From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V12 #262 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Friday, February 1 2013 Volume 12 : Number 262 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [RS] Me again. [Carol Love ] [RS] Emma Hartley, fuzzy Buddhism, & Mertonian Christianity [Pete Jameson] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:51:48 -0500 From: Carol Love Subject: Re: [RS] Me again. On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 7:32 PM, wrote: > >> How about a tribute to the woman who made you listen to Shindell???? << > Lucy Kaplansky? > .............Must I remind you of my badgering on the old Gorka AOL board??!!! :-) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:00:06 -0500 From: Pete Jameson Subject: [RS] Emma Hartley, fuzzy Buddhism, & Mertonian Christianity Vanessa, Bless you for including the interview from the U.K. Emma Harley is a very thoughtful and deft writer. When I lived in New York, Richard lived in Valhalla, a couple towns away from Tarrytown, where we lived. In fact, if you look at the pictures on Reunion Hill, they're taken in and around that area. The Tarrytown lakes make an appearance, too. I had (and may still have) an interview on cassette from wfuv.org (before the .org) in which our boy discussed how his Mom marveled, "What happened to your voice?" after he had spent time at the Buddhist Monastery. Later, when I ran a youth program in Harlem, our primary benefactor noticed I had "Sparrow's Point" and remarked, "He was in a class with me at Union Seminary" on the west side of Manhattan. I've always had odd, coincidental, serendipitous encounters with Richard. My wife laughs about it, because I've managed to horn my way into private sound checks, eaten breakfast with him and his family (coincidentally)at the volunteer tent at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and, most significantly, received his first record in cassette form from a WFUV jock after she heard I had just been canned from my job with the Yankees. I called the station and asked what that song was in which the refrain was "Are You Happy Now?" Turns out, I really was. Working for the Yankees was like Elizabethan drama, Machiavelli, and the Theater of the Absurd rolled into one. But, on to his appreciation of Merton. Today would have been his 98th birthday. I spent the day volunteering at Pittsburgh's Thomas Merton Center, which is enjoying its 40th year in the fight against local and world hunger, exploitation of workers, expanded militarization, and racial discrimination. And, coolest of all, they number atheists, Christians of all stripes, Buddhists, agnostics, and plain old concerned citizens among their numbers. I thought of Richard at tonight's service, a recitation of Merton's "Book of Hours" accompanied by a pianist who wrote 28 pieces to correspond to the unusual literary format in which Merton uses Dawn-Day-Dusk-Dark as the template for the seven days of the week. Quite stirring, as the pianist, Linda Kernohan, somehow managed to match Merton's deep prose with both delicate and powerful compositions. As to Richard being a Buddhist: Those of us who spent a lot of time in Christian worship as young people really never lose those basic tenets, in my opinion. I see this reflected in his work time and again, and I'd be willing to bet that the new record evinces the same. I, too, have dabbled in Buddhism, and I keep D.T. Suzuki's Zen Buddhism in close proximity to my Bible, daily reflections, Dharma Bums, and all sorts of resources that inform my appreciation of God, the Light, and Nature. Perhaps this should have been submitted as a private email. On second thought, I'll quote Merton to better illustrate his ability to distill the essence of "sharing the Light": "Friday Day" -- from "The Book of Hours" Let go of all that seems to suggest getting somewhere, being someone, having a name and a voice, following a policy and directing people in "my" ways, What matters is to love. "Love and Only Love" -- Neil Young Peter in PA ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V12 #262 ************************************