"Missing anything?" - Blogging helps

You may have got the following story via email. I think it is doing the rounds.

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.


4 minutes later:

the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk..

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:


A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.


45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.


1 hour:


He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.


No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

A great reminder isn't it?

I have been blogging for over a year now. It is a bit like an on line journal. But I have found that as I reflect on life to do a post I pick up things of beauty, kindnesses and affirmations in the midst of my life and taste them again. A good reason to blog.

Or you may want to just keep a journal, stop and reflect on your day or, as the old hymn suggests, "Count your blessings". Who ever thought blogging could be a spiritual exercise?

Monday burblings

It is Monday and I have had a day off ministry. I normally burble on Sunday evening but we were out for dinner.

Highlights from last week.

People sharing... On Wednesday we had the final of a "Healing Grief" series of three. It was a good evening and we felt sorry to break up. We had met for three weeks and shared some of our stories. I appreciated the way people shared. Some people have had a lot of "grief" in their life and yet stay positive. I decided that although my "griefs" are real, and need to be recognised, I have lived a relatively charmed life.

Giving Blood.... In spite of my age and the meds I am on the Blood Bank still want my blood. I try to be "cool" about this process but it does get at me these days. I have to fill out questions about where I have been, if I have had sex with a certain range of people and what medications I am on. They always take my blood pressure these days, "Because of your age." They ask questions like, "Did you handle you last donation OK?" like you are a feeble old man. This time the nurse didn't quite get the flow going from the vein in my right arm, so decided to try again in my left. So I came out with two patches and starting to feel a bit like a leper, having been scrutinised so carefully. 

Morning Soccer with "excluded people" was again a real privilege. Great fun to see the delight when people score a goal and great friendship. I was a bit stiff. 

Firefighters' Strike ... My firefighters are renegotiating their contract. In the process they feel that what is on offer from the fireservice is not acceptable and indeed a backing off on what had been promised or suggested. They had a low level strike action going with periodic refusals to do computer work, but I learned on Friday it has been stepped up. When I began in chaplaincy I walked into a long and bitter industrial battle at the firestations. The tension and anger was incredible and damaging to people, families and the whole tenor of the workplace. I HOPE it does not return to that sort of "negotiation". 

Warning of a Night off..... We are planning a bit of a break this coming weekend so we told the Drop-in centre people that we would be closing for next Friday night. Many expressed disappointment, even though they said things like, "You deserve a break." The most touching comment was from a Maori guy, who has sometimes called me a racist. He came up and shook my hand and asked, "Are you going to leave us Dave?" "No" I said, "Not yet, I am a bit like a bad penny, I keep turning up." He grinned and said, "That's good, you're pretty important to us." I got the message during the night that in spite of the fact that they seem to take us for granted, the Drop-in was an important part of their life.

Saturday confusing identity.... On Saturday I went to the Habitat site, put on my overalls and dug up a water pipe. With trucks crossing it the pipe had sprung a leak. I got wet and muddy repairing the pipe. I then helped start to put weatherboard on the house. I was annoyed. I think we need to mark out and prepare the walls before we turn volunteers loose on weatherboard. It makes it easier for them and helps them feel good about the work, rather than struggling to fix up muck ups. We had not done that so people were struggling with the tasks we were giving them. Today I have spent time alone on site redeeming the situation for next Saturday.

Just after midday I rushed home. Scrambled out of my muddy gear, showered, shaved, suited up, polished my shoes and headed in to conduct a wedding in the grounds of the University. I returned to Habitat after the wedding, then came home to work on power points for Sunday's service.

Who was I? The muddy plumber? The carpenter "team leader" showing people how to put on weatherboard? The celebrant? (I was asked to lead a secular ceremony) or the Church minister? I am glad to say, I was me, with the same motivations in my core being, expressing those passions in different ways.

Weddings annoy... Often the behaviour of people surrounding weddings annoy me. The purpose gets lost in the "production". The bride looks done up unrealistically, as do others in the wedding party. (There were nine croomsmen, in penguin suits, and nine bridesmaids!) If I got married again (a very unlikely scenario) it would be a small cosy, friendly affair.

Birthday gathering... On Sunday evening we were invited to a small gathering of Indian folk who were celebrating the birthday of one of the Indian women in our congregation. The food... delicious and generous. The hospitality... warm and inclusive.... if overly respectful (They insist on calling me "Pastor" and giving me all sorts of honour... first to get served, saying grace, leading a concluding prayer etc. etc.) It was just a nice warm night.

Exercise.. Sunday ... a walk. Monday... a bike ride. Wednesday.. walking group (slow walk) and a run... Thursday ... soccer. ... Friday.. Table Tennis... Saturday... Building work...Sunday... a walk.

I grump and I growl, but I lead an interesting, charmed and privileged life really.

Photo: Returning to the Habitat site after the wedding.

 

I love this sermon...

In Church this morning we had a clip from the film "Chocolat". It is the Easter Sunday sermon by the young priest in the village Church. I love it because it latches on to the spirit of a positive Jesus centred spirituality. Here is what he says.

"I am not sure what the theme of my homily today should be. Do I want to speak of the miracle of our Lord's divine transformation? Not really no. I don't want to speak of his divinity, I'd rather talk about his humanity. I mean... you know... how he lived his life here on earth. His kindness. His tolerance."

Listen... Here's what I think. I think we can't go around measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace. What we create and who we include."

You can watch an extended clip on U tube...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNECte8PFEM&feature=related

Not normal but happy to be.

I had two interesting encounters today.

1st.  I had just returned to my office from chaplaincy at the ambulance headquarters and there was a series of loud bangs on my outside door. It was a man I will call "Fred". Fred is very intelligent, but has some mental health issues which makes him hard to get along with. He fires straight from the shoulder, if he thinks you are a fool he will leave you in no doubt about the fact. He also has a loud voice and M.E. He keeps getting kicked out of groups he attends. In spite of this tendency I have always had a soft spot for Fred. He once called me his only friend. I had not seen him for a while so he was just catching up. In he walked with his dog and sat down in a chair and started in telling me stuff as if we had been talking all day. In the last couple of years he has discovered the Internet and has done a heap of stuff. He reads feverishly, has definite political opinions, a real sense of justice and if you want to argue with him you have to know your stuff and be prepared to listen to colourful descriptions of people. He is entertaining. He kicked me out of my office chair and took over my computer to show me all the stuff he had done on Mythology and ancient cultures etc. Incredible stuff he had uploaded with various links to other sites etc. Amongst his stuff I came across this quotation which tickled my fancy....

"To be normal is the ideal of unsuccessful people." from Carl Jung

I am not sure I am successful... but I know I am not normal. :-) He wasted an hour of my precious time, he is blunt and "out there", but in a weird sort of way I find Fred refreshing.

2nd  On my way home tonight at about 9:30 p.m. I picked up a teenage guy who was hitching a ride out to the suburb just past where I live. He climbed into the van and talked about the weather. Then said a conversation opener that I notice many people use these days, "Have you had a busy day?" I responded,"Yes it has been fairly full on." giving nothing away at all. .... silence.... then, "What is it that you do?"  I groaned inwardly, I hate that question.  "I am a church minister." I replied. "Awe shit! Is that for real?" he said. I think at that stage he wanted to extract himself from the van. I told him about the chaplaincies also. "No shit?" he said, "What do you do there?" So the questions kept coming. "How come you got into the church?" "Why do you do it?" "Do you have a partner... like a wife?" "I thought priests couldn't marry?" It was so much fun, the drive home went fast.  I got to tell him about Habitat for Humanity, the Night Shelter, the drop-in and the Ocean Grove group (since I was just coming home from it.)  His last statement was, "Hey thanks for the ride. Shit you do good stuff! See yah."

See I am not normal, when I said I was a minister, he said, "Awe Shit!"  If I was still a plumber I would not get that response. I think it surprised him. My old van is full of carpentry tools at the moment so I guess he would not expect a minister to be driving something like that.

Photo: A strange place for a minister to be found.

A good weekend...

Depression.... I have been sitting watching a documentary on "depression". It said "One in five people battle with it." It gave descriptions and told stories of suicide etc. I decided to stop watching... too close to home and too ... well "depressing".  If the descriptions they give are true, I battle some sort of depression. The stories rang bells.... though I think I have learned to manage the bouts and just dig deep and plod on, with support. (A few weeks ago I really got depressed) But I am thankful this weekend. A few things have felt good.

Habitat for Humanity house....We are building a house in Half-way bush with a Maori family with a lot of kids. They are delightful people to work with and of course, all the extended whanau join in. We have had some great days on site but yesterday, Saturday was one of those good days when things went especially well. 

On Friday a few of us went up over lunch hour to fix some things before a building inspection. It passed the inspection which enabled us to be clear to put the roof on. I stewed about how we were going to do it and turned up on Saturday ready for work. We measured and drilled the iron. The wind grew in intensity and we thought it was probably blowing too much to do the job. My friend Richard said, "Let's give it a go, aye? What's the worst that can happen?" There seemed to be a lot of people turning up to work so we had enough people to help. We set up a team and began. The first sheet went on without too much of a hitch. The second also... but suddenly there was a crash. One sheet had blown away and crashed to the ground, denting badly. I began to think the worst, but we were making steady progress. We sat Martin on the pile of iron to act as a "paper weight". Then Tony a roofer turned up and got us more organised. We felt more confident and we worked our way down one side of the house. ... "lunch time!" I thought. We agreed to stop for lunch... but roofer man Tony said he had to go soon... so we buckled down and started the other side. We had everybody on site working like a well oiled machine, under Tony's direction. It was such a great experience, Paper... Iron... screws... paper.. iron ... screws.. and within a short time the second half of the house was covered and we did stop for lunch. I must admit to feeling worn out! After a bite to eat I was catching my breath and two young guys said, "What now boss?" (I am third in line to being boss actually) They were so keen. I thought up a couple of jobs and immediately all hands ripped into it with great gusto. Martin got prepared and in time got crew wrapping up the house. Having done the roof, everyone was buzzing. The positive energy was incredible, people from children through to the oldest adult were looking for ways to help. We had over thirty volunteers that day. It was soo good. A landscaper was driving past and dropped in to offer to help with the landscaping. He caught the bug and ended up hammering away there. "I just dropped by to talk?" he said. I had to laugh. I was hammering ceiling battens next to him, and he asked, "Are you really a Pastor?" I get asked that a lot.... maybe its because sometimes a swear word slips out??  I dropped off the scaffold into the house toward the end of the day and saw Mike, the house owner wandering through his house looking. "How are we Mike?" I asked. "Oh boy" he replied, "I am so stoked! It is so great!" As people left I tried to thank them for their work. Often the reply was, "No.. thank you! That was great!" Two students who come regularly were saying goodbye. I said, "Thanks guys, we did well, I hope you enjoyed it?" "That was great! Today was a real blast! See you next week." It was just one of those days. I am a bit stiff and sore today, but the whole experience made me feel good about humanity, God and the world in general. Even my fights about Church music were forgotten.

Today was good... Spring is nearly here and it is good to wake up knowing that you are not going to have to contend biting winds and ice or snow. I thought I did a good job this morning at church. I got some positive feed back. A nice walk/run in the sun with good conversation this afternoon completed a weekend that made me feel good about my life, but ready for a relaxing day off tomorrow. I have also had good telephone conversations with my three sons. It is so good that they want to catch up on their old man.

Grrrrr! I don't get it?

I have had an "intense discussion" with one of my musicians and I am angry, upset and feel like telling everyone to get stuffed. There are several issues as I see them.

First: I must admit openly that I do not like organs as an instrument. On Sunday mornings when I hear the organ begin I get a ball in my stomach that is getting worse. When I went to graduation services at the Town hall, when the organ cranked up I was just about physically urged to run away, the sound was sooo repulsive to my ears. (When that stopped the bagpipes started!) In the 1990's I went to a seminar on leading worship that will attract people in our day and age. The leadership of the seminar had done research and surveyed a cross section of the NZ population and 96% of the population did not like organ music. I am not alone. I recall having a visitor to see me at the church one day while my organist was playing. I met him in the car park and led him through the church building. When I got to the door of the chapel and opened it he took a step in and immediately stepped back. "Oh I hate that!" he said. "What?" I asked. "The organ music! It reminds me of when you die." I had to lead him around to the office the other way, so deep was his repulsion.

Second: As you may guess my "discussion" was about "church Music" preferences. I don't think we are good at looking at things from another person's perspective. We are not good at putting ourselves in the skins of people who hate organ music and trying to fathom what "worship" is like for them. That's what I learned from my discussion. But this applies to lots of things. What is it like not being able to read? What is it like not being able to get a job? What is it like being a woman in various circumstances? etc. We could go on... but I just think we all at times find it hard to put ourselves in someone elses shoes, and so we causes "differences".

Thirdly: All of my ministry life I have found myself being piggy in the middle about Church music. Number one... I have had a guts full of being piggy in the middle! Number 2... in the big scheme of things, when Jesus' priorities are taken into account, it is just not worth arguing about! Get a life for petes sake! That's why I have put up with organ music. I know the old people have grown up with it so I have not rocked the boat... but when I do try variation I get drawn into this useless, waste of energy... arguing about music.

Fourthly: I guess one of my problems is that I just don't get worship! It does little for me. And it does even less for me when I am aware of the different tastes and am constantly trying to please people. Now I lead worship. I am a better than average leader of worship. I believe I communicate in a way that get's people on board and encourages or challenges people. But I still think that for many people worship is "spiritual masturbation", trying to get their jollies in a way that was never meant to give satisfaction and is often an avoidence of the real thing. I played soccer with IHC and excluded people this morning. Watching people come out of their shell, enjoy their God-given bodies, encouraging them in that, gave me much more inspiration than any worship does. Feeling I have been there for someone; watching people from the community sitting in Space2B sharing their joys and sorrows; making progress, laughing, sweating and aching muscles on a Habitat house; these sorts of things are "worship", are inspiration, learning and edification for me! They give me a real sense of partnership and participatiion with the Sacred one! Give me those over any worship service, whatever the instrument of preference! This is REAL worship and sunday worship a faint shadow of reality.

(I once had a good, flexible, skilled organist in the Levin church who had a feel for worship. She played along with a bass guitarist and that was beautiful. We also talked and dialogued our way through worship which was meaningful. We stopped and prayed for each other. We thought up relevant songs on the spot sometimes. It was the closest I have come to authentic worship in a church.)

I wonder?: This is probably shocking and heresy. In four years time I retire. Though I have led worship all my life, I really doubt that I will attend worship when I retire. Don't get me wrong. I will still "believe" and I will still be involved in Christian "ministry" and "mission", but worship in any church setting these days has almost become so repulsive to me that I can't see me fitting in anywhere. Weird??? And "music" and being "piggy in the middle" for so long has done that to me! Far from being inspiring, encouraging and building me up, it has the opposite effect, thanks to people who endlessly choose to argue about it.

I feel better now that I have that off my chest. I am off to a night shelter Trust Board meeting, then a Habitat for Humanity meeting. Better than choosing songs for Sunday... I HATE IT!

Upset and stewing...

I am upset and stewing over a meeting I had today... it is so distracting I can't work properly. I may tell you about it, but for now I came across this prayer that I thought might amuse you...

From silly devotions
and from sour-faced saints,
good Lord, deliver us.

- Teresa of Avila, 16th-century theologian.

Quite cute isn't it. :-)