Music Again

When I began listening to a lot of music – in junior high , high school and especially college, vinyl records were the primary medium for listening. I remember looking forward to the semi-annual album sales at Target – when most all their records would go on sale for $5. I remember searching record bins at stores and the delight in finding some relatively rare album. Part of the joy of a record album was the interesting artwork on the album cover. Much of that was lost with CDs and is gone forever (almost) with the advent of electronic purchase of music through itunes and the like.

I still prefer CDs when I purchase music. I like the tangible feel of holding it in your hand. Yet, I have itunes on my computer and have enjoyed purchasing some music that way, too. What has been especially fun about itunes is the ability to purchase a song that comes to mind almost like a free association. I have not done this a whole lot, but I recently burned a CD of songs I have downloaded over the past couple of years. That they fit on a CD says that I really don’t buy a lot of music this way, though these are not the only songs I have downloaded. They are the more random songs that did not fit in some other CDs already burned.

Here’s the list with some memories attached. Maybe it will evoke some memories for you, especially, if you are old enough to remember vinyl records.

George Harrison, Crackerbox Palace. I bought a George Harrison best-of CD a year or so ago, and in a review I read about the songs it did not include, like Crackerbox Palace. Listening to the song I remember high school, and the song brings a smile.

Don Williams, Good Ole Boys Like Me. This song also came out when I was in high school. At that time, few self-respecting young people listened to country music, unlike today. Yet this song got airplay on Top 40 radio, and I couldn’t resist a song that refers to late night radio, Thomas Wolfe, Tennessee Williams and Hank Williams.

Charlie Rich, Behind Closed Doors and The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. These songs came out when I was in junior high. Charlie Rich was a country crossover. I liked the songs, and wasn’t even aware of all the kinds of things that might happen behind closed doors.

Cyndi Lauper, Time After Time. Cyndi Lauper was weird looking, but she could sing. This song came out in the early years of MTV, before I had cable. I was a youth pastor, and heard some of the youth in my group listening to it. One of the great things about being a youth pastor is the opportunity it affords to hear some new music. It’s not the primary thing about youth ministry, but it is a nice perk.

The Ronettes, Be My Baby. When I was in junior high, a guy named Scott Ross, a former New York disc jockey, had a fascinating radio show. He had become a Christian and he would play rock n roll records and weave in Christian faith themes. I read his autobiography and found he was married to one of the Ronettes. Anyway, this is a wonderful song, referred to later in an Eddie Money tune.

Albert Hammond, It Never Rains in California. Greenberg, a film with Ben Stiller, had this song in its soundtrack. I wondered if I had it anywhere on some CD compilation. I didn’t. I think it was another junior high song. I remember listening to the year-end top 100 songs on New Year’s day during these years. Casey Kasem. I am sure this was one song played on one of those shows.

The Brothers Johnson, Strawberry Letter 23. I think this was a college song. Probably danced to it sometime, and it’s still worth dancing to.

Anita O’ Day, My Ship (two versions): Miles Davis plays a beautiful version of this song on Miles Ahead, a great jazz album. Anita O’Day is one of my favorite jazz singers and when I read somewhere that she had recorded this song, I needed to hear it. I was not disappointed.

Andy Williams, Moon River. I am not sure what made me think of this song when I downloaded it. It reminds me of all the variety shows that were on television when I was growing up. I kind of miss Ed Sullivan.

Gerry Rafferty, Baker Street. Gerry Rafferty died recently, and this was a memorable song from my college years.

Rick Nelson, Garden Party. Another junior high hit, but with a wry take on the rock n roll scene of the day from a veteran of early rock n roll. It is a song about growing up and growing into being ok with who you are.

Smash Mouth, All Star. I think I heard this as my own children were beginning to discover music for themselves. It is a catchy song with an upbeat message. “Hey now, you’re an all-star, get your game on… Only shooting stars break the mold.”

Chris Isaac, Wicked Game. Another memorable song, though I am not sure just when I heard it or what made me think of it.

Lindsey Buckingham, Trouble. Fleetwood Mac was the band when I was in high school, enormously popular. Lindsay Buckingham was an important part of their popularity and then he had some solo success with this song. Catchy as can be.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David

A Moment of Grace

Are we healed, have we received healing forces, here and there from the power of the picture of Jesus as the Savior? Are we grasped by this power? Is it strong enough to overcome our neurotic trends, the rebellion of unconscious strivings, the split in our conscious being, the diseases which disintegrate our minds and destroy our bodies at the same time? Have we overcome in moments of grace the torturing anxiety in the depth of our hearts, the restlessness which never ceases moving and whipping us, the unordered desires and hidden repressions which return as poisonous hate, the hostility against ourselves and others, against life itself, the hidden will to death? Have we experienced now and then in moments of grace that we are made whole, that destructive spirits have left us, that psychic compulsions are dissolved, that tyrannical mechanisms in our soul are replaced by freedom: that despair, this most dangerous of all splits, this real sickness unto death, is healed and we are saved from self-destruction? Has this happened to us under the power of the picture of Jesus as the Savior? Paul Tillich, “On Healing” in The New Being, 44-45

A couple of weeks ago now, I was meeting with our Board of Ordained Ministry as we interviewed persons for ordination. We meet at a Catholic monastery and retreat center, and our evening worship is shared in their chapel.

This particular night, the following passage was read from Colossians: As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do , in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

As I listened to these words, I was looking up at a crucifix at the front of the chapel. The figure of Jesus grabbed my attention in a way that a crucifix never had before. There was Jesus, lightly clothed, yet clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and love. And there was this overwhelming feeling that I wanted to embrace this Jesus, to offer compassion. I could almost feel myself doing this, that I was helping carry Jesus. There was an oddly wonderful physical sense to all this, and theologically it made sense – in life I want to clothe myself with this Jesus and carry him into the world. It is not a solo act, but I have a role, a part.

Have we experienced now and then in moments of grace that we are made whole? Yes.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David

The Economy - Stupid?

I took college courses in both micro- and macro- economics. Since then I have read a number of books on economic policy. I pay attention to the debates on economic policy. If I understand one dominant position in current policy debate, the primary obstacle to economic growth and progress is government taxation and regulation. If only we will free up more money for businesses and corporations, they will expand and hire, putting people back to work.

Forgive me for being puzzled, then, when I read this story last week in The Minneapolis Star and Tribune. Medtronic, a Minnesota-based company, earned $924 million for the quarter ending January 28. This represents earnings of 86 cents per share, and compares to earnings of $831 million or 75 cents per share for the same period last year. According to the story, analysts were expecting the company to earn 84 cents per share, so this seems good news. What puzzles me is the other part of the story. Medtronic announced that it will reduce its workforce by 4 to 5 percent or 1,500 to 2,000 positions.

Higher profits and layoffs. That isn’t supposed to be how it works. I know that things are more complicated than the simple models in economic courses or in public policy debates. The story indicated that Medtronic’s earnings were based on lower taxes and that sales had declined in this quarter. Companies need to look to the future and not just to the past. But if the matter is more complicated, then why are we feed the story that all we need to do is free up more money for corporations and they will hire? Why are taxes singled out as the primary reason companies don’t hire? Am I just economically ignorant?

I am not singling out Medtronic for bad behavior. From what I know of the company, it has been a pretty good corporate citizen. What I question is the way our system seems skewed toward increasing profits at the cost of employment. Granted companies need to show profits to exist, is increasing profit the single bottom line to be considered? Last month an article in The Atlantic noted that the top twenty-five hedge fund managers earned, on average, one billion dollars in 2009. This while unemployment remains uncomfortably high.

I yearn for a richer debate on the place of profits in our economic system. I yearn for a richer debate on social policies that will combine to help companies be profitable while providing for the kind of public services and infrastructure that prepare our citizens for productive participation in our economy and a safety net for those on the margins. Simply slashing taxes, without considering more complex issues about profits and public and private good, doesn’t seem to be the prudent way forward, or maybe when it comes to the economy I am just stupid.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David

Books

Last week on Minnesota Public Radio, Kerri Miller hosted a show in which the question was desert island books and music. What one book and what one cd would you take with you to a desert island? I have a difficult time with that question. There are so many books I appreciate. There is so much music that I love. I was listening while driving to the hospital to make a pastoral visit, so I did not have that much time to play with this. In the time I had, I chose Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass and Ken Burn’s Jazz (a bit of stretch of the rules as this is a 5 cd set). I am not sure I would stay with these choices, but I think I could live on a desert island with them.

Today at my church, a church member and friend, Anita Zager, shared with our adult Faith Forum her experiences with books, growing up with them and as the owner of an independent book store which she has just closed. Duluth will miss Northern Lights Books, and Anita’s generous spirit as a book store owner who is also a book lover. Anita reflected on her reasons for getting into the book business and on some of the factors which make independent book stores a challenge at this moment. The emergence of e-books and e-readers is dramatically changing the book business.

As important and meaningful as these reflections were, I particularly enjoyed her sharing her life in reading with us. She offered a more extensive list than a desert island pick, and she gave me permission to share her list here. I offer it to you with gratitude for Anita’s work and love of literature. I offer it to you to spark your own reflections on your life in books.

Anita Zager’s Reading Life
Nancy Drew
Boxcar Children
Biographies
Charles Dickens
Chaim Potok
Classics – Shakespeare, Greek Mythology – High School

Confirmation – Biblical Literacy
College – Old & New Testament Classes
Barclay Bible Study Series taught by Bev Ramstad
Dakota Kathleen Norris
When Bad Things Happen to Good People Harold S. Kushner
Man’s Search for Meaning Victor Frankl
Let Your Life Speak Parker Palmer
Siddartha Herman Hesse
Christianity For the Rest of Us Diana Butler Bass

Sigurd Olson – Singing Wilderness, Listening Point, etc.
Eric Sevareid, Canoeing With the Cree
Grace Lee Nute – Voyageur’s Highway, etc.

The Long Walk – Slavomir Rawicz
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson

To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Sijie Dai
Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials Trilogy”
Harry Potter

Mysteries
Tony Hillerman
British Classics
Scandinavian Noir
Colin Cotterill (Coroner’s Lunch)
William Kent Krueger

Historical Fiction
Patrick O’Brien
Dorothy Dunnett “Lymond Chronicles”

So what’s on your list?

With Faith and With Feathers,

David

Silent as Stone Or?

What to write about? Sometimes ideas pour out so fast it is all you can do to catch up and put them down. Sometimes the muses are as silent as stone. Things have been kind of quiet inside, so I thought I would share a few things I have encountered along the reading way.

Doing the right thing, even out of duty, changes souls.
Charles Foster, The Sacred Journey (56)

Be comforted that the ache in your heart and the confusion in your soul means that you are still alive, still human, and still open to the beauty of the world, even though you have done nothing to deserve it. And when you resent the ache in your heart, remember: You will be dead and buried soon enough.
Paul Harding, Tinkers (72)

A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.
Albert Camus, The Essential Writings (13)

A faith that just accepts is a child’s faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do. Flannery O’ Connor

At first I thought of these as random and desperate, but some pattern emerges for me reading them together like this. Maybe an adult faith is one that understands and feels the complexity of the world, its heartaches and confusions, and yet persists in doing the right thing, in seeking to shape the soul, in searching for those images that open the heart to the beauty of the world.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David

Moments

Moments that help you feel you are where you should be:

Sunday after the worship service in which you gave bows to each of the children to let them know that they are a gift, a little girl, wearing her bow, comes up to give you a hug, her mother telling you that she really wanted to say “hello” to the pastor.

Sunday afternoon you give the welcome at the community ecumenical worship service held at St. Mark AME Church to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. You welcome “all God’s children" using King’s words from his “I Have a Dream Speech.” The next day you are quoted in the newspaper.

Monday morning, you get to welcome people to the MLK Breakfast being held in the social hall of your church.

Thursday night, while helping with the monthly food distribution ministry at your church, you look out the window to see a brilliant and bright full moon shine over an icy Lake Superior. It is beautiful, as is the food ministry.

Friday morning you are listening to The Hold Steady as you drive to a local elementary school to mentor a student.

When you get to his classroom, you can tell your student is glad to see you. He has been waiting to play Yahtzee.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David

Not Alone

This is my first blog of the new year. Kind of slow, I know, but it has been busy. The first full week of 2011, I officiated at two funerals, one for a ninety-seven year old woman and one for an eighty-seven year old woman. There was a lot of life there to celebrate.
On to the topic at hand.
I don’t know when I first encountered the Statement of Faith of The United Church of Canada. In seminary I think. When I did, I appreciated it deeply, and still do. The phrases are succinct and powerful and they really present a statement of faith. The ending lines come to me from time to time. A well of faith bubbling up. The whispering wind of the Spirit. They have been coming back to me in recent days.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.

Like many of you, I was horrified by the violence in Tucson over the weekend. The shooting of a congress woman, the death of a nine year old, a gun in the hands of someone whose thought processes were deranged. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
Over the weekend outside the small town of Cromwell (about 40 miles from Duluth), population about 200, two people were murdered. No suspects are currently in custody. Just the day before our church music director had purchased meat for our staff holiday party from the woman who was killed. The woman worked as a meat cutter at a local meat market. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
I have had a number of challenging pastoral conversations since the new year began – conversations where there has been hurt, anger, sadness, anxiety, concern about change, concern about relationships, concern about surgery. This in addition to the two families grieving. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
God is with us. We are not alone. Perhaps this God with us is whispering encouragement for us to be a kinder, gentler people. Perhaps this God with us is whispering encouragement for us to work together with God to create a kinder, gentler world.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David