Big Weekend

Written earlier, on Saturday afternoon: This is going to be a full weekend. Right now we're just about to leave for our River Singers concert which is at 4pm this afternoon - we need to be there at 1:25 to rehearse. i felt sort of ill yesterday evening, but I slept reasonably well and tested negative for COVID this morning. I think I'll be okay.

Mary Cay setting up for the concert before people arrive.********* Tomorrow is church, Windham-Union Association at 2pm and Chorale concert at 4pm. LATER, on Sunday evening: Well, things didn't work out quite as I expected. The River Singers Concert on Saturday was great. We had a packed house and a lively concert. John and Cynthia were there, and Cynthia got some pics. I was pretty exhausted at the end but I got through it okay. But Saturday night, I slept poorly, and this morning, I did not feel very well. So I decided to stay home - no church, no Windham-Union meeting, no Chorale concert. Ellen went to River Singers concert - a repeat of Saturday - and that was it. It was disappointing for me - especially missing the Chorale Concert - the last one under the name "Blanche Moyse Chorale" - but I think it was wise. I slept a good part of the day. Here are Cynthia's pics:

Kathy Bullock leading a song.

Singing an African song, with hand motions.

Talking with John before the concert

With Ellen before the concert.

VSED

We went to a Hospice presentation at the Brooks Library last Thursday on VSED (Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking) - a way of dying that is legal everywhere. This was a timely presentation - my friend Bill Schoedel recently chose this manner of dying, and as a Parkinson's Disease person, I have included it as a possible option and choice in my Advanced Directives. It was good to learn more about it, although I'll have to say that it is a lot more complex and difficult than I anticipated. We watched a video of a woman who had gone through this experience vicariously with her husband, and she walked us through it in some detail. It requires a lot of advanced planning and support, and typically takes about 10 days. We had to leave early to get to a Hallowell rehearsal, so we missed the question and answer session after the video. But it was good to know that our local Hospice is supporting this option. There is a lot about VSED on the Internet. The next day, we sang in the choir at a memorial service for Elliot Freeman, who died last month. It was one of the most well-thought-out memorial services I have ever attended - thanks I am sure to Diane, Elliot's wife. The readings, the music, what was spoken - all was revelatory of an aspect of Elliot's life and character. It was a privilege to be there. Ellen and Robin were in charge of the reception, and it was wonderful. We went right from the reception down to Brendon's birthday supper. Sunday afternoon, I attended via Zoom an Ecclesiastical Council for Matt Deen, a candidate for ordination who is pastor of the Newfane Congregational Church. An "EC" is a tradition in our denomination in which representatives from the various churches in our Association hear a presentation by the candidate and ask questions, and then vote on whether they support his (or her) ordination. Matt is very engaging, and the vote was unanimously in favor of ordination. We had bought tickets for the Brattleboro Camerata concert at 4p.m., but to attend it, I would have had to leave the Zoom session very early, so I stayed and Ellen went alone. I missed a great concert! But next Sunday I will get to hear the final Blanche Moyse Chorale concert.

Elliot Freeman

Matt Deen

Two birthdays

We celebrated two birthdays in the past couple of weeks. John turned 63 on April 12 and we had a birthday supper at his place on the 15th with him and Cynthia. Brendon turned 19 on the 18th. We had a supper for him last Friday down in Shutesbury. He and Katie, Dusty and Dorothy were there. After we ate, we played Salad Bowl. We each put seven slips of paper into a big bowl. On the slips of paper were written familiar words, phrases, titles, etc., that we made up, 42 in all. We formed two teams: B, K and me; D, D, and E. There are three rounds. I: A person selects a random piece of paper from the bowl and explains it's meaning to his team members, being careful not to use any word that is on the slip of paper. When a team member says the right word, or phrase, that slip is set aside, and a second slip is drawn. That goes on for one minute - that person's turn is over, and it passes to a member of the other team, who repeats the process. It goes back and forth until the bowl is empty. The team adds up their score and puts all 42 slips back in the bowl, and round two begins, which is like charades, mimed with no speaking; round three, one word is used to elicit the phrase on the slip. There is a lot of laughter in this game!

John and Brendon and their birthday cakes.

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. 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, and 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 them 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 pretty 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 took the opportunity to learn 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 versions of the Diatessaron. 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.