Ecclesiastical Council

Last evening we held an Ecclesiastical Council via Zoom - a first for me, certainly, and maybe a first, period. What is an Ecclesiastical Council? In the system of governance in the church to which I belong - the United Church of Christ, which has its roots in the Congregational Church, important decisions concerning the ministry are made not by a Bishop, or by a group of clergy, but by a kind of town meeting, a group composed of both clergy and lay people, which gathers to be informed about the facts of the situation, and then takes a vote. In this case, the decision was whether to ordain a man who has been preparing for ordination for many years and had completed all aspects of that period of preparation. In the United Church of Christ, there are four "levels" so to speak of church organization: (1) the local church, in my case, the Guilford Community Church; (2) the Association, which is a fellowship of UCC churches within a fairly small geographical area - in my case, Windham County and the southern half of Windsor County to the north - about 18 churches in all; (3) the Conference, which in my case is the Vermont Conference, a state-wide fellowship of about 130 churches or so; (4) the Synod - a nationwide fellowship of UCC churches - app. 4800 churches or so. The process of ordination takes place at levels (2) and (3). A local church cannot ordain someone on their own. The national denomination is not involved except that it publishes a Manual of Ministr which lays out the guidelines to be followed by the Conference and the Association. Jeremy Kirk, the man who was seeking ordination, became a member of the Guilford Church almost ten years ago, and became what is called a "Member in Discernment" - i.e., someone seeking to be ordained - about 8 years ago. You have to go through a lot of hoops to become an ordained minister. The basic one is "being called," - i.e., having a strong inner feeling that God is speaking to you, encouraging you to become a minister. That can take many forms. In Jeremy's case, he was raised a Roman Catholic, and the earliest call he felt was as an altar boy, wanting to be priest. Later he went to Gonzaga University, and looked up to his Jesuit teachers and wanted to be one of them. You need a local congregation to support this sense of an inner calling - a group of people who get to know you well enough to be able to say with confidence that that sense of calling is genuine. The Guilford Church provided that. But that is not enough. You have to have a seminary education, or its equivalent. That means most commonly getting a Master's in Divinity Degree (MDiv). In Jeremy's case he got a Master's in Theology at Union Theological Seminary, and went on to get a Ph.D. - he had more than needed, but was also missing some specific components of the MDiv, like Clinical Pastoral Education. Today you also have to undergo a thorough psychological evaluation (which costs over $1500!) and also go through a criminal background check (because of clergy child abuse issues, mostly). The capstone to all that is to write and deliver an "Ordination Paper," which lays out your personal "faith journey" and discusses in some detail what you believe - and an outline for you to follow is usually provided, which the candidate can follow slavishly, or with some freedom to be creative. The Conference oversees that process - an older minister is usually assigned the candidate as a mentor, who guides her or him through the process, and the candidate eventually presents that paper to the Conference Committee on Ministerial Standing and Standards (MSSC), a group of 8-10 people from around the state, clergy and lay, who review the entire process with the candidate, make sure all the "i's" are dotted, so to speak, hear the paper, ask questions, and then vote on whether to recommend the candidate to the Association for actual ordination. There were a lot of bumps along the way for Jeremy, many of them unnecessary bureaucratic glitches. It took him eight years to get all his "i's" dotted. But he patiently followed the process and along the way became the pastor of a church (West Dover Congregational Church) - you do not have to be ordained to be a pastor, at least for a while. I was the pastor of little Presbyterian Church in Missouri while I was still in college - just 18 years old! Jeremy is 44 years old. So, what we were doing last evening was carrying out the next step in the process. This might seem redundant - why have another group evaluate Jeremy after he has already gotten the approval of the Conference MMSC? Well, that is rooted in history. In colonial days, there was no state Conference, just the more local Association (our Association was formed in 1791!). The Association oversaw the entire ordination process. The Ecclesiastical Council is a vestige of that older system. Before the Association actually ordains someone, they want to hear his story, hear his faith, and have a chance to ask questions. That is what happened last evening. For the Council to be valid, there had to be a quorum. There needed to be at least eight churches represented, and at least 20 persons in attendance - that is stated in our Association ByLaws. We actually had over 10 churches represented and close to 40 people "present." But because of the pandemic, it was not in-person. Actually, it probably could have been - the ordination will be in person, but everyone will be masked and presumably vaccinated. But we were playing it safe. So it all happened on Zoom. It was a good session. I ended up taking minutes - the usual person, called the Registrar - was not able to be there. So I was "Clerk, pro tem." His paper had been sent out in advance, so he didn't have to read it in its entirety. He summarized it and there were questions. Here is a bit from my minutes: The questions ranged from "what do you find most attractive and most challenging about the UCC?" to "What do you say to someone whose child has just died?" to "what do you believe about substitutionary atonement and the seeming privilege of the human species?" to "Explain your Niebuhr-inspired preference for "self-acceptance" over "self-improvement," to "What is your personal spiritual practice and discipline," to "How is being ordained and no longer having to be a student going to affect your ministry," to "How do you communicate theology to children?" to "Do you need to wear a clerical collar and what does that mean?" mJeremy gave thoughtful replies to all these questions. The vote to ordain him was unanimous. I gave the closing prayer and we all congratulated Jeremy and "went out into the night" so to speak. A good experience. His ordination service will be this coming Sunday afternoon in West Dover. Ellen and I plan to be there.

A screen shot of our Zoom Ecclesiastical Council yesterday evening. There were a few more people on a second screen.*********************

Jeremy Kirk standing in the pews at the West Dover Church

Robb Hamm, Moderator of the Association

Giving the closing prayer on Zoom

Today's exploration of the Eastern Orthodox faith

Today, I led the service at the Dummerston Church. Pastor Shawn is on a 2-week vacation. This is Easter Sunday in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and that provided me with my theme. I made a connection with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, wondering what it was like celebrating Easter today in Ukraine, surrounded as they are by destruction and death. I also explored one of the central concepts of Orthodox theology, the holiness of God, an aspect of faith which I feel is neglected in much of Protestant Christianity. One is confronted with God's holiness the moment one sets foot in an Orthodox Cathedral and, to quote from my sermon, one confronts a vast domed sanctuary which creates a sense of eternity, of the heavenly realm. The chanting, the incredibly sonorous music of the choir, the incense, the icons on the walls, the processions of priests, elaborately clothed in other-worldly garb, the vast dome with a mosaic of Christ Pantocrator--Christ the Cosmic Ruler, mosaics of angels and all the saints gathered about the Lord in eternal worship--it is an unforgettable experience which inspires awe in the worshipper.

Christ Pantocrator, a mosaic commonly found in the dome of an Orthodox cathedral.********************************* The scriptures that were read emphasized the dual nature of the holy which is expressed in Hebrew by the word qodesh. The holy is powerfully dangerous and also calls forth a feeling of ecstasy. In II Samuel 6, David and the people are moved to "make merry, sing and dance and play instruments" in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant which contains God's holiness, but when Uzzah reaches out his hand to steady the ark when the cart carrying it tips, he is struck dead on the spot as though he had touched a 10,000 volt bare wire. I compared this experience with one Shirley and I had decades ago when we were driving through Arkansas to visit Betsey and we were hit by a violent storm, a turquoise wall streching from earth to heaven racing across the countryside at breakneck speed. To be engulfed by that storm was frightening and exhilerating at the same time. Annie DIllard catches this duality when she writes in Teaching a Stone to Talk "does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of POWER we blithely invoke in our worship? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT..It is madness to be wearing hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets! Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares! They should lash us to our pews. For someday God may just draw us out to where we can never return." I got a lot of really positive comments on the sermon, which was gratifying. The service was also enhanced by a quartet (Eliza, Ellen, Sam Farwell and myself) singing two pieces from the Orthodox liturgy, Tebe Poyem and Mnohaya Lita, which is a Ukrainian blessing for long life. (Both can be found on YouTube). John and Cynthia were in church and brought me home while Ellen went to pick up Brendon to take him "antiquing" - something he loves to do. So I am having a lovely afternoon at home by the fire.

An artist's depiction of Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant

A new video

Cynthia has put up on to YouTube a video which she has been working on for some time, and has finally gotten it to a place where she feels she can release it "to the public" so to speak. She shared an earlier version of it with her older students at the Marlboro School, and they really liked it. It is called Meeting Dr. King" and it features my son, John, myself, and videos and audio recordings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and it tells the story of a time in April, 1967, when John (who was six years old) and I met Dr. King in Providence, RI. I was a chaplain at Brown University at the time, and I had the opportunity to drive to the Providence airport, pick up Dr. King (and his colleague, Andrew Young) and bring them back to the Brown University campus where Dr. King was scheduled to address the Brown community the following morning. I took John with me, and this gave us the opportunity to be in the car with Dr. King for the 15-20 minute ride back to the campus - a rare opportunity and one we were very privileged to have. John has a vivid memory of Dr. King reaching back from the front seat and shaking his hand and giving him his full attention. Cynthia has done a great job of intertwining her interviews with John and me with still photos, videos of Dr. King and audio recordings of his speaking - one of us might be quoting something he said of importance to us, and then you are hearing Dr King speaking those very same words. If you want to see/hear the full video, you can go to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxsgntirBhk.

Dr. King addressing a huge gathering on the Washington, D.C. Mall

John and me, a photo taken at Lake Winnipesaukee, NH, but at about the time we met Dr. King.

John, from the video

Me, from the video

Getting things done

Activity is definitely picking up as we move into warmer weather! I mentioned in my previous blog post that we went to Katie and Savanna's to keep Savanna company while Katie and Brendon went to New York City. We actually stayed late to watch the Celtics play the Nets - Savanna is sort of a Celtics fan - and we ended up being there when Katie and Brendon got home - close to 11:3op.m.! We didn't stay to hear a full report on their trip, but they had a good time. Brendon said he was tired and I guess Katie was too, but they were in good spirits. We slept pretty late the next morning but I did go into town to see if I could help Jerome. He wasn't at home at 11a.m., so I did some other things. I went to Richmond's Garage and had them install the part that fixed the loose bumper more permanently, and while they were at it, they fixed a rattle that had developed on our trip to Massachusetts - it was a broken exhaust pipe bracket; plus a loose heat shield. That took care of the rattle. I filled the gas tank ($55!!) and went down to Dr. Van Dyke's office to make an appointment to have my lungs checked out. I am experiencing some shortness of breath. She was there herself, and I have an appointment Monday. I went back and found Jerome at home, but not feeling well enough to shop. So I got some things for him. Today (Saturday), I worked on my service for tomorrow in Dummerston, but also found time to go to Shirley's grave and clean out old dead leaves. The jonquils are blooming beautifully - there are close to two dozen that came up this year. I looked for a ready-made pot of flowers to put on Betsey's grave but found nothing I liked at Walker's or Hannaford's. So I got two six-packs of pansies, and I'll plant them in a pot and take the pot over tomrorrow (hopefully).

Shirley's grave today after some cleaning out of old leaves

Our car on the lift at Richmond's Garage************************************** P.S. I just realized that today would have been the birthday of Shirley's mother, Florence Harris: she was born April 23, 1898. She would be 124 years old, if alive today!

Florence Langley Harris (at left) at age 16, with her twin sister, Grace, whose birthday is also today!

Keeping Savanna company

Ellen and I came down to Katie & Savanna's this morning to be with Savanna while Katie and Brendon enjoy a day-trip to NYC as a treat for Brendon for his Birthday, which was on Monday (he turned 17). Monday was also the anniversary of the birth and death of Frederick B. Tolles, Ellen's father (born April 18, 1915; died April 18, 1975). Katie and Brendon left early this morning and took the train to NYC. They'll get back late, late tonight. At the moment, I am with Savanna while Ellen is with Tamar - Tamar has a hair-dresser's appointment and needed a ride. It's a beautiful day, sunny and a bit on the cool side. I just had a nice walk - there is an untraveled road nearby called Leonard Road that makes a nice place to walk. I've been working on the service for next Sunday which I am leading at Dummerston. April 24th is Easter Sunday in the Eastern Orthodox churches, and I will be making that my theme and connecting in spirit with the people of Ukraine who will be observing Easter in the midst of death and destruction. I have never experienced Easter under conditions like Ukraine is expriencing right now and I can only try to imagine what that is like. Are some churches able to hold services? Will Easter bring hope? Or will despair be so powerful that it will crush all hope and faith? I'm thinking about those trapped in Mariupul, Ukraine. A press-release from the Vatican says, "Russia gave an Easter deadline for their (Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupul) surrender, saying those who put down their weapons were "guaranteed to keep their lives." However, major General Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman, warned that "All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed."." The same release said that people could be seen praying in damaged and even destroyed churches in Ukraine. Here is a photo of the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel in Mariupul:

I wonder if this church ediface has survived the bombing of Mariupul, which has destroyed much of the city? The decision of the Ukrainian Orthodox church three years ago to separate from the Moscow Patriarchate and become an "autocephalous" church angered Putin and the Russian Orthodox leaders and is thought to be part of the reason Putin has invaded Ukraine. So the proclamation of the Easter message is complicated by the politics of the church.

Ukrainian church leaders meeeting in December, 2018, to separate from the Moscow Patriarchate. But towering above all of this is the image of "Christ Pantocrator" (Christ the All-Powerful), which graces the dome of most Orthodox churches.

Will this image and what it represents survive?

Happy Easter Everyone!

Today we went to the Easter service at Dummerston, where I led the choir in singing William Billings' Easter Anthem. We had a small choir - 7 people plus Mary Westbrook at the piano - wore masks, and instead of clumping in the choir pews we sat in the congregation and came up to the front when we sang the anthem, spaced out at least 4 feet or more. We did not wear robes. The anthem went well, and the congregation was very appreciative to have a choir. After church, we delivered three Easter lilies from the church - one to 92-year-old Don Hazelton, one to Sally Perry and one to 95-year-old Althea McBean! Then we came home and had a little lunch; Ellen prepared some food for our trip to Katie & Savanna's for dinner, which is where we are right now. We are about to have our dinner!

Easter dinner: ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus - YUM!!

Ellen and Brendon at the table

Don Hazelton

St. Matthew Passion

This afternoon (Saturday), Ellen and I have been listening to a recording of the entire St. Matthew Passion of J. S. Bach. It is something we have wanted to do for some time, and we actually found the time to do it. It is a dark and rainy afternoon, and it has been perfect sitting here by our cozy fireplace listening to beautiful music. It also has brought back memories, because we have listened to a 1999 recording of the Passion by the Blanche Moyse Chorale and New England Bach Festival Orchestra, led by Blanche Moyse. I was a member of the Chorale and am singing in this performance. It was my incredible privilege to sing all the major choral works of Bach many times under Blanche's direction for 30 years. This performance featured Hyunah Yu as soprano, Mary Westbrook-Geha, mezzo (Mary is now the organist at the Dummerston Church); John Shirley-Quirk, Jesus; Frederick Urrey, tenor; John Humphrey, Evangelist; and Sanford Sylvan, baritone. It brought us to tears several times. The tears have to do with the power of the music, the depth of the story behind it, and the memories of a world I inhabited back then that is lost to me now, but which I still remember vividly.

The Blanche Moyse Chorale - a picture made after Blanche had retired, and Mary Westbrook-Geha was our director. I'm at the end of the top row on the right.

Blanche Moyse

Mary Westbrook-Geha; an earlier publicity photo

John Shirley-Quirk, tenor

Sanford Sylvan, baritone.

A very different Holy Week this year

Thursday evening, the Guilford Church held it's Maundy Thursday service,6:30-7:30p.m., and yesterday, its Good Friday Service, Noon to 1p.m.. Ellen and I sang in the choir at both services. These events are at the core of the sacred story of our faith, and Pastor Elisa packed a great deal of meaning into both Services. We sang several moving anthems: e.g., Morning, What Wondrous Love is This? Kedron (from the Sacred Harp), and a Ukrsinian liturgical piece, Mnohaya Lita. At the Maundy Thursday service, both Ellen and I were readers. I read from the Johannine story of Jesus washing the disciples feet while Pastor Elisa took the role of Jesus and acted out the story. However, this service was differet from the one we have used for many years in Guilford, as was the Good Friday service. In past years, the Maundy Thursday service would begin with a Passover Seder meal downstairs, led by Margarfet Dale Barrand, and then would continue upstairs in the sanctury with communion and the Office of Tenebrae, i.e., a service in which there are several readings and a gradual extinguishing of candles/lights until the church is plunged into darkness. Then a single candle would be lit, symbolizing the light of the resurrectiom to come, and everyone would file out in silence. Margaret Dale died earlier this year, so there was no Seder. Actually, we missed both Margaret Dale and Tony tremendously this year. In past years we have also been invited to the Feinland Family Seder, but that did not happen this year - Ray Feinland died earlier this year. Good Friday was also different in the past: for years, decades even, there was an ecumenical Good Friday service based on the Seven Last Words of Christ, and seven different local churches would each take a word, and you would get to hear seven different preachers and a variety of music. That has not happened for two years because of the pandemic. Also, this year there is no Easter Sunrise Service in Guilford. However, there is one thing the same - I am leading the choir in William Billigs' Easter Anthem in Dummerston tomorrow, as I have done many times in the past. So time brings change, but there is still some live tradition.

Reading the Gospel of John at the Maundy Thursday Service, with Pastor Elisa.

Taxes Done!

Yay! I just inked my tax returns for 2021! I've been working on them off and on for the past couple of weeks, and yesterday I got serious about it and made a real push. Today, I had to bring the car down to Guilford to Richmond Auto so that Doug could install a new timing belt in the 2011 Impreza. Something that should have been done about 10,000 miles ago. I brought my tax forms with me, walked over to the Guilford Church - which is across the road from Richmond's - and took advantage of my waiting time to finish the forms in pencil and then ink them in. So I can easily get them into the mail before the April 18th deadline. Yesterday was Chicago Theological Seminary Reflections Day. The speaker was Stephanie Crowder, Prof. of New Testament and Dean of Academic Affairs. She is a "womanist" biblical scholar - i.e., she interprets the New Testament through the lens of being a black woman and mother. "Womanism" is different from "feminism." The term was coined, I think, by Alice Walker. At a certain point in the feminist movement, black female theologians realized that the feminist movement was made up almost entirely of white women, and that they didn't really speak for them authentically. Black women typically have very different experiences in life. Their "social position" is different both in respect to race and class. They are much more likely to be oppressed, and white women more likely to be priviledged. So the term "womanist" was coined to represent this different lens. I was first introduced to "womanist" thought when I was Pastor-in-Residence at CTS back in 1999-2001. The womanist theologian I remember most vividly was Delores S. Williams, a professor at Union Theological Seminary and author of Sisters in the Wilderness, which is a powerful study of the figure of Hagar in the Book of Genesis - along with Abraham and Sarah, of course. Prof. Williams does not pull any punches, especially when she deals with Abraham! Stephanie Crowder lives in that tradition, and her talk yesterday was a womanist interpretation of the COVID pandemic and the huge impact it has had on black women. She coined the term "MEdemic" to emphasize the fact that "pan" (which means "all") glosses over the tremendous differences in the way in which the COVID illness has impacted different individuals and groups. by using the term "Me"-demic she zeroed in on the stories of individuals. Potent stuff!

Dean Stephanie Crowder

Prof. Delores Williams*************************************** Tonight is Maundy Thursday and we are singing in the choir at Guilford.

A very interesting glimpse of an unfamiliar (to me) part of Brattleboro

Monday morning, I met Scott Couper at 9a.m. out front of The Works cafe in downtown Brattleboro, and we went upstairs to the fourth floor of The Brooks House where Scott lives. Scott is pastor of Centre Congregational Church, and he is someone i have wanted to get to know better, so I suggested we get together. It proved to be very interesting, both because Scott is an interesting person, and because his residence is unusual. Scott and I both did our seminary training at the University of Chicago - at different times - he is 35-40 years younger than I am - but he actually graduated from CTS just a few months befoee I arrived in Fall, 1999 as Pastor-in-Residence. So we knew a lot of the same people. Scott has spent a good part of his life in South Africa, both as a student and as a missionary/pastor. While he was in South Africa, he got a Ph.D., and his dissertation was on Albert Luthuli, founder of the African National Congress and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. That is another connection between us, because I met Albert Luthuli at a church camp when I was in high school in Iowa in the 1940s: he was a guest staff person at the camp, part of a tour he was making of the U.S. I feel so priviledged to have met this great man! I remember he taught us Khosi Sigeleli, the anthem of the African National Congress, which Mandela later incorporated into the South African National Anthem. Scott rents a kind of town house in the Brooks Hotel. It is on two levels, and at present he is sub-letting the lower level to an Afghan man, which helps with the rent (which is considerable). The upper level is a spacious living-room, dining-room, kitchen, bedroom and bath. Being on the fourth floor, it has a commanding view of the town, the Connecticut River and Mt. Wantastiquet, which is across the river in New Hampshire. Included in the unit is a private deck - in good weather you can sit out there and take in the view. What a spot!

View from the deck looking west

View looking south - river on left

Scott in his kitchen

Chief Albert Luthuli (1898-1967)

Two very different concerts

Last Saturday we went to an amazing concert with John and Cynthia. It was also a celebration of John's birthday, which is actually today! Happy Birthday, John!! The concert was in Randolph, Vermont at the Chandler Music Hall, and was given by Alash, three men from the Republic of Tuva (Tyva), who are world-famous for Tuvan Throat Singing. The three are Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, Ayan-ool Sam, Ayan Shirizhik (plus their manager and interpreter, Sean Quirk). In addition to singing, they play a variety of stringed instruments, flutes and drums. To say that the effect is stunnning is an understatement. Throat-singing uses the throat in an entirely different way from our Western kind of singing. It developed among the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Asia, people who lived in yurts, rode horses, raised yaks, sheep and camels, and had a close spiritual relationship with nature. Throat singing traditionally was done outdoors, and only recently was brought into the concert hall. Singers use their voices to mimic and interact with the sounds of the natural world—whistling birds, bubbling streams, blowing wind, or the deep growl of a camel. There are five basic styles, Sygyt (a high-pitched whistle like the song of a bird), Xöömei (a middle-range trill like wind over rocks), Kargyra (a very low-pitched drone like the cry of a camel), Borbangnadyr (an embellishment of Sygyt like a bubbling stream) and Ezenggileer (an embellishment of Sygyt like a trotting horse). The amazing thing is that several of these sounds can be produced simultaneously by one person! If you want to hear it, just Google "Alash" and you'll find a lot of examples. Alash has a very diverse repertory, and the concert was immensely enjoyable and riveting throughout. John and Cynthia first met Alash when they came to Bellows Falls back in 2006-2007. They actually stayed overnight at their house. They found them delightful, and for John especially, the connection of their music with nature was very moving. They had a chance after the concert Saturday to go to the "Green Room" and visit with them. John and Cynthia had actually attended a concert by them earlier in the week at the Lebenon, NH Opera House, but had no chance there to make personal contact. They wanted us to hear them live, so they arranged for us all to go Saturday. What a treat!

L. to r.: Ayan-ool Sam, Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, Ayan Shirizhik. *********************************** Before the concert, we had a really nice dinner at Saap, a Thai restaurant in Randolph. The food was delicious! We met at the Putney Park n' Drive a little before 4pm, came up to Randolph in our car, had dinner, went to the concert and got home well before midnight. A wonderful outing and lots of opportunity to visit.

John and Cynthia at the Thai Restaurant

My plate of Pad Thai

The Saap Thai Restaurant********************************** Sunday afternoon we went to a very different concert; a performance of Paul Dedell's Stations at St. Michael's Episcopal Church. Stations is based upon the stations of the cross, and has nine movements, performed by three cellos. It was inspired in part by nine sculptures also based on the stations of the cross by local artist, Susan Wilson. The sculptures were installed on the walls of the sanctuary. Paul is the husband of Susan Dedell, who for years conducted the Brattleboro Concert Choir, and we performed works by him over the years. This music was meditative and mournful as befitted the theme. It was the perfect thing to do on Palm Sunday afternoon.

The concert setting

Susan Wilson's sculptures

Paul introducing his work

Paul Dedell, composer

Susan Wilson, artist

An amazing link with the past

Thursday I made an unexpected contact with someone from the distant past - 68 years ago, to be exact. It came as a kind of coda to March Madness (coda in the original sense of "conclusion," not "Children of Deaf Adults" a la the recent movie). I had been reflecting on the Tarheels experience of losing the national championship game by just 3 points in the closing seconds, and had watched the post-game interviews with players and Coach Davis, and had remembered that in 2016 they had lost a championship game to Villanova in the final second when "Nova" scored a buzzer-beating basket, and all that led me to pull off the shelf a book I've had for some time but had not looked at recently, Thad Williamson's More than a Game: Why North Carolina Basketball Means So Much to So Many. Yes, someone has actually written a book about being a TarHeels fan! Here is a excerpt from a description of the book: "More Than a Game provides a unique look at both North Carolina basketball and the phenomenon of sports fanhood in the United States. For serious North Carolina basketball fans, following the team is more than just another recreational activity -- it's an irreplaceable part of who they are. Every winter, Carolina fans habitually schedule their lives around the Tar Heels during the season. Many fans say that following the team is one of the most valuable and enduring attachments in their lives. But is this a good thing? What are the implications of so many people being so in love with Carolina basketball? Are there better and worse ways to be a fan? And why, exactly, does North Carolina basketball have such a hold on its loyal followers?" Williamson wrote this book back around the 2000s when Dean Smith retired, and Bill Guthridge, his assistant, became head coach. There is a lot in the book about Bill Guthridge. He was the epitome of the "gentleman coach" - unflappable, not one to stand and yell at his players from the sidelines (as many, even most, coaches do. Bill Guthridge usually sat during the game). In fact, some TarHeels fans at that time blamed his style of coaching for the TarHeels' losses - if he was more passionate, they said, they would win more games. Williamson discusses all this at length and critiques it (he is more critical of the fans than he is of Coach Guthridge). All that brought to mind a connection I had - through Shirley - with Coach Guthridge. Back in 1954, when Shirley graduated from Wellesley College, she becme a "Danny Grad," which was short for "Danforth Graduate." This was a program of the Danforth Foundation of Saint Louis, MO, an offshoot of the Ralston-Purina Company, famous maker of cereals (e.g., Ricechecks). The Danny Grad program involved only women - college-graduate women - who were sent to colleges all over the country as a kind of chaplain, or "religious worker, as they were sometimes called. This program was a favorite of the founder of Ralston-Purina, WIlliam H. Danforth. The 1954 class of Danny Grads - 25-30 or so women - all went to Camp Minniwanca, Michigan, for a summer month of orientation before going to their assigned schools. Well-known religious figures, like Ruth Seabury (a very prominent missionary in the Congregational-Christian denomination at that time), led the women in classes and discussions. There were some college presidents there also, and among them was Rees H. Hughes, the president of Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburg, Kansas. Hughes took a liking to Shirley, and when assignments were made, he asked for her to come to KSTC. And that is where she went. For Shirley, it felt like being sent to Outer Mongolia. It was, for her, a kind of intellectual wasteland. So when Thanksgiving came, she came to Chicago for a religious conference being held at Chicago Theological Seminary, where I was a first-year student. She was looking for intellectual stimulation, but she got more than she had bargained for. We met there and fell in love, and the rest, as they say, is history! After she went back to Kansas, we wrote virtually every day until the summer of 1955, when we were married. So what does this have to do with Bill Guthridge? Well, one of the other Danny Grads at Camp Minniwanca that summer was Joan Guthridge, from Parsons, Kansas. Bill Guthridge was her younger brother. When she learned that Shirley was going to Pittsburg, KS, which is just down the road from Parsons, she gave Shirley her parents' address in Parsons, and encouraged her to use their home as a sort of retreat where she could go to get a break from the stress and strain of being a college chaplain. And Shirley did that. She would sometimes spend the weekend with the Guthridge's. She never mentions Bill Guthridge in her letters, but he was a Junior in High Schoool that year and she almost certainly must have met him when she was in his home. Bill Guthridge became the head coach at UNC just after Shirley died, so she never had the chance to make this connection. She would have been so thrilled!! Bill Guthridge himself died several years ago (2015), but I wondered if Joan was still living. Years ago, when I was sending Katie the letters Shirley had written her parents from Wellesley, and then to both them and me from KSTC (I have them all!), I had looked up Joan Guthridge and learned she was married, and her name was Rodkey. So on Thursday, I Googled "Joan Guthridge Rodkey" and "BANG" - there was her phone number in Overland Park, KS, outside Kansas City! So I called the number "out of the blue." Her daughter answered, and a moment later, I was talking to Joan herself! She was surprised, to say the least, and also pleased. She loved hearing from someone from that part of her life, which had been so important for her. And we put together that not only had she known Shirley, she and I had in all likelihood met the summer of 1951 at Association Camp, Estes Park, CO! My good hiking friends there were from Parsons, KS - Jerry James and Dick Scott. They were her friends too, and she had visited them that summer with her parents, and she had been there when the staff put on a kind of musical which I helped write, based on Sigmund Romberg's Desert Song, and she sang in it! Small world! I learned a couple of other facts too - she was sent as a Danny Grad to Florida State University (I had not known that), and - get this - while she was a student at Univ. of Kansas, she had dated Dean Smith for a while (Dean Smith was the very famous TarHeels Coach for years; Bill Guthridge was his assistant and replaced him when he retired). Joan and I had a long talk, and she is going to put me in touch with a couple of other Danny Grads who are still living (few are). So that was pretty amazing!

A group of Danny Grads at Camp Minniwanca. Shirley is in the front row in a Wellesley sweatshirt, and next to her on her left, right in the middle of the photo, in a dark jacket, is Joan Guthridge. I sent the photo to Joan and asked if she was in it, so that's how I know. The checkerboard shirts are, of course, inspired by the Ralston-Purina logo. *****************************

Bill Guthridge, Assistant TarHeels Basketball Coach under Dean Smith for 18 years and then Head Coach for 3 years.

Dr. Rees H. Hughes, President of KSTC. It's astonishing to consider all that would not have happened if Hughes had not asked for Shirley to come to KSTC!

As I Lay Dying

Tonight is our Uncanny Voyages class, and our assignment was William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. We don't own the book and Phil Weinstein did not send us one digitally, so we were on our own. The quickest thing we could do was to take advantage of a free trial of Audible, an online Audio Book app. That's what we did. As I Lay Dying is written in stream-of-consciousness style from the standpoint of many characters - most of them members of one family, the Bundrens. So the Audiobook has many readers; maybe not a different one for each chaarcter, but it sounded that way. We managed to listen to the entire book - about 6 1/2 hours in all. That is different from reading it oneself, and I think we both would like to read it now ourselves. LATER We had the class, and it was great, as usual. It was interesting, though, that except for myself, all the classmembers asking questions were women. I don't know where the men were tonight. It's impossible to encapsulate the session here, but basically the book centers on the death of Addie Budren, and the reponse of her family - her husband and five children - to her death. The "plot," if you want to call it that, centers on a promise made by her husband to honor her wish to be buried not near her home, but in Jefferson, MS, about 25 miles away. Getting there entails first putting her into a coffin made by her oldest son, Cash (who is building it outside her window while she is still alive, but actively dying), and then carting that coffin, and the entire family, on that journey, during which every conceivable, and also inconceivable, bad thing happens to them. Buzzards follow them, they must cross a large river but the bridges wash out, and in their attempt to ford the river, they are hit by a log, the cart tips over, the mules pulling the cart drown, Cash breaks his leg, the coffin fills with water, Cash's precious tools are lost, etc. And that is just the beginning. The story is not narrated; we see it through the inner thoughts and dialogue of the various characters, each with a unique and often contradictory perspective. My question had to do with those soliloquies. They are beautifully written and often profound in their insight. How are we to square that with the fact that these are poor, unschooled, illiterate country people. Their soliloquies could hardly be how they would talk or even think. Phil Weinstein said, "Yes, that's true, but it's how they are. That raises a profound question. How can we manage to be something that we could never articulate, even to ourselves. Yet I suspect that we want to think that we are. Maybe we are like the "mystical experience of God," which is often said to be "ineffable." I.e., incapable of being put into words. Yet here, the novelist is putting these people into words - words they themselves would never use and not be able to understand. Pretty heavy !

Addie's husband, Anse, and two of the boys, at the Bundren cabin, from the 2013 film.

CODA

We went to Andy and Robin's Sunday evenng for supper and the movies! They had subscribed to AppleTV so they could watch the film, CODA, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. We really enjoyed the film. It is a "feel-good" movie for sure, but also a great movie, with outstanding performances by all the leads. And of course, it broke some "sound barriers" so to speak! For us it had the added attraction of being a lot about singing. Singing and signing!

Emilia Jones, Troy Katsur and Marlee Matlin, stars of CODA. Katsur won the Best Actor award. He is deaf, as is Marlee Matlin. Jones played their daughter, who is a hearing person (in life and in the film) and in the film is the bridge between her family, all of whom are deaf, and the hearing world in which they are trying to make a living in the fishing industry. Her passion is singing, and she is good - good enough to get into Berklee School of Music in Boston, but that raises huge issues for the family, who feel they cannot survive without her. LATER Tonight was a heart-breaker in the NCAA championship game! UNC led Kansas by 15 points at the half, but lost by three in the last second. Caleb Love's 3-point shot just before the buzzer fell short. It was like the Baylor game - UNC's big half-time lead collapsed in the second half. They hung in there, but couldn't pull off the miracle this time. Several of their players took quite a battering during the game. It was exciting basketball, but sad for Heels fans. But Adam Lucas, the Heels' "historian," had this last word: "Absolutely zero people believed the Tar Heels would be playing on the last Monday night of the season, and here they were, just the 12th team in school history to play for a national title. 44 players have enrolled at Carolina as first-year or transfer players in the last decade. 28 of those (63.6 percent) have been part of a team that played for a title. It's so, so hard to get here. And the Tar Heels are doing it with regularity right now. What a season, including some of the most memorable wins in school history. What a team. Stay tuned to Carolina social media channels for information on the team's return home tomorrow, likely to be mid-afternoon."

Adam Lucas carrying the TarHeels 2017 National Championship trophy. Next year, here we come! Go Heels!

Wow! Amazing!

North Carolina won the game against Duke last night, 81-77! This puts them into a championship game against #1 Kansas tomorrow night. If you had suggested this possibility a month ago, you would have been laughed off the court. Carolina had just lost the semi-finals to Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament, and was ranked #37 in the nation. They entered the NCAA tournament a #8 seed. True, they had just beat Duke on their home court the last game of the regular season, but you would not have been crazy to think that was a kind of miracle that one could not expect to be repeated. But they have demonstrated a determination and toughness in their five tournament games thus far (Marquette, Baylor, UCLA, St. Peter's, Duke) that most people, especially the professional sports writers and commentators, had not suspected was there. It turns out that when the team first met for practice last fall, they found that their new coach, Hubert Davis, had pinned up a photo of the Superdome in New Orleans on their lockers. That is where the championship game is being played. He had planted the seed of their being in the championship game way last fall, and held that out as a possibility through thick and thin all season. They had some really pathetic games during the regular season, but that did not destroy their hope. Coach Davis turned them into learning opportunities. The team gradually learned to trust one another, to step up and make an extra effort when needed, and have the confidence that if they tried hard, they would succeed. It's very interesting to compare the actual statistics for UNC and Kansas now. UNC has the edge in several categories and overall, they are essentially equal. Yet at this very moment, Carolina is ranked #16 in the KenPom national rankings (the most widely used rankings), and Kansas is ranked #3. In the tournament, Kansas is a #1 seed and Carolina is a #8 seed. It doesn't make any sense. They have beaten Duke twice in the last two games, yet today, Duke is ranked #8 in the nation, and Carolina #16. It is not unreasonable to think that there is a bias at work there. This may actually work to Carolina's advantage. Other teams may underestimate them to some extent. If you read body language last night (and even more last month when UNC played Duke on their home court), Duke clearly expected to win. That last game was Coach K's last game on his home court. He is retiring, and they had a huge celebration planned to honor him after that final home game - a game no one (at Duke, that is) expected Carolina to win. And I think Duke thought they would win last night. They had just defeated Villanova in the Elite Eight - a powerhouse team that has been national champion several times. Villanova had beaten Carolina and won the championship back in 2016. Last night's game was a real nail-biter. I think the lead changed 19 or 20 times, and there were something like 8 or 9 ties in the course of the game. I.e., it was a CLOSE game all the way. And Duke almost always pulls out a win in close games. That is their reputation. So - Wow! and Amazing! Either team could win tomorrow night. Coach Davis has to be one of the very few coaches in history to take his team to the championship game in his first year as coach. And maybe the very first to do so with a team ranked #37 at the end of the season.

UNC players celebrating after last night's win over Duke. Go Heels!!

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday we had a normal start to. the day - working on our word games - Spelling Bee and Wordle both of us and for Ellen, Qaurdle (the same game as Wordle but with four games going simultaneously)- but we were anticipating meeting Mark Kennedy and Cathy Rude at the Putney Coop at 11:30a.m. Mark and Cathy live up north in South Hero, VT - about as far north as you can get and not be in Canada- but they were driving south to Connecticut to visit family, and wanted to stop by and see us. I first met Mark in - I think- 2002, at the Vermont Conference Annual Meeting. As I recall, we sat at the same table at a meal got to talking and really hit it off. Back then I was still grieving the loss of Shirley, and eager to meet new friends. Back then, Mark was married to Judy with two children, Anne and Joseph, 10-12 years old (I think). Not long after that initial meeting, Mark and his family went through a traumatic time, the break-up of Mark and Judy's marriage. I won't go into detail, but I got to know and appreciate Mark and his children under unusual circumstances for a couple of years. Meanwhile I met Ellen, Mark met Cathy, things settled down and Ellen and I attended Mark and Cathy's wedding up north. Since then we have visited them once in South Hero, but mostly they have visited us down south here - usually on their way to see family farther south. Of course by now, Anne and Joseph have gone to college and are leading independent lives in other parts of the country. We got a call from Mark saying they were running a little late and would arrive at the Coop at noon. They did, and they treated us to lunch in the Cafe there. We had a good visit and learned about Anne and Joseph, and also Paul, Cathy's son. Anne works at Camp Pinewoods in the summer - the camp I went to the summer after Shirley died in 1998; Joseph lives in Littleton, CO, not far from Katie, and Paul is learning to fly! Not sure i will ever see them again, but you never know! Yesterday was actually Joseph's birthday, so our lunch was in celebration of him.

Cathy, Mark, me and Ellen at the Putney Coop******************************** Today, we went to an all-Balkan concert that Mary Cay and Magda put on at the Westminster-West church. Two accordions and two marvelous voices, beautifully matched and blended. W-W church was as full as it could be and still provide some physical distance between people, all wearing masks. A lovely concert, many of the songs familiar to us and we had a word sheet and could sing along. It was fun! Eliza and Nancy T were also with us. And Robin was there selling Ukrainian eggs - her efforts, and Carole Crompton's, have raised $4500 for the International Rescue Committee work with refugees in Poland. Wow!

Magda and Mary Cay******************************************* Tonight, it is UNC vs. Duke in the Final Four and we are headed to the Bergh's to watch. Kansas is whopping Villanova as I write, so if the Heels win, they will meet Kansas in the Championship game.