Ordinary Days: Anna, #10

There was

    much weeping. (Acts 20:37)

 

Dear Anna, 

Grammy was tearing up. I asked her, “Why the tears?” She simply said, “Anna;” knowing I could figure it out.

Grammy was thinking about you leaving to attend Connecticut College. All eighteen of your years have been lived out across town from us on the other side of Main Street. During your stroller days, we would meet in the middle for a Main Street dinner at High Tech Burrito. We spent many a Saturday watching you swim for Castlewood Country Club where we could pretend like we were rich. When you got your driver’s license, your first drive was across town to Grammy and Papa’s house. We looked with wonder as you, all by yourself, pulled into the driveway. How fun to have you in our life.

Who are we going to call when we need someone to climb up into the attic to get stuff down or to put stuff up? Or, who else is going to stop by Farmers Market on Saturday mornings and pick up a Cinnamon Crisp for Papa? Or, who are we going to call for all sorts of high tech challenges?

Tomorrow you and your mom fly to New York, rent a car, and travel 122 miles to Connecticut College in New London. You won’t be across town anymore. That’s why Grammy was tearing up. But, it was a good cry—crying because you’re not there; and at the same time, tears of joy for all that lies ahead.

Love, PAPA

Ordinary Days: Anna, #9

All have sinned

   and fallen short of God’s Glory.

   (Romans 3:23)

 

Dear Anna,

You introduced me to that great James Madison quote from Federalist Paper #51: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” The point being, that humans govern humans and thus all governing is flawed. To deal with human governing, the U.S. Constitution, Madison argues, must provide checks and balances between Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary branches of government, in order to put a check on our propensity to abuse power.

Madison knew Augustine’s The City of God; in which Augustine reminds us that all earthly kingdoms are earthly. That goes for church governance as well. The church is a human institution. The Kingdom of God awaits us and always points beyond us. That gives us the best line of the Preamble: “In order to form a more perfect union.” If it were to say, “In order to form the perfect government…” We would be in big trouble—tyranny, as with all utopian claims.

Fortunately, for us, our founders knew Augustine. Maybe, while reading the classics, you too will get to know the Bishop of Hippo. Maybe you will read it in the original Latin. Wouldn’t that be something?

Love, PAPA

 

Ordinary Days: Anna, #8

Those who mock the poor

   insult their Maker.

   (Proverbs 17:5)

 

Dear Anna,

You have always been on the side of the oppressed. When you were but a sophomore, you wrote, what turned out to be, an award winning poem. The last stanza sums up your feelings:

            Don’t judge people, don’t be a fool;

                You really aren’t that cool.

                Call me names, do what you want;

                Through it all, I’ll remain nonchalant.   

That’s you! The poem expresses your concern for those whom the cool kids judge not cool. The poem also expresses your sense of your own person. I love that about you. Jesus sided with the poor, the lowly, and even risked conversation with that Samaritan woman.

I look forward to seeing where your thoughts will lead you—what ideological form they will take in you. My guess is it will take a uniquely Anna form—not just the fashionable ideology of the day; but your own thought. You will take your teachers by surprise. You have become a woman of substance, like Ruth the Moabites, with a mind of your own. I look forward to discussing such things with you.

Love, PAPA

 

Ordinary Days: Anna, #7

God shows

   no partiality. (Romans 2:11)

 

Dear Anna,

Derrick Bell, way back in my time, is the father of CRT. He taught law at Harvard and Stanford. Like our Lord, when teaching, he liked to tell stories. He gathered up some of these stories and put them into a book entitled Faces at the Bottom of the Well: https://www.c-span.org/video/?34630-1/faces-bottom-well.

My two favorite stories are The Afrolantica Awakening about how the lost continent of Atlantis, lush and beautiful, floats up to the surface. To everyone’s surprise, only black people could breathe Atlantis’ air. It is the kind of fantasy you would write. And the book’s last story, The Space Traders about extraterrestrials who arrive in the United States offering gold, safe nuclear power, and other technological advances in exchange for all of its black citizens. They require a decision in 5 days. It all adds up to blacks finding themselves, despite civil rights laws and all our platitudes, at the bottom of the well. Why is that?

Derrick Bell reminds me of John Calvin, that 16^th century theologian and father of the Reformation. I like Calvin, but Calvinist can be obnoxious know-it-alls. Calvin calls them his “cavalier followers”. I like Bell, but his followers tend to be domineering and dictatorial. They allow no room to discuss any alternatives or other possibilities. It is as if their critical theory has reached the status of ex cathedra. I hope your teachers allow robust questioning. I don’t know anyone better at questioning things than you.

Love, PAPA

 

Ordinary Days: Anna, #6

Maintain justice,

   and treat others right.

   (Isaiah 56:1)

 

Dear Anna,

When you visited the Lincoln memorial, you read the two speeches, the only two presidential speeches worthy of being carved in marble. In these carved-in-marble-speeches, Lincoln goes back to the Declaration “Four score and seven years” earlier when: “Our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” We remain “dedicated to the proposition.”

Though Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 project, trashes the signers of The Declaration, she ends up honoring The Declaration itself:

The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, proclaims that ‘‘all men are created equal’’ and ‘‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.’’ But the white men who drafted those words did not believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of black people in their midst. ‘‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’’ did not apply to fully one-fifth of the country. Yet despite being violently denied the freedom and justice promised to all, black Americans believed fervently in the American creed. Through centuries of black resistance and protest, we have helped the country live up to its founding ideals.

These flawed white men, who signed the Declaration pledging their Lives, their Fortunes and their sacred Honor; managed to produce an ideal that “black Americans believed fervently,” and “through the centuries of black resistance and protests,” have “helped the country live up to its founding ideals.” That is true. Great ideals are always bigger than ourselves. It is hard to beat the “founding ideals” of the Declaration: life and liberty and equality and justice for all (13^th Amendment). At our best, we are always trying “to form a more perfect union.” Thus the amendments that you spoke so eloquently about in “We the People”:  13^th, 14^th, and 15^th written into the Constitution “to secure the blessing of liberty” for all our people. We can honor that, can’t we?

Love, PAPA

Ordinary Days: Anna, #5

Question everything;

   hold on to what is good!

    (First Thessalonians 5:21)

 

Dear Anna, 

It was fun going through your Connecticut College seminar options with you. I like the one on “Latin language and the culture of Ancient Rome.” Especially since you chose Connecticut so you could study Latin. But all those seminars like “Myths that Made America,” where “Students will examine the ways in which myths naturalize power structures and hierarchies in society that include, exclude, and keep certain people ‘down’”—sounds like a good dose of CRT. It has become the ethos of the academia since my time.

Critical Race Theory, as I understand it, is a legitimate academic pursuit. Critical means questioning things. That’s good. The Bible tells us to “question everything.” We go to college to develop our critical thinking. Race—Racism persist in-spite-of Civil Rights Laws and our best efforts to eradicate it. Why is that so? Theory—-In seeking answers to our questions, we come up with possible explanations for why racism persists.  

The theory is that racism persist because it is deeply imbedded in our nation’s history, founding documents, and laws. In short, irredeemable racism finds its way into all our social structures, even church. To validate the theory requires the complete retelling of our nation’s history (as in the 1619 project), and the dismantling of our political and social structures so that we can reconstruct non-racist institutions.

Meanwhile, such a theory causes us to 1) condemn our present institutions that spring from our founding documents: The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, as irredeemably racist and thus to be dismantled; and 2) tell victims of racism that their plight, within our present social structure, is hopeless. I think we can tell a sober history of our nation and at the same time honor our founders and our founding documents. The Bible does that, for example, when it tells the story King David: “You have shed too much blood.” (1Chron 28:3)

Danielle Allen, in her book Our Declaration; gives us good reason to honor our founding document. She is an African American classical scholar at Harvard; who believes The Declaration is a wonder worthy of being called “Our Declaration.” Thank you for reading it with me. We’ll discuss with the book between us; and then, off to college you go.

Much Love,

Papa

Ordinary Days: Anna, #4

Runners race to

   compete for the prize.

   (First Corinthians 9:24)

 

Dear Anna,

What a joy it was for Grammy and me to watch you compete in the U.S.A. Water Polo Junior Olympics. And, what a venue: Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. I felt smarter just being on campus. I’m so happy you will continue your water polo competition at Connecticut College. Great colleges honor sport competition. You can’t exercise the mind apart from the body. That is why we believe in a bodily resurrection. Without our bodies we are not us.

Jesus teaches us to “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength.”  “Heart” and “soul” speak of something interior while “mind” and “strength” speak of our exterior endeavors. Jesus affirms that we are mind and body. When you play to win the prize; you put all your strength into it. College, at its best, develops strength of both mind and body.

Maybe best of all, by playing water polo you learn to be a part of a team where you experience that unique comradery of striving together to win the prize. Chance are, some of your team mates will become friends for life. When you are as old as I, you will sit around and talk about the elation of winning and the pain of losing. That too is sports’ great lesson—how to win and how to lose. We win as team and we lose as a team. In winning we acknowledge the part others played; and, when we lose, we honor the other team and show up for practice the next day to see if we can’t do better next time. That’s life.

Love, Papa

Ordinary Days: Anna, #3

God formed Leviathan

   to rollick in the sea.

   (Psalm 104:26)

 

Dear Anna,

Grammy and I are at the Kinser Cabin, or as it says over the front door, “Kinser Kabin.”  I don’t know if you have ever been here. Your mom has, year after year when she was younger than you. Back then, Gary and Janice Kinser and their three girls, about the same age as our three children, invited us to join them most every August to rollick about on The Lake. Your mom can tell you stories.

But today, it’s just Janice Kinser, Gary died near three years ago. We sit around, tell stories of when our children were young, and brag about our grandchildren. The Kinser Kabin is up the road about four blocks from the west shore of Lake Tahoe. If you go upstairs and look out the window of the kids’ front bedroom, you can see a sliver of The Lake between the trees. When we see the water from a distance, we long all the more to get into the water—to rollick about as Leviathan of old. To actually get into the water, you walk down the hill those four blocks onto a private beach with its private peer. We’ve been told, the “private” part includes us; at, least that’s how we go about it and no one has put a stop to it.

Today, we are leery of walking down to the peer because you have to walk back up hill four blocks and we are quite sure Papa won’t make it back up. So we will settle for that little sliver of blue water we can see from that second story kids’ bedroom window; and, reminisce about the times we spent with our families rollicking about in the The Lake.

Maybe the closest our grandchildren have come to such a place is that big old beach house in Mission Beach—big enough to fit all sixteen of us. There we watched our grandchildren grow up together year after year. You were something of a loner at first—retreating into your books. But, by and by, you engaged more and more. You still have your books, but these latter years, you boogie board with your cousins, and surf board with your cousins, and play volleyball with your cousins, and together, we enjoyed all sorts of watery jollifications. The Tahoe magic of your mom and your aunt and uncle has made its way to Mission Beach. Grammy and Papa are blessed to watch such magic have its way with you.

Love Grammy & Papa

 

Ordinary Days: Anna, #2

O Lord,

   grant me success.

   (Genesis 24:12)

 

Dear Anna,

Your journey to Connecticut College on the Thames River in New London, CT.; caused me to think some about Eliezer’s journey back to the old country to find a wife for Isaac—the son of The Promise. Along the way, he prays that God will grant him success. It is the first recorded prayer in the Bible: “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham…”

Your journey to New London most likely will set the course for your own life of Promise. What does God have in store for you? Grammy and Papa are praying for good things—that “the angel of our Lord will go before you, and cause your journey to prosper!” (Gn 24)

Much Love, Grammy and Papa

Ordinary Days: Anna, #1

 Let us reason together,

   says the Lord.

   (Isaiah 1:18)

 

Dear Anna,

In twenty days, you head off to New London, Connecticut, to begin your college days. It is your turn. Abby led going off to Texas State University in San Marcos and now continues her Physician Assistant program at Alabama. Then came her younger sister Priscilla who finished her first year at Baylor. And now you—off to Connecticut College. That’s over 3,000 miles away—about as far away as you can get without crossing the Atlantic.

Each has their own journey: Abby medical, Priscilla computer science, and now you and your love for history and political science—for Latin and the classics. Along with your deep passion for justice and equality. I remember, a long time ago, when you were in Junior High, and you found out that, in our church, women could not serve as elders; you cried, “That’s not right!” Your mom called me over to talk. And, we talked. We’ve always been free to talk, haven’t we? Let’s never lose that, okay? Even when you are a long way from home.

Love,

Papa