Consider the Birds...and Count 'Em!

 

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26

This -20 degree Celsius morning I opened the door to our home and heard birds. First of all a blue jay, followed by a cardinal, then a supporting chorus of others including the hardy chickadees. Chickadees are tiny miracles of nature, able to survive the coldest temperatures and whose brains grow during the harsher months to help cope with the demanding work of staying fed. I am certain my brain shrinks during the colder, darker days of winter.

I may make a report today of the feathered friends who have appeared at our feeders over the weekend. This is the GBBC weekend, don't you know? http://gbbc.birdcount.org/ We are all invited to submit our backyard sightings, and we are fortunate to have eight or so species who comes to our feeders through the winter. The count is an attempt to identify species in a time of troubling declines of virtually all the species which were once common. The loss of habitat, north and south, the expansion of human populations, and the use of chemicals in agriculture and on lawns all contribute to the decline.

I am reading a book at the moment (by fits and starts) called Consider the Birds by Debbie Blue. In these ten essays she ponders different birds of the bible and offers a theological reflection. I like what she has to say about watching birds:

"I'm convinced that there is something about the sort of consciousness necessary for birding that is very much like the practice of faith. It comes and it goes. It requires waiting. You must use both your body and mind. Attention is paramount."

Are you encouraged to get in touch with your inner "bird nerd" and do an inventory of your neighbourhood? Do any of you have feeders? Have you ever thought about the number of birds named in scripture?

Sunday of Family Day Weekend

Ontario now has a Family Day in February, following the lead of other provinces across the country. For several of those provinces it was last Monday, but the three-day-weekend is this one in Ontario. Since its institution I've notice that this means a drop in church attendance with the young family demographic! Long weekends are like that in many congregations still fortunate enough to have growing families. With all the pressures of daily life it is good to get away, sometimes to visit with extended family.

This weekend one of my wife Ruth's sisters is with us. Ruth has ten siblings: four from her biological family, five from the blended family, and her half-sister Mary. One of the step-sisters was her best friend before they became siblings. We also have the youngest of our three children, Emily, with us, along with her partner Patty. They will soon be moving to Toronto from Kingston where he will begin a job with Toronto Hydro.

They will be in worship with our relatively new extended family of the Bridge St. congregation. And I received an email this weekend from a family in my former St. Paul's congregation wondering if I would be leading the service here. I may see them this morning.

More and more we are aware that families take different shapes and sizes and we can't assume that the template of another era will be imposed on family life. That applies to congregations as well, which once anticipated that a family would be mom and dad and a couple of kids. It seems that that the churches which are doing well figure out a way to uphold and encourage life together with God at the core, but with enough flexibility and Christian grace to make it all work.

I hope that this is a restorative and enjoyable Family Day weekend for all of you. And remember that our "family" extends to all of creation. This is the Backyard Bird Count weekend, so keep an eye out for your avian relatives!

Any thoughts about the changing face of the family, including in the Christian community?

Yes to Christ

                                                                                                                     John Cuneo

There is a long and thoughtful piece by Adam Gopnik in a recent issue of the New Yorker magazine about the rise of the atheist and the decline in belief in God.  It begins:

In Tom Stoppard’s 1970 play “Jumpers,” the philosopher hero broods unhappily on the inexorable rise of the atheist: “The tide is running his way, and it is a tide which has turned only once in human history. . . . There is presumably a calendar date—a moment—when the onus of proof passed from the atheist to the believer, when, quite suddenly, the noes had it.”

I had never really thought about whether there was a time when Christians were on the defensive, feeling that they had to answer for their belief in God. Gopnik rightly points out that in large parts of the world this is not an issue, but it certainly is in Western nations. I suppose I named this in a recent sermon where I picked up on the epistle reading from 1st Corinthians where Paul speaks of the "foolishness" of the incarnation and the cross. If anything Christians have an added challenge because we hold the belief that God became human, although a fair number of Western Christians would prefer Jesus to be a sage rather than one aspect of the Trinity.

Gopnik uses the term "contemptuous tone" to describe the so-called New Atheists, including their champions including Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens, as well as others. They are so aggressive and polemical there isn't much room for dialogue.

Atheism is hardly new. As an undergrad nearly 40 years ago I had conversations with other students who were keen to challenge my Christian faith. Since then I have been sneered at, dismissed, pitied, and vilified more times than I care to recall, because clergy are a lightning rod for contempt. I should say that this all happens in a rather Canadian way, without any wild stuff.

For all this I carry on as a person of faith, with my doubts and disappointments, stubbornly persistent in my convictions and -dare I say it?-- experience of God-with-us. I'm with Paul. I like Christianity best because it is so wildly improbable from Bethlehem stable start to Jerusalem cemetery finish. I stand with Mary at the tomb and weep, only to be surprised once more by the resurrected Jesus the gardener of our soul.

How are you doing when it comes to your faith?  Has it strengthened or waned over the years? Does it actually make a difference?





 

Choosing Life

As regular readers will know, I lamented the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman last week. He was marvelous in so many roles and his loss was huge on so many levels, including as a parent. I didn't say what I was thinking at the time, that I found it unsettling that he died of a heroin overdose at the time he was to be meeting those children in a nearby park. Had he intended to be with them under the influence of drugs?

Enter journalist Margaret Wente, a Globe and Mail newspaper writer who makes a living from being a contrarian. While she too was saddened by the news, her husband exclaimed "sphincter!" Actually he used another, cruder compound word, but you get the picture.

Wente goes on to describe Hoffman's drug problem as a habit rather than an addiction, and to explore whether we essentially let these folk in our society off the hook when it comes to responsibility for their actions. We have decided that they have diseases, although we know that addictions are not like pancreatic cancer or heart disease. In her words:

Treatment programs are important, and we need more. But stigma has its uses, too. It helps to curb behaviours that are destructive to families and society. We’re happy to stigmatize littering, smoking and failure to recycle. And it works. We expect cigarette smokers to kick their disgusting, unhealthy, anti-social habit, and think less of them if they don’t. So why are we so forgiving when it comes to heroin, which, according to some experts is no more addictive than tobacco?

Mr. Hoffman’s death was no freak accident. He worked hard to kill himself. By the end, he was ingesting stunning quantities of drugs. Yet he was an unusually privileged addict, with resources, people who loved him and access to the best help money could buy. But he decided he needed the drugs more than he needed to save himself. And sometimes no intervention and no amount of tolerance and understanding can save someone like that.

Predictably the responses to her column were in the hundreds and most I read criticized her for a lack of compassion and living in another much darker era. I hasten to say that her approach does seem cruel and ultimately helpful to me. At the same time I have always wondered what to do and say as I have walked with those living with addictions of varying kinds. Has the pendulum swung too far in the other direction from the punitive, shunning attitudes of another day, often driven by judgmental religious types? The old approach sure didn't seem to produce positive outcomes, but honestly, the disease model can seem like a hiding place rather than a solution. How do we encourage people into taking active responsibility for their lives?

One of the readings for this week is from Deuteronomy, chapter 30: "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. t I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live..."       Deuteronomy 30

I have been so impressed through the years by those who have chosen the way of life despite seemingly insurmountable odds, and by the grace of God.

I am thinking out loud on this one, not offering an opinion or alternative. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Self-Giving at the Olympics

The current incarnation of the Olympics, all Olympics, whether summer or winter make me queasy. Even in the recent past they were a celebration of excellence in sport; higher, faster, stronger. Now they are a gross nationalist spectacle, often a showpiece for the bloated egos of leaders in the host nation. The world turned a blind eye to the history of human rights violations in Beijing, and in Sochi the controversy over Russia's oppressive homophobic laws has tainted the games, not to mention the 50 billion dollar price tag. Already there are stories out of Brazil about poor neighbourhoods being razed for venues and the high costs in a country where so many struggle to get by.

I won't go too far because I'm married to an enthusiastic Olympic Games fan, and as always its exciting to see our athletes, so young and committed, striving to achieve what may seem impossible for virtually all of us. After watching our slopestyle skiers I have decided to give up the sport.

And then there are the stories which almost transcend the athletic accomplishments. A Canadian coach, Justin Wadsworth, who is actually an American, charges down a hill with a spare cross-country ski for a Russian competitor whose own ski is in tatters. It allows the Russkie to finish the race with dignity. Heart-warming.

Again we saw Alex Bilodeau winning gold and sharing the moment with his developmentally challenged brother Frederic.

What about Canadian speed-skater Gilmore Junio who gives up the grand public stage of the 10,000 metre race so that a teammate who had a chance to medal could compete -- and did in fact win a silver?

All high-level athletes are different from the rest of us in terms of endless hours of repetitive training, of deferring other goals, and relinquishing a regular social life. But they have the prospect of glory, even if it just to compete on the world's biggest stage. These stories of generosity and self-sacrifice touch us in a different way, it seems to me. There is a gospel feel to them, at least from my perspective as a "gospel guy." Whoever wants to find his life must lose it, Jesus said, and we get glimpses of this in these moments.

Have your hearts been warmed by these stories? Do you find them to be just as important as medal counts? Do you wish you were related to these individuals?

The David Strategy

I saw Malcom Gladwell’s David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants at the library recently and decided to give it a go. Gladwell is a Canadian who has developed global popularity with books such as Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point.

David and Goliath follows in a similar vein as Gladwell looks at the biblical story of the shepherd lad David, who manages to defeat the over-sized Philistine champion Goliath. Gladwell offers that “[Goliath’s] size was also the source of his greatest weakness…the powerful and the strong are not always what they seem.”  David was able to use the apparent inferiority of his size and weaponry to his advantage. Gladwell's "take" on Goliath is that despite his size he was a sick man, afflicted with an illness which compromised his sight and mobility.

Gladwell suggests that there are many examples of the David's of this world prevailing, and then he offers them. As I read the book it struck me that mainline denominations such as the United Church and many of its congregations are at the “tipping point” of their life cycles. We are trying to figure out whether we are able to shift from being the ponderous, myopic Goliaths of our Canadian society to becoming more nimble, more able to respond to the challenges of today’s culture wars in which religion is far less prominent. 

Recently we have been  invited to look at a couple of documents which have issued from the Comprehensive Review of the United Church, a process which invited congregations and individuals to comment on the changing nature of our denomination and offer thoughts on where we might go next. Will this review make a difference? Just having the conversation is an important starting point to move beyond both denial and despair.

We are people of faith after all, and the story of David and Goliath is a metaphor of faith, not just a tale of military strategy.

Do you have hope that our denomination will become more responsive, more nimble in the days before us? Is it possible for a church Goliath to become David-like, or will we simply have to die on the battlefield and give way to some other expression of Christ, who is "of the house and lineage of David?"

 

Her and the Nature of Love

Love is patient; love is kind;
love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13

We went to see the film Her on Saturday evening. Two movies in one week is definitely "when it rains it pours" for us. I really liked it, Ruth didn't. Daughter Emily saw it not long ago and loved it, friends didn't enjoy it. In other words, mixed reviews.

I was fascinated by this story of a regular guy living in the not-too-distant-future which looks a lot like today but with technological advancements which are currently just beyond our reach. Theodore Twombly (how is that for a nerdy name) has gone through a painful separation and is reluctant to finalize the divorce his wife wants. His friends are concerned that he has moved into a place of sadness which is changing his character and he wonders whether he can ever be happy again. Dating doesn't work, but then he purchases a new and innovative OS (operating system) which is essentially an online, intuitive personal assistant. This virtual assistant, Samantha, is so intuitive that Theodore develops a relationship with "her", and eventually falls in love, and she with him. It's interesting that the invisible Samantha is the voice of the lovely Scarlett Johansen. Does that make a difference to the way we imagine this computer-generated "person?"

This relationship becomes the perfect, joyous antidote to disappointing human relationships, and Theodore is eventually able to share the news of his love with others, who take it rather well, except for his ex! I will be careful about blabbing too much about the outcome here, but in the end we are invited to ask how loving relationships are created, and whether we can ever "program" the ideal union.

When I help couples prepare for weddings I yearn for alternatives to the scripture passage above, as powerful as it is. The apostle Paul didn't write it as some lofty template for the ideal marriage, but that is the way it is often perceived. We all must develop and nurture relationships in the real rather than the virtual world with that the risks and disappointments and joys that entails. And God will be with us as we do.

Have you seen Her? Are you intrigued? As Valentine Day approaches, how are your perfect human relationships going?

A Love Story

Wednesday was a miserable enough day to have an early evening meeting cancelled but by seven the snow had stopped and we drove downtown in Belleville to see the Quebec film, Gabrielle. It touched both of us for a number of reasons. It is a story of love between two developmentally challenged young adults, Gabrielle and Martin, who sing in the same choir. It is also about how the love of singing has a transformative power. And it is about the fierce love between siblings, Gabrielle and her sister Sophie. When Gabrielle and Martin are separated because of an overprotective mother then pine for one another, the way any love-struck couple might.

While we lived in Halifax my wife Ruth worked in a group home for developmentally challenged adults for several years, as did our son Isaac. They enjoyed the residents, as quirky and demanding as they could be at times. They were persons, with likes and dislikes, and yes they wanted to be loved and to be in love.

I connected with these folk as well, going on one occasion to inform them of the death of one co-residents who died of a heart attack. This was very emotional.  Two of them, Ian and George, attended the church I served. Ian looked and dressed like a dignified university professor, which was the former profession of his aged father. Ian had the mind of a six-year-old though, and it was painful for him not to be able to go to Sunday School or associate with "kids his age." George had a girlfriend and he came to me to talk about getting married. As with the young adults in the film, George wanted to be like other people, and while group homes support relationships, including sexual relationships, issues such as marriage are much more complex. In the end she spurned him for another and he was heartbroken.

Gabrielle was such a good reminder that developmentally challenged adults have spiritual needs, relational hopes, sexual desires. We need to be aware of this as a culture and respectful at the same time. As Christians we say that God loves everyone, and so we can be specific about what that means in terms of welcome and support. Tom is an example at Bridge St. UC. He is part of the family and he knows it!

Comments?

The Great Creation Debate

Bill Nye the Science Guy is well known to many because of his bow-tied explanations of science from a number of different platforms including television series' and books for children. Ya gotta like Bill for his work popularizing science.

Nye was involved in a much ballyhooed debate recently with Ken Ham whose name may not be so familiar, but is a big cheese when it comes to "young earth" creationism and has developed a Creation Museum in Kentucky. http://creationmuseum.org/
 Ham believes that our planet is only a few thousand years old and evolution can't be true because the bible tells him so, and because God made it. Nye was, not surprisingly, the science guy in this debate and from all accounts made an omelette of Ham's arguments. Sorry, I just can't stop myself. http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bill-nye-debates-creation-museum-s-ken-ham-on-evolution-earth-s-origin-1.2523756#video

Now, I am a creation guy myself, as many of you know. I worship God the Creator, without reservation. But along with the Roman Catholic church, the Orthodox church, and much of Protestantism, I don't see evolution as a scientific theory and creation as a conviction of faith to be  contradictory. Nye was actually quite respectful of religions in the debate, he's just convinced that the bible isn't, nor was ever intended to be a science text book:

"I just want to remind us all there are billions of people in the world who are deeply religious, who get enriched by the wonderful sense of community by their religion," said Nye, who wore his trademark bow tie. "But these same people do not embrace the extraordinary view that the Earth is somehow only 6,000 years old."

To that I say "Amen."

You might think that this matters to a handful of religious right-wingers in the States. Some have suggested that Nye lost the debate whatever he actually said by dignifying the event with his presence. Yet polls show that an incredible percentage of people in the US don't subscribe to the evolutionary theory because of their religious convictions. I know that in my former ministerial I was outnumbered amongst colleagues in terms of reconciling evolution and creation.

Were you aware of this debate? Are you intrigued by it? How have you worked through the challenges of creation and evolution as a person of faith? Have you ever worn a bowtie?

Whose Authority?

A United Nations review of the Roman Catholic church's response to the abuse of children by priests and other clerics has been scathing. It essentially says that the church has failed miserably in its moral and ethical duty to protect children, and who could argue. The Vatican agrees that it has a dark past in this regard, although it also makes the case that both policy and practice have changed significantly in recent years. I was not impressed to hear this morning that the Vatican kept no record or registry of child abuses until 2001. This has to be considered blatant ignorance of an evident cancer in the body of Christ. It remains to be seen how the RC hierarchy responds under the leadership of Pope Francis.

We should also pay attention to the fact that the UN team veered off topic in this report and called on the Roman Catholic church to change its doctrine on abortion and homosexuality and other issues. I happen to agree with their outlook, but we should ask why the United Nations feels that it has carte blanche to call on religious communities to change doctrine. Sexual abuse has never been doctrinally supported by the church, and it is recognized as an evil despite the woeful history of tacitly condoning it. But there are theological rationales for the other issues named, even if denominations such as ours may not support them.

I get a little uneasy when secular bodies make blanket statements about the doctrine and practices of religious bodies. Where does that end? What does freedom of religion mean? Those secular organizations are made up of human beings themselves. Why does their supposed wisdom trump the wisdom of the religious group? "Who died and made you pope?" as the sarcastic expression goes.

 It's odd, because Protestants balk at what we perceive as the authoritarian and hierarchical approach of the papacy. But do we simply turn to some other body as the authority without knowing what orients its moral compass?

Is this a little heavy for a Thursday morning? What do you think? C'mon, weigh in!

R.I.P the Consummate Actor

We were driving back from Oshawa late Sunday afternoon, when I heard the news about the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman's death. It really stunned me in every regard, his age, the overdose, that he had planned to meet his kids for some time together. Of course there was also the loss of one of the great actors of his time. He didn't have movie star looks but no one could enter a role the way Hoffman could.

Playing Truman Capote in Capote was a remarkable, almost magical slight of hand, given that Hoffman was so much bigger a man. I don't think I ever saw him in a movie where I didn't think he was great, including Mission Impossible 77, or whatever number it was. He was great in A Late Quartet as well, a little film with a lot of fine acting.

There were two juicy, although very different roles as religious types as well. As the priest, Father Flynn, in Doubt he embodied ambiguity not only for this particular cleric but as a symbol of the priesthood in a changing culture. I remember a spirited conversation with wife Ruth as we drove home about what actually happened with Father Dodd

Then there was Lancaster Dodd, the thinly disguised L. Ron Hubbard in The Master. He managed to create a wonderfully overblown and yet insecure messiah figure. Even though it wasn't a biography it gave us a sense of what can go wrong with a charismatic and mesmerizing personality.

Movies can serve as parables for all that really matters in life, including spirituality and religion. Philip Seymour Hoffman seemed to be the consummate guide into life's complexity and he will be missed.

Have you enjoyed Hoffman's work through the years? Do you have favourite films? Did you see Doubt and The Master, and what did you think?

Cancer Day. Hope Day?

I have noted before that I couldn't possibly keep up with all the national and international "Day of" and Day for" occasions in this blog. There may be an International Day of No Subject in Particular, although its likely that all 365 in the year are taken, and then some.

This is World Cancer Day, a day that I obviously prefer did not have to exist. The theme this year is the myths of cancer, some of which are illustrated above. I fervently wish that this disease in all its forms had long ago been eradicated, and that all the wonderful people in my various pastorates hadn't had to contend with cancer's awful toll on their lives and of those around them. This year the theme is "debunking myths" which makes sense. http://www.worldcancerday.org/

Everyone in pastoral ministry has been a companion alongside those with cancer. Some of our folk have lived far longer than their prognoses, while others have gone quickly. More importantly from my standpoint is that many have been treated and recovered. Some have gone into remission for years, while others have been given the "all clear." During 30-plus years of ministry some cancers which were automatic death sentences have become treatable. Both chemotherapy and radiation have become more sophisticated, so they provide a viable treatment option that doesn't always seem worse than the disease itself. Detection seems to have become much better as well, which makes a difference to longevity. This is the hopeful aspect of this day.

But I do think of so many individuals I have respected and loved who died because of cancer, and it is sobering. We have also been told this week that the incidence of cancer is about to increase rather than diminish, which is an ominous prospect.

Today I pray for members of this congregation who are contending with cancer. There a number of them. I pray for a sister-in-law who will soon begin another round of treatment after hoping that she would be given a respite of a few more months, or even years, before that possibility. I pray for all the family members and friends of those living with cancer, because they live with it too. I pray for researchers and fund-raisers and lab technicians and palliative care staff.

God give them courage and stamina and a sense of your abiding presence.

Comments? What are your prayers today? Have you dealt with cancer on a personal level?

The Devil in the Details

And the report of Jesus went forth into all Syria:
and they brought to him all that were sick,
with various diseases, those suffering severe pain,
possessed with demons,
epileptics, and paralytics, and Jesus cured them Matthew 4:24.

Stories like this one always pique my curiosity, even though I consider myself a rational, 21st century person. It's about a woman in the States who claims she is possessed by demons and the people in authority who aren't sure what to make of what they have witnessed.

A US police captain says he believed a story about a woman who claimed her children were possessed by demons. Latoya Ammons, from Indiana, said her three children walked up walls, levitated and spoke in voices. Official reports filed in 2012 backed up her claims, with psychologists stating that they saw the nine-year-old child speak in "different deep voices" and walk "up the wall backwards". "He flipped over and landed on his feet," they added.

Gary Police Captain Charles Austin, who has more than 35 years of experience, said he had been convinced by the story. According to a local newspaper he described himself as a "believer" after visiting the house and interviewing Ms Ammons and her family. Official Indiana state documents detail more events, apparently witnessed by medical experts and those outside the family. Medical staff reported they observed the children and heard the seven-year-old making growling noises and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

It is interesting that in our scientific era, highly skeptical of strange notions such as demon possession, there is a steady stream of scare-the-bejabbers-out-of-you films which feature just this sort of possession. I remember as a teen my father passing on the best-selling novel The Exorcist, before it had become a movie. I was 17 at the time and it terrified me! The novel and film are based on a real-life incident, complete with Roman Catholic exorcist. There are still RC exorcists, bye the way.

In liberal churches we interpret the healing stories of Jesus where folk are cured of demons as actually being accounts where he addresses mental illness, but is this what is going on?

All total nonsense? Strange, yes, but explainable? Is there such a thing as possession and evil personified?

Blood Religion

You know Lawrence Hill. He wrote the remarkable novel The Book of Negroes, an international bestseller. I have read other Hill fiction and have now delved into his volume of Massey Lectures entitled Blood: The Stuff of Life.

Hill admits to his lifelong obsession with blood, and begins with anecdotes of accidental blood-letting from his childhood. Blood keeps us alive and can betray us. Blood samples can warn us of disease and "out" us if we're cheating.

He also observes that "blood speaks to our deepest notions of truth and sanctity" Blood has been a powerful symbol in rituals of purification and in religions, including Judaism Christianity.

Many Christians have grown squeamish about blood, even though Jesus speaks of it at the Last Supper and it is unavoidable if we look to the cross. It seems scandalous in a time when we don't have to think too much about blood, even when we're meat-eaters. Someone, somewhere takes care of the blood-letting for us.

It's all worth pondering today when the scripture passage from 1 Corinthians addresses the scandal, the foolishness of the cross. Hey, if Lawrence Hill can deliver public lectures and publish a book about blood, can't we have the conversation within our congregations?

Have any of you taken a look at Hill's Blood? Are you okay with the cross and shed blood being such a central aspect of our Christian faith? How do we talk about it in a meaningful way?

We Shall Overcome

I have been reluctant to blog about Pete Seeger's death at the age of 94, despite his powerful influence on folk music as a call to social justice. Seeger wasn't a Christian and he wasn't sure he believed in God. What might I write then, since I try to have a faith focus of some kind in every blog entry? Besides, the man played the banjo!

 

He was an extraordinary person, and, yes, a prophet as well as a bard. He "spoke truth to power" to employ an over-used phrase, challenging those who lay claim to privilege until the end of his long life. He hung out with the Occupy Wall St. crowd when he was in his nineties and led them in singing "We Shall Overcome." By my reckoning it was nearly 65 years after Seeger adapted the song from an old hymn "If My Jesus Wills", and decades after it became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement. The man is deservedly a legend.

 

Andrew Revkin reminded us in his New York Times blog that Seeger also cared for the plight of the planet, not just people. He invites us to consider “'To My Old Brown Earth,' a song he wrote in 1958 that I consider one of his masterpieces — as simple and scintillating as a finely cut gem:"

 

To my old brown earth
And to my old blue sky
I’ll now give these last few molecules of “I.”

And you who sing,
And you who stand nearby,
I do charge you not to cry.

Guard well our human chain,
Watch well you keep it strong,
As long as sun will shine.

And this our home,
Keep pure and sweet and green,
For now I’m yours
And you are also mine.

 This Paul Halley arrangement is lovely, and this choir is in a church. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LybxPjj0sbg#t=15

Any Pete Seeger thoughts, dear readers? Any banjo pickers I have offended?