Month: August 2023

It is Wednesday, June 11, 2008, Charles Gibson of ABC News is reporting on a story where children who are cancer patients at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City were celebrating Prom Night. ABC asked its listening, viewing audience to send, “Messages of Hope for Cancer Prom-Goers.”

“We asked “World News” viewers to pass along their messages of hope to young cancer patients who just attended a prom. We’ve passed along your messages to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and we’ve posted some of your responses below.”

“Jeff from Bradenton, Fla., wrote: ‘Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass—it’s about learning how to dance in the rain. Dance away’……Signed Jeff (Stage IV Lymphoma).”

Dr. Sharon McLaughlin from Wantagh, N.Y., wrote: ‘I loved your smiles on World News. This is a difficult time in your life. When I was 13 I was treated at Sloan-Kettering. I loved the playroom and the beautiful views of the city. I didn’t like losing my hair and the time spent away from my friends. My advice would be to live, love, laugh and fight. You will become a stronger person and have an understanding of life that some people do not learn in a lifetime. Best of wishes and only happy thoughts.’ Sharon T Mclaughlin MD FACS.”

I copied two of the messages and would share the with you because they are not just for the intended young people they are applicable to all of us.

Life is not waiting for the storm to pass—it’s about learning to dance in the rain. Dancing is better than crying.

We all have difficult times. Our times may not be as difficult as the patients face in Sloan Kettering. Sharon McLaughlin’s advice is just as vital for each of us. It is to live, to love, to laugh, and to fight for the right.

Thoughts from here and there….Have you arrived?

Jan Salisbury was a psychotherapist and organizational consultant. In a presentation to the Washington State Attorney General’s State Conference in September, 1986, she read to her listeners the following:

I Have Arrived.
I have not seen the plays in town
only the computer printouts
I have not read the latest books
only The Wall Street Journal
I have not heard birds sing this year
only the ringing of phones
I have not taken a walk anywhere
but from the parking lot to my office
I have not shared a feeling in years
but my thoughts are known to all
I have not listened to my own needs
but what I want I get
I have not shed a tear in ages
I have arrived.
Is this where I was going?

Is this where I was going? This is a question that very pointedly addresses the stresses and strains of modern life. Is this where I was going? Is also revealing because of what is not mentioned.

There is a remedy. Why not include attendance at worship. Worship exposes us, in a more intense way, to the presence of God. Worship is an expression of our faith in God. Worship gives you the opportunity to raise your voice in singing the great songs of the past and the present. Songs of praise as well as songs of penitence.

Worship provides you with the opportunity to share in laughter and sometimes in tears. Worship connects us with friend and would-be friends. Worship can soothe the troubled mind and bring relief to the anxious spirit.

Is this where I was going? There is a remedy. It is simple. It is worthwhile.

We are all part of the community of faith. We are all a part of God’s family. We cannot be part of something and live apart from it. We recognize that the community is not perfect. Sometimes imperfection is called hypocrisy; it is not. This conclusion is used to rationalize a view that a Christian does not need to be a part of the community for one can find God in nature, but what kind of nature?

Frederick Buechner reminds us of the limitations of this view. “Unfortunately, Adam and Eve took nature with them when they fell. You’ve only to look at the sea in a November gale. You’ve only to consider the staggering indifference of disease, or the field at Anthidium, or a cook boiling a lobster, or the statistics on child abuse. You’ve only to remember your own darkest dreams.”

In contrast, Dr. Andrew Weil, points out that being a Christian means accepting life in a community of faith. There are not only spiritual benefits, but psychological ones as well. “Human beings are highly social, communal animals. We are meant to live in families, tribes and communities, and when we lack those connections, we suffer. Yet many people pride themselves on their independence and habitually distance themselves from others. Some may indulge in isolation as a defensive strategy — possibly developed in reaction to painful emotional experiences. Others may never have learned how to connect meaningfully to anyone or anything beyond themselves.”

We can learn to connect meaningfully. It is a risk that is taken because the results are far more valuable than what may be had in the moment. Consider this, Can one be a Christian without a community? The answer is obvious.

Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark: An ABC Theologized (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 85.

Andrew Weil, M.D., “Connectedness Is Vital to Your Well-Being,” Going Bonkers?, December 1997.

Tyops

Typos are mistakes in a publication. Typos may be misspellings. Typos may be an inappropriate word, like using scents for cents. Tpoys is the one thing in this modern age that is neither discovered by spelling or grammar checkers. No matter how hard to you try to get rid of them, they appear at the worst possible time and in the most embarrassing places.

In a M.E.M.O. column, Martin Marty who wrote for the Christian Century, can do a whole column on tsypo that are humorous and gain a laugh or two. Here are a few samples. Some of them are subtle, so read carefully.

“Surly the Presence of the Lord’ by: Chamber Choir.” “Leader: The Living God sends us froth to serve…” “Solo: ‘The Solid Rock/’Tis so Sweet to Rust in Jesus.'” “Births: Stewart and Amy had a baby girl on August 7 in Wisconsin. Material grandmother is Mary.” “A new church member was introduced: ‘In her free time she volunteers as a candy stripper.'” “A trustees report of a church in Connecticut: ‘The eves of the education wing need repair.'” How about one more. “A Lutheran Church announcement: ‘The Associated Ministries will hose Dr. Liebenow in an informal “Coffee and Conversation.”‘” Well, you get the point.

Typos cannot be hidden. They are right out there in front where everyone can see them. You cannot escape the comments that come as a result of your mistake. I mean, you proofread and proofread and still typos rear their ugly heads. It’s as if they were just laying in wait to catch the unsuspecting writer, and/or, editor.

I suppose that you know that the typo is a metaphor for part of our lives. How many times have you spoken when you ought to have remained silent, or vice versa? How many times have you tried to extend to someone a compliment and it came our a complaint. How many times have you told a person that you were a Congregationalist and they understood Congressionalist? We are all too human. We make mistakes. Some of our mistakes we can keep hidden from people so that we do not have to take the heat from them, but at other times there is no way of escape. The copy book is blotted for all the world, or at least as much of the world that we inhabit, to see.

Ah! Well! You cannot hide from typos. Typos are a part of life. I know only one way to handle typos and that is to smile and keep right on going, no matter how silly or how embarrassing they may be. And, I have been guilty of some of the most silly and the most embarrassing. Apologize for the typos that are offensive. Laugh with the ones that are the most silly. Correct the ones that are the most important. Learn from experience and try very hard not to do it again. But you know that it is going to happen. When you least anticipate or expect it, someone will find a typo.

(Martin Marty, “M.E.M.O., Froth and Spray,” The Christian Century, Vol. 113 No. 17 (May 15, 1996), 531.