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New Year’s Blog 2018
By Chuck Peek
Some thoughts for the new year, some losses lamented, and a poem…stuff that used to be in the Christmastide reflections until they mysteriously got longer and longer!
Here’s Some Wisdom for the Season
To help us forget some things, remember others, and to refresh the dry places in our spirit. (Inscription on ceiling dome at Cabot Theater, Milwaukee)
In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy. Ivan Illich, philosopher and priest (4 Sep 1926-2002)
Not being heard is no reason for silence. Victor Hugo, Les Miserables 1862
Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships. Charles Simic, poet (b. 9 May 1938)
There is a beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of knowledge. All literate men are sustained by the philosopher, the historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the poet, the artisan and the musician. Glenn T. Seaborg, scientist, Nobel laureate (19 Apr 1912-1999)
Culture isn’t a box to check on the questionnaire of humanity; it is a process you join, a life lived with others. Kwame Anthony Appiah
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form. William R. Inge, clergyman, scholar, and author (6 Jun 1860-1954)
I’m conservative. I feel that what is inherited — family, community, culture and language — is more crucial than what is acquired — tattoos, an Armani suit, a taste for artisan beers, a cat who loves you — and there are as many conservatives on the left as on the right, maybe even more. I want my daughter’s school bus driver to be conservative, obsessively checking his rearview mirrors, and not resenting the rules of the road as an infringement of his liberties. I’d like her English teacher to correct grammar and usage rather than urging the kids to write about their upbringings and never mind if they misspell “abysmal” or “horrendous.” I could go on. Garrison Keillor
How does peace come? Peace doesn’t come because allies agree. Allies are allies — they already agree! Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that’s where the courage of a leader comes. Desmond Tutu
The Necrology: Notable Deaths since Easter
Friends and Family
Randy Bohnart, after a brave fight with cancer; related to Nancy through her Dad
Helen Brittin, lovely Grand Island woman, mother of a musician and friend
Fr. Phil Chapman, with whom everyone thought they had a special relationship!
Dean Dack, classmate MHS 1960 and later friend of a friend
Bea Elliott, former parishioner at St. Luke’s
Robert Fosse, our Rector at Church of the Epiphany when Chuck taught at NAU, served as vicar of St. John’s, Williams, and assisted Bob at Epiphany
Mike Gintzler, former UNK Sociology teacher, former partner with Nancy Towne
Tom Godfrey, one-time UNK English professor who would mutter as he returned to his office, “well that didn’t work”
Kathy Graham, wife of Fr. Bill Graham, devoted worker for our Church’s outreach, women’s, and youth ministries
Yvonne Hansen, former parishioner at St. Luke’s and Margaret Clark’s Christmastime co-cook
Bev Kimball, whom I first met when she told me what I was going to do to help her resettle Cambodian refugees!
Yvonne Leisinger, former parishioner at St. Stephen’s, who lived on her gambling to a ripe old age
Mel Munsinger, life-long teacher, faithful Episcopalian, of long acquaintance with our family, former parishioner at both St. Stephen’s and St. Luke’s
Alan Oldfather, local banker/business advisor, dedicated to his clients and community
John Ostheimer, former NAU colleague who I backed for VCAA at UNK
Fr. Don Overton, priest formerly of DioNeb
Del Pettigrew, local artist
Sister Mary Dolorine Pires, 90, Faulkner reader and scholar and planter of roses
Galen Poole, faithful priest of the Diocese of Fort Worth, husband of Katie Sherrod
Karen Nelson Ruff, classmate MHS 1960
Charles Stephens, long-time Lincoln Unitarian minister and chief reviewer on All About Books.
Jay Stoddard, faithful communicant and chorister at St. Stephen’s
Nancy Towne, sister of Linda Clark, family care giver, supporter of our family, former partner of Mike Gintzler
Clayton True, last of the original “over the hill gang” and former colleague at UNK
Richard Wax, who shared his experience strength and hope with me in Milwaukee
Jackie Wiester, dear friend and former parishioner, one-time Treasurer of St. Luke’s, whose husband is related to Nancy through her father
Celebrities
Roger Aisles, co-founder of Fox News, fired for sexual harassment, who said it didn’t matter if people had the news as long as they thought they had the news
John Ashbery, at 90, poet
Batman (aka Adam West): LA shined the bat-seal over the city for his funeral
Powers Booth, actor who walked tall, sometimes next to 007
Frederick H. Borsch, 81, American Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles, 1988–2002
Zbigniew Brzezinski, 89, National Security Director for the Carter administration during the Iran crisis
Glen Campbell, the Rhinestone Cowboy
David Cassidy, one-time tweens idol
Colin Dexter, creator of Morse, surely to be blessed
Fats Domino, 89, “Ain’t It a Shame”!
Hugh Downs, 20/20 is now 30-30
Dick Enberg, sportscaster par excellence
Godzilla, or at least the “inner” Godzilla, the man who wore the suit
Dick Gregory, acerbic comic before being bitten by the conspiracy bug
Robert Guillaume, “Benson,” and the first African-American to sing Phantom of the Opera
Hugh Hefner, 91, the world’s “playboy”; in my father’s house are many mansions!
John Hillerman, 84, whose best known role was “Higgins,” manager of the estate Magnum called home, in the last series Tom Selleck made before he decided he was a wisdom figure
Helmut Kohl, former Chancellor of Germany
Bruce Langhorne, 78, “Mr. Tambourine Man” himself
Jerry Lewis, telethon host who brought lots of joy to me when I was a “tween” as Dean Martin’s comedy partner
Charles Manson, finally!
Roger Moore, 89, the longest running 007
Manuel Noriega, in an American cell-block, this season’s cautionary tale!
I. Newhouse, owner of New Yorker, etc—and very much in Vogue (irony: Vogue and Playboy go to their reward together!)
Sam Shepard, writer/actor
Warren Urbom, distinguished Federal Judge whose bench was in Omaha, from Arapahoe (St. Paul’s)
Trish Vradenburg, 70, American screenwriter (Designing Women, Kate and Allie, Family Ties)
Liu Xiaobo, Nobel laureate and political prisoner
And political opponents of Putin, too numerous to be named. Putin, whose exposure would have once seemed patriotic!
A Poem for the turning of time: Feasting by the Fire
As the years move on and leave us
wondering if our way looms up ahead
or stretches hazily behind, leave us
worry-bluesing all the what’s and where’s
that are the legacy of aging,
In find myself for a moment back at Botins,
whose specialty is making us believe
we are dining in the oldest restaurant in Europe.
The burnished wood of the balconies
reddening in the glow of its lamps, heartening us,
for the feast of roast pig and lamb
as they begin to dress the tables where we sit,
the wood’s warmth, vestige of a world
fast passing, replaced board by board
by glassy plastic and glossy chrome,
cool accoutrements of a cooler world.
Then, half a year later and a world away,
to see the reddening of your cheeks,
their bloom stretching across your breast,
in the dim glow of our hallway chandelier,
your eyes and moist lips like prisms to its light,
even as cold airs chill the world outside.
To my quickening pulse,
something warmer than the world
makes this small space more inviting
than all the tables of all the worlds
passing by, and I, less weary for their cheer
doubled by reflection in the hallway mirror.
Kearney, Nebraska
January 29, 2007
Rewritten December 9, 2017
capeek 