Living in coronavirusworld 230: Blowin in the Wind

 

12/16

Channukah lights

It’s the seventh night of Channukah. 

I meet my friend Steve for coffee in one of the tiny Stella Artois plastic houses. No heat, but being out of the wind helps. This ongoing plague has taken its toll. There is this realization, that even with the vaccine, there’s a numbers issue of how many will need to take it and how many need to have antibodies for how long that it could be quite some time before we’re out of the  woods. Anything like normal still far away. We talk some about a not often talked about question, namely how the children of Israel worshipped while in exile. I’ve heard a recent talk suggesting that the beginning of rabbinic Judaism began in the Exile and the first century conflict between temple and synagogue reflected in the Bible may actually have had its roots in the Exile. And that the gospels' conflict  between Jesus and the pharisees is anachronistic in actually depicting a struggle over leadership after the fall of Temple Judaism. In the early first century, they were essentially on the same side. Steve also reflects how different movements begin as responses to what has become established, eg, Reform to orthodox, Conservative to reform, etc. 

on 86th Street

As I finish my afternoon errands, the snow begins to fall. Walking in the dark streets, I’m cheered by an unexpected Channukah menorah. 

Later in the night, our super Nicky and a helper are shoveling out the sidewalks. Kids are coming home with sleds and snowboards having been out playing in the snow. I look for the perfect snow scene. And don’t find it.

12/17

Maybe six inches. Nowhere near the predicted 18. Still no in person school for kids. But there will be “remote instruction.” The pandemic inspired “remote learning” has ended the always cherished snow days when school would be cancelled and we’d all head out for a day of sled riding, snow man building and snow ball fights. Those days of unexpected freedom from the routine and almost innocent celebration of the short lived respite a snow can bring are yet another victim of covid. Hey, we’ll just do remote. Just like always. 

The Center …and church..both heavily impacted by Covid, are struggling to balance out the demands of money versus mission. And how to potentially conflicting demands in the relationship. This will not be easy. 

Spend all day working on my concert and then have to deal with unexpected tech issues which ultimately threw me off. Both Facebook and ZOOM found their own ways to defy expected and manageable results as if possessed of a will other own, or perhaps demons. I struggle to the finish line of what I had planned as a unique response to our current reality in this season. I feel defeated. My son says, Blame it on 2020.

Part of my disappointment was wanting to do a solid tribute to my friend Dan who died recently of Covid.  Play a video of him singing. Just couldn't make it happen.

I sing “Blowin in the wind”, as Dan and I did in 1994 Christmas concert, in its original form recalling Peter,Paul and Mary at their 1987 Carnegie Hall Holiday concert. It’s final words, “…how many deaths will it take til we know that too many people have died?” ring painfully truer than ever and with all that’s uncertain, the answer is indeed "Blowin’ in the wind..” We finish with “Let it Be” “…there will be an answer, Let it be.”

                                                   "Blowin in the Wind"

8/28/63 remembered

8/25

                                          Martin Luther King, Jr. 8/28/1963

Do you remember me? the person asking looks familiar. And then simultaneously we say Sarah...It’s been many a year. I ask where she’s been. Living five years in  Nyack with a new husband. In town to visit her son, same age as my Nate. We exchange the sons news reports. Ask if she’s still singing. No, more writing music and children’s books. Had warm memories of being here. Wanted to check in.

And the memories come flooding back. Bittersweet. Her coming to us years ago was special for me. She brought her son who hung out with Nate. One of those who was slowly, cautiously trying to find her way back to church. Wanted to share her voice. Had been a singer-songwriter for awhile. And she did. Singing in the choir. And then most special of all, she made liturgical  stoles for Katherine and me. Matching. With special scraps from her sewing box and pieces that had been with her for a long time. Even from home. And she wrote a beautiful letter describing what she had done, where the pieces came from. 

Sadly, it came to an end when she was accidentally copy-alled into what was one of innumerable West-Park squabbles carried out via e-mail. Someone making their way back in doesn’t want to find the stress and tension, meanness, that drove them away in the past. Or that they want a break from in their regular life.  A key to a church being able to grow is not getting sucked into drama. Much as those already in seem to enjoy ..or even want that, anyone new will be driven away. .

                                                      Bob Dylan sings Blowin in the wind

We’re remembering the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington today. I pull out my guitar. Sing blowin’ in the wind...a song of the era...and people sing along. We read our scriptures, starting with Jeremiah. Who protests about his youth, remembering that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a young man in 1963.  Only 43. And we can see the connection to Jeremiah 1: 9  Now I have put my words in your mouth. Hebrews 12 speaks of ...a voice that shook the earth...(25) and how it was was that kind of power that came through Martin Luther King, Jr. on that day. A nation was shaken to its core. We recall how it was the dogs of Bull Connor  that convinced the Civil Rights establishment to commit to the march. And a few weeks later, the bombing of the church in Birmingham. And the next summer, Freedom summer...and the murder of Goodman, Cheney and Schwerner. Earth shaking indeed.   Maybe even heaven shaking.

And finally Luke 13:10-17 with its exploration of the law and breaking the law for the greater good. We talked about the whole use of civil disobedience in social change. And how every time I’ve been arrested, judges were willing to consider the duress defense, that is, breaking a law in order to prevent something worse from happening, and every time found not guilty. 

Then we watch the video of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech that day in Washington, DC at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. What some have called the second greatest speech in American history. Second only to Lincoln himself. And then we reflect. How King’s speech was rooted in the American dream. Calling America to its best sense of itself. Granting it the trust in its capacity to be true to its ideals. With the  use of the words of My Country ‘tis of thee...let freedom ring! and use of the prophets Amos and Isaiah. 

I’m one of the few who actually remembered seeing it live. How it struck deep into my heart. Brought tears to my eyes. (Still does.)  Deacon James remembers growing up on Long Island, Freeport. (Where Andrea grew up, and my parents in law..) And serving in the Korean War. How King helped him transform his anger into something else. We all have our own reaction. Some remember the  assassination of Malcom X and that the two were moving closer together .

So where are we today? So much left to do. Some ways better. Some ways worse. I remember when my friend Uli from Germany was with us when we poured into the streets to  celebrate Obama’s victory. Broadway closed. Celebration everyhwere. Uli said it reminded him of when                                                                     the Berlin Wall fell. I said that today for us another wall had fallen.

Disappointed though we are, a page had been turned. There would be no going back. The voices of that day in Washington, DC echo still.

After services, a family from Spain has com into visit.  I greet them in Spanish and Arcadia comes up to greet them with her usual grace and hospitality.

Later, Session will approve a term sheet. Next week we will begin actual leas negotiations. I think I can see light ahead....I want to believe it...

Blowin in the Wind

Bob Dylan

How many roads most a man walk down

Before you call him a man ?

How many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand ?

Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly

Before they're forever banned ?

The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many years can a mountain exist

Before it's washed to the sea ?

Yes, how many years can some people exist

Before they're allowed to be free ?

Yes, how many times can a man turn his head

Pretending he just doesn't see ?

The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky ?

Yes, how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry ?

Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died ?

The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

America Lyrics (first verse)

Katherine Lee Bates

My country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims' pride,

From ev'ry mountainside

Let freedom ring!