AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY

January 30, 2007

The word “sabbatical” comes from the notion of Sabbath, that on the seventh day, God rested from all His labors. If it’s good enough for God, it ought to be good enough for the rest of us. And the extrapolation is that every seven years, one should get a rest. In academic circles, the idea was that every seven years, a professor would get time off to re-tool, to explore new areas of study, to not just rest but to re-energize.

Sometimes, even in religious life, members are given that same opportunity. Now I am getting a mini-sabbatical - not a full year, but a chance to refresh and explore. As some of you may know, I had made a couple of proposals, ideas I had had about how this time might be spent. Father Provincial was not impressed, and sent me back to the drawing board. But we had a very good meeting, I got caught up on what’s going on in the Province, and he got caught up on what I had been doing and was/am feeling. I came away with a much better sense of what he and the Society of Jesus expected from this time.

So I came up with plan 3. And shortly after I submitted it, with some further thought and talking with people, I revised even that one into plan 4. And plan 4 it is.

So - for those who keep track of these things - I will be based in New York until July, with the following dimensions. In February I will be studying piano, and working on music theory. Also exercise - both for keeping healthy and I would like to lose a little more weight. (When in my life has THAT not been the case? Sigh.) But in addition to the treadmill and the bicycle in the basement (and I use them, I really do) one can easily do golf and ice skating and bowling. (Bowling? Yup - I had not been bowling in more years than I can think about, and last week I bowled three games. Thought I was going to die - started to think seriously about a thigh transplant. Talk about using muscles one doesn’t usually use. I heard that - yes, I have muscles. They’re disguised, but they’re there. I went again today - I am nothing if not stubborn - and on the first ball hurt my hip. I may be too old for bowling. Next week - ice skating.)

In March I will be going to England and Austria, to visit some friends and places I have not seen in a long time.

In April and May I will be back in New York for more work on the piano, and some study on the problems of aging in religious communities. I’ll be going to the Rotary International Convention toward the middle of June, (Salt Lakle City!) and I’ll be visiting some friends in Texas, and I will spend a little time in West Virginia and Washington.

I will also have two times when I go away for retreat - times of prayer and silence, and I hope to do some reading on the Gospel of John.

I’m in residence with the Jesuit community on 83rd Street, and I will have the same room until July, so the phone numbers remain the same. If you don’t have my phone numbers, send me an email and you’ll get them automatically. (I’m not crazy enough to put my phone numbers on a public blog site.) Probably in June, the Provincial will have a conversation with me about the next assignment. I asked if there were any merit in using some of this time for preparation, and he wisely said no, use the sabbatical time for its own purpose, and if any preparation is needed, we’ll deal with that once we decide on the next assignment.

So, at the moment I am studying piano and practicing 4-5 hours a day. I really am. I have an electronic piano in my room, with earphones, so the community doesn’t hate me, and I am trying to take advantage of being in the city. My teacher is the conductor of the Riverside Symphony Orchestra. I was introduced to this group by the cousin of a friend of mine on Kwaj, and it is a wonderful group. Through this introduction, I have been to jazz at Squadron A, and found a weekly jazz group at St Bart’s, and a weekly jazz presentation at St. Peter’s. I’ve been to several organ recitals, and recently I went to the Carlyle Hotel to hear Rita Moreno. (Yes, she is still alive.) She’s 75 years old and did a wonderful show. The voice is a little thin and breathy but she controls it superbly, and a couple of ballads were tinglingly beautiful. (My spell checker doesn’t know that word, but it is absolutely correct, and if it doesn’t exist, it should. And now it does.)

Let me back up a little and try to bring a little chronological order into this. I returned from Kwajalein the day before Thanksgiving, and celebrated the day itself with Jeanne French, mother of Rob French, who was perhaps my best friend in all the world. He has gone, but Jeanne is very much with us, and hosted a whole gathering for the ceremonial eating of the turkey. (That would NOT be me.) I think there were eleven people gathered around the table. I started getting used to cold weather - this is a process that is still ongoing. Christmas in New York was fun, and I started to catch up with old friends. I went to a wonderful concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and did the tourist thing of Radio City Music Hall at Christmas. Great fun - they had a 3-D movie segment that was very well done, and the two organs played before the extravaganza started, and the orchestra rose up and went down and the rose up and slid across the stage area - making room for the ice rink to come up and down and up and down. (Okay it was a small ice rink but let’s not lose sight of the fact that it was an ICE RINK.)

At the end, staying with tradition, there was the Nativity story. And they had live donkey and camels and sheep, and they read from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and from the Gospel according to Luke, and they had Joseph and Mary and the Kings. What they did not have was angels - no mention of the angels. And the word “God” was never heard, nor was the word “Jesus.” It was as delicate a bit of writing as you could hope to find. Imagine doing a whole Nativity scene without ever mentioning Jesus. Now at the end there was a great light shining behind the Holy Family and everyone on stage was in various poses of adoration - but as the conclusion, a scrim came down with the old thing about one solitary life - you know, this one man never traveled more than 30 miles and never commanded armies but no one has ever had more influence, cha cha cha. A very secular view of the nativity - but at least it was there, and the whole thing was really great fun.

Treated myself to another Christmas tradition in New York (at least for me) and that is the Big Apple circus. The night I went there were a whole groups of kids from some organization who were being treated, so the energy under the tent was remarkable. Every time the lights went out, the volume moved from loud to deafening. But they also quieted down just as quickly, and it was a fun night. Critic that I am, I have to say it was not the most exciting version I have seen from this group, but great fun. Someone I know is a relative of the lead clown Grandma - and blessed if I could remember who it was. I did talk to him (Yes, Grandma is a him) but since I couldn’t say who I knew who knew him, I just told him how much I enjoyed his work. Always a safe thing to say.

One of the nicest things that happens to me is meeting new people, and so far in this incarnation, I have been blessed several times. I mentioned the relative of the guy from Kwajalein - very active in music, a lawyer who was in the Special Forces, very generous with his time and acquaintances - invited me to a salon before the Symphony concert, where I met the woman who is the speech writer for the Commissioner of Police, and several other interesting folk, including the guy who plays trumpet at the Friday jazz group. He gave me tickets for the first concert - which included a harmonica concerto by Villa Lobos (yes, a harmonica, and the guy who played it makes a living playing with symphony orchestras around the world), and introduced me to Oscar Hijuelos, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, whose writing (if you are not familiar with it) will blow you away. WONDERFUL stuff. (And I now have signed copies of his books for the library.)

At a party after the concert, I met another guy who is working on a musical for Broadway. Now, in New York, it is not difficult to meet people who are “working” on a Broadway play. But we chatted for a while, and the guy called me up the next day. The idea was that I might be able to sing some of their music for a backer’s cd they are trying to put together. I went over to his apartment, and was delighted to find that the music is really good. I’ve been over four or five times, the author likes what I have been doing, and I am really enjoying it. It’s work - music changes as we work on it, I’m sight reading and trying to do interp, and the author has his own ideas and it’s all great fun. In fact they’re working on two shows - one completely original, one an adaptation of Androcles and the Lion (the George Bernard Shaw script), and what I have heard from both is very good music. Who knows? I might get to do a Broadway show yet. (I have another friend who is also working on a show, and he has a place for cameo shots, and he has promised me one of those if it makes it. Can’t have too many chances.)

In December, an old friend of mine from Buffalo came to town and introduced me to a friend of hers who had just moved to New York. This new friend is in the State Department and was formerly Consul General in Toronto. She is here on assignment to the Council for Foreign Relations. She is delightful, and basically, I have a playmate to do things with in New York. We went to the Riverside Symphony together and joined my cousin and her friend for dinner, and have done all sorts of other things. Friends are a little startled when I bring a “date” but she is enjoying learning about New York and we have great fun.

I celebrated my birthday in Arizona, with very special friends. (I am trying not to say “old” friends) - I share the date with Ed, and in our past, we have celebrated together. I was with them on my memorable 40th, when I shaved my beard and no one knew who I was. So I went out to the warm weather (although as these things work out, it turned out to be warmer in New York than in Phoenix. New York had the warmest December on record since 1877 and had no snowfall during the whole month. I learned that my two favorite words since coming back are ”Unseasonably warm.”) We played golf and had dinners at wonderful restaurants and breakfast where they brought us cake with candles, and because it was my first time they gave me four muffins. I saw the museum where they both volunteer, and I got to meet some of the Rotarians in the eclub to which I belong. Nice to meet people in the flesh you’ve been working with for a year.

And after the first of the year I traveled again, this time to Tulsa, for the wedding of the daughter of another long-time friend (there’s that “old” problem again.) Got to see some college friends I had not seen in years (and years and years) and again, got to meet a whole bunch of new people and renew acquaintance with some I had not seen for a while.

One of the nice things about growing older is that your friends are too, and are getting more respectable - which includes having houses in the country. I got to visit two friends who each have houses in the country - one in upstate New York and one in Connecticut. I saw the grave where Virginia is buried (of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” fame) and I met more wonderful people and had amazing food and most important, got to spend time with friends.

Now those of you who know me and who have been reading carefully will note that I have made no mention of opera or Broadway theatre. That’s ‘cause I haven’t been, a combination of finances (lack of) and opportunity (ditto). Trust me, I will remedy that in the weeks to come. I have not been doing as much singing as I would have liked, and I will have to add that to the schedule.

I do hear from friends on Kwaj. A number of people have left and are leaving - they love the place but I keep hearing that the work environment continues to deteriorate and they simply don’t think it’s worth it any more.

For instance - A friend who was feeling sick went to the hospital on Kwaj, and was given aspirin and told to rest. (no x-ray, no blood work, no meaningful diagnosis.) He went to the US, before he was supposed to go on to South America for his vacation, and the doctor there diagnosed a severe intestinal infection, put him on a heavy dose of antibiotics, close observation and cancelled the trip. Said if he had waited another week he could have been in serious trouble. Reminds me of my own appendix adventure.

On to new and (we hope) greater things. There probably won’t be any more blog updates until after I return from Austria - or I get a visitation from an angel. Or win the Lottery. Or like that.

But the assorted emails all work, phones work, I even get real letters in the snail mail from some people. If you ever get near the NY area, give a shout - I’m always glad to have people to play with.

Hugs and prayers and love to you all - and let us continue to pray for one another. (And if you haven't been praying for me, NOW is the time to start. Get on it!)