WHILE HE AND HIS PIANO GENTLY WEEP

Nobuyuki Tsujii

I have written before about how music can express the heart where words fail. Below is a composition by the young blind Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii: It is called "Elegy for the Victims of the Tsunami of March 11th 2011 in Japan." The music expresses Tsujii's sorrow -- and he and his piano were weeping throughout the performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. 

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqoV4ZW7xTA 4:52

A GRIEF REMEMBERED*

I have a memory of  the day my grandfather died in 1962. My

My father and me
(c. 1965)

father came home from the hospital where my grandfather was being treated for what we thought was a relatively minor ailment but he unexpectedly died. 

I was waiting at my grandfather's house with other family members when my dad came in the door. In his typical WASP way he told us that Granddad died then went to the basement of the house. We were stunned!

I sneaked downstairs and heard my father moving about in a small bedroom at the back of the basement. Slowly I opened the door and said, "Dad? Are you okay?" Looking away to hide his face, he absently fidgeted with something on the top of a dresser. He cleared his throat then replied "I'm okay son."  The air was thick with emotion. I dared not speak for fear of crying. Finally I was able to muster the words "I'm going to miss him, Dad." My father turned and looked at me; his eyes were brimming with tears, his lips trembling under his mustache. He whispered "Me too," then completely broke down and started weeping. I ran to him. We hugged and cried. He wept for his father (and I wept for him) but mostly I wept for my dad in a grief I could not assuage, but could only try to comfort him in as much as was possible for a boy of nine. 

Something heartrendingly beautiful happened in that room. Our father-son soul-bond deepened. In an embrace of a few moments we experienced a sovereign unity of two broken hearts beating as one. It was as close to divine love as I have experienced before or since. Eight years later my father would die but there would be no unity of hearts. One ceased to beat.   

In 1994, I watched the movie Shadowlands, a love story about C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman who died of cancer in 1960. C.S. Lewis was brilliantly portrayed by Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger as Joy Davidman. There is a scene near the end of the film where Lewis and Joy's son Douglas are in the attic of Lewis' home shortly after Joy's death. When I saw the scene it reminded me of my own experience I described above. There are obvious differences, of course, but the point where grief breaks through into sobs of sorrow (2:44 in the clip below from the movie) opened my little grey memory cells of thirty-two years earlier with my father.   

What's my point? Do not fight it when it's your turn to grieve. Grief is universal to the human experience. It will touch us all.  Granted, it is excruciatingly painful but is also as natural as air after a major loss. Tears are constructive and necessary. Suppressing or avoiding grief can result in destructive behaviors and acting out (as it did to me after my father died).  


We must enter our own river of grief and venture across to the opposite shore in search of acceptance and hopefully a dawning of recovery that subdues the stabbing pain of grief.

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_QDoHsdSTg for the grief scene from the 1993 movie Shadowlands.]

*The title of this post is a take-off on C.S, Lewis book A Grief Observed, his eloquent journal chronicling his inconsolable grief journey after his wife's death.

CHALLENGING GOVERNMENT

My last blog post dealt Christian advocacy and addressed, in part,

my challenge of government policy denying me an electric wheelchair because of advanced multiple sclerosis (MS).  At the bottom of that previous post was a link to a television news story about my situation. A newspaper columnist for the Edmonton Sun, Cam Tait, also wrote about it, See 

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/09/27/mark-pickup-challenged-policy-to-get-a-replacement-power-chair  

Edmonton is fortunate to have someone in the media like Cam Tait who understands disabilities issues. All cities should have such a media presence.  

CHRISTIAN ADVOCACY

Recently I was denied an electric wheelchair by the provincial

government in the province where I have lived all my life (Alberta, Canada). This denial came after years of supporting my need for an electric wheelchair. The denial was eventually reversed after a barrage of emails from my Facebook friends and other people of good will deluged the Premier's office.[1] (It shows the power of new media to effect change.)

While the change of decision is good for me, it raises a larger issue: What about those people with disabilities who can not speak for themselves and don't have a thousand Facebook friends or a community to rally behind them? Who will advocate for them?

This is a legitimate ministry for Christians and churches. Look for people who need an advocate. Make good things happen for people with disabilities through effective representation for them to government agencies, insurance companies or other avenues that can assist them to live not just exist.

If your church or parish hasn't yet established a community advocacy ministry, start one. Let the community where you live know it exists. Go to bat for those who are most vulnerable with the same tenacity as if that person was Christ himself. It's a great evangelism tool and an effective way to show the greater community God's love through your actions.

Below is a link to a news story about my case. Remember the media can be an effective partner for change. Cultivate relationships -- with organization but most importantly, with people. 

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.2578308 

Mark
_________________________
[1] In Canada. a provincial Premier is similar to a state Governor in the U.S..

DARE TO LOVE

The greatest human need is the need to be loved. This includes people with disabilities. The greatest poverty in the world today is the lack of love and so many people with disabilities are impoverished when it comes to love.

Dare to be generous with love; dare to be vulnerable with your heart; dare to love those who feel unloved. Love is the only thing that ultimately matters. We discover this crucial truth the closer we draw to Christ and other human beings. 

Love is the only risk that can pay dividends in this world and the next. 

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaTQ5-XfMM , ThePianoGuys, A thousand Years, 4:35]

IDOLATRY OF SELF THREATENS ALL WE ONCE HELD DEAR

Every abortion in Canada is paid for with our tax dollars (without our consent or any public consensus). It is a moral outrage!

Then in late July 2015, the abortion pill RU-486 was quietly approved by Health Canada. Although women will need a prescription to obtain it, a whole new phase of early abortion is about to begin in 2016. It will be secret killing, under the radar so to speak. Canadians will not have the slightest clue how many little lives will be deliberately snuffed out in utero. The intentional taking of human life won’t end there.

Earlier this year Canada’s Supreme Court unanimously struck down the law prohibiting assisted suicide.  The suicidal sick, disabled or depressed are likely to be helped to kill themselves beginning in 2016. Canada truly has become a culture of death. O Canada! Where did we go wrong?

I think I have a vague idea of our societal error. Throughout the twentieth century, Canada experienced a gradual cultural drift from its Christian foundations.  Others have chronicled the drift more adeptly and thoroughly than I could possibly do, but let me tell you generally where I think we went off course from truth.

Much of society ceased to believe or care that the real presence of Christ was possible in their lives ― or the Blessed Sacrament for

that matter. With it came a loss of holiness and a sense of wonder for the sacred. C.S Lewis wrote: “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” 

That is a simple, profound truth yet vast portions of our culture became blind to the concept of holiness and the transforming sense of wonder that it brings to life. Just as the real presence of Christ is what makes the Sacrament blessed, it is the image of God that gives sanctity to all humanity. 

Hearts that are indifferent to the things of God can make any atrocity possible ― like digging out a developing unborn child from its womb or helping a suicidal disabled or sick person kill himself. As Christians we must never become indifferent to abortion or the euthanizing of people. 

Pope Benedict XVI said:

“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. There may be legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not... with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”

Personal autonomy elevated to the highest ideal at the expense of

community concern and the common good is treacherous indeed. It does not enhance our humanity; it takes away from our humanity and leaves society poorer, much poorer. It is the tyranny of self that excludes consideration for the good of others. Unaccountable personal autonomy inevitably hurts the most vulnerable and those with the least power. 

Again, Pope Benedict said elsewhere: “We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”

Our culture is infected with the deadly combination of the eyeless ‘I’ of narcissism, and the moral corruption of nihilism which rejects long-held beliefs and morals of a previous Judeo-Christian culture.

Have we come to a point of nihilism where each person is his own judge and jury and his personal convictions of self-interest are

infallible? Is every person is his own god? Have we come to a point where Frederic Neitzsche’s terrible predictions have come true? He said: “Nihilism is standing at the door. A triumph of nihilism is evitable.” 

Has nihilism crossed the threshold and overcome our previous tried and true Christian culture? Will those faithful to the gospel and commandments of Jesus Christ and his Church acquiesce to such a perilous the unproven future?  We must not.

Everything Christians should hold dear – like the sanctity of human life – is at stake. I do not want you to take this lightly. The lives of the powerless as well as the hearts and souls of the powerful hang in the sway!

Jesus Christ commanded us to take the Good News to the world which includes our neighborhoods. The Gospel message has changed and transformed individuals and entire societies before in history. I pray it can happen again. Countless lives depend on the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. If you and I do not take news of the internal transformation that a personal encounter with Christ can bring, who will?

Wear your Christianity for all to see and always be prepared to give an account for the hope that is within you. 

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FExIWex_vc for Celtic Thunder - Heritage, 4:45]

WHAT'S NEXT FOR KENTUCKY CLERK KIM DAVIS?

Kentucky County Clerk
Kim Davis

David Brody, "What's Next for Freed Kentucky Clerk? Her lawyer speaks out," The Daily Signal, 10 September 2015. See link below. 
http://dailysignal.com/2015/09/10/whats-next-for-freed-kentucky-clerk-her-lawyer-speaks-out/