Living in coronavirusworld 13: Palm Sunday

4/5

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday. This is the first Palm Sunday in my memory where nothing in my life signifies the day, no visual imagery, waving of palms, etc. Except maybe….on my way to the deli to pick up a Sunday Times, I pass by First Corinthian Baptist. I hear from inside the locked doors the powerful voices of their choir, filming for their 10:45 streamed service. I wonder how many are inside. How far apart they are. What the scene is like. I hear the voices rose and fall….What does the triumphant entry of Jesus mean in coronavirustime?

                                                                            ****

The corner produce vendors, gone. Green markets, farmers' markets, gone. Hot dog vendors, gone. The Halal stand guys, gone.

                                                                            ****

Turns out the tents in Central Park are donated by Franklin Graham’s Samaritan Purse organization. Franklin, the son of Billy Graham, is an Islamophobe and homophobe who makes his father look like a Unitarian by comparison. Turns out you have to sign a “faith statement” to be accepted as a volunteer. The blessed Rev. Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping Now was arrested by attempting to plant a rainbow flag at the site. I wonder if the tents accept lgbtq patients? (https://gothamist.com/news/rev-billy-arrested-planting-rainbow-flag-central-park-tent-hospital)

                                                                                ****

My friend Kosi (http://www.kosi-sings.com/) does a live concert from Baltimore along with  her friend Ross Martin. Kosi was a regular at the West Park Open Mic and lead vocalist for the alt pop group Goddess Lakshmi.(https://thegoddesslakshmi.org/)  Even did a theater turn in Joyce Miller’s evolving Handmaid’s Dianetics at Dixon Place (http://dixonplace.org/performances/the-handmaids-dianetics-episode-4-the-science-of-survival-08-19-2019/). Ross, a doctor turned singer-songwriter. (https://www.missrainsong.com/ross-martin) It’s an intimate concert experience. 

                                                                                ****

 Another friend has invited me to a virtual theatre festival organized by the No Pants Theatre Company.(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158447466719187&set=a.10151127892799187&type=3&theater)  A whole day of new plays, 10-15 minutes long apiece, three actors on ZOOM, all reflections on the virus. My friend’s piece, State Mandated Therapy Session #8, posits a day where the virus and quarantine have just continued and now in addition to isolation, the government is requiring therapy sessions for everyone. The play is a clever, and chilling, projection of a not unimaginable dystopian future. All the plays I see in the hour make good use of the ZOOM platform and its markers, including the symbol we see from people who cannot get their cameras to work and the other quirks becoming part of our shared cultural experience. The virus continues to inspire creativity in the arts community as we all seek to do our part to keep each other going…

                                                                           ****

Palm Sunday. The door is opened to a Holy Week like no other….

Living in coronavirusworld 12: medics and outlaws

4/4

waiting for groceries

As I walk around outside, seeing all the people in masks, it looks like we’re a nation of medics and outlaws. 

****

Today is the anniversary of  the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.  In Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers, we now know he stepped out on the balcony for a quick smoke and that was it. I think of Dr. King as for the second straight day, nurses and other medical workers stage an action  at Mt. Sinai Hospital.   (https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/3/nyc_frontline_medical_workers_ppe_protest) 

My friend Tre Kwon is one of the organizers. A new mother, she was called back from (unpaid) maternity leave because of the demands of the crisis.  Nurses are used to long hours, double shifts and low pay. What they are not prepared to accept is lack of personal protective equipment. In one Bronx hospital, workers were handed Yankee Stadium giveaway ponchos as “protective covering” as but one  bizarre example. The workers are demonstrating for adequate PPE and no retaliation for those who have raised their voices and been punished for it. So yesterday it was Montefiore, today Mt. Sinai and Monday,Harlem Hospital. Strangely, the Nurses Union has remained silent. Yeah, medics and outlaws…

                                                                                ****

A Dr. Anthony Fauci bobblehead doll is in production and available for presale.  (https://store.bobbleheadhall.com/products/drfauci))

                  

                                                                               *****

1100 ventilators from China.  117 from Oregon. And a million masks from the NBA (Thank you Brooklyn Nets!)

****

The day begins with standing in a line to gain entry to the grocery store.  With appropriate social distancing, of course.  Luckily, Le Patiserrie Des Ambassades, one of the best things about French African Harlem, across the street is still serving pastries, my first since this began. I take my pastry then take my place. 

I’ve been on Morningside Park hundreds of times and until yesterday had never seen the somewhat odd statue of the bear and faun. Apparently it's been there since 1918. 

Bear and faun

I’m getting closer to  wearing a mask. A western bandana is tied around my neck ready to go OG outlaw at any moment.  A casual survey of the park looks about 50/50. My walking partner arrives at the Morningside pond with a box of sterile wipes for me. She had started with a Do It Yourself mask from that internet video....(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r2C1zGUHbU&list=RDCMUCtQVy5IY7TjSBMo-lGigfnQ&fbclid=IwAR3dU52dq_UrovGe7e9RGkS34kOxnonKauLyiKkAYBNWC8l8noVDdr8jnb4) . )

Unfortunately, the mask fogged her glasses and she couldn’t see.   So…unmasked it is.  Seems the Department of Ed has decided to cancel spring break. It’s easy to forget our teachers are still out there partcipating in remote learning every day. And Mayor Di Blasio has even called for school to be in session on Passover and Good Friday, as allowed by the State. Concerned about keeping the kids busy. Your highest paid babysitters, she  says. To add to it, while most classes are now being taught on ZOOM, the DOE has just learned of the highly publicized security issues the have emerged with ZOOM.  Issues ZOOM is already adding security measures to address. So teachers are being asked to use other platforms, and inform parents who’ve just gotten used to ZOOM. Or utilize audio only transmissions, which translates to conference calls. One tries to imagine a conference call with a room full of 4th graders. And no classes to be missed for an instructive webinar the subject. And so education continues…..

Living in coronsvirusworld: a few thoughts on Wagner's "Ring Cycle"

4/4

The Met's Ring Cycle

One unexpected benefit of of living in Coronavirusworld was the opportunity to experience Richard Wagner’s “Ring Cycle,” one of those bucket list type items that seemed destined to remain uncompleted. I have always had an ambivalent fascination with the Ring. On the one hand, intrigued by how so many would come to  commit themselves to plunging into a 14-16 hour adventure in heavy opera. Waiting years for tickets to the Ring’s true Valhalla, the Festival at Bayreuth, still run by Wagner’s descendants.  I wanted to understand that passion. On the other was my awareness of Wagner as a truly nasty no question about it anti-semite and favorite of Hitler. This being both a “Stay away” factor and back ended attraction as something forbidden always is. Aware of the ongoing controversial efforts of conductors like Daniel Barenboim to perform Wagner in Israel. 

So far I had only one experience of any part of the Ring, the historic 1980 Tulsa Opera production where Simon Estes became the first African-American to portray Wotan. His performance would open the doors to his Metropolitan Opera debut as Wotan. I reviewed that production for the African-American owned Oklahoma Eagle under the title “Die Walkure from die balcony,” from the perspective of one sitting in the cheap seats. I remember little of the performance save for the power of Estes' voice.  I bring that same naive outlook to this 2011-12 production of the Ring, directed by Richard le Page of Cirque de Soleil fame and conducted by the still loved pre-Me Too outed James Levine struggling to remain in the pit finally giving way to Fabio Luisi. 

At the end of the day, this streaming experience was better for me than being there in person.  Close ups helped. Being able to replay a scene you may have missed. In the end, I saw it all. And I can’t always honestly say that. And what did I see? More than see... experience? Like being immersed in another world. And as a complete novice, I can say the world was not unfamiliar. Marvel comics and the Marvel “Avengers” movie universe was certainly good preparation. Hey, even some of the same characters!  Wotan (Odin), Loge (Loki) and Donner (Thor) all straight out of Marvel. And Wotan, Sigmund and Siegfried all brought a World Wrestling Entertainment vibe with their long hair and bulging biceps and swagger.  And Wagner’s identity leitmotifs like WWE’s entrance music. Siegfried’s heel turn in Gotterdammerung is classic WWE. There are other connections…When Gunther appears in Siegfried, he looks and sounds like a Star Wars Republic senator ready to go to the dark side. And the power of the Ring, it’s effect on people, the obsessive passion it creates, clearly at least a connector to the ring in the Lord of the Rings series. All of these share a certain mythic  way of processing reality,  a certain ethos where the gods interact with humans and share all their emotional complexities and character flaws.  A certain lost majesty and passion. You enter into the reality and experience that for all those hours, yes I get it.  And these myths are all part of how humanity shapes its own narrative. (My musical son Micah, in Berlin laughed and wondered what Wagner would think of the Marvel and pro Wrestling comparisons..) 

The story carried me along, not knowing what would happen next.  I loved Wagner’s experimental use of leitmotifs to introduce and announce characters, none better than that  of the Valkure’s conjuring up Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now helicopter scene. All the men are filled with annoying arrogance, bad thinking and fatal decision making. And some plot twists like brothers and sisters falling in love and mating are jaw dropping, even in “Ring Land.” As entertaining as the Rhinemaidens are, the one truly noble character is Brunhilde, the queen of the Valkures.

As to the deeper question of Wagner, that remains a challenge. This work has been seen as anarchist, Marxist, and nationalist/ populist.  In the end, though, the surface story is pretty clear….it is about the love of power over against the power of love. It’s explicit, only one who gives up the option of love can possess the ring. The Shrekish  Niebulung Alberich (otherwise know as Oberon, here to visit from Midsummer Nights Dream) is willing to make the choice, Wotan is not. And I suddenly realized that Wagner is macing the same argument as prophetic  writer Nahum Ward-Lev who decides we must decide either to put faith in power or faith in love. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q3XQKG2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) I’m sure this comparison would not please other party. 

Finally, does the beauty of a work outweigh the sins of its creator? Picasso? Dali? Michael Jackson? Woody Allen? Polansky?  (I once heard a stand up comedian say, “hey John Wayne Gacy: great clown. Made wonderful balloon animals…”). After the Ring, I think where I end up is the beauty we create does not outweigh the evil we do. On the other hand, neither can the evil negate the beauty.  In the end, beauty trumphs over evil. 

Would I do this again? Fully paid trip to Bayreuth? Just maybe….

Living in coronavirusworld 11: shabbat in corona virus time

4/3

...blooming...

At 6:30 PM I join my friend Steve for the 30 minute musical warm up before his shabbat service.  I sing my song about this coronavirusworld, Listen.   Steve recently had one of his original “virus”pieces featured in Vanity Fair. (https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/03/a-lockdown-letter-from-new-york?fbclid=IwAR0cfo8CnD_aJhYY5pNhEITj5znNMgIWkO2HgiAYKw_JJFBCu7Meyc-gTHk). 

We try singing Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” like we’ve done live together. It’s a bit 

odd not being in the same room together attempting harmony.  Then in honor of Bill Withers, who died today, "Lean on Me.” (You can check out the music and service at https://www.facebook.com/stevenblanemusic/videos/355062968766109/?eid=ARCBH3MBjJAkzLqfKq7z7m4EgVzQCWggA3_4gKg7lVyPHJE-yCTJtczUogs7_KyRACrfX6d9ih5QB8XH).)

Then it’s time for “Shabbat in Corona virus time” with Congregation Sim Shalom. But at At 7PM, just before the service begins, I hear through my window the nightly salute to emergency workers: medical workers, delivery people, clerks, transit workers…the people keeping us alive. With cheers and rattling of pots and pans like Latin American caserolazas, only in praise, not protest. Even in the streets of  Harlem it echoes and I hear  through Steve’s window as well.  The online service unfolds just like usual. Only it’s not usual. The community gathers from around the world, even Cuba.  Steve greets them as they tune in. He asks me to share some reflections.  I begin by talking about my experience with Ecclesia and the homeless people in Marcus Garvey Park. And the refrigerator trucks in Brooklyn. And the tents in Central Park. We are literally walking through the valley of the shadow of death. How hard it is not to fear. I talk about how as hard as it is being “quarantined,”  it’s not all that uncommon. How my son’s wife had to spend days with her parents in their basement during the Serbian bombing of her home city.  And how my Serbian friends hid in basements for 78 days while NATO mobbed their country. Or Jews hiding in tiny crawl spaces for years during World War II. We have done that to each other. We have lived through it and survived. We need to draw on those legacies.  To get through this. And I of course I finished by talking about gratitude. Resistance begins with gratitude. What happened today that I am thankful for? This Shabbat, the prayers for healing and the mourners’ kaddish has special meaning tonight.

Steve at one point makes reference to holocaust and one of the  congregants objects.  He apologizes for having offended the congregant, acknowledges that for some, no comparisons can ever be made. And then says, I wasn’t there for that holocaust. But this is my holocaust. It’s everyone who is vulnerable. There may be a million dead already. And my wife and my family are in danger  revery day. It’s enough…. This is very untypical for Steve who in his service believes that for  most of us, our lives are so demanding that we need a weekly break, we need a  weekly moment of comfort and peace, a shabbat. Someone else tries to extend the controversy but Steve wisely moves on. We move on to the final prayers, a word of peace. And the service is ended. Back to the solitude of our homes.

                                                                                                                        ****

I visit with my friend who had the virus.(On facebook, live..) She’s back in the land of the living. Color in her face again.  It is good to see each other, I haven't  seen her face since, well, before…. Wondering how long until that might actually happen again….

Living in coronavirusworld 10: I'll come when I can

4/2

a sea of white tents in the East Meadow field hospital....

I call my friend Rachel, 94 years old, long time member of West Park.  Homebound with her remaining Pug and 2 or 3 cats.  I don’t see her as often as I’d like.  Last February, I was playing a gig at the Five Lamps and looked up on the screen only to see the Westminster Dog Show.  I remembered that  going to see Rachel to watch the Westminster Dog Show was something we did. We’d share a single malt and watch the dogs. I’d never done that before. Sadly, it was the last night. 

Conversation is not easy, her hearing is not so good.  I start to say, “I’d love to come see you but…”and her attendant takes the phone and says, "Please don’t talk about the virus, she doesn’t know anything about it.  I don’t want to upset her….” I do all right until she says, “I’d really like you to  come see me.” How do I answer that?  “I’ll come when I can,” I say.

                                                                                                                               ****

My friend CC has decided to end the Sunday night We Love Songwriters (virtual) open mic. Not enough friends donated. She’s desperate for income having lost her restaurant and bar work and all music work. Like so many of my friends. We will miss this gathering. 

                                                                                                                             ****

As I walk to Morningside Park, I notice more and more places that were open for take out and delivery have now stopped doing that. Too expensive. Options shutting down. I get to the Park and wait for my walking partner. We just seem to head for Central Park. In the Park, we notice the inconsistent practice of “social distance.” I have an idea and we agree to head to the East Meadow to see the field hospital. By the Conservatory Gardens, we stop to check out magnolias and some sweet smelling flowers.Odd as we fear airborne enemies. 

 On the other side of the garden, we go down to 5th Avenue and there on the other side of police barriers is a sea of white tents,  the field hospital. When I post my picture, she one says “ It looks like a war scene.”  “It is,” I respond. I still can’t believe this, even in front of my  eyes. Like I’m in one  of those time out of time times, like when someone dies or there’s a disaster or revolution. All normal rhythms stop. 

magnolias

My partner, a teacher ,is working full days with her students. Along with filling out forms and endless paper work it’s exhausting. Same with my youngest son who works with children with autism. ‘I’m not working at home, he says. I’m at home attempting to work in the middle of a virus.”

We near the end of our walk. I sigh once, My friend notes that we’ve been walking over an hour and I’ve been quiet, not like a few weeks ago. She’s right, between sciatica and breathing issues, walking had become unpleasant. But since my Florida trip, I’ve started a new regimen and am in my best shape in a very long time.  It’s a bit ironic. My world’s crumbling and I’m in great shape. 

                                                                                                                                                                  ****

Up until now, I’ve been attending my biweekly physical therapy sessions in the mid50’s. But they called and told me my therapist would not be back until the end of April ..... at least. That concerned me. Why? Was he potentially exposed, or???? I decided to not go. So my trips through the Columbus Circle underground have ended. Just didn’t feel comfortable.

                                                                                  ****

My cleaning lady’s older husband with  history of heart problems is in the hospital with Corona. Not being able to see him increases her anxiety and his. We have to go through this alone. No visitors. Not even chaplains. It’s hard.

                                                                                           ****

I do, after serious contemplation, agree to stop by an elderly friend, RL’s, apartment to visit him and Dion who works for him.  It's to discuss how to get a virtual West Park Open Mic up and running by next Friday. It’s BYOB. ( I haven’t had a drink since St.Patrick’s, not wanting to drink alone at home.) My neighborhood deli on the way is run by Muslims and doesn’t sell any alcohol. When I get to the Upper West Side, all I can find is closed delis. Several restaurants you have to call in your order to get it. I find one, the Hi Life, open for take out. I walk into the darkened, classic Art Deco bar. There’s a masked security guy and two people, a  man and a woman, working to fill multiple orders. I order two cold pinot grigios. He makes two strong pours into plastic cups with lids, packs tightly in a plastic bag with ice. So that’s how we do things now. In normal times, this would have been deemed highly illegal, but concessions have been made.

I walk down the street and the top of the five story walk up. Doin  this day after day is probably why he’s still spry as he is. We watch Jeopardy which continues like the world is the same despite the irony of the game show's title. Its last segment, always Final Jeopardy. I share with them everything I know about virtual open mics. And I’m given the assignment to follow through. And so I will.

Living in coronavirusworld 9: Go with the flow

4/1

...always  at home...

April Fools’ Day.  Well maybe not this year. No one's, like, there…

Our Wednesday morning reflection group meets. Some notes:

*Father Clyde has made the painful decision to end the Sunday afternoon services of Ecclesia for the homeless people in the park.  Each congregant was given a morning and evening prayer book prepared by Clyde and a pocket testament and Psalms. He is part of a coalition asking that 25000 hotel rooms be made available for the homeless population as church and other shelters shut down. The city shelters are, in his word, “petri dishes.” Some meals to go services are still in operation, like Broadway Presbyterian. 

*Psalms help get us through, and prayers at particular times of day.

* We’re looking for the prophetic stream, the Holy Spirit flowing through each of us.

* We are not a state, just a large collection of individuals who somehow make it.

*True freedom is obedience to justice and righteousness. Since justice flows like water and righteousness like an everlasting stream, we need to go with the flow, God’s flow. And learn to swim. 

* The didache is a good resource. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didache)

* This (moment in time) is a different rhythm.

* It’s like in Acts 12: 13-19 when Peter is liberated from prison and Rhoda the servant girl goes to tell the others and they tell her she must be out of her mind. 

* We know what to do. We all know “Love your neighbor like yourself” but respond, ‘Yeah, I know, but I don’t feel like it…”

* Is there a plan? Dr. William Barber II says that before CoVid 19, 700 poor people were dying a day. A major action is being planned for June 20th. 

* Thirty refrigerator trucks have been ordered for storage of dead bodies

*Read  The Hidden Wound by Wendell Berry, an essay on racism and the damage it does to us…

* We cannot let this moment pass. We have to learn the lessons. But what lessons?

* Sam says we need to create an alternative reality

* That the other is as valuable as you are (although love of neighbor is held back by the extent of self-hatred)

*  Conservatives are more fearful. True leaders are less fearful.

* Is this moment encouraging idolatry of personal safety?

* We agree to read together the Camus’ The Plague. 

                                                                     ****

Through an interesting set of circumstances, I am a guest of two high school senior religion classes from the GANN Academy in Waltham, Massachusetts. I’m talking on Presbyterianism. I enjoy talking about the best of our tradition:

* The priesthood of all believers, rule by elders. (Presbuteroi)

* How I am a teaching elder, not a priest, a facilitator, not a mediator (therefore similar to a rabbi) How I do nothing magical. 

* In communion, the people are transformed, not the elements

*Marriage is a covenant, not a sacrament, made by two fallible human beings. 

* In reformation, Calvin broke with Luther over governance, communion and nature of the world. 

* In governance, Luther maintained episcopacy with bishops. Presbyterians have a corporate bishop, the elected presbytery, equal parts clergy and lay. Horizontal, not vertical. 

` * In communion, for Presbyterians, Christ is present in the sharing of bread and cup but not in the elements.

* All creation is under God’s dominion and God present in creation. For Luther, there is the kingdom above ruled by God and the kingdom below ruled by satan.

* Since we are under God’s dominion, we are stewards of creation. For Calvin, the highest calling is to be a civil magistrate. Presbyterians are disproportionately represented in congress because of a sense of the sacredness of politics. 

* Our representative  republican form of governance highly influenced the  creation of the American system. We are supposed to elect representatives who will be wise, not ideological. No one party or candidate can ever be the full expression of  the full mind of God, all will fall short, all held accountable.

*Salvation is fully a function of God’s freedom and God’s grace. We cannot gain salvation through our own actions neither can we ever judge another. 

* Marilynne Robinson in the Death of Adam argues that Calvinsim’s concept of the equality of all humans led to the emergence of humanism and the enlightenment. 

The  students were sharp and asked good questions. Like do we really believe in predeterminsim? And I said it was actually predestination, which is best understood by what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  meant when he said the arc of history is long but bends towards justice. Likewise, what about free will? We are always free to accept or reject the grace that God offers, but even that capacity is a function of grace.  Very heavy conversation about God and the Holocaust. I said we had to see it as human, not demonic in order to prevent similar events. (They do, sadly, continue) God was/is present in the suffering, like in Eli Wiesel’s Night, and in those who saved others, as in Le Chambon sur Lignon and others. This was good remote learning. 

The  last question was about the Trinity. My less than adequate answer was that I was a son, a husband and a father simultaneously but still just me. Yeah, inadequate.....

                                                                                                       

                                                                    ****

I talk to a friend from Beverley Church in Brooklyn. She tells me about the refrigerator trucks for dead bodies. And that families are not allowed to take their dead. And that people are then and cremated. 

     

Living in coronavirus world 8: "...and we are going to make it through..."

3/31

...and still spring....

The New York City Presbytery General Cabinet meets via ZOOM to catch up on where we are. An emergency task force has been put together to pool resources and make appeals for help easier. Obviously most regular work  has ground to a halt. It cheers me some when I hear our treasurer say, “There’s plenty of help available and we are going to make it through.” I want to believe that. The conversation turns to congregations without pastors. Who can’t afford to pay pulpit supply pastors. Guest preachers. There’s a quick move  to make a list of churches streaming services so that these preacherless churches can tune in. Thankfully, our Exec points out that this is only half the problem. A lot of ministers depend on guest preaching to make it. (Like me) They’re now missing up to $1000 a month from their income. Ecclesiastical gig workers, as it were. Maybe there is coverage under the  Cares act. Not clear. I also have another concern. Three of the congregations I work with are marginally computer literate. “ZOOM” is a mystery to many. There’s been contact among members since this all began. If we don’t find a way to connect them and this goes on awhile, it could mean the end for some who have just barely been hanging on. 

Clearly our denomination's biennial General Assembly is up in the air. The Baltimore Convention Center, where we were going to meet, is being turned into an emergency hospital.

Something about this all wears me out. I fee too tired for my friend's nightly online bull session.

I stop to think…..60 tents in a Central Park war style “Field Hospital,” US Open Tennis courts and the Javits Center for emergency hospitals, a Navy hospital ship in the harbor, hotels next. And freezer trucks outside of a Brooklyn hospital for bodies. I can’t find a way to appropriate these as part of my reality or truly understand what they mean. For the first time, I feel an undercurrent.of fear……

"There’s plenty of help available and we are going make to through,,”