Prof. Najeeba Syeed

Yesterday's Chicago Theological Seminary Reflections Zoom session featured Prof. Najeeba Syeed, who is currently on the faculty at Claremont School of Theology but will join CTS this summer as Associate Professor in Muslim and Interreligious Studies. Prof.Syeed's presentation reflected on a Sura of the Koran which deals particularly with the idea of justice, and she outlined the main features of what could be called a Muslim conception of justice. My sense of the key idea is that the Muslim notion of Justice emphasizes the community in contrast to our Western (and especially American, capitalist) notion which emphasizes the individual. The Muslim concept is closer to what we call "restorative justice," which, in the case of a criminal act, brings the perpetrator and the victim (and family) together to restore the health and balance destroyed by the crime (as opposed to just punishing the perpetrator, usually with prison time, and leaving the victim(s) to fend for themselves with the aftermath). She has recently published a book titled Critical Perspectives on Interreligious Education Experiments in Empathy (Currents of Encounter), which looks very interesting, and has been active for some time in interfaith dialogue and peacemaking. She has been influenced by Quaker thought and practice (her B. A. is from  Guilford College in North Carolina, a Quaker college) and in her presentation, mentioned as a mentor, Elise Boulding. When Ellen heard that name, she perked up her ears. When Ellen was 19, she spent a summer working for the WILPF - Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - where her mother, Elizabeth Tollles, was very active. That summer, Ellen carried on a correspondence with Elise Boulding. She never met her, but felt she got to know her through that correspondence. Boulding is also a very interesting person. She wrote a book titled The Underside of History which is a study of the role of women in society from Paleolithic times to the present! Lots here to follow up on. Prof. Syeed will be a strong addition to the CTS faculty. I wish we lived close enough to CTS to be able to sit in on courses, but who knows - maybe I can via the internet! Meanwhile, these Wednesday Reflections on Zoom are sort of like going back to school - albeit in small pieces! Next Wednesday, the speaker will be Prof. Rachael Mikva, who is prof. of Jewish Studies. We are getting a good exposure to CTS's interfaith diversity, An interesting place for sure.

Prof. Najeeba Syeed

Elise Boulding  (1920-2010)

 Meanwhile, I am forging ahead on the Judas Maccabaeus project, collecting information and digitizing the cassette tapes. Today I found the libretto of the Oratorio online and downloaded it. Amazing what you can do these days! 

Ellen and I also do the NYT Spelling Bee every morning. It's a good way to get one's brain moving.  

Judas Maccabaeus

When you are at home around the clock, you begin to pay new attention to what has always been there around you. At least that is what is happening for me. In particular, I have started to explore an archive of old cassette tapes, and finding treasures there. One such treasure is a recording of a performance of Handel's Orartorio, Judas Maccabaeus by the Brattleboro Community Chorus on May 22, 1994 at the Persons Auditorium, Marlboro College. I've had these tapes all these years, but I don't remember ever listening to them. Maybe I did back in 1994, but  very possibly not, because the spring of 1994 was when the Guilford church was going into high gear in the project to move and enlarge the church, and I was up to my ears in the project - and at times over my head!  So I may have gotten these tapes, put them away, was too busy to listen to them, and they have sat forgotten in a case in a closet for 26 years. What is ironic about this is that I was the bass soloist for  this performance. It is the only recording I have of me singing as a soloist with a chamber orchestra. I sang three Arias and two Recitatives in this performance. I think I was the only "amateur" among the five soloists - I know at least three of them are "professional" singers today - Kristin Carmichael, Brad Diamond and Louise Fauteux. Ellen and I just listened to the entire performance, and these soloists are good! But so am I, by golly! So I'm going to digitize these tapes and make a nicely packaged CD of them. I'll have more to say about this in future posts.

The Judas Maccabaeus tapes

Zooming and Exploring

Today we went to John and  Cynthia's house in the afternoon. They had set up two sets of chairs and tables under umbrellas in their front yard, and it was very pleasant to sit and talk. The temperature was perfect. When we arrived, they were sitting and playing music - flute and harp - and what was neat was that as we sat there, the wind "played" the harp - a lovely chord. They also had been watching a fox and three kits playing in front of a pile of brush and rocks. Later, we got a glimpse of one too. About an hour after we arrived, we had a Zoom session with Katie in Boulder, and Rob and Kate in Santa Fe. A highlight was a viewing of Katie's film - a three minute ”mockumentary” - i.e., a mock documentary that she created over last weekend. About a dozen Stevens College students had agreed to stage a film contest in which each of them created a three-minute video based on certain parameters. These were friends from when Katie was actually in the film program at Stevens. The film had to be in French, it had to have a refrigerator as a prop, and it had to include the line “get away, I haven’t had a shower for days.” Katie‘s film stars her Chihuahua, Gertie, the narration is in French with English subtitles and definitely had the necessary refrigerator and line. It was basically the story of Katie’s self-quarantine  at the house in Boulder,  but told from Gertie’s perspective. It’s a riot and very well done. Hopefully she will eventually put it on YouTube.

We got to hear quite a bit from Rob about how things are going at the college of music in Colorado, where he is Dean. He said they are having lots of meetings by zoom, because they have to have their detailed plan for the fall ready by May 15 so they can inform students and parents. We learned from Kate that she has been recruited to help with contact tracing for the coronavirus. She works in public health, usually doing AIDS education. Katie has only a couple of days left in her self-quarantine at the house in Boulder. Her dad will return Monday night. She is doing fine.

After our Zoom session, we took a little exploratory walk around the house at J&C’s. We got a glimpse of a fox kit, followed a little brook, saw sumac, buckthorn and old apple trees. Their land is more diverse than ours, I would say.

John and Cynthia in  their front yard

Recording

We are at the Dummerston Church recording a hymn to be used online at the service Sunday. The procedure is this: one by one, we go up to stand where Mary Westbrook-Geha, our organist, has prepared an iPad where Mary has recorded herself playing the hymn on the organ. The hymn is I Sing the Mighty Power of God, which is #68 in the Pilgrim Hymnal. The text is by famous Congregational hymn writer, Isaac Watts (1678-1748).  The tune is ELLACOMBE from the Wirtemberg Gesangbuch (1784). You put on a pair of earbuds which allows you to hear the organ. You position yourself so that your face is centered in a little window. You push the start button and see a 4-3-2-1- countdown and the organ plays a brief introduction. Then you sing the hymn along with the organ - each one singing their part (Bass for me, Alto for Ellen) - three stanzas in all. Here is the text:

1 I sing the mighty power of God
that made the mountains rise,
that spread the flowing seas abroad
and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
the sun to rule the day;
the moon shines full at his command,
and all the stars obey.


2 I sing the goodness of the Lord
that filled the earth with food;
he formed the creatures with his word
and then pronounced them good.
Lord, how your wonders are displayed,
where'er we turn our eyes,
if we survey the ground we tread
or gaze upon the skies.


3 There's not a plant or flower below
but makes your glories known,
and clouds arise and tempests blow
by order from your throne;
while all that borrows life from you
is ever in your care,
and everywhere that we can be,
you, God, are present there.

On Sunday, all these individual recordings will be blended into a choir. We did this last Sunday and  people loved it.  Probably 60 or more people are usually tuning in.

Nancy Tierra recording the hymn

CTS Wednesday Zoom session

Today, I participated in a zoom session with the Chicago Theological Seminary community which is held every Wednesday. Today the guest speaker was the Rev.  John Thomas, member of the faculty at CTS and the former president of the United Church of Christ. He invited us to think of the coronavirus pandemic as a “humiliation” in the sense of the root meaning of the word which is “earth” or “humus.” The pandemic is an experience of being “grounded.” I.e., being  brought down to earth to appreciate what is really important. I thought that was a very suggestive and provocative way of thinking about things, and it parallels some thoughts that I’ve been having. The session was “chaired” by Dr. Stephen Ray, who is president of the seminary. I enjoyed it.

Dr. Stephen Ray

Rev. John Thomas

Puzzles

Ellen and I played Scrabble again last night. I had a lot of vowels this time, but I also got most of the high-value tiles. At one point I had all vowels  on my stand. But I was able to take advantage of high-value tiles on the board. Anyway, I won by a score of about 350 to 270. I think I enjoyed  the game more than Ellen did. 

Final board:

In our other word puzzle area, Spelling Bee, we reached a new level: Queen Bee. This is a level beyond Genius. It entails finding all the words the New York Times has found for that puzzle. We were thrilled! Ellen had achieved genius on her own, but when I added a word she had not found, we reached Queen Bee.

The letters were W+HDRTIA

Our wordlist:

It was the word “width”  that put us over the top. We did not get a screenshot of the Queen Bee page.

Scott Ainslie

We just watched a great virtual concert by a local artist and a friend Scott Ainslie. It was sponsored by the Folk society of greater Boston. I think if you go to their website you can find it and click on the link.

We awoke to snow

When we got up this morning, the trees were covered in snow and it was still coming down. Now a few hours later it has almost  completely disappeared. I guess that’s the advantage of an April snowstorm.

Today, I’ve been working on digitizing the Guilford church Easter service from April 11, 1993. I’m transferring it from a cassette tape onto my computer using the app GarageBand. Ellen and I listened to it on Easter Sunday and it’s a wonderful service. It has a lot of music in it and it is very joyful and lively. So I’m going to see if the church might be interested in putting it up on their website. In the process of digitizing, I’ve edited it down to a little under an hour. 

That project got me into a second one, also involving digitizing a cassette tape. This one is a benefit concert that Marjorie Macrum and I gave about 15 years ago in the Baptist church. It’s really a wonderful concert.

The view this morning


Late Thursday afternoon I got in a pretty good walk - probably 3 miles round-trip: that’s pretty good for me right now.

Katie made it!

Katie has arrived safely in Boulder. She and Gertie are now self-quarantining at the house in Boulder while her dad is in Santa Fe. She said her flight went very smoothly. The LaGuardia terminal only had about 20 people in the entire terminal. Her flight had only 10 people on it and they were all well spaced-out (physically, that is). She got to the house almost midnight Tuesday night. Her dad had put in quite a bit of food before he left for Santa Fe, and she has learned that the local markets have curbside pick-up, so she's going to be able to keep to herself pretty well. She has Wi-Fi there at the house so she can stay in touch with her friends back east, and of course she and Gertie can take walks in the beautiful countryside. I am much relieved to know that she is there in Boulder and not in Brooklyn. We can be in touch pretty regularly by text and phone. After two weeks, her dad will come back and she'll just stay there in Boulder until she gets a more definite word on her job back in Brooklyn. She's getting unemployment checks with the federal bonus, and she's also gotten her stimulus check, so she feels pretty set financially. 

Meanwhile, we're doing fine. We don't go anywhere very much, staying pretty much here at home. It's sort of wintry - we had a dusting of snow this morning - but we do try to get out every day for a walk of some kind. We dropped some eggs off for John yesterday and saw him briefly outside. We also took trash and recycle stuff to the landfill.  We feel fortunate, because we know through the news that there are literally millions of people suffering terribly through this time. 

Katie's journey

Katie leaves this evening for Boulder. Talk about "fleeing Brooklyn"! but not to escape an oppressive community, but rather to escape the oppressive pandemic which is raging in NYC. She will fly to Denver this evening, rent a car and drive to Boulder to her dad's house. Rob is in Santa Fe, so Katie can self-quarantine in the house for 14 days by herself (and Gertie - thank goodness she will have Gertie!). Then her dad will return, and she will hang out there until her work situation back in NYC resolves. Will Abel-Cine revive? If the movie industry revives, Abel-Cine probably will too, because they supply the equipment. And Katie will probably get called back. But no one knows for sure what will happen. She is holding on to the apartment in Brooklyn for the time being, just in case.

The travel from Brooklyn to Boulder is not without its issues - we pray it goes smoothly!

some photos from the weekend

Here is our home altar when we live stream a service from the Guilford Church:

This was the set-up for Maundy Thursdsy and the Office of Tenebrae. We extinguished a candle after each reading.

Lise Sparrow leading the service

Andy and  Robin leading a hymn

Monday, I talked with Mary Cay Brass on the phone, and she asked if we had seen Unorthodox, a 4-part series on Netflix. I said "No," we didn't have Netflix. She thought we could get it on our iPhone, so I looked into it, and sure enough, we can. So I signed up for a 30 day free-trial, and last evening we watched Unorthodox, which I gather is all the rage. I've heard it mentioned several times on the radio. It is about a young wife, Esther (Esty) who flees her marriage and her ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and goes to Berlin, where her grandmother lives. She is pursued by her husband, Yanky, and his unscrupulous cousin, Moishe. It paints a pretty unflattering picture of how women are treated in ultra-orthodox communities, which may be accurate or not - how are we to know for sure? But dramatically it is gripping for sure. We can also watch movies like The Irishman. Our phone data service on Consumer Cellular goes up to 55GB, which is a lot. I think we can watch all the movies we want.  Another activity for this "shelter-in-place" time!

Not the usual Easter!

Easter began this morning at 6:45am, with a Easter sunrise service by Zoom. A lot of people were involved, maybe more than usual. Pastor Lise was on a hillside in Westminster, and a number of other people were also outside but quite a few of us were inside. One of the participants was on a hillside in Germany! Under normal circumstances, there would have been a pancake breakfast at the church after the service. So we had a pancake breakfast here at the house. After our breakfast, we listened to a tape of an Easter service at Guilford from 1993, led by Shirley. That was an inspired choice because it was a wonderful service, incredibly full of life.  Then at 10 AM, there was the regular Easter service at Guilford, thanks to BCTV.. Someone put  a lot of thought and work into that. Part of it was live, part had been recorded yesterday, part was archival from previous Easter services. It all fit together seamlessly and was very moving. That was followed immediately by a zoom coffee hour. So we really had a full morning of the celebration of Easter.

After that,  I got the deck furniture out from the shed, and set It up on the deck because John and Cynthia were coming over a little bit later in the afternoon. But before that we were supposed to meet Eliza in the Dummerston cemetery to sing Easter hymns at the graves of Shirley, Betsy and Eliza‘s parents. But when we went down the driveway, we found that Zach was taking out an old culvert and putting in a new one, and the driveway was blocked. We couldn’t reach Eliza, and thought we were stuck, but eventually Zach found a way around through our neighbor’s yard, and we got there - late, but ok. We had a nice sing. We got back just in time to greet John and Cynthia. We sat on the deck, appropriately distanced. It was John’s birthday - one of the rare occasions when April 12th fell on Easter. Ellen made a cake, we had snacks and a good visit -all with proper precautions. No blowing out the candles!

A full, wonderful Easter!

Birthday celebration on the deck

An Easter surprise - crocuses outside our back door!

At the cemetery

Getting ready for Easter

I just spent some time at the Dummerston cemetery sprucing up Shirley's and Betsey's graves for Easter. I had gotten some pansies at Walker's yesterday and put them in pots. Today I cleaned old, brown leaves off the graves and raked the area. There are daffodils about to bloom on Shirley's grave. Tomorrow, we will meet Eliza and her family there to sing hymns (her parents' graves are just a couple down from our lot). It's pretty early spring, but it looks nice for Easter.  I didn't have the iPhone with me, but I did have the computer and PhotoBooth -  so here is a glimpse of how it looks:

We love you Shirley and Betsey and we miss you among us so much!

Sacred Time at home

This is a holy week for Christians and Jews. We participated in the Feinland family Seder meal via Zoom on Wednesday eve, the Guilford Church's Maundy Thursday service via BCTV Live Stream on Thursday eve and the Brattleboro Ecumenical Good Friday service today, noon to three.  In the service today, seven different pastors, all speaking from their homes, gave meditations on the Seven Last Words of Jesus from the cross, and musicians played and sang from their homes.  All these services were particularly moving. I am deeply impressed by how faith communities, especially, are adapting to this health crisis. Some amazing skill in technology and creativity is going on and keeping us involved.  Sunday morning there will be a Sunrise Service at 6:30a.m. and a regular Easter Service at 10a.m. I'll be a reader at 6:30a.m., via Zoom. The "attendance" at these services has been high - everyone at home, yet feeling connected. You can watch some of them if you wish by going to the "Guilford Community Church" website and clicking on the links for those services. (I don't think the Feinland Seder is publicly available).

Our pastor at Guilford Community Church, Dr. Lise Sparrow, from her home earlier today as part of the Good Friday service

The Guilford Church from the air - part of the BCTV intro to all of our services, Probably taken from a drone.

Signs of spring

Ellen and I have been taking little walks and have seen signs of spring even though it feels and looks like late winter up here on the mountain. Here are a couple of evidences:

Early spring flowers

Huck Finn and race

One jarring aspect of listening to a reading of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the frequent use by Twain of the "n-word." Jim, Huck's companion on the raft, is a runaway slave. Huck is clearly deeply fond of Jim and admires him, but he regularly refers to him using the "n-word." This fact has led to this American classic being dropped from most high school reading lists, and it is rarely taught. This is a shame, in my view. Thus I was pleased to find through JSTOR (an on-line archive of academic articles) an article by Hugh H. Davis, a high-school English teacher, titled "On Teaching Huckleberry Finn," in the periodical Mark Twain Journal (Fall, 2016). He fully discusses all the issues raised by this work, especially the use of the "n-word," and how to effectively make use of these controversial issues in the classroom to inspire student engagement with the work. He makes use of a recent edition which has replaced the "n-word" with the word "slave." This raises issues of its own, of course, but these can also be raised in classroom discussion. Davis is probably in a minority - it's easier to just sidestep all these issues and not use Huck Finn. But he is gradually convincing colleagues to restore this classic to the classroom. Another article I found, The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn, by Jonathan Bennett (in Philosophy, 1974)  is also very interesting. It's pretty complicated to summarize here, but basically he agrees with me that this work explores in depth issues of morality and ethics. Huck himself, Bennett argues, believed that morality demanded that he respect the rights of Jim's owner,  and that therefore it was wrong for him to try to free Jim. But he intentionally decides to let his compassion for Jim to overrule his morality. He is resigned to see himself as a bad person who will probably go to hell because he tries to free Jim from slavery. We, of course, have the opposite view! In this way Twain raises very sophisticated ethical (and religious) issues. That is one feature of the work that makes it a classic.

Sterling Unabridged Classics Series

Huck Finn

I've been having a great time listening to a reading of Mark Twain's  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on Librivox. I can listen on the iPhone.  In case you don't know about it, Librivox is an online site for free audiobooks in the public domain, using volunteer readers. The reader of Huck Finn is Annie Coleman Rothenberg, and she is good. She's got the dialects down well. She is from St.Louis, MO so that probably helps. I had forgotten what a great book Huck Finn is. It is practically a textbook in morality and ethics. Huck is a real philosopher, and he spends a lot of time struggling with ethical dilemmas. But it is also a ripping good yarn with great characters. I've just been listening to the chapters  dealing with the two con-men - the "King" and the "Duke,"who invite themselves on to Jim and Huck's raft and get them involved in all kinds of scrapes.  Go to LibriVox and listen for yourself.

Mark Twain

Old CTS friends

Today, the Chicago Theological Seminary hosted a half-hour ZOOM session featuring Prof.  Ken Stone, Prof. of Old Testament. He talked about a neglected feature of the OT - the Psalms of Lament. Here is an example from Psalm 22:

12   Many bulls encircle me,
    strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
¹³ they open wide their mouths at me,
    like a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint;
    my heart is like wax;
    it is melted within my breast;
¹⁵ my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
    you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶ For dogs are all around me;
    a company of evildoers encircles me.
    My hands and feet have shriveled;^[b]
17 I can count all my bones.
    They stare and gloat over me;
¹⁸ they divide my clothes among themselves,
    and for my clothing they cast lots.

These psalms feel very "right" for the present situation. Some end on a note of praise to God, but many end in despair. There is an authenticity in allowing that. There are a  lot of people today who have little or no reason to hope, and we need to respect that, listen, be available.

Scores of people participated in this session and I recognized about 6 or so from my years as Pastor-in-Residence back in 1999-2001. I had to adjust to their appearance -  it's been 20 years! - but I recognized them and it was great to see them.  There will be a session every Wednesday noon. Next week will be led by Joanne Terrell, who taught a course I took back in 1999. So I hope to plug in next week too.

We got our TV reception back today. Yay! New Hampshire PBS has finished work on their transmitter and it is back on. It was a sunny day, and I re-scanned for stations and Voila! five came up.  Ellen can watch cooking shows again!

Hope all my readers are staying Safe and Well!