BREAKTHROUGH

 

The Ocala public library recently purchased a book with the unlikely title I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust. These words were chosen because they were the first words typed by a young autistic woman with the help of a technique called Facilitated Communication. Although this method is disparaged by some therapists, it succeeded for the co-author of the book, Emily Grodin. Emily had never acquired more than a few words of spoken language. For her a floodgate of communication skills was released when she made her breakthrough. Although she did not learn to speak or to communicate without a facilitator, her ability to write on an iPad gave her  the confidence to enroll in college with the hope of becoming a spokesperson for others with autism.

To me the most remarkable significance of the account in the book is that it demonstrates that people suffering from autism can have an unusually high intellect which has no way to find expression. The behavioral symptoms associated with autism make it hard to recognize the underlying intelligence. A theory attempting to explain the syndrome called autism is that there is a deficient connection between the brain and the body resulting in the brain being locked up without an appropriate outlet. 

I Have Been Buried Under Years if Dust is written by Valerie Gilpeer and her daughter Emily Grodin, both remarkable writers with distinctive styles. These words written by Emily give a taste of her remarkable ability:

"Because I write with such clarity, the world wonders why I cannot speak as such. Where I'm from words are celebrated and shared with one another. A book is read at each days end to experience the power of language together. Their messages are discovered in the imaginations that listen. But they still inquire how I know these things I know."

Emily uses prose to explain her situation to the outside world which may see only her deficiencies and not know what lies buried under the surface of pain and struggle. She uses her poetry to reveal the inner being which we all share in our emotional and imaginative lives. 

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Listen to Matthew Arnold's The Buried Life. Read the complete poem.

SOLAR ENERGY

The Energy Consortium

A recent transplant from St Petersburg has written an opinion story for the Gainesville Sun on Climate Crisis Solutions. David Hastings joins us to share the silence at our outdoor worship in the Quaker Woods. He comes to us from the St Petersburg Quaker Meeting.

David's May 17 article in the Sun concentrates on ways in which we can avoid contributing to global emissions. But action is necessary; if we are complacent now when we have the opportunity to initiate changes we will pass the tipping point and find decline inevitable.

David says:

"The massive shift in technology has transformed how we can produce energy here in the Sunshine State, in developing countries and wherever the sun shines. These advances are revolutionizing energy policy."

OUTDOOR WORSHIP

REMEMBER WHEN

The Attack by Edvard Isto

Symbolizes Finland's Resistance to Russification

Finlandia was composed in 1899-90 by Jean Sibelius as a patriotic symphonic poem.  

Article by Danny Riley

"Press censorship was a strong characteristic of Russian, and in 1899 Sibelius was asked to compose some music for a “Press Celebrations” event. It was advertised as a fundraiser for pensions of newspaper workers, but its real purpose was to help finance a Finnish free press. So, to mark the occasion Sibelius chose to create a set of seven musical tableaux depicting momentous occasions in his country’s history."

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"The work ended, however, in the rousing “Finland Awakes” – an optimistic look towards the country’s future."

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"As the work grew in popularity, however, it had to be performed under politically inoffensive pseudonyms to avoid Russian censorship."

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"When the Finnish parliament declared independence from Russia in December 1917, this feeling was crystallised in the music of Finlandia. “We fought 600 years for our freedom and I am part of the generation which achieved it,” he wrote. “Freedom! My Finlandia is the story of this fight. It is the song of our battle, our hymn of victory.” From then on, Finlandia remained a constant source of inspiration for patriotic Finns, with the poet Veikko Antero Koskenniemi writing his own lyrics to the 'Finlandia Hymn' in response to Russian aggression during the Second World War." 

 

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The words of the hymn Be Still, my soul were written in 1752 in German by Katharina von Schlegel and translated to English by Jane Borthwick in 1855. It is sung to Sibelius' tune Finlandia.

Be Still My Soul 

1 Be still, my soul! for God is on your side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain:
leave to your God to order and provide,
who through all changes faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul! your best, your heav’nly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2 Be still, my soul! for God will undertake
to guide the future surely as the past.
Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be clear at last.
Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know
the voice that calmed their fury long ago.

3 Be still, my soul! the hour is hastening on
when we shall be forever in God's peace;
when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
love’s joys restored, our strivings all shall cease.
Be still my soul! when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

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In 1932 a young music student at the University of Southern California aware that the great powers were once again threatening to take control of weaker nations, felt in Sibelius' powerful music a way to speak out for peace. Lloyd Stone wrote his own words to the tune Finlandia.

A Song of Peace

This is my song
Oh God of all the nations
A song of peace for lands so far away
This is my home, a country where my heart is
Here grew my hopes and dreams for all mankind
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight shines on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
Oh hear my prayer, o gods of all the nations
A song of peace for their lands and for mine

"Lloyd Stone (1912 – 1993) was born in California and attended the University of Southern California as a music major, with the intent of becoming a teacher. Instead, he joined a circus bound for Hawaii and remained there for the rest of his life, writing poems and songs. This is his best known work; stanzas 1 and 2 were written in 1934 when Lloyd was 22 years old. Often combined with several additional verses by Georgia Harkness, the poem is typically sung to the tune Finlandia, composed by Jean Sibelius. Lloyd also wrote a musical based on Joyce Kilmer’s poem, 'Trees,' and several books of Hawaii-themed poems. Said one reviewer, '[Stone] does not sing of the palms and the surf, but of the earthy human beauty which is the heritage of the islands.'"

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I remember when we sang together the hymn A Song of Peace, page 304 in our Friends Hymnal. 

 

PENN SCHOOL

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs

Significant Election Scene at Washington, June 3, 1867

From the earliest days of Quakerism there has been a two pronged thrust of Quaker activities: to make people aware of the Divine Presence within everyone, and to help those who were who were oppressed. In the early days of the Civil War Pennsylvania Quakers saw an opportunity to help the freed slaves on St Helena Island in South Carolina make the transition to freedom. An organization named Friend's Freedmen's Association of Philadelphia provided volunteers and donations of money, clothing and supplies.

Although the rebellious southern states were in the hands of the Confederacy, the sea Islands had been captured during the Battle of Port Royal on November 7, 1861 and remained in the hands of Union troops for the duration of the war. The plantation owners and their families escaped the islands leaving behind their thousands of slaves. Two of the women who saw the need to provide assistance to the freed slaves were Laura Townes, a Unitarian from Philadelphia, and her friend Ellen Murray a Quaker from Rhode Island. They are credited with establishing the first school for freed slaves. When in 1864 the Freedmen's Association of Philadelphia provided a prefabricated building as the first permanent location, the school acquired the name Penn School in gratitude to their supporters in Pennsylvania. For Laura Townes and Ellen Murray assisting the community of Gullahs in the area around St Helena Island became their life's work. Their programs included education for children and adults, health care and helping establish self sustaining agricultural practices. 

Ellen Murray & Students

c. 1890 

The African Americans on St Helana Island were distinctive in being from a group called Gullahs who retained their own language and many of their customs. Since the land had been abandoned by the plantation owners, the military distributed it among the blacks who had served the whites and produced the crops of indigo, rice, cotton and spices. Although the African Americans were later given title to land, policies changed and title was often not secure. 

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Joan Baez, Ira Sandperl, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dora McDonald on the Penn Center campus in 1964

As the needs of the people changed the programs offered by what became the Penn Center evolved. To secure an economic base for the community, education began to focus on agriculture, industry and practical skills. In the 1960's the center provided space for interracial activities which were prohibited elsewhere. More recently the Penn Center has emphasized making it possible for Gullah families to keep the land which has been hands for over a hundred years. Large scale development in the Sea Islands and changes to legal requirements for ownership have threatened the Gullah people with removal. More recently the Penn Center has become involved with the National Park service in the establishment of the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park.

Gullah Music

Gullah Roots

 

WALLS WE BUILD

 I knew Sally had a sister who lives in New Orleans and who has one of the amazing stories to tell about surviving Hurricane Katrina, but I had never met her. A while back I learned that Sally's sister has a blog titled angels and people, life in New Orleans. It takes very little time to follow this blog because several times a week she will post a photograph which she has recently taken, along with a title which may suggest what she sees in it. I am grateful for the connection I discovered with Susanna through Sally.

This I found particularly moving: Figure By Mount Olivet Cemetery fence

  I try to hold this picture in my consciousness as reminder that we have built a wall between our comfortable, middle class existence and the lives of those whom we have excluded and denied opportunities because of race, class or traditional barriers. The walls will not fall of their own accord nor can they be removed by those who are imprisoned by them. We who built them, benefit by them, and who keep them in repair to protect ourselves, must be the ones who remove them.

History of a Slave Songbook.

Gullah-Geechee Singing

  

READING BLAKE

'Albion sat...Brooding on evil'

Jerusalem

By William Blake 

Detail from Plate 41

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 3, (E 34):
"Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and
Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to 

Human existence."

In the passage below we see the contraries at work personified in Los and Albion. What I see here is Los being forced into contrary positions by Albion's behavior. 'Albion sat...Brooding on evil'.

Albion (Mankind) was trapped in a self destructive mental state from which he could not extricate himself. Albion accused Los (who tried to help) and he made demands. Los' opposition began the breaking down of the intractable disease with with Albion was afflicted. Albion began to reflect on the consequences of his misguided decisions.

Milton, PLATE 42 (E 189)
"Thus Albion sat, studious of others in his pale disease:
Brooding on evil: but when Los opend the Furnaces before him:
He saw that the accursed things were his own affections,
And his own beloveds: then he turn'd sick! his soul died within him
Also Los sick & terrified beheld the Furnaces of Death
And must have died, but the Divine Saviour descended
Among the infant loves & affections, and the Divine Vision wept
Like evening dew on every herb upon the breathing ground

Albion spoke in his dismal dreams: O thou deceitful friend
Worshipping mercy & beholding thy friend in such affliction:
Los! thou now discoverest thy turpitude to the heavens.
I demand righteousness & justice. O thou ingratitude!
Give me my Emanations back, food for my dying soul!
My daughters are harlots! my sons are accursed before me.
Enitharmon is my daughter: accursed with a fathers curse!
O! I have utterly been wasted! I have given my daughters to devils
 
So spoke Albion in gloomy majesty, and deepest night
Of Ulro rolld round his skirts from Dover to Cornwall."

Albion in his self righteous desire to be the object of mercy forced Los to direct his mercy to those whom Albion may harm, rejecting Albion's pleas. Albion by not showing mercy, forced cruelty on Los. Albion demanded righteousness and justice for himself with no thought for the harm that his failures were causing others. Albion could not be healed of his sickness by being affirmed in the symptoms he was displaying. (Think of the alcoholic and the enabler.) Los provided the contraries so that progress might take place.

"Los answerd. Righteousness & justice I give thee in return
For thy righteousness! but I add mercy also, and bind
Thee from destroying these little ones: am I to be only
Merciful to thee and cruel to all that thou hatest ?
Thou wast the Image of God surrounded by the Four Zoa's
Three thou hast slain! I am the Fourth: thou canst not destroy me.
Thou art in Error; trouble me not with thy righteousness.
I have innocence to defend and ignorance to instruct:
I have no time for seeming; and little arts of compliment,
In morality and virtue: in self-glorying and pride."

In this little tableau contrariness was the result as well as the cause of progress. Error had not been removed but progress was being made in recognizing and defining it. The process must continue because 'One Error not remov'd, will destroy a human Soul."

 
'Why should Punishment Weave the Veil with Iron Wheels of War When Forgiveness might it Weave with Wings of Cherubim' Jerusalem, Plate 22

 

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

My attention was drawn to the hymn This Is My Father's World by remembering that it includes the words 'Music of the Spheres.' The concept is an ancient one, explored by Pythagoras and contradicted by Aristotle. The astronomer Kepler took it very seriously; he concluded that "the Solar System was composed of two basses (Saturn and Jupiter), a tenor (Mars), two altos (Venus and Earth), and a soprano (Mercury), which had sung in “perfect concord,” at the beginning of time, and could potentially arrange themselves to do so again."

The imaginations of contemporary musicians and scientists are stimulated by considering relationships among the vibrations of notes which produce music and the arrangement of planets in various solar systems.

This video lets us listen to music which would be produced by The Harmonic Series Played By Planets.

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An Astronomer who is also a musician has produced a Ted Talk on this subject. Matt Russo introduces a way to hear with our ears what we thought was only visible to our eyes.

What does the universe sound like? He gives a musical tour of what the universe sounds like.

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Since sound does not travel through a vacuum whatever sound our earth makes would not be audible from space. However our planet does emit electromagnetic waves which can be translated to audible sound wave just like radio waves become sound waves from our radios. This video lets us listen to waves Earth produces.

Electromagnetic waves as sound

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Returning to our original hymn, This Is My Father's World, we can listen to a recording which is arranged to emphasize that the world is the vehicle through which spiritual music is being played.

 This Is My Father's World

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