Today, Ellen, Jim and Mary went to the Common Ground Fair. I've opted to stay at the house and have a quiet day. It feels good! I debated whether to come at all this time, because a day at CGF is pretty tiring, and while I love the fair, it isn't a top priority for me right now. I considered staying with Katie and Savanna while Ellen came alone. But not coming at all would have meant not seeing my friends Phil and Deborah McKean before they go back to California. So I decided to come, see my friends, but skip the Fair.
Earlier this week, Tuesday evening, was the start of River Singers. It was great to see friends again, and we went with Eliza Bergh to the before-rehearsal soup supper put on by the church. And we had Brattleboro Concert Choir Wednesday eve.
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| Tuesday evening at River Singers rehearsal, Westminster-West Church, with Mary Cay Brass at the piano |
Tuesday morning, I went to a gathering of retired clergy at the Dummerston Church. There were only four of us, but we had a stimulating discussion. I had been asked to bring an opening "litany." I wanted to do something a little unusual. I learned through the internet that Tuesday the 17th was Constitution Day - the day in 1787 when the Constitution was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. I found the speech that Benjamin Franklin gave to the delegates before the signing, and I was so struck by its prescience and pertinence for our time, that I made it our "litany." Everyone really liked it and it triggered a good discussion. The other item on the table was the book by Robert Jones, The Death of White Christian America, a trenchant book which also provokes spirited discussion. Jack Bixby lent me his copy and I "speed-read" it Wednesday. I recommend it. It confirms ideas I've been harboring in my own mind for some time. I'll attach Ben Franklin's speech below.
The other thing this week has been Ken Burns' new film, Country Music on PBS. Two hours every evening since Sunday. It has been riveting - maybe his best film yet, and that is saying something. I know very little about country music, so I have learned a lot. The life story of Hank Williams was especially moving. Ellen is much more knowledgeable and she has also enjoyed it a lot.
We also went to the movies at the Latchis and saw Peanut Butter Falcon which is about two men "on the run," one of whom is a young man with Down's Syndrome who is running away from a nursing home looking for a wrestling school he learned about on TV. The character is played by an actor who has Down's Syndrome, and he is great. It is a lovely movie.
Ellen stacked a lot of wood this week. We are a little bit ahead of where we were last year in that department. Zach will dump another load while we are in Maine.
A slightly condensed version of Benjamin Franklin's speech to the delegates at the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1789 (prepared as a "litany" for a gathering of retired clergy on September 17, 2019)
SEPTEMBER 17TH IS CONSTITUTION DAY: On this day in 1787, delegates to the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia gathered to sign the Constitution.
Benjamin Franklin addressed the delegates before the signing:
1. I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not
at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having
lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better
information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important
subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is
therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment,
and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.
2. Most men indeed, as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in
possession of all truth, and that whereever others differ from them it is so
far error. Steele, a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only
difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their
doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is
never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of
their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally
as a certain French lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't
know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always
in the right"
3. In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its
faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for
us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the
people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be
well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as
other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as
to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.
4. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain may be able to make
a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the
advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all
their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local
interests, and their selfish views. From such an Assembly can a perfect
production be expected?
5. It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near
to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are
waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those
of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation,
only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats.
6. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and
because I am not sure, that it is not the best. . . On the whole, Sir, I
cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may
still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little
of his own infallibility—and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to
this instrument."
Unison Prayer: O God of earth and altar, bow down and hear our cry; our
earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die. The walls of gold entomb us,
the swords of scorn divide; take not thy thunder from us, but take away our
pride. From all that terror teaches, from lies of tongue and pen, from all
the easy speeches that comfort cruel men, from sale and profanation of honor
and the sword, from sleep and from damnation, deliver us, good Lord! Amen.
-- G. K. Chesterton
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