Prison sing

Ellen and I had a touching experience today: we were part of a Hallowell-based group that went to the Southeast Vermont Correctional Center to sing some carols and songs for some inmates. There were about 15 of us and only five inmates - a disappointment in a way, but we did get to know them better as individuals. It provided an interesting insight into prison mentality on security. We had to go through a lot of hoops to get in. But it was worth it, I feel. We had a snack with the five men afterward and talked a bit. Maybe we brought something meaningful to them - it was hard to know for sure. But I think they gave us something - a chance to reflect on our lives from an utterly new perspective.

No photos, naturally.

Snow!

We've had two snow storms in quick succession Saturday and today. Probably  close to 10 inches all told. Here is what our deck looks like tonight:

                Winter has arrived!

I managed to get out briefly today to do email, and got back up the driveway ok. Zac called and said he would plow us out later tonight. I have a dental appt. in the a.m. Getting a crown! 

Post concert

This past weekend we were in the River Singers concerts, Saturday eve and Sunday afternoon. It snowed pretty hard late Saturday afternoon and that affected attendance at the concert. But over 100 hardy souls did come out and they were enthusiastic. Sunday was packed. I used a stool and felt good. I think everyone had a great time.

Our leader, Mary Cay Brass, talking while we gather before the concert. 

       The end of our concert 

This weekend I also led the choir at Dummerston. The theme was Joseph's role in the birth of Jesus (or lack thereof!) and our anthem was an old English Carol with a great text about Joseph in which the choir took the roles, variously, of Joseph, Mary, Gabriel and "the narrator."'

Today is fruitcake day! I'll be reading aloud from Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory while Ellen bakes. 

Back in the swim of things

Well, I guess the antibiotic did it's job. I did get to River Singers Tuesday evening.  I wished I had taken a stool because after 3 hours of rehearsal, mostly standing, I was pretty wiped out. I survived though, and took it easy Wednesday. This, however, has been cookie week! Ellen has been baking up a storm!  My role has been to (1) keep up with washing dishes and utensils and keep the sink area as clear as possible. (2) Be a DJ, selecting CDs to play on the Bose, which keeps Ellen happy while she bakes. I found some CDs we hadn't heard for a while which provided an element of surprise. It was fun.  (3) Interspersed with music, I was reading selections from files I am "discovering" as I clean out the file cabinet. I found the MS for a book I started in the 80s and never finished - five chapters - titled The Caring Manager. It argues that the role of manager should be formally considered a caring profession, because managers collectively affect people's lives and environments more than any other profession. It's pretty interesting and is still pretty relevant. The other thing I read aloud from was quite a relic - the answers I wrote on my prelim exams for the doctorate back in 1963. I hadn't looked at them since then. There were seven, five-hour exams (five questions in each exam), on consecutive days with a break over the weekend. It was quite a marathon. Just me and a typewriter in an empty room. I made carbons, which is why I have copies. I'm astounded at how much detail I was able to pull out of my head. It certainly isn't there now! Ellen was impressed. So that's how we spent Wednesday through Friday. I did finally get back to the pool on Thursday. First time for almost a month. That felt good.

Last evening we put the cookie platters together at the church. We were there until 10:30pm getting the job done.  Quite a sight as you can see:

Some of the platters (there were 38 in all)

Today we pick up our first Winter CSA at Walker Farm and go to Tamar's school for their "Winter Fair." 

Grounded

On Friday, after a couple of weeks of coughing, I finally went to my doctor and he listened to my chest and said I have some congestion in my lower right lung. He said he wouldn't exactly say I have pneumonia but nevertheless prescribed a 5-day course of azithramycin. I took 2 on Friday and then one each day since. I feel better, but still am coughing stuff up. One more tomorrow. I went to Thanksgiving things Friday and Saturday, but Sunday I decided to take to bed and stay warm and quiet, so we stayed home from church - very rare. Unbeknownst to me, the Guilford church had decided to honor me and my 60 years of ministry Sunday, including a cake and a song written for the occasion. So I missed my own party!   : (

It was fortunate, I guess, that I didn't know, because I might have imprudently tried to go. Today I rescheduled a dermatology appointment. I'll have to see how I feel tomorrow for River Singers rehearsal. Sigh! 

A Prayer for Thanksgiving

Here is a prayer that Shirley gave many years ago at the Guilford  Community Church on Thanksgiving Sunday. We read it Thursday before our meal. It is very typical of Shirley's very down-to-earth prayers:

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A Prayer for Thanksgiving

O God, I sometimes think I don't know what to thank you for. Sometimes I don't even think I have anything to thank you for. Should I thank you that I am overfed while others starve? Or I am safe while others are in trouble? Should I thank you because I have enough money to spend and others have so little? Lord, sometimes I'm embarrassed when I thank you. And Lord, what shall I ask you for? Yes, Lord, I can ask you for some things: peace on earth, the end to ignorance, poverty, hunger and disease. It's hard to even know sometimes what to ask you for that isn't an empty platitude, a set of mere words. And I ask you, “can I ask you for anything?” Yes, Lord, help me to pray. Help me to ask for the capacity to be silent so I can hear and see others, the capacity to empathize with the suffering of others, not to become dull to the feelings of others. Help me to give thanks for the gift of saying "we," for having friends and family and people who care. Help me to give thanks for the courage of people who sustain life in places and times that take our breath away. Help us to give thanks for poetry and beauty, which make life more incredible than any definition we have of it. Help us to give thanks for the sense of wonder and infinite caring and love without which we would all die. Lord, help us to give thanks for the gift of being able to give thanks.

Be with us in our homes on Thanksgiving Day. Be with those of us who are going to be alone that day -- it's a lonely day for those alone. Help them to know that you are with them. And those of us who are surrounded by family, let us not make it so frantic and hectic that we can't take time to feel how good it is to be together. Almighty God, be in our thanksgiving.

            -- Shirley Harris Crockett

The Book of Prayers from which this prayer is taken, with a drawing of Shirley

A nun in the family!

Last Sunday afternoon we went to a performance of Nunsense II, a musical comedy. Savanna had the role of nun in the chorus. She seemed to "take to the habit" very naturally. The lead, who played the role of the Mother Superior, had been the principal of Brendon's school in Shutesbury for years, so she was well-known to K&S. The musical was very silly, but fun.

    Savanna being led off by a student in the school the nuns run.

          The finale of the show

Friday night after Thanksgiving, Ellen & I sang with River Singers at a "pre-concert" concert held on Gallery Walk night in Brattleboro in the atrium of the Brooks House Hotel. It's a great place to sing for the sound. 

Katie had a great visit over Thanksgiving and this afternoon we saw her and Gertie off on the train to NYC. 

  

And Gertie in her traveling kennel:

We all went to a wonderful puppet show at Sandglass Theater Friday night - Eric Bass in his final performance of Autumn Portraits - after 36 years of annual performances. Masterful puppetry and very poignant. Here are some photos of Autumn Portraits from the Sandglass website.The puppets are extraordinary.