If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church. Click here.
This week’s challenge – the “squirrel verse” to This Land Is Your Land
As I went scrambling across the garden
I paused to dig up a row of onions;
I saw before me the towering/tempting/tasty/crunchy sunflowers -
This land was made for you and me.
Some days from the church calendar -
March 1 David
A Welsh bishop during the 6th century, he is the patron saint of Wales. His best-known miracle is said to have taken place when he was preaching in the middle of a large crowd at the Synod of Brefi: the village of Llanddewi Brefi stands on the spot where the ground on which he stood is reputed to have risen up to form a small hill. A white dove, which became his emblem, was seen settling on his shoulder. John Davies notes that one can scarcely "conceive of any miracle more superfluous" in that part of Wales than the creation of a new hill. The Monastic Rule of David prescribed that monks had to pull the plow themselves without draft animals, and must drink only water and eat only bread with salt and herbs. The monks spent their evenings in prayer, reading and writing. No personal possessions were allowed: even to say "my book" was considered an offense. He lived a simple life and practiced asceticism, teaching his followers to refrain from eating meat and drinking beer. His emblem, as noted in Shakespeare, is the leek. So – potato leek soup for dinner? Anyway, Happy St David’s Day to Welsh men, women, and children around the world!
Mar 2 Chad
7th century Bishop to the Northumbrians, the Mercians and Lindsey. Here’s a couple of the paragraphs from Wikipedia (with comment by yours truly) -
Chad remains a fairly popular given name, one of the few personal names current among 7th century Anglo-Saxons to do so. However, it was very little used for many centuries before a modest revival in the mid-20th century. Not all of its bearers are named directly after Chad of Mercia. Perhaps the best-known Chad of modern times who was so-named was Chad Varah, an Anglican priest and social activist. False – hands up, how many thought “Chad – priest and social activist”? How many thought “Yesterday’s Gone” or “A Summer Song”? (sing it with me...)
They say that all good things must end some day,
Autumn leaves must fall,
But don’t you know that it hurts me so
to say good by to you. (Wish you didn’t have to go, oh no, no, no)
And when the rain, beats against my window pane,
I’ll think of summer days again, and dream of you!
Due to the somewhat confused nature of Chad's appointment and the continued references to 'chads' – small pieces of ballot papers punched out by voters using voting machines – in the 2000 US Presidential Election, it has been jocularly suggested that Chad is the patron saint of botched elections. In fact there is no official patron saint of elections, although the Church has designated a later English official, Thomas More, the patron of politicians.
St. Chad's Day (2 March) is traditionally considered the most propitious day to sow broad beans in England!?
Somber note to wrap this up with – Chad (of Chad and Jeremy) died just last December.
March 3 John and Charles Wesley
Ok – I suppose Methodists/United Methodists might have a slightly different take on these guys than Episcopalians, although they both lived and died Church of England priests.
John was the visionary and organizing force behind the Methodist movement, and later the “Methodist” forms of Christianity. The term was originally a term of derision – they were quite “methodical” about their faith lives.
On February 9, when he was 5 years old, the rectory where they lived caught fire. All the family got out except John who was leaning out of a second story window. He was rescued by one parishioner who stood on the shoulders of another. Ever after he thought of himself as “a brand plucked from the burning.”
Two other dates – on May 24, 1738 John had a “heartwarming experience at a meeting in Aldersgate Street” which seems to have been a sort of conversion to a new valuing of experience for faith. And April 1739, with more and more of the parish churches closed to him, he “overcame his scruples” and following George Whitefield, began preaching (to crowds!) outdoors.
He died March 2,1791 at age 87. His last words were “Best of all, God is with us.”
Charles was the son of, father of, brother of, and grandfather of guys named Samuel Wesley. I guess they liked the name, though it must have been a little confusing when calling folks for dinner! He wrote between 6,500 and 10,000 hymns, including O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (which had 17 verses!), Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and Love divine, All Loves Excelling. He’s probably the main reason Methodists/United Methodists are a “singing people”, although John also had 7 directions for singing, including
“Sing them exactly as printed...if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as fast as you can;
Sing all..
Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead or half asleep…
Sing modestly…
Sing in time...Do not run before nor stay behind...take care not to sing too slow!
Above all, sing spiritually…
Moving on….
March 6 William Worrall Mayo and Charles Frederick Menninger both guys who with their sons established well known clinics. Note we drive to Rochester because William was named examining surgeon for the first Minnesota draft board there in 1863.
Some days from the world/earth calendar -
March 1
+ Yahoo! Was incorporated in 1995. It was one of the first internet companies. It declined in market share over the years, mainly giving way to Google, and was purchased by Verizon in 2017.
+ The Lindbergh baby was kidnapped.
+ The Peace Corps was established in 1961
March 2
+ In 1807 the U.S. Congress banned the importation of slaves from Africa, but the internal slave trade continued in states where it was legal.
+ Dr Seuss was born in 1904. You can find about some of the “Seuss experience” here, and about the current issue of whether his books are diverse or have some racist undertones here and here. And here for a piece from NPR’s CodeSwitch. This is kind of sad – apparently he drew racist cartoons as a young man and wrote and starred in (in blackface) a minstrel show. This is also “Read Across America Day”, or the start of “Read Across America Week”, which has traditionally focused on Dr Seuss books, but is now transitioning away from them. Here’s a real surprise – the issue is taking on political overtones!
+ D.H.Lawrence died in 1930 – his books raised some issues too.
March 3
+ Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles police in 1991. When the police were acquitted a year later, riots and rebellions occurred with 55 people killed, 2383 injured, and $1 billion damage done. Two of the police were later found guilty of violating his civil rights and served 30 months in prison. During the riots King made a television appearance pleading for an end to the riots: “I just want to say – you know – can we all get along? Can we, can we get along?”
+ Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847. The evolution of the telephone in just my lifetime is staggering. I still remember, though just barely, lifting the receiver and hearing “Number please?”
+ Johann Pachelbel died on this day in 1706. He was one of the most significant composers of the Baroque era. We probably know him best for Pachelbel’s Canon. Many examples on youtube. Here’s one for piano and cello which is labeled “Best for Weddings”! Or here’s one called paco Bell’s Canon
+ start of reading of Winterdance reading – see March 7 below!
March 4
+ Good day to take a walk - get it? - "March 4th"!
+ the first documented case of the 1918 Spanish flu (in Kansas!). Estimates of the death toll range from 20 million to 50 million, though some would place it even higher.
+ The U.S. Constitution was put into effect in 1789.
+ Antonio Vivaldi was born in 1678. Another of the Baroque composers, probably best known for The Four Seasons, or for his Gloria, although he wrote more than 500 concertos, 90 sonatas, and 46 operas! There’s also a web browser named Vivaldi!
March 5
+ Sergei Prokofiev died in 1953. He wrote the “widely heard” March from The Love of Three Oranges (I don’t think I ever heard it! I think I would remember that.), the ballet Romeo and Juliet, and Peter and the Wolf. I have heard that! So apparently The Love of (or “for”) Three Oranges was a satirical opera which was not well received at first, but was then revived and is now widely produced. In some productions a “scratch & sniff” card was handed out to go along with it!
+ Patsy Cline died in a plane crash in 1963. She was one of the first singers to cross over from country to popular music. She sang I Fall to Pieces and Crazy. Willie Nelson wrote it, here’s a clip of him singing it.
March 6
+ Asprin was trademarked as a pain-killer in 1899.
+ Michelangelo was born in 1475. A Italian renaissance artist, along with Leonardo da Vinci. (He died on Feb 18) Most familiar for his sculptures David, Pieta, Moses, and for his painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, including the hands of God and Adam touching in creation. He also wrote 300 sonnets and madrigals.
March 7
+ Bloody Sunday – Well unfortunately there are a variety of “Bloody Sundays”. This one is from the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965. From the National Park Service site -
Approximately at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 7, 1965, 300 protesters, led by Hosea Williams, John Lewis, Albert Turner and Bob Mants, gathered at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma and proceeded through town to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. At that point, the number of the marchers had swelled to 600 as they crossed the span from Selma toward their date with destiny. At the end of the bridge stood Alabama State Troopers and a hastily-organized vigilante band mounted on horses under the direction of Maj. John Cloud. Refusing to speak to Williams, Cloud ordered the marchers to disperse, after which gas canisters were thrown into the crowd. Troopers and horsemen armed with clubs assaulted the protesters who then fled back to Selma.
+ the start of this year’s Iditarod. If you want to zoom in and listen to some of us read Winterdance by Gary Paulson, at 8pm each night, starting on Mar 3, here is the zoom link,
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81384673676?pwd=aEduQ245Ym5jTXFkRUdrd013RzFBUT09
Meeting ID: 813 8467 3676
Passcode: 023528
And finally a prayer for this week -
Dear God,
thank you for loving us,
in all our glorious shapes and sizes and colors and abilities.
But as we discover and acknowledge our faults and failures,
our hostilities, our bigotries, our aggressions -
we have to wonder – are you Crazy, crazy for loving us?
That’s what I got for now…..
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