at a memorial service for Lisa May, Sallie May's daughter (Sallie is the Dummerston Church secretary and prepares oodles of food for Senior Meals and for the homeless). I did not attend that service because it conflicted with a Guilford Church retreat, but Ellen does a lot of meal prep for/with Sallie, so she went. We also rehearsed God So Loved the World, by John Stainer, an old classic. I know it well - I have sung it many times, and it happens to have been the first anthem I led a choir in performing - back when I was a 19-year-old college student. Saturday, I went to the Guilford Church Retreat, which analysed the discussions coming out of nine recent small-group gatherings. We formed nine 4-person groups and each group worked pretty carefully on 3-4 pages of a total of 30 pages of notes coming out of those gatherings. We were looking for the important themes and issues that were brought up. Our interim pastor, Allyson Platt, was in charge, and she summarized our work and reports on newsprint sheets which will later be typed up and distributed.

Pastor Allyson standing by to use the easel to make notes. All this will eventually be boiled down into a church profile as part of the process of finding a new permanant pastor. It was a beautiful day, weather-wise, and we had a pot-luck lunch which I ate outside, along with many others. People were very helpful to me (Ellen was in Dummerston), and I had a good day. We also picked up Jerome to bring to the retreat, and took him home afterward. Saturday evening we were at home. ************** Sunday we sang at Dummerston, John and Cynthia were there, and our anthem, God So Loved the World, went well. There were almost as many people in the choir as there were in the congregation! After church, J&C invited us to their place for a Father's Day dinner and afternoon. A feature of dinner was cole slaw made following a recipe I had made and written out by hand and given to John decades ago! I had completely forgotten that I had done that. It was good - it had crushed pineapple in it, along with raisins.

The screened porch at J&C's house where we ate our dinner and visited. It was very comfortable. ****************** After dinner, I shared my response to an email John had sent me asking for some ideas for his class in "Eco-spirituality" he is preparing for Antioch. I had written a new ending to a song we had heard a week ago at the Amidon Choral Arrangements Concert - "The Seed in the Ground." John had specifically asked for ideas relating to one of his themes - "subversive speech" - i.e., words that undo the self. He sees the self as a major villain in our obsession with consumption and growth and our alienation from the natural world. My verse is sort of a humorous jab at the un-intended consequences of agriculture. Here it is: New Verse for "Seed in the Ground" for John's course I had the sun and I had the rain So I dug a little hole in the old back lane I planted some seeds and kept down the weeds but nothing came up so I said, "What's up" And I went down to see But I had a bad knee And as I looked around I fell on the ground I hit my head And was almost dead And now a year later I am still in bed And in the night I think it might Have been better had I never Dug that hole in the ground.******************* If you want to see how this fits into the song, go to this link: ********** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWz9NpQaYnQ *********** I got home late afternoon and we spent a quiet evening listening to All the Traditionsn on Vermont Public Radio and then watching TV. Today Houghton Sanitary Service came and pumped out our septic tank. Something I had not had done for several years.