Words 6.20

 Words Twice a Week          6.20

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.

Back kind of on track here

Some days from the church calendar -

June 24  Nativity of John the Forerunner/Messenger/Baptist  It’s interesting to compare and contrast the stories of the births of Jesus and John.  We looked at that some back in March around the Annunciation and the Visitation, especially the responses of Mary (“How can this be?”) and Zechariah (“How shall I know this?”).  Zechariah was speechless until his son was born, and the first thing he said was “Ok – name him John!”.  Anyway, here’s John, ready to set things in motion.  

Here’s a prayer -

   Incoming God,

   in the birth of John you set wonderful things in motion.

   Help us glimpse the wonders you might be setting in motion

   as we are born, live our lives, and die, returning to you.

   And seeing, let us then be doing.

   And may it lead always to Jesus. 

June 25   James Weldon Johnson  Yes, he wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing (you may have been hearing it recently) and God’s Trombones – Seven Negro Sermons in Verse 

   (“And God stepped out on space,

   And he looked around and said:

   I'm lonely--

   I'll make me a world.

   And far as the eye of God could see

   Darkness covered everything,

   Blacker than a hundred midnights

   Down in a cypress swamp…..)

Here’s a link for it  click here     (And yes, that’s Darth Vader narrating!)

He was active in founding the NAACP and was it’s first African-American executive secretary.  He was the U.S. Consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua.  He was the first African-American professor to be hired at New York University.  Later in life, he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University.  He and his brother wrote for the musical theater in New York, including Nobody’s Looking but the Owl and the Moon!   (Warning – it’s in dialect)

June 26  Isabel Florence Hapgood  Born Nov 21, 1851, she was an American ecumenist, writer and translator, especially of Russian and French texts.  She published translations of Leo Tolstoy’s Childhood, Boyhood, Youth and Nikolay Gogol’s Taras Bulba (yeah – there were a couple of movies, one with Tony Curtis and Yule Brenner) and Dead Souls.  In 1887 her translations of the major works of Victor Hugo began publication, introducing that major French author to American audiences.  She traveled in Russia, spent several weeks with Tolstoy, and was enamored of the Russian Orthodox Church.  A life-long Episcopalian, she worked to nurture awareness and respect between the two faith traditions.

Some days from the earth/world calendar -

June 21 

+ Day after the solstice.  The darkness is coming!

+ Two days after Juneteenth – what now?

+ and if you notice not many people are in swimming, it’s because Jaws premiered last night in 1975.

+ Niccolo Machiavelli died in 1527.  He was a statesman for the Florentine republic, but forced out by the return of the Medici.  (I soudn like I know what all that means, but I really don’t!)  Anyway, in retirement he wrote The Prince about how political power is procured and maintained, especially through ruthlessness.  Interesting as we (some of us) are hearing about Saul and David in our Old Testament lessons, and also as we observe what W Paul Jones calls “the underbelly of even American politics.”  

+ Aloysius Gonzaga died in 1591.  He was born eldest son of an Italian aristocratic family, but became a Jesuit, giving up all claim to family position and wealth.  He died caring for people when a plague broke out.  Yes, the school is named for him, though there is no evidence of his ever playing hoops at the college in Rome.

June 22

+ Fred Astair died in 1987; Judy Garland in 1969, 12 days after her 47th birthday.  Dancing with the angels somewhere over the rainbow?

June 23

+ Brexit happened (well, the election that started it all) in 2016.

+ the International Olympic Committee was founded in 1894.  How are they doing?

June 24

+ Pablo Picasso’s first exhibition opened in 1901.  The 2 art critics who attended were not impressed!  “Hey – I know good art when I see it!”

+ The Berlin Blockade began in 1948.

+ Jackie Gleason died in 1987.  The June Taylor Dancers, a monologue, “A little traveling music, Ray…”, “And away we go….”   How sweet it was!

June 25

+ first Gay Pride Celebration Parade in San Francisco in 1972.

+ Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird premiered in 1910.

+ Jacques Cousteau died 14 days after his 87th birthday in 1997.  

June 26

+ the Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945.  It was ratified by the required number of nations on Oct 24.

+ JFK said “Ich bin ein Berliner” in 1963.

+ Col Tom Parker was born in 1909.  Would there have been Elvis without him?

June 27

+ Bushnell and Dabney founded Atari in 1972.  Ponnnnngggg.

+ The world’s first nuclear power plant was activated in Obninsk, Russia, in 1954

Anyway, that’s what I got for now…..

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