Janet

The surgery went well. We are home. Thanks for the prayers.

Surgery

Janet has gall bladder surgery tomorrow. Please remember us in prayer.

Francis Kline - Abbot, Obituary

DOM Francis Kline, Abbot at Mepkin Abbey in Mepkin, S.C. passed away on August 27. He was a world reknown organist. He was 58. Link

What Is Important In Your Life?

ON SUNDAY MORNING WHILE I WAS IN CLINTON, TENNESSEE, FOR A SPECIAL RELIGIOUS SERVICE AT FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH A HORRENDOUS ALARM SET OFF AT 6:44 AM. MY INITIAL THOUGHT WAS THAT AN ALARM CLOCK IN THE ROOM HAD GONE OFF. I RAN AROUND THE ROOM BUT COULD NOT FIND A CLOCK, THEN SOMEONE KNOCKED ON THE DOOR AND SAID, "LEAVE LEAVE."

WELL, THE QUESTION IS, "IF YOU WERE IN A SITUATION SIMILAR WHAT WOULD YOU TAKE WITH YOU?" FOR ME I QUICKLY PUT ON PANTS, SHIRT, NO SOCKS, AND UNTIED SHOES. I GRABBED MY BILLFOLD AND A COUPLE OF OTHER THINGS OF VALUE TO ME. ONE OF MY FRIENDS, WHO WAS ON THE FIRST FLOOR, (WE WERE ON THE SECOND FLOOR) TOOK OFF THE SCREEN FROM HIS WINDOW AND DUMPED EVERYTHING OUTSIDE HIS WINDOW.

YES, IT WAS A REAL FIRE. THE FIRE DEPARTMENT SHOWED UP WITH 3 TRUCKS, WITH FIREMAN DRESSEDAS ASTRONAUNTS, AND WITH PRECISION FOUND THE CULPRIT, THE AIR-CONDITIONER UNIT HAD CAUGHT ON FIRE THROUGH FAULTY WIRING. IT WAS AN HOUR AND A HALF BEFORE WE WERE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO THE ROOM, BUT AGAIN, "WHAT WOULD YOU TAKE WITH YOU?"

I KNOW A PERSON WHO HAS OVER $100,000 WORTH OF TOY TRAINS. ON HIS CAR IS THE STATEMENT, "HE WITH THE MOST TOYS WINS!" SOMEHOW THAT DOES NOT BREED WELL WITH ME. NOT A ONE OF US IS GOING TO TAKE ANYTHING WITH US WHEN OUR MORTALITY ENDS.

LAST WEEK, I WENT THROUGH THE HEARST CASTLE. GEORGE RANDOLPH HEARST COULD HAVE ANYTHING IN THE WORLD HE WANTED AND ANYONE WITH ANYTHING OF VALUE KNEW HIS NUMBER. STATUES THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD WERE AROUND THE CASTLE. THE GREATEST OF ARTWORKS WERE THERE. FROM ALL ACCOUNTS HE WAS A GENEROUS MAN TO HIS FRIENDS. HE RUINED ORSON WELLES CAREER BUT WAS INFLUENCIAL IN MAKING BILLY GRAHAM FAMOUS. "PUSH GRAHAM," HE SAID TO HIS NEWSPAPERS. BUT, IN THE MOVIE, Citizen Kane -- perhaps the greatest movie ever made and supposedly about Hearst-- when he is dying he can only think of one pleasure, his sled named Rosebud when he was 10 years old.

Well what is the purpose of this? What is important in your life? If the fire came what would you take with you? But a bigger question is, "What have you got to give?" Care, comfort, help to others, even a hope.

For you see, the only thing we are really ever going to take with us is what we gave away to others. You think about that !!!

CLINTON TENNESSEE - CLOSING NOTES

I realize that somehow I have to bring closure to the episodes of this week. I don’t think as many life changing events have happened in one week to me. It was a busy, energetic, thoughtful, and unusual week. From Big Sur to Nashville, from Salinas, California, to Clinton, Tennessee, from John Steinbeck to THE TRUE FACE OF CLINTON-TIME MAGAZINE 12/17/56 This story tells the original story of what happened in Clinton and to Rev. Paul Turner (please read!), from the Hearst Castle to the Green McAdoo Cultural Center, from the garlic capital of the world (Gilroy, California)) to a fire in our hotel in Clinton, TN., from now to THEN !

SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE WEEK:

Viewing a previously unseen area of the world opens new vistas of understanding.

ALWAYS remember the good from a bad situation.

Most people have no idea of the real influence of their lives on others.

Simple things often have great meaning.

There are always flower blooming somewhere.

The big events that change our lives are often unexpected.


A CONVERSATION

Alfred Williams, one of the original students, sat in front of me at First Baptist Church where Paul Turner was the pastor. Afterwards I asked him a question. "What did Rev. Paul Turner, walking with yall to school mean?"(Remember that Rev. Paul Turner was badly beaten after walking with the students. People were yelling, "kill him, kill him!")

Alfred said with a great deal of pride in his eyes and voice, "Nothing meant more to us than that he stood by us during that time. He was a great man!" (Note: It was evident all weekend that Rev. Paul Turner was a BIG hero to the African-American community. His quotes were engraved in marble on the wall outside the museum.)

When he shared his thoughts something happened to me that was one of the biggest surprises of my life. Rev. Paul Turner, besides living besides me in Clinton, had a tremendous influence on my life. He preached my ordination sermon in Louisville, Kentucky, when I was a student there in 1970.

Many times we talked of the Clinton experience. In none of these conversations did he realize the importance of what he had done. He received thousands of letters, many filled with hatred, others with admiration. One was from Billy Graham, another from Edward R. Murrow. To Rev. Turner, the hatred he received was paramount. It affected the rest of his life. BUT I REALIZED when talking to Alfred that “Paul Turner had done a great deed for people who were disenfranchised, worn down by hatred, beaten by public opinion, and who feared for their lives every moment.” I wished he could have been there this weekend to realize the effect he had really had on people’s lives.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN – A BIG UGH!

I was shocked this weekend to discover that the daughter of John Kasper had been searching for her father. She was born in 1977 and never remembers him. She is searching for her lost father, "a man who ran for President in 1960 and 1964." She wants to write a book about him and even went to Clinton recently to do research. She is bisexual, has 8 tattoos and feels her father needs a book written about him to do him honor.

John Kasper is definitely an interesting man, although very misguided! I guess I have learned more about him this weekend than anytime in history. I did not know that he was a friend of Ezra Pound, whom I admire as the greatest inspiration in poetry for the past generation, but evidently misguided (Pound) in some or all of his anti-semi tie thoughts.

But Kasper did more to stir up trouble in Clinton than anyone could imagine. Read the read story. John Kasper link-a must read !, a real trouble maker. I also discovered that he had had a previous experience in Louisville, Kentucky, that I was unaware of. Sallie Bingham, daughter of the publisher of the Louisville Courier-Journal, tells of his visits to Pound and his damage in Louisville.. link

Oh well, I am so emotional about all of this that I have got to stop. Maybe more later or never.

Clinton Tennessee Community Service

What a GREAT experience at First Baptist Church honoring the CLINTON 12
this morning. What a wonderful religious time together.

Just a passing thought that the moments that are most life changing are
not planned and are most likely events over which we have no control.

October 5, 1958 My Birthday

October 5, 1958 My Birthday
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Clinton TN Fire Truck

Clinton TN Fire Truck
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Fire

Fire
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

We were rudely awaken at 6:44 am with a horrible sound, a FIRE ALARM.

Everyone evacuated then the fireman arrived. It took about an hour to

get things straightened out.

Saturday Morning

I sit outside for a few moments, read Psalms, and watch Cuddles and
Aidan play. A slight breeze passes periodically. In a few moments we
leave for Clinton, Tennessee, for the opening of the civil rights museum
-- a 50 year reminder of how some things have changed.

THE PHILLIPS CASTLE

"To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not, You must go by
a way wherein there is no ecstasy."(T.S. Eliot)

Arrival AT LAST! To fight terrorism we arrived at the airport at LAX 3 hours early (really we were tired of being lost and LA traffic and wanted to get home).

Passengers lined the wall, then the bad news: Flight 2658 is 10 minutes late, the 25 minustes, then an hour, and finally 2 hours later before we left. At 3 pm I ate a Big Mac, my last meal. The cross country snack on Southwest was a few cookies and that was it. Delayed plane was because of 2 inch rain in Phoenix, where it rains on average 7 inches a year.

Tired is not the sum of it. By now Janet was really feeling bad and no food was available. At the airport everything was closed, so we just had to go to the Phillips Castle for snacking.

To be honest, the covert was bare. The result was two pieces of bread then mayonaise and slices of onion. Rather tasty : an onion sandwich. Our pastor Charles Carter once told of visiting the great Baptist preacher, Robert G. Lee, to see if he could duplicate his preaching technique. At 3 am he heard Lee eating. He went and found him eating an onion sandwich. He said, "I can't preach like R.G. Lee but I sure smell like him."

Janet said, "I am going to make you sleep with the dog !!

Well for DESERT I had 2 olives, a glass of meal, and topped it off with
candied almonds. "It is tradition to serve Jordan Almonds as a symbol of happiness, prosperity, health, fertility and longevity."

Have you ever had a great feast like that?

Bedtime---------

California Gas

California Gas
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Bad News

We have been at the airport for 3 hours. According to the latest results our plane has been delayed an hour. The joy of waiting. Patience brother patience.

Santa Monica Blvd 18th Street

Santa Monica Blvd 18th Street
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Los Angeles Morning

I am awake and ALIVE. A 30 minute trip last night took 2 hours. Guess who got lost again. Thanks to a LA driver who allowed us to follow him we made it home shortly before midnight. Oh the joys of a strange city.

This journey has made me aware of just how much we are creatures of habit. The trouble with a traveling vacation is that there are to many detours, to many false starts, and everything from buying gas to eating becomes a challenge.

Biola University Bookstore

I am standing in line at the Biola Bookstore. There are 17 people in front of me. I am illegally parked. In my hand is ANSWERING GOD- THE PSALMS AS TOOLS FOR PRAYER by Eugene Peterson. This book was suggested by Bryan Sherwoodvia Alan Creech.

What is it about these Psalms that graps us like a magnet as we grow older. What do I wait in such a lengthy line?

This is an interesting bookstore. I see only one catholic book, The Homecoming by Henri Nouwen. No Thomas Merton. Lots of C.S. Lewis and books by Michael Reagan, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, and Charles Swindoll.

What book would you stand in line for?

Name pleasure

If you write an anonymous note please put name at end, otherwise I have
no idea who you are.

Janet at Carmel by the Sea

Janet at Carmel by the Sea
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Henry Miller Museum

Henry Miller Museum
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Jack Benny at Grumann

Jack Benny at Grumann
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Tough Morning

Nothing compares to morning LA traffic. 7 lanes of honking, diving from lane to lane, squealing brakes. Scarey !!! This after great IHOP breakfast in Carpinteria.

Stopped by Grumann Chinese Theatre and hunted Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe's footprints and handprints in the sidewalk. Rode on Mulholen drive for a mile, down Hollywood Blvd, and Sunset Strip, plus Rodeo Drive. Interesting that in the place where all the women are rather handsome that there is an advertisement for a practice surgeon on Rodeo Drive.

Eating lunch at Quiznos.

Tuesday Night

EXHAUSTED !!!! The problem with traveling vacations is not enough time
to rest. We spent 4 hours at the Hearst Castle today, drove over a 100
miles down the coast, walked for 30 minutes on the Carpinteria Beach and
ate at the Palms restaurant. We spent lots of time searching, for
hotel, for place for breakfast, for a restaurant, and a market to buy
orange juice for breakfast. I am ready for sleep.

New Carmaldoli Hermitage

New Carmaldoli Hermitage
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Monastery near Lucia, CA

Bob Latson

Bob Laxson
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

First class tour guide for 28 years at Hearst Castle.

Kid's Play

Kid's Play
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

It took 4 kids under the age of 10 to build this. What do you remember

building as a kid?

Sunset

Sunset
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Sorry about no good sunset. This is about the best I can do at

Carpinteria Beach. I need my central time zone sleep so can't wait all

night for the sunset ha.

Hearst castle swimming pool

Hearst castle swimming pool
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Statues are 2000 years old.

Tuesday California Update

Yesterday we had no internet service all day. Also on Sunday I did not mention that we ended up at the grave of Junipero Serra, the first missionary to California from Spain.

Monday highlights included the Henry Miller Museum, a rather inoclastic place, the Nepturne famous resturant, the carmoldi hermitage - what a place for a religious retreat - and some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

Today we visit the Hearst Castle. What a delight it was. We spent almost 4 hours there and really enjoyed it.

More as service permits. Maybe a few pictures will help.

Nepenthe Restaurant

Nepenthe Restaurant
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Hamburger cost $13.00 but greatest view ever.

Henry Miller Museum

Henry Miller Museum
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Monterey Wharf

Monterey Wharf
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Ate supper here. Anyone ever been to Monterey?

First Awakening Restaurant

First Awakening Restaurant
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Great restaurant in Salinas, Ca. Wonderful reuben sandwich.

Rocinante

Rocinante
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

My favorite book of Steinbeck is Travels With Charlie. Here I stand by

Rociante, the vehicle he and Charlie rode in.

Phillips Art Gallery

Phillips Art Gallery
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Went to Carmel by the sea. Had a picture taken by my art gallery. Lot of

famous persons visit.

Santa Cruz Wharf

We ate breakfast at Gilda's Restaurant on the pier. It has been owned
and operated by the Stagnaro family since. 1879. Excellent view. Watched
sea lions and swimmers compete with each other.

Gilroy California

Gilroy California
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Ate at Westside Grill in Gilroy. Ca. Excellent meal. Gilroy has an

unusual smell in the air, probably because it is the GARLIC CAPITOL OF

THE WORLD. Gilroy was initially Indian territory, then the spanish came,

the railroad in 1865 and the wagon trains in the 1840s. The Japanese and

Italians came in the 20th century, bringing additional chages. It is a

neat town, neatl homes, friendly people and an outlet mall we will

probably skip. Don't ask me why but I will never use Priceline again.

California Here I Come

We leave in the morning for California. We will arrive in Oakland, rent a car, then drive to Los Angeles down highway 1. We are looking forward to this, the first real vacation in a while.

I hope to update these pages each days with photographs etc. If you are along the way, email me at brodan at tmail dot com and we will see if we can hook up.

For now, all the best !!

Tuesday Evening

Tuesday Evening
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

The clouds were beautiful this afternoon. Tonight it has cooled off. I sit on my patio reading Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr. Cuddles is near. Janet is sick. The temperature in Monterey, Ca. was 64 today. We will need to carry a coat or long sleeved shirts. I am looking forward to seeing the Pacific Ocean again. The first time I saw it was in 1981. I have been back 3 times since.

Quotes from Rohr: "In terms of soul work, we dare not get rid of the pain before we have learned what it has to teach us."

As I sit on the patio I dream of a retreat here when the weather is nice. I have had several here at my house in the past. Most have been on Thomas Merton. I was not thinking of charging anything. Many hotels are near. Maybe just a Saturday. We shall see...................

"We try to change events in order to avoid changing ourselves. We must learn to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions, and some days without meaning. That is the path, the perilous dark path of true prayer." (Rohr)

The secret: relinquishing control.The sky begins to darken. It is Compline somewhere. In a few moments the Great Silence will begin.......................be silent.

Tuesday Preparations

On Saturday we leave for a 5 day trip from Oakland, California, to Los Angeles. We will be traveling down highway 1. We are looking forward to the trip. Then on Saturdya of that week I will probably go to Clinton, Tennessee, for the opening of the Cultural Center, or museum, recognizing the high school I graduated from and its position as the first school in the United States to integrate. You can read all about it at Green Mcadoo Cultural Center. A new film will premier about the event 50 years ago !!!

Some thoughts I have written recently in my journal:

Don't read the book, read your soul, then a small chapel will become as big as the heavenly dome itself. (Emerson)

Prayer is like the embrace of a lover.

True prayer is usually experienced as tears, surrender, or forgiveness. (Richard Rohr)

We should see in others the reflection of God's image.

Harold Rees Greenman and Amy Elizabeth Claybrook

Harold Rees Greenman and Amy Elizabeth Claybrook
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

Went to a beautiful wedding this afternoon. Amy Claybrook was a life long Baptist who got a job at Christ Cathedral Episcopal Church and there met one of the ministers, Rees Greenman, and in the economy of God's timing they fell in love and were married today. It was an exciting time. Amy's Mom and Dad, Kim and Andy, are in our Sunday School class. Most of the class was there and were even dressed up for a change. May God's great blessings continue with this wonderful couple.

Importance of Love

Christ expressed all His teachings in His last commandment. "Love each
other, as I loved you. Everyone will see that you are my disciples, if
you love each other." He did not say, "if you believe," but "if you
love."

Tolstoy - A Calendar of Wisdom

"When you hear people speak about the viciousness of other people, do not share in pleasure by discussing these issues. When you hear about the virtues of other people, remember them and tell them to others." (From A Calendar of Wisdom – Tolstoy)

Yes, I finished The Poet of Tolstoy Park. Henry lived 26 years beyond the Doctor’s prediction and he touched many lives in that time, in fact over 1300 people signed his guest book at his house.

One of the five books that Henry took from Idaho to Alabama was A Calendar of Wisdom. It took Tolstoy 15 years to gather the material for the book. In Henry’s case there was no english edition so he read it in the original Russian. The book sounded fascinating to me.

Yesterday, I found a copy at the local Borders and spent almost my last dollar to get it. It has been an exciting read. There is so much wisdom gathered in its pages that I even got up this morning at 5:15 am to read from it. It has only been translated into English during the last decade and for many years it was banned in Russia because of its religious nature.

It has made me more aware of how every moment is important. Every contact is a possibility to help someone. Every hour is to be used. And it also showed me how much time we spend in frivilous pursuit, or intellectual poison as Tolstoy called it.

So today, may we all take a moment of silence to think of others, to pray for a healing spirit, and look for the good in others.

By the way, do you have any really good quotes you carry in your life? Perhaps my favorite of all time is from Jim Elliot, a missionary to South America, who said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Selah

Travelers Nightmare

I guess I have done it now! Next week, beginning the 19th, we are planning on going to Oakland, Ca. then riding down highway 1 for 5 days and ending up in Los Angeles. Our plane tickets are ready but waiting this late has made it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT in finding lodging. I should have know, right! So on August 19 there are no motels to be had in Santa Cruz or Monterey. I finally got an August 20 hotel in Monterey and look forward to that. So we may be sleeping in our car on the 19th of August in California.

Quote of the Day

"SOME PEOPLE SKIP THROUGH LIFE, SOME PEOPLE ARE DRAGGED THROUGH IT."(FROM BLUE LIKE JAZZ)

PROBABLY THE MOST INFLUENCIAL TEACHER IN MY LIFE WAS MY 4TH GRADE TEACHER, MRS. PARKEY.EVERY MORNING SHE WOULD PLACE A FAMOUS SAYING ON THE WALL. I COPIED THEM RELIGIOUSLY (SHEMADE US), USUALLY THEY WERE FROM B.C. FORBES, I BELIEVE THE FATHER OF MALCOLM FORBERS THE FORBES MAGAZINE EDITOR.

I WAS AT SMITHWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AT THE TIME. SOME 30 YEARS LATER I MET A PERSON WHOI DISCOVERED WENT TO THE SAME SCHOOL. GUESS WHO HE LEARNED THE MOST FROM, YES MRS. PARKEY. I WENT HOME, FOUND MY COPY OF THE SAYINGS I HAD WRITTEN DOWN IN THE THIRD GRADE AND PROUDLY SHOWED THEM TO HIM.

SO TODAY, WE BEGIN WITH A QUOTE. QUOTES CAN CHANGE OUR LIVES. THEY CAN MEAN A LOT.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE QUOTE?

David Watson

David Watson
Originally uploaded by brotherdan44.

I went to David Watson's 60th birthday party this afternoon. We have been friends for over 40 years, going to college at Tennessee Tech together. What a blessing to see how God brings the right people into our lives. How thankful we need to be for these special friends.

Friday

Been tired all day. Finished Tolstoy Park at 1:40 am. Could not sleep.
Tough day. With lady whose baby died and young woman whose young husband
is not doing well. Ate a salad at Applebees. Watched a new monk. Going
to bed early. Wish I could rest and spend day at Gethsemani. World
events are ponderous.

Black and White

When Henry Stuart arrived in Mobile he was attacked by a fellow train passenger who was really upset that he had given his boots to a black man on the train. He was upset with this encounter because it was so unexpected, not anything like this would have happened in Idaho.

I remember the days when I lived in South Alabama. I can remember going to see the Klansman when they had a rally. I remember the hurt of those days (1964-1966). It was big news. People were hurt. Some of you may remember my growing up in Clinton Tennessee and being the first school in the nation to integrate. Lots of hurt there.

Looking back, with a perspective of 40 years, I realize how much progress has been made racially. 40 years ago you would not see a black and white person eating together. Now it is common. Sure there is lots of progress to be made but there has been significant progress, even among the whites.

Have you ever been involved in anything where race was an issue?

Advice

"When everyone says you're drunk, you'd better sit down." (Blue Like Jazz)

Lawnmower expert says I need a new engine that cost over $1000. Am trying a second opinion. Trying healing hand but that didn't work.

Bad news: Cuddles (dog) has learned how to jump in the tub, the only place where previously Aidan (cat) felt safe.

When Henry Stuart rode the train from Idaho to Alabama he talked with the conductor a lot. Reminded me of my train days. Both my Dad and Grandad worked for the Southern Railway, thus we had free tickets to ride the train anywhere. I remember once riding to New Orleans to visit my Uncle and Aunt. A sign said shoes in our little room, so I put my shoes in there. The next morning a BIG BILL came for my shoes being polished. I didn't know that meant they were to be shined.

Have you ever had a surprise like that?