A very nice day at home.

Today was a "blank day" - i.e., no appointments. I slept well, got up late, came out to my chair, had my "fave" breakfast, did the spelling bee puzzle, checked email, just enjoyed "futzing around" on the net. I did my exercises while Ellen went to the store, Andy came by to check out the shower measurements. Now it's time for the PBS Newshour and supper. An enjoyable day.

My usual breakfast.

The big day approaches!

i can't quite wrap my head around the fact that almost a full year has gone by since my big 91st birthday party at the Guilford Church. I'll be 92 in just 3 days! No big party this year. A small gathering here at the house on Saturday. That's fine. Will there be a 93? We'll see! Not impossible! Meanwhile, it's River Singers, Hallowell Rehearsal, Retired Clergy, a Deacon's Dinner at the Dummerston Church, TarHeels on the radio, looking out at falling snow, listening to Ellen read Huck Finn, PBS Newshour, Peter Falion and Andy Davis staying with me on Wednesdays, exploring making the upstairs shower safer, etc. I'm reading about the early history of the Syrian church after learning that Cynthia has ancestral roots in Syria. It's a chaotic history that is not familiar to me. Which makes for interesting reading.

At a Hallowell rehearsal; Mike Mayer standing. *********

Town Meeting is next Tuesday. Sugaring should start soon. Spring is only 22 days away!

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine

Ellen and I are doing Bible Study together. Many readers of this blog will remember that last year I led at the Guilford Church a Bible Study on the Parables of Jesus. I am continuing this with Ellen here at home, but the lecturer is not me, it is Dr. Amy Jill Levine, who is a Jewish scholar who has specialized in New Testament studies, and especially the figure and teachings of Jesus. She has encountered a lot of implicit anti-Semitism in Christian New Testament scholarship, and she seeks to overcome that in her work. She Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, and has also taught at Vanderbilt Theological Seminary and Swarthmore College. She has developed a course on the internet, through Bart Ehrmann. Here is an overview: "Hello and welcome to "The Parables of Jesus: Jewish Insights into Gospel Ethics, Humor, and Provocation," by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine This course consists of four lessons with Dr. Levine as your instructor. Each lesson spans from 50 to 60 minutes, accompanied by two extensive Q&A sessions. Parables have lost their punch: they have become axioms about aiding ("Good Samaritan"), assurances of forgiveness ("Prodigal Son"), promises of grace (“Vineyard Laborers”), and exhortations to pray (“Widow and Judge”). While these are credible readings, they often promote complacency and rarely prompt ethics. Worse, stripped of historical context, they become hosts for antisemitic interpretation. First-century Jews knew that parables were not platitudes: they challenged, provoked, and engaged the mind as well as the heart. In this course, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine will cover the following pertinent topics: The parable of the man with two sons (the 'Prodigal Son') The parable of the man attacked by robbers (the 'Good Samaritan') The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Equal Pay for Unequal Work) The parable of the widow and the Judge An introduction to the study of parables. Insights into the parables of the Pearl of Great Price, the Sower, the Leaven, the Mustard Seed, the Dishonest Steward, and others that depict enslaved individuals. Dr. Levine will examine these parables within their Jewish contexts, review previous scholarship, and address ethical and pastoral questions they raise, highlighting both their humor and their depth. She will address questions such as: (1) How might the first hearers of the parables, who had no knowledge of Jesus's death, have understood them? (2) How did the Evangelists initially interpret the parables, and what were the benefits and drawbacks of their interpretations? (3) How did antisemitic interpretations of the parables develop, and how can they be corrected? (4) While many see the parables as focusing on salvation or Christology, what insights do they offer about economics, ethics, insiders and outsiders, and the roles of the enslaved and the enslavers? (5) How do the parables help us understand the social roles of first-century Jewish women?"

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine. ******************* Dr. Levine talks pretty fast, and it can be had to follow all her humerous little asides, of which there are many. Fortunately, when you play the video of her lecture, you can slow down her speech without changing the pitch of her voice. Amazing! We are both enjoying hearing her lectures and talking about them.

Valentine’s Day treat

Yesterday was sunny but cold: a good day to get out and drive up to Grandma Miller's bakery. I did not plan to get out of the car, so I dressed casually and comfortably. They still had chocolate eclairs and that was our special treat for the day, plus morninglory muffins for the future. Yum!

Ellen coming out of GMB with eclairs, muffins and coffee. ******

This evening I listened to the Heels play Syracuse. it was a must-win game if the Heels have any hope of getting into the NCAA tournament. They pulled out a 6-point win, 88-82. The game was tied with just a couple of minutes of play remaining. Whew! Fingers crossed!

More snow coming!

There is a forecast of up to two feet of snow this weekend. I've been worrying about the weight of snow on the deck. We havn't been shoveling it, and we already had over 18 inches. 3 1/2 feet of wet snow would weigh a lot. A deck collapse would be catastrophic! So I asked Zach to come up and shovel it. He came, but he brought his snowblower! That made quick work of the job! He brought Riley too. Riley is getting big! So that is a weight not only off the deck, but off my mind!

Zach snowblowing the deck with Riley. We usually put away deck chairs and tables for the winter, but not this year. Zach had to clear them out of the way of the bloŵer. Same for the Christmas tree, which we put out on the deck only about a week ago.

Zach with the Honda blower. It seems to work very well. It has caterpillar tracks and seems to be able to crawl through just about anything.

Riley. Zach has taken Riley with him on jobs since he was a baby. He would plow with Riley curled up in his lap. Pretty neat!******************************* The storm will carry into Sunday morning, so no in-person church this Sunday. They are doing a zoom church service in Guilford, but all from people's homes. They will probably use videos of virtual choirs for hymns and anthems. The church has quite an archive of them on YouTube from the COVID pandemic era.

We’ve got snow!

This winter is proving to be much colder and snowier than last winter. Yesterday, both Dummerston and Guilford called off church because of snow. We did not go to either the Bergh's or Katie's for the Super Bowl for the same reason. We're just staying at home. But it's snowing so often we're home a lot. Especially me. Which is fine in a way, but it is confining. I have two doctor's appointments this week, plus other things. We'll see!

Our snowy deck. We don't usually leave tables and chairs on the deck over the winter, but this year we did. There are sort of cute cones of snow piled up on the tables.

Not the easiest of times!

My last post was made 12 days ago on January 27th. That happens to have been the day I went to the dentist - a new dentist, as it happens. About 3 weeks ago, I was experiencng some pain in my lower left jaw, and I called my usual dentist's office to make an appointment, and I learned that they were no longer in the network of providers of my dental insurance (no explanation as to why). Thus, I would have to pay out of my own pocket for anything they did for me. That was sort of a blow. I immediately contacted my insurance company and got a list of dentists locally still in their network. They were mostly all part of a large dental office called Aspen Dental, which I think is sort of a chain. Not my first choice, but I didn't see any good alternatives. So I looked over the list and landed on a woman, Dr. Kumar. I like my PCP, Dr. Van Dyck, a woman, why not a woman dentist? I called Aspen Dental and got an appointment with Dr. Kumar, which was schedueled for January 27th. She had X-rays taken, and they revealed a cavity in a crowned molar in my lower left jaw, a cavity that was very close to the nerve in the root. She recommended an extraction, which I agreed to - I see no point in putting hundreds (thousands?) of dollars into my teeth at this stage of my life. So the extraction was scheduled for Feb. 3rd -last Monday - at 9 a.m. It was done by a man - someone who specializes in extractions - and it was done in a matter of a few minutes. My jaw was numbed with novacaine, so it was essentially a painless extraction. Amazingly, I had no pain after the novacaine wore off. There was quite a bit of bleeding for the rest of the day, but I had several pages of instructions for post-operative care which we followed carefully, and gradually the bleeding slowed down and finally stopped. I am still eating only fluids and soft foods, and regularly rinsing with warm salt water. It isn't fun, but it hasn't been too bad either. I had not gone to the start-up of River Singers, which was the next night after my firat appointment, because I just felt sort of out-of-it, and I didn't go on Feb. 4th either (the day after the extraction), so I have missed two rehearsals, which I think exhausts the allowable number. I'm hoping I will feel up for going next Tuesday!

Aspen Dental in Brattleboro. I don't see Dr. Kumar in this group, but that is the right building in the background. ******************* Wednesday, Jan. 29th, there was a memorial service for Al Franklin at the Guilford Commmunity Church which I normally would have gone to and sung in the choir. But under the circumstances, I stayed home and wrote a note to his daughter, Carolyn and her husband, Kevin (Kingsley), explaining my absence. Al died just short of his 90th birthday - he was just a couple of years younger than I am. He was active in the Guilford Church all the years I have been connected with it. He was also active in the Grange, and was even president of the Vermont State Grange. His daughter and her family were also very involved in the church - Carolyn's daughter, Anne Kingsley was president of the youth group, and Anne's brother, Josh, did a lot of video camera work for the church, including filming Shirley's ordination service. Carolyn and Kevin and their family lived in Guilford for years, ran a goat farm, and made goat cheese. They are now living in Pittsford, VT and Al was living with them at the time of his death. While he was living with them, they came down to services at Guilford fairly often, and it was always good to see Al. He was a naturally outgoing person.

Alfred W. Franklin (1935-2025)********************** Thursday (1/30), I did get to the Retired Clergy gathering at the Dummerston Church, and we continued our discussion of Aging with Wisdom and Grace. This was a particularly good session because we all shared something of our thoughts and feelings about how we would like to die. After the clergy, Ellen and I hung out at the church for Tea and Talk, which is open to anyone just to drink some tea and visit. But this time, we watched a "Christian" movie: The Resurrection of Gavin Stone. , which was about a man who goes through a moral transformation for the better when he is recruited to play the role of Jesus in an evangelical church theater producion. There were about ten of us there to watch it, and it was enjoyable. Friday was a quiet day at home, and Saturday we went to Cliff and ELiza Bergh"s for supper and to watch the Tar Heels play Duke in basketball - their arch-rival. It was my first chance to see the Heels play - up to now I've listened to all the games on the radio. It was sort of hard to watch - Duke slautered them. Duke was ahead by as much as 32 points at one point, led the whole game and ended up with a final score of 87-70. Duke had a player that the Heels had no answer for. I hope my finally watching them didn't jinx them! (Betsey used to think that when she watched a game it jinxed them, and actually would record games and watch them later just to make sure she didn't!). Sunday we watched church on Zoom, and then Monday morning was the extraction. I haven't done too much since then, although on Wednesday, a guy from Vista Home Improvement, who I learned about online and set up an appointment with, drove over from Albany, NY to make an estimate on doing a tub/walk-in shower conversion. Showering is a problem for me now in terms of safety and balance, and I was curious. I thought it might cost about $3000-4000, but he quoted three prices: $18,000 if we said "yes" that day, $20,000 if we did it within 30 days, and $22,000 if we did it within a year! Yikes! So forget that! Andy Davis was here with me when he came - Ellen had errands to do - and I was glad he was here. That was my first experience with on-line sales like that. Maybe my last! I was expecting to lead the choir in Dummerston this weekend, but heavy snow is forecast for tonight and tomorrow, so we have cancelled choir. So, no rehearsal last evening and no going out to church tomorrow. Probably just as well. I think by Tuesday, I'll feel good enough to finally go out and get to River Singers. I'll listen to the Heels play Pittsburg later this afternoon, and Monday they will play Clemson, a quick turn-around. I hope they can pull themselves together after the Duke loss. A little side-note: Cliff Bergh lent us a book about Bill Bradley, an outstanding basketball player for Princeton back in the 1970's. It's a fun book, and Ellen has been reading it aloud to help me get to sleep. It works! But I've also learned from it (while I'm still awake!) Bradley later served in the Senate, from New Jersey, and even ran for President. He was quite the guy! And one of the best basketball players ever, I guess.

Northern Roots Festival

Every year at this time, the Brattleboro Music Center, through Keith Murphy, puts on a weekend festival of traditional music. During the day there are workshops teaching specific instruments, such as fiddle, accordian, guitar, etc., or specific musical traditions, and in the evening there are public concerts. We went Saturday night and heard Paul McDonnell (from County Mayo, Ireland), playing button accordian; Fiddleheads Brattleboro, a local group of young people with fiddles, cellos, piano and guitar, led by Laural Swift; from Belfast, Maine, Bennett Konesni (fiddle) and Benjamin Foss (guitar, fiddle, mandolin and foot percussion), playing dance music and worksongs; from Norwalk, CT, Deirdre and Sean Murtha, singing and playing Irish music, and especially maritime music; from Quebec, Sabin Jacques (accordian) and Rachel Aucoin (piano), a team for over 25 years, playing very lively dance music, joined by Pascal Gemme (fiddle and foot percussion), who is a force of nature. Pascal played with River Singers a few years ago, so we had heard him before. The program had a finale in which everyone played. This concert was fantastic. These were outstanding musicians, and they poured their hearts into the music. It was very joyful - just what is needed at this time. We had front row seats (having a disability has its advantages!), and what a treat! There are lots of past Northern Roots videos on YouTube (this was the 18th Annual Festival!), but this year's isn't up yet. I assume it will be eventually.

Paul McDonnell.

Fiddleheads Brattleboro.

Dierdre and Sean Murtha.

Pascal Gemme and Bennett Koneski.

Time Flies

Goodness, it has been nine days since my last post! I guess that when I just stay home and sort of futz around, there isn't much to report, and certainly not "vividly!" The big thing that happened, of course, is the Inaugeration. I don't usually report on things like that, though sometimes I do. We did watch the whole thing at home - it was broadcast on PBS. I actually started listening on the radio, and then switched to TV for the ceremony itself. It was interesting to watch if you ignored the fact that it was not a play. But if you let in the fact that all this will affect real people negatively, it was dismaying and disturbing. I have not yet determined just how to resist Trump, though last night I did send him an email through the United Church of Christ about his order to cancel "birthright citizenship," Watching the "news" in the evening now is a very different experience. He is unavoidable. There was one other big thing in our lives this past week or so - infinitely more personal and important. We were part of a small Hallowell group that went to Tom and Kathy's for a sing last Friday (1/17). Tom was in bed when we arrived, but he got up and sat in the circle with us by the woodstove, and sang along with us. It was a lovely and moving time. It was wonderful to be with him and talk. We are going through some similar experiences, but of course pancreatic cancer is way different from Parkinson's.

Tom and Terry. Tom has a walker almost exactly like mine.

Fred, Tim, Patrice, Eliza, Kathy.

Eliza, Kathy, Mary Alice, Mary Cay, Ellen.

Tom, Terry, Fred. ********************* Otherwise? Our retired clergy group met Thursday (i/16) and that evening we went to the Hallowell rehearsal. I listened to a couple of TarHeels games (they lost both by one point!). We watched church Sunday on Zoom (I just didn't feel like getting up!). Wednesday (1/22), Ellen went to a "sound bath," (dozens of "singing Bowls" of various sizes, esp.large ones), which I gather was a powerful experience. Andy Davis stayed with me while she was away (c. 4 hours), and we talked inter alia about a song Andy wrote about aging, and his and Robin's travels to various places (e.g. to the John C Campbell Folk School in North Carolina, and their trips to Ottawa, and other parts of Canada). We even got out the big atlas to look up places they had been.

Postponed

Me and Jerome at my birthday party.********************************* Monday, we had planned to have Jerome over for a visit, including an overnight. This was at his request - he wanted to have a good, long talk. I had explained some of the "problems" of staying in our home overnight, but he still wanted to do it, and so we agreed on Monday. But when I called Monday a.m., he was not feeling well emotionally, and when I explored that, I learned his sister is dying. She lives in Maryland and he wants to go see her. So we talked about that and I said I would help. He will go by train and leave Friday. So we postponed the overnight visit. Probably do that in February. That means Monday and Tuesday were unexpectedly quiet. Actually, Tuesday had also been planned - after taking Jerome home in the morning, Ellen was going to meet Robin and go to a chidren's book illlustration museum and event down in Massachusetts while John stayed with me. But Tuesday, John was dealing with a migraine headache. So that was cancelled too. All kinds of free time. I felt busy the whole time, but not with any one particular thing. Busy with everyday things. That's ok!

The New Year Begins

New Year's Day was, as I recall, a quiet day. Actually, I don't remember it very well. I don't remember going anywhere, but I do remember listening to a TarHeels/Louisville MBB game in the evening on my Tunein Radio app, a game which the Heels lost by about 14 points. Sigh! The morning of Thursday, January 2nd, we had our retired clergy meeting at the Dummerston Church, and had a good discussion on the first chapter of Wilkie Au's Aging with Wisdom and Grace . This is a good book. Chap. 1 developed pretty fully the difference between faith understood as belief and faith understood as trust, with a strong preference for the latter as a foundation for aging with grace. Friday, January 3rd, we had an odd situation. I had responded to an Internet offer and arranged with a roofing company to send appraisers to assess our roof and make a free, no obligation estimate on replacing it. The shingles are not broken and are not leaking, but they are 25 years old, which is usually considered the life-span of asphalt shingles. The appraisers never showed up, and never called to explain why. Was the whole thing a scam? If so, what do they get out of it? I called their # and asked where they were, but they didn't call back. We waited all afternoon. I guess I'll look for a local roofer to give me an estimate. Friday evening, I led a rehearsal of the Dummerston Choir, which sang on Sunday the 5th, the day before Epiphany, and thus had the star and the magi as themes. We had only seven people present, including Mary Westbrook-Geha and myself, but we had all parts covered, and it went well. We worked on two pieces, an Introit, Lovely Star in the Sky, a Korean hymn which I found in an Asian hymnal I own, Sound the Bamboo, and an anthem, Behold the Star, which I found in the African-American Heritage Hymnal, but which has been around a long time and is in many hymnals (including the old Friends Hymnal which Ellen used as a child). Some members of the congregation remembered singing it at camp and loved hearing it again. I called it an "anthem" - it is really a hymn, but arranged to seem more like an anthem - e.g., the verses sung by a soloist and the refrain by the choir in 4-part harmony. Our soloist was our organist/pianist and former soloist for decades with the New England Bach Festival, Mary Westbrook-Geha, who, of course, sang magnificently, and since we sang it a cappella did not need to be playing the piano at the same time. I can't lift my arms very high to direct, because of severe arthritis in my shoulders, but I manage, and everyone is very supportive. I also have to accomodate my friend, Calvin, a bass, whose vision and hearing are both compromised and has trouble following along if we move too fast. Despite various limitations, however, the choir sounded quite lovely on Sunday. Saturday, Jan. 4th, we had sort of an "encore." Back on December 11th, we had our traditional "fruit cake weather" event when Ellen makes many fruit cakes to give away, and I read aloud the story by Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory, a wonderful evocation of a time when Capote was about seven years old, living with a distant relative, an older woman, who initiates several days of making fruit cakes by looking out the window and announcing, "It's fruitcake weather!" Back in December, our only audience for the reading, beside ourselves, was Ruthie, Ellen's god-daughter. Nancy Tierra, who is usually there, was unable to come this year. So we did a repeat on Saturday of the reading, when Nancy could come, and John and Cynthia came as well. But I did not read aloud- my voice was hopelessly phlegmy - and instead, I played a recording of me reading the story, made many years ago when I was in full voice. Ellen did not make any cakes, but she did serve some. Everyone seemed to enjoy hearing the reading. Saturday was also a TarHeels game day - at Notre Dame. It was going on during the fruitcake reading. It would have been a great game to see. The Heels won it in the final seconds. Down 3 with just a few seconds left, Elliot Cadieux made a 3-point basket, tying the game, but was fouled in the process. He made his free-throw, and the Heels won by a point. I was not listening to the game - I was listening to myself reading! Oh well - they are on again tonight at 9p.m., against Southern Methodist University, a very recent addition to the ACC. I'll listen to that for sure. Sunday, Jan. 5th, we were in Dummerston for church, as indicated above. The choir sounded really nice. We had Sam Farwell in additiom to the seven who came to rehearsal. We had a Music Committee meeting after church - Mary, Eliza, Phyllis Emery and myself. Shawn normally attends, but was not feeling well. He got through the service and went home. The four of us planned out what Sundays the choir will sing through the summer and who will lead. I'm on Feb.9, March 9, April 20 (Easter), and May 18. I didn't put anything into my calendar for june. Mary sends out a summary, I'll check that. Sunday evening, Cliff and Eliza Bergh came over for supper with us. Nothing elaborate, just a simple meal together. We talked about coming to their home to watch the Heels on TV - I haven't actually seen a game yet this season - but there are no games on ESPN until February. Sort of strange. Cliff asked if we would like some wood from the wood pantry, and I said "Yes." We don't have quite as much wood left under the deck as I would like at this date. They have a lot of wood, according to Cliff. Yesterday, Jan 6, was Epiphany. We had a quiet day at home. One thing running through these past couple of weeks is my annual Christmas Letter. I've gotten almost 20 in the mail and have 7 or 8 left to do. I have also been very faithful with my daily exercises in the New Year. I didn't explicitly make a resolution to do so, but it's like I did. Which brings us up to today! No plans to go anywhere today. Stay home and blog! Do Email! Read! Nice! Oh yes - we watched the Christmas Piffaro concert online, featuring a male quartet, New York Polyphony. They were really good! The music was mostly 15th Century, much of it from a MS called the Worcester Fragments. Wikipedia says, "The Worcester Fragments comprise 25 short pieces of vocal music. They are referred to as "fragments" because they do not exist in one unified manuscript but have been reassembled from sheets used as book-binding material in later centuries. These old materials had themselves at some stage been bundled together into several collections of flyleaves and saved in various books which had historical connections with Worcester. Once it was recognised that these scattered fragments came from the same source it was possible to piece them together, though much remained missing." LATER: The TarHeels handily defeated SMU. The first half they played almost perfect basketball against a very big, athletic team. They were ahead by 15 points at the half, and pushed that lead to over 25 during the second half, winning at the end by 15. That was late Tuesday night. Wednesday was a quiet day at home. Today, Thursday, we went over to the Bergh's to watch Jimmy Carter's memorial service at the National Cathedral on TV. That was quite moving. After that we drove to Grandma Miller's bakery in Londonderry for eclairs and morning glory muffins. Now we are home, listening to the news.

Andy and Robin's tree - we were there for breakfast.

Watching the Piffaro concert on my laptop.

Jimmy Carter

I want to add my voice to those honoring Jimmy Carter on the occasion of his death at the age of 100 on Dec. 29th. I agree with those who regard his presidency as more effective than it was seen at the time. I think the Iranian hostage crisis and the failed attempt to rescue the hostages when a U.S. helicopter crashed, cast a pall over Carter's entire presidency, and was exploited by Reagan (who as I recall made a secret deal with the Iranians to wait until after Reagan was inaugerated to release the hostages). And his post-presidency work and accomplishments have been remarkable - uniquely so, I think. His honesty with the American people was highly commendable. But I also have a personal reason for speaking out. I met Jimmy Carter and visited with him. And believe it or not, that happened right here in Brattleboro. He made a campaign stop here in 1976. I don't remember if it was before the primary election (which was held on Town Meeting Day, March 2nd, my birthday!), or before the general election in November. The event was at what was then the Community College of Vermont building overlooking Putney Road up behind Fast Eddies (I think). Somewhere (I can't find it at the moment), I have an enlarged photo of me talking with Jimmy Carter. I knew the photographer and he gave me the print. I'm sure I must have shared with him my own roots in Georgia - my father was born and raised in Georgia and got both his Associate's Degree and Bachelor's Degree from Georgia colleges. (Young Harris and Piedmont). I guess a lot of Vermonters didn't quite know what to make of a Georgia peanut farmer as president, but I had no trouble with that. I did a little research and found that Vermont's response to Carter is a bit bewildering. He won the Democratic Primary in Vermont handily, getting 46% of the vote in a 4-person contest. But a few months later, when VT Democrats met to elect delegates to the National Democratic Convention, they sent only 3 out of 12 delegqtes committed to Carter. And in November, Republican Gerald Ford defeated Carter in every county in Vermont! There were individual municipalities that Carter won, e.g., in Windham County he won Putney (not surprisingly), but also Westminster, Ludlow and Marlboro (more surprisingly) and lost Brattleboro! He was a person of faith, but his faith was surprisingly nuanced, especially for someone who grew up in the Southern Baptist tradition. His fundamental belief was the supreme importance of doing good to others, and that he did, again and again. I hope I will be able to watch his funeral(s)- the one in the Washington National Cathedral is most likely to be broadcast, but I would like to see the one in his home church too. Rest in Peace, Jimmy!

President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024)