Who the New Year left behind

New Year 2020-2021 blog by Charles Peek

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!’ Minnie Louise Hawkins (quoted in King George VI’s broadcast, Christmas, 1939)

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common — this is my symphony. (William Henry Channing, clergyman and reformer 1810-1884)

No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded. (Margaret Mead)

Herewith the semi-annual (the other occasion is around Memorial Day) listing of deaths learned of since the last necrology.

Friends

Bruce Blankenship, Kearney civic-minded community leader and great supporter of Kearney Catholic School.

Nancy Benton Brown, parishioner at St. David’s, one of the small group that helped revive the Diocesan Recovery Commission.

From the Bishop of Western Missouri: “Believing in the Communion of Saints and the Resurrection to Life Everlasting, I ask your prayers for The Rev. Virginia Dabney Brown, who has entered Eternity after a stroke at her home in Houston, TX.  Mother Virginia was one of the first 100 “regularly ordained” woman priests in the Episcopal Church, was previously a physicist, was a founder of the Rivendell Community, and was beloved by the many students she taught at the George Herbert Institute for Pastoral Studies and its successor school, the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry.  Mother Virginia passed into Larger Life this morning, Wednesday, August 12, 2020. 

Gene Budig, hailed from where I grew up, McCook, went on to be the Chancellor of the University of Kansas and baseball’s American League President—the last to hold that position before the league decided to do without it. Close friend of our friends, Jim and Bev Carothers. My good friend from school, Anita McBride Faddis, has lived for years in Lawrence and says when Gene would see her he’d yell “Go Bison!”

Laurie Smith Camp, first woman to be a Federal Judge in Nebraska and for many years a colleague on the Cather Foundation board where she boosted the author who had changed her life. I think she may also have had something to do with “repurposing” a men’s room in the UNL Law College so women students didn’t have so far to go!

Jogues Epplé, former priest of the Diocese, Rector of Calvary Hyannis where I later served, and organizer of one of Trinity Cathedral’s earliest efforts at a food bank—bags of hard, red, winter wheat. Died of COVID-19.

Bill Frey, Former Bishop of Colorado and once considered for Presiding Bishop, charismatic teacher and preacher, Rector of the church in neighboring Leadville when I was a youngster in Salida

Elaine Glasser, wife of a colleague from the Physics Department (himself much sought after as a consultant), the both of them regular participants in our Senior College

Merle Hayward, Hyannis rancher, former parishioner at Calvary, Hyannis, generous and good friend, stalwart citizen. In one of our most difficult times of life, he saved our bacon (admittedly a poor phrase to use for a cattle rancher!).

Dick Higby, fraternity brother. Dick’s grades weren’t always so good, but not for lack of a good mind. He spent hours endlessly planning, drawing, constructing whole cities—worthy of Willa Cather’s ‘town building’! Everybody liked Dick, especially girls.

Lynn Johnson, former colleague from the College of Education at UNK, ever the gentleman and always insisting on the moral dimensions of teaching and education.

Mel Krutz, long-time activist opposing book censorship and founder of a Flowering and a Festival story-telling event, stalwart of the Nebraska Center for the Book, taught at the Columbus campus of the Central Community College.

Gary Lacy, class-mate at NU in the early 1960’s, friend of my friend Larry Fruhling; we worked together briefly on the Daily Nebraskan and its annual spoof edition.

Lucia Woods Lindley and Dan Lindley, just a few days apart; she of the Lincoln Woods family and foundation, both benefactors in former years of the Cather Foundation, obituaries in both the New York and Chicago papers.

Hank Mayer, son of parishioners of mine at St. Stephen’s, Grand Island, whom I hired as our parish sexton…another fatality brought on by severe depression.

Steve Ryan, former director of the Cather Foundation, at his death one of the clergy at Creighton.

Today we say farewell to a fellow Democrat, friend, and activist. Delphine Sanks ended her journey with us peacefully this morning. Delphine leaves behind her husband of 70 years, Lee . . . An amazing activist, fierce woman, and loyal progressive, Delphine will be dearly missed by all. Our prayers and best wishes go with her and her family in this difficult time. (Posted by Buffalo County Democrats June 5, 2020)—She was front and center in every Senior College class I ever taught, even after she could barely hear or see!

Bob Salisbury, schoolmate from McCook High School, son of friends of my family, dated one of my friends, did some acting around Denver where he ran a theater and lived most of his adult life.

Mel Wattles, designer of some of the houses in which he and artist wife Virginia (Bunny) lived.

Vern Webb, faithful parishioner of mine a St. Stephen’s, Grand Island; Covid caught up with him at 97!

Gary Young, priest of the Diocese, one of my predecessors at St. Stephen’s, former Dean of our Cathedral

Celebrities

Chadwick Boseman, way too young but a great portrayer of the great 42 and a “marvel” in his own right.

Wilford Brimley, the Quaker Oats man, when he wasn’t in a cocoon!

Herman Cain. Wish I could be sorrier. One loony, beat out of the presidency by another loony, goes to the other loony’s loony Tulsa rally, and the Covid-19 he got there killed him. Human compassion vies with poetic justice. Herman Cain v John Lewis—hardly seems the scales balance. But the pizza was good.

Sean Connery. Actor.The man who made James Bond a household word.

Charlie Daniels, hopefully not with the company he predicted for Georgia

David Dinkins, who cried peace where there was no peace; first Black Mayor of NYC

Hugh Downs, Jack Paar’s side-kick and one-time host of 20-20

Saeb Erekat, Fatah Party Palestinian advocate for an independent Palestinian State, which if granted decades ago would have saved much of the Middle Eastern turmoil and much subsequent suffering.

Conchata Ferrell, aka Berta, housekeeper for the louts on “Two and a Half Men”

Oh, no, not Whitey Ford! No other pitcher in Yankee history won more games!

Thomas Freeman, 60 of his 100 years spent as the debate coach at Texas Southern, whose ideas on speaking influenced major American political figures

Bob Gibson, STL Card’s pitcher, noted for holding the record for consecutive World Series starts (7!)

Ruth Bader Ginzberg, the legend lives on but the living person that made the legend dies, one of our heroes, the first woman to ever Lie in Statein our nation’s Capital—something way overdue but much deserved!

Annie Glenn, the stutterer who became a bold supporter of others, widow of John Glenn

Eddie Van Halen, who turned out to be a much nicer guy and much better musician than a lot of us parents thought he was when our kids started liking him!

Margaret Holloway, who was known as the “Shakespeare Lady.” The NYT described her as “a striking woman in ragged clothing who recited dramatic monologues on the streets of New Haven, Conn., for spare change.”

Larry Kramer, whom Susan Sontag called “one of America’s most valuable troublemakers” for his militant support of gay rights.

John le Carré, wonder what they’ll think when he shows up at the pearly gates in his Smiley face?

John Lewis, a giant in the world of civil rights and in the US Congress; imagine losing Lewis and Vivian within days!

Johnny Majors, Football Hall of Fame, coached Pittsburgh’s 1976 national championship team, former coach and player for Tennessee,

Ennio Morricone, the end of his ‘mission’ to the ‘good, the bad, and the ugly

Phil “Knucksie” Niekro whose knuckle ball was one of the Braves calling cards!

Peggy O’Dea, teacher, friend, and friend of friends in Grand Island, who managed to be of good countenance under circumstances that lead others to despondency

Regis Philbin, longtime TV host

Charlie Pride, another of the victims of our plague and its mismanagement; now he can really kiss an angel good morning!

Helen Reddy, Aussie singer, one of her hits charged up the feminist movement

Carl Reiner—one of the few shows to hold up after decades? Reiner’s Dick Van Dyke show!

Sumner Redstone—while changing Hollywood, did he also help diminish network news?

Diana Rigg—long before her commanding presence as Lady Tyrell on Game of Thrones, she was Emma Peel, John Steed’s equal, as one of The Avengers (no, not the comic figures of later days but the literate and witty comedy/sci-fi/spy story of British telly.

Naya Rivera, who rose to fame playing a gay cheerleader on “Glee”

Gale Sayers—fine fellow and fine football player out of Kansas

Tom Seaver, terrible Tom, the pitcher who changed the fortune of the Mets and won at least 311 games for at least four teams and who our good friend Pete Clark got to meet!

Jean Kennedy Smith—the last of Camelot!

Celebrity host who taught us that P-P-P stood for price, price, price and hosted, no, not Price is Right, but Jeopardy! Who was __________________?

C.T. Vivian—valiant champion of non-violence and one of the MLK inner circle of civil rights leaders

Chuck Yeager—apparently still breaking through barriers

Christmastide 2020

from Chuck and Nancy Peek

In case you have forgotten that Santa Claus derives from St. Nicholas, though, if you hang stockings, you haven’t quite forgotten!

Dear Friends and Family,

The most heartfelt of greetings to you all this Christmastide. They may be coming from behind our masked faces to you distanced from us, but they are nonetheless heartfelt. As Pascal said, the heart has reasons the pandemic knows not of.

The pandemic, part a virus and part a reprehensible failure of leadership, has changed a lot for anyone aware of reality, but it can’t change the affection we feel for family and friends, whose affection for us is one of our truly wonderful supports, not just during this ordeal but in season and out.

I started writing this on Advent I, on which day St. Mark’s on the Campus followed up a June 28 zoom on how COVID-19 was affecting us with another zoom on the same topic. I guess it could have been titled “which of you thought we’d be doing this again in six months?” Some on the zoom thought we might be doing it a third time six months from now. One wisdom figure on the screen said, for all that it has meant, we are each of us right where we are supposed to be right now. Robbi Lowe, she’s a smart gal! In liturgical parlance, that is called “the peace that passes all understanding.”

Meanwhile, although lots of things as you know do pass my understanding, I was duly impressed with the savvy or the artificial intelligence we have invented. In striking contrast to our current administration, AI really works! I sent a Facebook birthday greeting to a former colleague still teaching at UNK, named Scott Darveau, and I’d no sooner sent off his greeting than a pop-up asked me if I wanted to change the language of my greeting to French. Wow. Human ignorance looks so much more ignorant when it is up against something like that.

We are smarting this season (all right, all right, calm down—one little bad pun isn’t going to ruin your holiday!) from having gone through the most harrowing experience people born in the 1940’s can expect to go through in their lifetimes—the purchase of new cell phones. At the rate we are figuring out how to use them, we should be back in touch with you sometime before the vaccine begins to be distributed. We have learned how to set alarms, but are still having trouble sending photos by email. I liked my Samsung Galaxy, but I think I’m going to like the Google Pixel even better once I get onto its pixie secrets. Phones are no doubt made by Artificial Intelligence!

Artificial Intelligence is probably, like most computer jargon, a bad term all around. First (see above) I’m already convinced there are lots of folks whose intelligence is, at best, artificial. Secondly, John’s Gospel begins by telling us that intelligence began with God—In the beginning was the Word! If human beings can be intelligent—a moot point these days, I know—we are intelligent because created in the image of God, so our intelligence is already derived, that is, is already artificial—an intelligence made in the image of another intelligence. Which then makes what we call Artificial Intelligence something at third remove…a grandchild so to speak.

But then there is a special bond between Grandparents and Grandchildren, so maybe the human factor was just an intermediary—from God’s mouth through us to Artificial Intelligence. Which will soon be driving your car for you. And just think, you always wanted a chauffeur.

Speaking of Jesus—come on, follow me here, the Word Incarnate in John’s Gospel—Christopher Smart asks in a liturgical text, “Who is this stupendous stranger?” A very smart question (pause for more groans)! One benefit of the pandemic is that it has rid a number of people of the all-too-cozy ‘what a friend we have in Jesus’ mindset. The world doesn’t seem as friendly a place as it did a year ago, even though America, as a nation, is about to get a lot friendlier. Our ideas of who is running the cosmic show have had to come from much deeper than metaphors of friendship. We awoke one day to the reminder that we live in the midst of mystery.

So, questions like what’s going on and how long will it last yield right away to: And who is this stupendous stranger, anyway? Nothing artificially intelligent about John’s Gospel or Christopher’s probing question set to hymnody.

By the way, equating mystical experience with mysticism is misleading. Another thing the past century should have taught is that mot “isms” are problematic, but if you’ve never experienced anything mystical, then perhaps your heart and mind are not often engaged together. Like metaphors, mystical experience intimately unites seeming opposites. Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other, the Psalmist wrote. Not often in my life, but often enough to make an impact. Not often in politicized America, but maybe on the return.

By the way, if you are interested in expanding your idea of God, I’d highly recommend Barbara Brown Taylor’s Holy Envy. My copy was a gift from our good friends Fr. Rod and Mary Moore, I’ve shared it with others, and reading it was both enlightening and a pleasure—the true definition of “literature”—dulce et utile!

Anyway, here’s to the stranger who is love come down at Christmas. And here’s to our all getting reacquainted with God and, as soon as we can, with each other! Feasting will mean a lot more after our fast and, so, may well be less gluttonous and more joyous.

In this season of light in every human faith, may all our lode stars lead to home, and may you arrive there with your gifts intact.

Love, Nancy and Chuck

Tapestry of the Magi

Here’s what is happening in our sheltered world:

First a bona fide miracle: our City Council, informed by the best medical opinion (however at odds with the Governor and his yahoo contingent), passed emergency pandemic measures, including masks. And guess what, soon after the measures went into effect, the rate at which the numbers were steadily rising would indeed have flattened were it not for the insanity of holiday travel and gatherings. Airlines booking the middle seats, Pompeo’s in your face plan to throw a party for 900 (although the good news is less than 100 people accepted the invitation and the pomp himself decided not to show up!).

Yes, the miracle was that we listened for a moment to medical advice, but I suppose some will find it a miracle because no one can figure how a hoax could be curtailed by common sense!

COVID-19 has affected all the schools to which our family is attached. I started my time as Rector in the Interim at St. Mark’s on the Campus on January 30. We’ve been hosting the ELCA students as well while their new student house is being built. Sitting one day in March in our fellowship hall, a very saddened Pastor Adam White came in to announce that the University was closing down.  They scrambled to get their usual end of the term stuff in over the next two days, didn’t come back until September, but were so mindful that their students could possibly infect our older members, they shut down pretty quickly again. As I write, they are moving out and into their own new student house. They were surely a blessing while they were here and we will miss them…hope our time together might lead to some joint activities in the future.

Their presence was part of what seemed to impel us at St. Mark’s to restore a once vital campus ministry, and the beginnings of that have perhaps been the most rewarding part of my interim months. Thanks to support from the Diocese as well as the parish, we now have some Student Assistants going through the learning curve with me—Joe Denniston, graduate student from Portland and Taylor Sullivan, undergraduate from Iowa. Our woman applicant got her NU Graduate assistantship back and so couldn’t accept our offer. The regular participation in our zoom meetings—from 3-6—has also involved Collin Sipple, who is officially our Volunteer Assistant, as well as Francine Canfield (a student from UNL I’ve known since her camp days) and Syble Heffernan (a delightfully bright Junior at Wesleyan). Once we reached out to students with an interest in LGBTQ+ issues (and a couple of my students from Bishop Kemper School) and had 15 students and some of our parish on a zoom. A small but definite beginning and the part of my interim ministry I’m most grateful for.

Anyway, UNL opened up for Fall and lasted through its term, getting out the third week of November and not reconvening until the end of January. The Lutherans will return to a new student house, I’ll be gone, and St. Mark’s new rector, Fr. Robert Magoola, will be arriving mid-January.

In Cedar Bluffs, our son-in-law, Superintendent of pre-K to 12 school there, has had to juggle modes of in person and zoom learning, availability of teachers and subs, both last spring and this fall, all with some pushback over restrictions and legal questions raised by our state’s unwillingness to mandate wise precautionary measures. Still, our grandson Brody (18 just this week) has managed to get through last spring, into his senior year this fall, through the football season, and into the search for a college.

In Milwaukee, the spring crash course in zoom learning for Mount Olive Lutheran School put the pinch on everyone, especially with Will, Greta, and Huck’s Mom, Laura Grace, working from home and their Dad, George, now working at home as well. Little Lou didn’t seem to mind. Summer came and gave the school a chance to get a better zoom act together, and they made a valiant stab at in-person learning that lasted until just a bit before Thanksgiving. Now it is back to zoom, each of the three students at his or her own desk in his or her own corner of the basement, only the sound of their voices occasionally annoying a sibling.

A Facebook meme said, if they had shut down the bars and gyms, the schools could have stayed open! Our daughter-in-law’s post asked people to enjoy a little game called “School at home was going just fine until _____!  The experiences of respondents were probably funnier to read than to go through.

My class in History of the Episcopal Church—really an adventure in when did we get it right and when did we not—met this year by zoom. Even though I missed being in-person present at BKSM and with the students, I found the zoom class, although a grueling test of zoom fatigue, was as productive as any. And we got to be present at BKSM anyway, if only for about 10 minutes. Nancy and I needed to vacate St. Mark’s for a day while one of the candidates was there, so we took the opportunity to drive to Topeka with a half dozen boxes of books I’ve been accumulating to get to various libraries. I’d early driven to Omaha and taken a load to both Incarnation Monastery and Magdalene House. The load we unloaded at BKSM with Casey Rohleder and her husband’s help was the last. The dozen boxes had sat under the wings of my desk for months, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed having the leg room back!

Our highlights include our oldest grandson Rowan moving from home into his own apartment in Omaha and continuing to enjoy his work building and installing security fences for a small company out of Mead. Rowan went with us for Nancy’s special appointment with University of Iowa Hospitals radiological oncologist eye specialist—a good examination that cleared her of any immediate worries and set us back on our annual visit schedule. Rowan went with us afterward for an all-too-short weekend in Milwaukee. We were blessed to hit the pandemic before it began to climb the charts again, got to stay right with the Peek’s and enjoy Will, Greta, Huck, and Lou as well as George and Laura Grace. Special treat, too, to see LG’s brother Jamie and her folks, Jon and Martha Bruss. All Laura Grace’s family have become dear to us.

Rowan’s brother Brody is in his senior year at Cedar Bluffs, has visited three schools out of state, been accepted at all three of the undergraduate campuses of NU and at Northern Colorado, and just this past week had an on-campus visit to Wesleyan. His mom, who in an earlier blog was chronicled teaching of all things science, has now, while they try to keep enough teachers around who are well, again substituting in science as well as math and in the school office as well.  She has just been named by our Bishop to be a co-chair for a Diocesan commission on racism in the church and is designing for her dad a special little gift for the many and various cooks he knows. For Harlan, see above! Running a school system and remodeling your main floor of your home at the same time cannot be easy!

Laura Grace continues to work from home, even while juggling teaching and mothering and work. George continues to many depositions by zoom, taking his turn at being at the law firm instead of home as their rotation allows. He is now President of his Mount Olive Missouri Synod church and has been nominated to be a Regent of the Concordia University system.

Even though COVID-19 has slowed Kearney Action Network down, Nancy continues to take part in what they can do and their preparations for doing more when the coast is clear. Without her, my gig at St. Mark’s just would not have been possible. She remains active, too, in her prayer group at St. Luke’s, and both of us enjoyed the Fall Semester’s Senior College Monday Morning talks by a variety of speakers, including my old friend and fraternity brother, Gary Thompson, who has been chair for some years of the NPPD board. Thanks to Stan Dart for his continued leadership of the college.

Besides serving (now in my 11^th month) as Rector in the Interim for St. Mark’s on the Campus, Lincoln, I’ve been so happy with the publication of my new book of poems and essays, Nebraska—Conflicting Reports, published by UNK for the Prairie Arts Brothers (PAB just won the ‘underdog’ category in Give Where You Live!) Had a good phone conversation with Walt Sehnert the other day. Walt was establishing his bakery in Kearney when our family was at St. Alban’s. Dad’s secretary there, Madge Whiteman, was a big supporter of the bakery so some of the baked goods would sometimes end up in the St. Alban’s office!

Also blessed by frequent calls with Jim and Bev Carothers, keeping us up on KU basketball, trips to KC to eat at Andre’s, visits with son Michael and family, the wildlife at Clinton Park, and how fares our embassy in Athens where their daughter Cathleen is posted.

Also blessed by a book review, one new novel, and new books of poetry sent by friends. The novel is Steve Buttress’s Junior’s Way (just arriving by personal delivery a week ago), and of the books of poetry: one a set of death and resurrection poems for his late wife by Bob Hamblin—rich in its raw emotion and hovered over by allusions to Donne; another a beautifully done book, Close to the Bone, by my old graduate school friend Dave Lampe; a disturbingly insightful set of poems by Nebraska poet Amy Plettner in her Points of Entry, and the book sent me by a winner in this year’s Rick Lupert sponsored context who won one of my books and returned the favor, Ron Kolm’s Swimming in the shallow End. The review by Casey Cep appeared in the November 30, 2020 issue of the New Yorker. Entitled “William Faulkner’s Demons,” it reviews Michael Gorra’s The Saddest Words—we got to meet and hear Michael at one of our last Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha conferences. Thanks to Stan Dart for sending me the review.

Next on the achievement chart: Kearney Creates is about to launch even as I write. The website will be a complete compendium of the arts in Kearney—a celebration of those who create them, teach them, perform them, stage them, sponsor them, and enjoy them. I’ve been pleased to start this project and still serve as its General Editor. Kate Benzel has stepped up into being co-editor, and our arts editors are Jerry Fox (art), Terry Sinnard (music), Terry Lee Schifferns (writing), Nathan Tye (history), and Kerri Garrison (everything else!). Rob Luscher and Pat Jones have also helped tow the rocket to the launch pad.

With travel curtailed, we cancelled a visit to KC with our friends Clark Swisher and Marty Townsend, but did get to zoom with them when we would have been visiting. Also, in the cancellation of many events, there ended up being no Hemingway Conference this year (we took in Susan Beegel’s webinar on Hemingway as “medical humanist” writer instead) and no Faulkner Conference (but a wonderful closing party zoom with so many friends and colleagues from over the years led by Jay Watson.) And on December 8 I gave a Wilma Dykeman Legacy zoom lecture in their Western Literature series, my talk on Cather’s O Pioneers! for which I relied heavily on reading my friend Daryl Palmer’s wonderful new book On Becoming Willa Cather, conversations with my friend Steve Shively, and previous learning from Joe Urgo, who suggested me to give the lecture.

Our entertainment schedule has been drastically reduced of course. To Dart’s for two fine dinners and them to our place for Carol’s birthday lunch; the Fox’s for a social hour and pro-football game; Friday lunches with the problem solvers (the aforesaid plus Steve Buttress, Galen Hadley, and Jim Rundstrom) for a short span of time until it got cold and the numbers grew and we could no longer be on the deck at Cunningham’s by the lake.

We went out in Lincoln to Vincenzo’s for our anniversary dinner and twice for breakfast with Steve Shively to the Hi-Way Diner; a lovely distanced dinner with Chris Grosh and David Pitts; splendid and again distanced picnic at Clay and Jill Leins; two great dinners with the Huenemann’s at the landmark Lee’s Chicken; and a couple of wonderful evenings with the Musicks, one with the Torens and Lowes; and we and the Lowes traveled together to inter a couple of their friends in the cemetery at Arlington. But that was all before the soaring numbers reduced us to at home or take out…only a few minutes delivering food to our daughter’s family for Thanksgiving—but a great zoom with them and the Milwaukee Peeks made up a little bit for not being together.

Yet, we’ve be able to take lots of walks, in Kearney at Cottonmill, Yanney, and Fort Kearney; in Lincoln at Pioneers, Nine Mile Prairie, Holmes, and Memorial Drive. As winter approaches, we’ll no doubt be doing more yoga at home, less walking, but still staying active. (Well, read that as a wish list!)

Heading now to grade the rest of the Bishop Kemper School class’s papers, get some Christmas odds and ends taken care of, and most likely finish up at St. Mark’s.

Again, bless you all, find blessings in it all, and find a way to be a blessing.

St. Mark’s on the Campus Advent Altar Frontal by Connie Backus-Yoder

Next blog: New Years–the semi-annual necrology of friends and celebrities