Category: processions

Hail and Farewell

BD Photo 2016
Grace and Larry Ward 

I thought each call would be easier than the previous, but it’s just the opposite. Perhaps my numbness is fading, and my grief is sinking in. Or perhaps I’m just tiring of sharing with others the reality that my mother has died — tiring of sharing the circumstances and the details of how we’re all reacting, what we’re planning, how we feel.

Continue reading “Hail and Farewell” →

Happy Birthday, Lauren Rousseau

I never met Lauren Gabrielle Rousseau, who was murdered in December 2012 by a disturbed young man who had likewise never met her, but whose doting mother had provided him with access to high-powered firearms and who had made sure he was well trained in how to use them. Continue reading “Happy Birthday, Lauren Rousseau” →

RIP Gregg Allman

“Will the Circle be Unbroken”

Performed by Gregg Allman

 

There have been many verses written for the Gospel hymn “Will the Circle be Unbroken.” The original was written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon, with music by Charles H. Gabriel, but the song has been reworked and rewritten many times, most notably by The Carter Family. Among the probably hundreds of recordings of the song is this one, featuring Gregg Allman – founder of The Allman Brothers – from his first solo album, “Laid Back.”

Gregg Allman passed out of this life on Saturday, May 27, 2017.

 

Right of Way

I do not plan to make a habit of linking to other writers’ blogs, but this one resonates – and my longtime friend Liz Knapp Healy uncovered a good dose of serendipity in getting it to me.

procession
The Order of the Good Death (www.orderofthegooddeath.com) addresses whether processions are a benefit or a nuisance. They acknowledge this may be a discussion not everyone is willing to engage in. (This photo can be found on their site.)

I was recently waiting at a green light, letting a very long funeral procession cross through the intersection in front of me, when a pickup truck behind me swerved around my left (into the oncoming lane), honked, forced its way through the procession, and sped away down the street.

~

I have spent the past few days working hard to see how to simplify my life and in the process encountered a quote from the French-born Etienne de Grellet.

He was born in 1773 into lower royalty, educated appropriately for his station, and called to serve King Louis XVI in the years leading up to the Revolution that began shortly after we in the U.S. had settled the wrangling over our Constitution. De Grellet narrowly escaped execution in Paris and fled to our soil, where he changed his given name to Stephen and joined the society of Friends, becoming a Quaker missionary; he spent the rest of his life in prisons and hospitals, bringing comfort to the afflicted, and recording his ideas.

“I shall pass this way but once,” he wrote during that period. “Any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now.”

I believe a good dose of this thinking might persuade us to not break through a funeral procession.

I believe reading this blog post by the Rev. Cindy Maddox, senior pastor of the First Congregational Church of South Portland, Maine, might persuade us of the same.

That is, if we needed to be persuaded in the first place.