Some basic rules

2/24

A day slow in beginning. And all day through.

David S is in the chapel, playing music by himself.

A lone person wanders in looking for a Noche class but they’re on a day off after their boundary breaking performance at Joe’s Pub.

I step outside and Marsha’s passing by. Was looking for me. Wanting to know how I was doing. I’m ok. Anxiously awaiting a response to our work. All you can do is do what you can do and give it up to the universe. There are rough edges, disappointments around my move. I’ll deal with it. I’m OK.

RL is basically walking around taking stock.

Marc is in the sanctuary trying out a new projector with a Carl Perkins rockabilly concert that featured Eric Clapton on guitar and Ringo on drums. And so it goes.

2/25

I hear familiar sound son the piano. See an older woman and a younger woman. I stop by and it’s Grace from Shanghai. Three years ago she was here for a competition at Mannes. The lines to wait to practice were very long and she just found us(.http://west-parkpress.blogspot.com/2011/05/grace-notes.html ) Now three years later, she’s back. Ready for college. Auditions for the Royal Academy in London.  And Julliard.

Meanwhile, Jeremy is upstairs in the gym rehearsing with his African/world group.

I step outside. See an old man walking down the street. Look closer and it’s Philip. My mentor. My friend. The man who married us 30 years ago. He taught me the basics:

* Our job is to help people discover within themselves the power to become  the subjects of their own history, agents of their own destiny.
*Everything begins wit relationships

*Never trust liberals.

*The problem with liberals is they don’t count the votes.

*Leaders are people who have followers.

* You can be an organizer or a leader. You can’t both.

* If God wants something to happen in the world, it’ already being done. It was his job as a bureaucrat to go out and find it and put money and resources behind it.

That’s how he met me. He was looking for what God was doing and found me in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He embraced being a church bureaucrat and was the most creative national staff person I ever met. He could go on a consultation and in five minutes have a key person confident enough to share their inner mosts with him. He was  classic Alinsky. And shared Ignacio Silone with me, Bread and Wine.

He brought me to New York for the first time as a consultant from 1982-3.  And was responsible for getting me to West-Park. I win when I follow what I learned and lose when I ignore it, which has been way too many years.  When he recognizes me, he gives me a big smile.  I’m 86, he says. We’ve been married 30 years. I’d forgotten  that he married M the same year he performed my wedding. His has lasted well. Third time’s a charm. My kids say she’s their best insurance policy.

I ask him where he’s going. He tells me he’s got a doctor’s appointment two big blocks down the street. I check my watch. Well you’ve got half an hour, I say. He smiles again. I walk very slow.  As he walks on, he looks back over his shoulder and says thanks for the call. After we’d won the big vote at presbytery, I had called him to say thanks. I had finally used all that he had taught me. I stay in this work because of people like Philip. I feel I owe them something. And need to pass some things on.

Pat O comes in to show me a new program. Called mind manager. First time I’ve ever seen a program that functions like my brain does. I work best with black boards or white boards making visual maps. Problem is, you have to erase things. With this program, Pat has mapped everything in front of us right now.  That’s exciting. There are meetings to prepare for.