Paul is not complimentary in all of his letters, but to the church at Philippi his words are filled with compassion.  What have the Philippians done to deserve such praise from their leader?

January 19, 2009

In a previous assignment regarding Maya Angelou’s poem, On the Pulse of Morning, I made a couple of mistakes and in my redaction and on the eve of the inauguration I want to take the opportunity to springboard into some future assignments that we will consider at Durham Nativity School.

My first mistake, Maya Angelou was not the Poet Laureate.  I think I made the mistake because of a previous Poet Laureate, Robert Frost, who also read a poem at a presidential inauguration.  A poet who reads at the inauguration is not necessarily the Poet Laureate.

Second mistake, Maya’s poem was not called A Rock, A river, A tree.  That was merely the first line of her poem called, On the pulse of morning.  http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mayaangeloupresidentialinaguralpoem.htm

Take a look at the following link to explore some information on the role of the Poet Laureate in the U.S., a role currently held by Kay Ryan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet_Laureate_Consultant_in_Poetry_to_the_Library_of_Congress 

As for poems read at presidential inaugurations there is some interesting information below.

INAUGURATION POETS

Elizabeth Alexander is only the fourth poet asked to write and read a poem for a U.S. presidential inauguration. Her predecessors:

• Robert Frost: Frost wrote the poem Dedication for John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration, but the glare of the sun off the snow-covered ground left the elderly poet unable to read it. Instead, Frost recited from memory his 1942 poem, The Gift Outright, which begins: “The land was ours before we were the land’s/She was our land more than a hundred years/Before we were her people.”  These two poems can be found at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/inauguration/frost_poem.html

• Maya Angelou: Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993. The final lines: “Here on the pulse of this new day/You may have the grace to look up and out/And into your sister’s eyes, into/Your brother’s face, your country/And say simply/Very simply/With hope/Good morning.”

• Miller Williams: The Arkansas poet spoke at Clinton’s second inauguration in 1997. His poem Of History and Hope begins: “We have memorized America,/how it was born and who we have been and where. In ceremonies and silence we say the words, telling the stories, singing the old songs.”  This poem can be found at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/inaug/mon/poem.htm

From: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/6213542.html

We are going to take a close look at Elizabeth Alexander’s poem after it is delivered on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.  We might begin by learning something about her at: http://www.elizabethalexander.net/home.html

When asked about how she was preparing to write this poem for Barack Obama’s inauguration she said,  “I try, in the course of my day and in the course of my dreams, to leave myself open to all of the different kinds of language available to us at any given moment. The poet’s job is to capture and distill that language and shape it into a form.”

I would hope that we would take her words seriously, that the poet gives language a shape and form, when thinking about our own writing, God’s writing in Scripture, the Psalmists’ writing, etc.

We are going to consider memorizing and reflecting upon Alexander’s poem, Maya’s poem, Frost’s poem, Miller William’s poem.  I want us to take a careful look at Obama’s “Yes, we can” speech during the campaign.  http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/26/obama.transcript/index.html

And of course we will carefully consider President Barack Obama’s inaugural address.  Before he delivers there are some questions for your consideration.

How does the rhetoric and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. factor into what we will hear from Obama?  And you need to be saavy on this one.  You won’t know King is being represented simply when you hear Obama say, “And in the tradition of Dr. King” or something like that and then he leads into a direct quote.  We might hear some direct quoting and referencing, but Obama’s team of speech writers are too good for that.  They will be more nuanced.  Instead you might hear something about it having been a long night, or the sun coming up, or the horizon arcs toward justice, or a vast number of other phrases that come out of The Movement and are being realized in this new presidency.

The closer you listen tomorrow, the better you will do in the coming weeks and months as we turn our efforts back toward this historic occasion again and again.

Good luck.  Don’t miss the boat on what is happening on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.  It is like the day that Kennedy was shot, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, invasion of Pearl Harbor, falling of the Berlin Wall, you will want to mark where you were and who you were with and what was said, and even how it smelled.  I am thankful that I will be watching with you–the students at the Durham Nativity School.

This past month the 7th graders were assessed on the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John.  8th graders were assessed on Night by Elie Wiesel and they wrote essays to show their understanding of the book.  6th graders were assessed on the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

From the four horsemen, to the terror of the Nazi Holocaust and that terrible memory that we must remember, to the messiness of Israel’s family tree through people such as, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob–through all these things the 26 students at Durham Nativity School are growing in their understanding of scripture and sacred literature.

During the 1st trimester, we also covered Matthew and Acts among the 7th graders, Moses: Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston and The Confessions by Saint Augustine among the 8th graders, and Exodus and Isaiah for the 6th graders as they are introduced to the Religion curriculum at Durham Nativity School.

December will include the book of Hebrews (7th grade), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (8th), and the book of Deuteronomy for the 6th graders.  And then it will be 2009 before you know it.

Keep up the great work.  –Mr. Linney

P.S. To read more about our lesson on Psalm 1 and Maya Angelou check out:  http://monkawe.blogspot.com/2008/11/where-rocks-meet-roots.html

Read Genesis 32:22-32:32

1) Who is Jacob wrestling?

2) List 4 things you learned about Jacob from your reading of GodStories by H. Stephen Shoemaker

This is a copy of a painting by Eric de Saussure.  What is the big purple garment that the prophet seems to be touching?  Respond with a comment about this painting or a comment about the Isaiah 6:1-9 text that we are studying in class.

Where will we begin? Hopefully, with the end in sight, but where are we going?

Are we to become better followers of God? Are we to become more learned in Scripture and Literature? God we ask you–who are you? And what are you calling us to do and to be?

Maya Angelou writes in A Rock, A River, A Tree:
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.

Like the bow in the clouds that God showed to Noah and all those left after the flood (Gen 9:13), we are arcing into shape. The horizon leans forward and the day is breaking before us. To paraphrase Angelou further, and utilize her fine poem for our purposes, she invites us to give birth again to our dreams.

Help us listen to our dreams and determine the steps to making them come true. Lord, allow us to be courageous enough to ask difficult questions of you and ourselves. You will show us the way, but we must search along the path with diligence and perseverance. Keep us leaning forward, arcing into a shape that is pleasing to you.

Maya Angelou can be heard reading this poem at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDtw62Ah2zY

Above: Anointing of David– II Samuel 2:4

The OT and NT have been exploring the theme, “We Want a King,” by looking at scriptures from 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings.  Check out these pictures above.  Is anointing like being called or set apart?  What do you think?  Can you relate either of these pictures and scriptures to other examples of call, anointing, or being chosen by God?  Choose an example of another call from scripture and note any similarities between your choice and one of these anointments of either Saul or David.  Post your findings as a comment to this post on Mr. Linney’s website.

Anointing of Saul

King Solomon

When Eugene Ionesco writes about dreams and anguish as uniting forces in our lives, he is speaking more broadly about memory.  In some cases a collective memory of suffering and anguish are a uniting force.  For groups that are tortured or enslaved, it is their anguish that unites them.  What other groups are bonded by collective suffering?

Ionesco also writes, ” The light of memory, or rather the light that memory lends to things, is the palest of all.  I am not quite sure whether I am dreaming or remembering, whether I have lived my life or dreamed it.  Just as dreams do, memory makes me profoundly aware.” 

Are there some dreams or memories that should be forgotten?  At least for a while if not permanently?  Others should certainly be held on to forever.  To forget them is to in some way lose our humanity.

How do you remember your greatest achievements? How do you remember your greatest failures? Are all these memories strictly self-generated or do they somehow have a corporate life with those who share in them?

I remember a canoeing trip when I was thirteen years old.  It all culminated in the last rapid, the Nantahala Falls.  To go back there now to that whitewater, as I have done many times since, the Falls are never as big as they were on that hot July afternoon in what must have been 1988.  Jeff and I were each 75 lbs. soaking wet and we muscled around a big Green Bluehole–a 16 foot whitewater canoe that probably weighed 80 pounds by itself.  We managed a 360 in the top hole which means that above the bottom drop we managed to turn our canoe in a full circle before going down the falls. We peeled out of truckstop, a massive eddy on river left and headed toward the center of the river with me in the stern controlling the 45 degree angle to the right. When we flopped down over the top hole, Jeff laid down one of his brilliant draw strokes and with that magnificent stroke and the force of the water we had hit the top hole as an eddy and quickly prepared to peel out before getting side surfed in the turbulence of the top hole. I exposed the bow to the quick moving down stream water and before we knew we were heading back down stream and over the falls. Meggan and Brian, our counselors, and the other paddlers on our trip cheered over the loud pounding of the frothy water. We were heroes.

I’ve not written of this story ever, nor thought of it in several years. If not for memory, it would be all but gone, as though it never happened. I can remember it more clearly because it did not happen separate from community. The cheerers on that trip would have retold that story when we returned to camp that evening. They would have even encouraged Jeff and I to retell the story. If it happened alone, I’m not sure I could recall it in the same way. Not to say that significant occurrences do not happen alone, but they are quite different than experiences that others witness and share in. Thanks to memory and the dream of a special moment in a young boy’s life, I can recall it as easily as I can breathe. Thank you memory. Thank you Eagle’s Nest Camp.