Patriotism = Voting

SHOW YOUR PATRIOTISM

YOUR VOTE WILL SHOW MORE BRILLIANT COLOR AND A LOUDER SOUND THAN ALL THE FIREWORKS IN THE WORLD.

Interruptions

Henri Nouwen, in his book "Reaching Out," says: "I met an older experienced professor who had spent most of his life there (University of Notre Dame). And while we strolled over the beautiful campus, he said with a certain melancholy in his voice, 'You know....my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.'" (Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out, Garden City., N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 36)

Father's Day

My heart leaps up when I behold
   A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;    
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
   Or let me die!                         
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

 

“The child is father to the man.”
How can he be? The words are wild.
Suck any sense from that who can,
“The child is father to the man.”
No; what the poet did write ran,
“The man is father to the child.”
“The child is father to the man!”
How can he be? The words are wild!
 
Gerald Manley Hopkins (1884-1889)

Remembrance - Memorial Day 2012

Remembering Memorial Day 2012 needs to be a call to action.  First, to make every effort to beat our swords into plowshares.  The call for peace in a moment like this is not a call to idealism but a call to a reality so desperately needed around our globe.  Second, there can be few better ways to remember those who have served their countries than through action.  Every community in America and around the world needs a program such as Swords to Plowshares. http://www.swords-to-plowshares.org/  Help those who have given so much.

Worshiping in the Ancient World

FREE AND ALL ARE WELCOME

Presentation and  discussion

Holocaust Remembrance Day 2012

Yom HaShoah  2012
Temple Emanu-El Waterford, CT

Some things resist our words, especially on an occasion like this Remembrance Day 2012. I find that I am at a loss for words.  I search for the words but they seem so trite, so incomplete.  I have even begun to think that words escape us most at the moments of greatest joy and the times of unbearable pain.

Of course the Psalms (tehillim) set a good example for us.  The tehillim remind us that we must not remain silent even at the moment when we have sensed a loss of words.  The tehillim are bold and sometimes audacious.  The tehillim transform everyday experiences so that we can more adequately express the greatest joys and deepest sorrows of our lives. When it comes to speaking on the occasion for which we are gathered here this evening words often inadequately express the grief so many have experienced at the hands of other humans. 

Those of you who have experienced directly the horrors of the Holocaust may have even greater anguish, if not anger, that sometimes seems inexpressible.  Yet listen to the words of Holocaust Survivor Estelle Laughlin.  It is “… not enough to curse the darkness of the past. Above all, we have to illuminate the future. And I think that on the Day of Remembrance the most important thing is to remember the humanity that is in all of us to leave the world better for our children and for posterity.”  Estelle’s words shatter any hesitancy we have to express our deepest thoughts.

Those of us who come here this evening because we are the indirect, if not direct, descendants of those who have perpetuated the atrocities often stand dumbfounded and at a loss for words.   Fortunately some of Christians did not remain silent but acted as did Irena Sendler, recipient of the Righteous Among the Nations medal in 1965. It is this resistance to words that brings us together for this occasion of remembrance.  We must be reminded that despite the Holocaust we continue to see what happened in Bosnia, what happened in Rwanda, what happened in Darfur. There are still millions of people being killed.

We must this evening remember that indeed we do have each other and that presence should give voice to all our efforts to resist anything that would ever again tear us apart.  As Jews and Christians we have at least one library of books that reminds us of a common bond that we can never let be torn asunder.  That is the Hebrew Scriptures.  They hold together the common words expressed over time that we ponder, pray and perplex over together again and again. 

And this year as the theme of rescue focuses our attention we must remember the words of our common book, the Torah.  The ones I am thinking of have just been spoken at the Passover Seder with the four cups of wine, “I will free you….; I will redeem you….; I will take you….; I will bring you…..”  This is our hope.  So as Holocaust survivor Estelle Laughlin, says, “Memory is what shapes us. Memory is what teaches us. We must understand that’s where our redemption is.”  And I say we must not resist words and remain silent.

Mystic, CT - Signs of the Times

I really liked the old sign identifying Mystic that you see in this blog.  I assume that the first sign one sees coming off of I-95 that has been taken down will be replaced by the style of the new sign at the train station.  I have no objection to the new sign.  I also do not think that the citizens of Mystic need to hold an election to express our opinions and decide the way the sign should look.  That would be a fine New England custom.  However, the power of graphic representations is widely acknowledged.  What does our town and the institutions in it symbolize to ourselves as well as to outsiders?  At the same time I asked this question I have wondered how the change in population since 1990 might affect our answer to the question.  1990 - 2,618; 2000 - 4,001; and 2010 - 4,205  Population change is only one of the factors that causes shifts in our perceptions of ourselves as well as the way people perceive us.