I want to tell you just how much I loved my college in South Dakota, even though it was forced to close in 1984. By that point 28 members of my family had graduated from either its high school or its college, both of which were part of the same campus way back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
My grandmother, who lived in one of those very small towns in South Dakota, went to Yankton High School where she met my grandfather who was in college there from Chicago. If her little town had had a high school, therefore, I wouldn’t even exist and wouldn’t be writing columns for you.
It’s strange that I went to one of the country’s finest high schools, New Trier, in Winnetka, Illinois, and yet I was much happier in a poor little college in South Dakota . The best teachers I ever had, from grade school, high school, college and graduate school were at Yankton College. The main one was Dr. Cummings, a brilliant English teacher who truly inspired me. Before I had him, I didn’t even think of myself as a graduate school student, much less a professor, but he persuaded me that I could and should be both.
Another powerful professor was J. Laiten Weed who was the finest music teacher I ever had. I don’t even know that I would have kept playing my violin for the rest of my life had I not been so encouraged by him. In addition, I would guess that I wouldn’t have had free graduate school had I gone to a college in a more wealthy, successful part of the country. As it was, there in the midwest I was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and, as a result, a National Defense Fellowship. I therefore got to go free to Emory University for both advanced degrees. Of course I had some fine teachers there, too, but nobody was as inspiring as Dr. Cummings.
Also some of my still close friends were students there. Bill Charland, for example, was also a English major and friend at the college. Since those days we have gotten together many times, as well. After we went on to graduate school, we met again in Atlanta, where we both taught at black colleges just down the street from each other. Later, he came to visit me in Ada, Ohio, where I taught, and we also met in France, where I taught English for three years. And we have since met in Chicago, Colorado, and back for a reunion at our dear former college.
Sad to say, the college is now a prison. It’s a very minimum security place where the gates aren’t always kept locked--or sometimes even closed. The problem with prisoners leaving, of course, would be that, if caught, they would not be returned there but would have to go to a different prison with much tighter security. Also, they’d have to stay there for a longer time since they had escaped their previous prison.
Bill and I have many similarities, including the fact that we’ve always loved to write, and we both still write for newspapers, his in Silver City, in southwest New Mexico. We email each other often and send our works to each other. In fact, it was he who suggested that I do a column about our dear college.
I’ll send this one to lots of my friends from Yankton College, and I feel sure they will reply with similar feelings for our loveable school.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Thoughts on Mortality
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die.” Ecclesiastes
I realize that I recently did a column about how I am determined to live to December 3, 2039 so I can marry my sweetheart on my 100th birthday. And of course I hope to make it. But I also realize that Ecclesiastes is right about our inevitable “time to die,” saying it is not just an occasion for some but as something we all will go through, sooner or later.
In my case, I’ve had polio, breast cancer, open heart surgery and a stroke, so of course I don’t know but that my time will come before 2039.
I just read an excellent book called “Being Mortal” on just that subject. It is by a prominent doctor and writer named Atul Gawande, whose parents came here from India. His book is about our inevitable deaths, and he quotes Ecclesiastes, though of course he says that our health care is very different now than it was back in the third century BC. This very old message is nevertheless still true. We all eventually have “a time to die,” and much of Gawande’s book is about just that.
A subject he emphasizes is that of hospice, a program which makes the end of life more bearable. It’s amazing that this practice first existed back in the 11th century in Europe, no doubt for much younger people. Of course not much is known about those early days of end-of-life care, but today those admitted have been advised--and have therefore chosen--not to go through any more risky operations or other extreme kinds of help. They simply are cared for by loving specialists, are given medications to help with pain, and are helped with their emotional and spiritual needs for the six or so months of life remaining to them.
Some people get this kind of care in a special part of a hospital, but even then their care is about one third the cost of what it would be in a regular hospital situation.
For these reasons, hospice has become more and more popular, so that these days about 45 percent of Americans die either at home or in an institution, but with hospice care. As Gawande puts it, “People are truly cared for with services for anything from pain control to making out a living will.”
Another important aspect of the end of life, Gawande feels strongly about is that “People who have substantive discussions with their doctor about their end-of-life preferences were far more likely to die at peace and in control of their situation and to spare their family anguish.”
There is an obvious complication for us all about dying, nevertheless, says Dr. Gawande, for “People die only once. They have no experience to draw on. They need doctors and nurses who are willing to have the hard discussions and say what they have seen, who will help people prepare for what is to come--and escape a warehoused oblivion that few really want.”
A doctor’s obligation, he says, is “helping others deal with what medicine cannot do as well as what it can do.” But in addition, doctors need to consider two possible poor choices: “the mistake of prolonging suffering or the mistake of shortening value life.”
Of course I hope my readers are far from their deaths, but I nevertheless recommend Gawande’s book, “Being Mortal.”
I realize that I recently did a column about how I am determined to live to December 3, 2039 so I can marry my sweetheart on my 100th birthday. And of course I hope to make it. But I also realize that Ecclesiastes is right about our inevitable “time to die,” saying it is not just an occasion for some but as something we all will go through, sooner or later.
In my case, I’ve had polio, breast cancer, open heart surgery and a stroke, so of course I don’t know but that my time will come before 2039.
I just read an excellent book called “Being Mortal” on just that subject. It is by a prominent doctor and writer named Atul Gawande, whose parents came here from India. His book is about our inevitable deaths, and he quotes Ecclesiastes, though of course he says that our health care is very different now than it was back in the third century BC. This very old message is nevertheless still true. We all eventually have “a time to die,” and much of Gawande’s book is about just that.
A subject he emphasizes is that of hospice, a program which makes the end of life more bearable. It’s amazing that this practice first existed back in the 11th century in Europe, no doubt for much younger people. Of course not much is known about those early days of end-of-life care, but today those admitted have been advised--and have therefore chosen--not to go through any more risky operations or other extreme kinds of help. They simply are cared for by loving specialists, are given medications to help with pain, and are helped with their emotional and spiritual needs for the six or so months of life remaining to them.
Some people get this kind of care in a special part of a hospital, but even then their care is about one third the cost of what it would be in a regular hospital situation.
For these reasons, hospice has become more and more popular, so that these days about 45 percent of Americans die either at home or in an institution, but with hospice care. As Gawande puts it, “People are truly cared for with services for anything from pain control to making out a living will.”
Another important aspect of the end of life, Gawande feels strongly about is that “People who have substantive discussions with their doctor about their end-of-life preferences were far more likely to die at peace and in control of their situation and to spare their family anguish.”
There is an obvious complication for us all about dying, nevertheless, says Dr. Gawande, for “People die only once. They have no experience to draw on. They need doctors and nurses who are willing to have the hard discussions and say what they have seen, who will help people prepare for what is to come--and escape a warehoused oblivion that few really want.”
A doctor’s obligation, he says, is “helping others deal with what medicine cannot do as well as what it can do.” But in addition, doctors need to consider two possible poor choices: “the mistake of prolonging suffering or the mistake of shortening value life.”
Of course I hope my readers are far from their deaths, but I nevertheless recommend Gawande’s book, “Being Mortal.”
Friday, April 10, 2015
Stories about Hymns
If you love hymns as much as I do, you will enjoy reading a book called “101 Hymn Stories” by Kenneth W. Osbeck.
Osbeck was born here in Michigan in 1924 and got two degrees from the University of Michigan. He then taught for 35 years, first at a Grand Rapids School of the Bible and Music and then at the seminary there.
He also served as a music director for various churches here in Michigan and for the Radio Bible Class, and he has written a number of books about hymns.
Osbeck and his wife, Mary, stayed on here in Michigan after he retired, and since his retirement they have given over 600 dramatized hymn story programs for churches.
Of the 101 hymns he describes in his book, he discusses the words first, and it’s not surprising, as he says, that most were written by ministers. He also makes several interesting remarks about the importance of hymns:
“Historians have stated that Martin Luther won more converts to Christ through his encouragement of congregational singing than even through his strong preaching and teaching.” (16th century)
“Of the Wesleys it was said that, for every person they won with their preaching, ten were won through their music.” (18th century)
Some hymns are extremely old. For example the words to a favorite hymn, “All Creatures of Our God and King,” were composed by Francis of Assisi in 1225, just before he died. Friedrich Spee created the tune four centuries later for a Roman Catholic hymnal in Cologne, Germany.
Another old one is “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” for which Martin Luther, 1483-1546, composed both the music and the words. Osbeck says about it, “It is the single most powerful hymn of the Protestant Reformation Movement.”
A much more recent favorite of mine, “How Great Thou Art,” was composed in the 20th century and was made famous by Billy Graham and his Evangelistic Team.
Many of us sang the hymn “Jesus Loves Me” as children, but it’s interesting that it is also sung in Asia as “Yes, Buddha Loves me.”
“Amazing Grace” is especially familiar for me because our Olde Tyme Music Group plays it at the end of each of our nearly 60 performances each year. It was composed by John Newton who in his early years collected Africans as slaves and eventually got his own slave ship. Fortunately he changed radically and eventually became an Anglican minister and a prominent supporter of abolitionism.
“Rock of Ages” is another favorite hymn composed by Thomas Hastings in this country, using words by Augustus M. Toplady, from England. Hastings wrote music for over 1000 hymns and texts for over 600. It is especially amazing that he was so successful, for he had only a little musical training. He was nevertheless rightly rewarded with a degree of Doctor of Music by the University of the City of New York in 1858.
Yet another favorite of mine is “It Is Well With My Soul.” Horatio G. Spafford composed the words almost immediately after he had lost his four children in a terrible shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean. He was so committed to Christianity, however, that he wrote extremely positive words at that point:
“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.”
These are only a few of the many stories in this most informative, enjoyable and recommended book.
Friday, April 3, 2015
The Power of Music
Though I studied music only as a minor in college and it was never my career, I have played violin and truly loved it for most of my 75 years. My mother was a fine pianist and loved to play with me, even when I must have sounded terrible because I had just started.
I played in the Battle Creek Symphony for 31 years and really enjoyed it, but then I retired and started playing mostly by ear for old folks. And I’ve come to love that even more.
Part of the reason I so enjoy playing by ear is my very poor memory following my open heart surgery and stroke. I have a lot of trouble remembering words in general, especially people’s names, but my memory for music and my ability to play by ear seems to be untouched. I am extremely pleased that I can still play just fine and thank God daily for the joy that music brings me.
I’ve lived here in this part of Michigan for 37 years and would never want to move away, for I have too many friends who seem to appreciate my music a lot and don’t want me to leave.
For the past five years I’ve played my violin with the Olde Tyme Music group six or seven times a month, mostly for people in assisted living places and nursing homes. And I play for other groups, as well. In fact, in the month of December, 2014, I played 18 gigs of music, four at the Congregational Church in Battle Creek, and the rest for older people. I loved each chance to play and never even got tired of any of those Christmas songs and carols even though I played each of them so often.
The elderly seem to love music even more than the young. They sometimes have trouble reading because their eyes are failing them. In addition, many have suffered from losing their spouses and friends, and some seldom even get to leave their beds. Music therefore seems to be one of their main joys in life.
In fact, one time when Brooks Grantier and I played at Sterling House, just south of Battle Creek, on Lois Drive, one man said to me, “This was the happiest hour I’ve had in all of the two years I’ve lived here.”
Some of the most appreciative audiences I’ve encountered are at Marion Burch, a day-care center for people who can’t stay home alone during the day and at The Oaks which is connected with Northpointe but is for full-time care for quite old people. I play at Marion Burch twice a month, once with our Olde Tyme Music group and once by myself, and I play alone each month at The Oaks. As I tell them each time I play at both places, those are the fastest but most enjoyable hours of the month.
Elena Mannes, a much awarded woman, wrote a book called “The Power of Music: Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song.” As she explains, music stimulates our brains more than any other force. "A stroke patient who has lost verbal function — those verbal functions may be stimulated by music."
I’ll close with a memorable quotation from Plato: “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”
I played in the Battle Creek Symphony for 31 years and really enjoyed it, but then I retired and started playing mostly by ear for old folks. And I’ve come to love that even more.
Part of the reason I so enjoy playing by ear is my very poor memory following my open heart surgery and stroke. I have a lot of trouble remembering words in general, especially people’s names, but my memory for music and my ability to play by ear seems to be untouched. I am extremely pleased that I can still play just fine and thank God daily for the joy that music brings me.
I’ve lived here in this part of Michigan for 37 years and would never want to move away, for I have too many friends who seem to appreciate my music a lot and don’t want me to leave.
For the past five years I’ve played my violin with the Olde Tyme Music group six or seven times a month, mostly for people in assisted living places and nursing homes. And I play for other groups, as well. In fact, in the month of December, 2014, I played 18 gigs of music, four at the Congregational Church in Battle Creek, and the rest for older people. I loved each chance to play and never even got tired of any of those Christmas songs and carols even though I played each of them so often.
The elderly seem to love music even more than the young. They sometimes have trouble reading because their eyes are failing them. In addition, many have suffered from losing their spouses and friends, and some seldom even get to leave their beds. Music therefore seems to be one of their main joys in life.
In fact, one time when Brooks Grantier and I played at Sterling House, just south of Battle Creek, on Lois Drive, one man said to me, “This was the happiest hour I’ve had in all of the two years I’ve lived here.”
Some of the most appreciative audiences I’ve encountered are at Marion Burch, a day-care center for people who can’t stay home alone during the day and at The Oaks which is connected with Northpointe but is for full-time care for quite old people. I play at Marion Burch twice a month, once with our Olde Tyme Music group and once by myself, and I play alone each month at The Oaks. As I tell them each time I play at both places, those are the fastest but most enjoyable hours of the month.
Elena Mannes, a much awarded woman, wrote a book called “The Power of Music: Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song.” As she explains, music stimulates our brains more than any other force. "A stroke patient who has lost verbal function — those verbal functions may be stimulated by music."
I’ll close with a memorable quotation from Plato: “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”
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