Devshirme

The other day I mentioned Lee Habeeb in a post and pointed out that he was a UVa grad (School of Law, actually).  Well, I occasionally put up poetry from Edgar Allan Poe here, and I would be remiss not point out that Poe attended the University of Virginia for a brief period, although things did not end well for him there.  It is Sunday night and I don’t have much in the tank for blogging, so let me leave you in his capable hands:

Thy soul shall find itself alone
‘Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone –
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy:
Be silent in that solitude
Which is not loneliness — for then
The spirits of the dead who stood
In life before thee are again
In death around thee — and their will
Shall then overshadow thee: be still.

For the night — tho’ clear — shall frown –
And the stars shall look not down,
From their high thrones in the Heaven,
With light like Hope to mortals given –
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever :

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish –
Now are visions ne’er to vanish –
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more — like dew-drop from the grass:

The breeze — the breath of God — is still –
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy — shadowy — yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token –
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries! –

I have been participating in the Preachers Institute “read the New Testament in the 40 days leading up to Christmas” project.  It is quite enjoyable and edifying.  I tend to concentrate my scripture readings on the Old Testament, so this exercise has provided me with a refresher course on parts of the NT that I do not read very often.  In finishing up Acts the other day, I came across the episode where Paul gets shipwrecked on Malta.  Maltese, famously, is the only Semitic language written in the Latin script, but modern Maltese took form after the Arabs conquered the island during a later wave of Muslim conquest.  So what language was spoken on Malta when Paul landed there?  Phoenician of some sort?  Latin?  Does anyone know?  I imagine Paul would have been able to adapt to whatever Semitic tongue that may have been spoken there, and could certainly communicate in Greek and Latin (he was a Roman citizen).  What was proto-Maltese?

This is a very cool article by Lee Habeeb (UVa grad!) on A Charlie Brown Christmas and how this beloved program almost never happened.  It is an interesting story, but the most surprising thing for me was that the (I imagine) typically square and unadventurous TV execs and sponsors were scared that Linus’s recitation of a passage from the gospel of Luke was going to be controversial and a disaster.  I first saw the show in the late ’70s as a little kid, and I recognized even then that there was something old-fashioned about Snoopy and the gang, and that the program was very different than much of the other kids fare on TV.  I always figured the Christian message was something from the past – who would have thought that it was controversial in 1965? I understand things were changing at that point but I would have thought the networks would not be swept up in the cultural change until well after that.

One of the reasons that I think Mad Men (which I thoroughly enjoy watching) gets so much buzz is because it depicts a 1960s that has largely been forgotten.  The ’60s in popular mythology conjure up Woodstock, hippies, protests, colorful art and music, and other such things.  Mad Men captures the early and mid-60s and indeed what much of mainstream America was like in the late ’60s.  Woodstock was one thing, but take a look at baseball cards from 1970 (which feature photos from the year before).  Not an afro or long hairdo in sight.

A good friend of mine always had an interesting perspective on American holidays.  He was Turkish and grew up in Turkey and other countries but went to an American school, so when he came here he could blend in easily (he spoke English without an accent) and I always found his observations on American stuff to be fresh and insightful.  He always appreciated Thanksgiving above our other holidays.  Christmas was way too commercial and Easter was fun but not of much significance to him religiously, but Thanksgiving was a time to be with our group of friends – an adopted family in America, as it were.

I held this view until recently.  Last year I talked about how it seems that Thanksgiving has turned into an excuse for gluttony.  This is actually an acceptable part of the culture of Thanksgiving; if you watch the news or read news websites there are features on how to deal with eating too much turkey or whatever on the holiday.  I am not trying to be a wet blanket here, and yes, I will probably overdo it a bit today – in our case there are tons of appetizers where we go – but by the time dinner rolls around I am full and usually eat almost nothing at the formal sit-down part of the day.  Gluttony is the only one of the seven deadly sins that we always dance around – you have to eat, after all – so every meal is a potential opportunity for gluttony.  Thanksgiving almost sanctions it.

This year’s rant is more about the holiday’s place in our culture and how it is has lost much of its bite.  Thanksgiving has been secularized just like other holidays (and keep in mind I am a defender of Santa and the Easter bunny, so I am not a no-fun, super strict person).  I have heard the phrase “give thanks” many, many times in the lead up to today.  Give thanks to whom?  This key part is missing, as is any acknowledgment of the Almighty in reference to the day.  So, in addition to my suggestion that we don’t overdo it on the food front, I have to add – please remember to whom we are giving thanks, and be sure to think about this and give voice to it.  Happy Thanksgiving to all, and more later…

It didn’t take long for me to go off track on the “blog for forty days” thing.  This is a side-effect of late-night blogging; if I don’t make it home by midnight then game over, which is what happened last night.  We had a parish council meeting and spent some time after talking about the immediate and long-term future of Sts. Anargyroi.  It is a very exciting time, although I like to repeat the mantra “so far so good” – we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.  I will post more substantially later today (I fear my inbox – I don’t want to disappoint Fr. Peck and suspect there may be a gentle reminder in there that I didn’t blog yesterday – that is part of the deal : )

Fr. George’s last name is indelibly associated with Holy Week for most Greek Orthodox in America.  His compilation and translation of most of the Holy Week services into one compact volume revolutionized the way we understood the services and made it possible for everyone to follow along.  I called Patmos Press a few years ago to order some books and was pleasantly surprised to be chatting directly with Fr. George himself.  Besides the Holy Week book, Fr. is remembered for a lifetime of accomplishment and service to the Church and the Lord.  I had no idea, for example, that he published a complete set of Sunday School books for grades k-12 when his church’s Sunday School reached 1200 students/125 teachers! Check out his lengthy c.v. here.  May his memory be eternal.

I had originally thought of reproducing the whole list of accomplishments in this space but it is just too long.  I couldn’t resist this one, though:

In cooperation with the late Nicholas Andromidas, who wrote an “Easter Miracle Play”, Fr. George participated in presenting the first Orthodox Easter program on CBS-TV over a national hook-up in 1957. The starring role was played by William Shatner of “Star Trek” fame. This program introduced our Church to Miss Pamela Llott, then Director who would later become VP of Religious Programming of CBS-TV. 

I generally don’t discuss politics, and I certainly don’t venture much onto the topic of Greek politics, but I have found myself recently talking about the drachma, the old Greek currency replaced by the Euro some years back.  I have even come up with a nice little catch-phrase, although I suppose I heard it elsewhere first: “The drachma was just fine for several thousand years”.  I pipe up with this, as you can imagine, during talks about Greece and the EU.

The Wiki article gives a pretty good idea of the history of this unit of money.  I always knew that the Armenian dram derived its name from the drachma but never made the connection with the dirham of Morocco and the UAE.  I have a pretty decent collection of coins from all over the world.  It started when my dad would bring back change from his business trips, and it is now at the point where if I find out someone is going to a country whose coins I don’t have I ask if they can bring back a few for me.  The UAE coins are in the part of the collection still at my ‘rents; I need to reclaim these along with other stuff that I have there (a process that will probably never end).

The coin names likely spread due to Alexander the Great’s travels.  It is amazing how remnants of his conquests and his successors’ rule have survived, whether it is in the DNA of the Kalash, places names like Kandahar, literary expressions like “Gordian knot”, or coinage from places like Morocco where Alexander never set foot.

The Metropolis site has some pictures up from the feast day vespers and my installation at Sts. Anargyroi in Marlborough.  Check it out here.  The photos are courtesy of Warner Smith – you can find more of his work on his excellent blog The Photography Smith.    As often happens on a Saturday night, I find myself exhausted from the week and not up to my usual night owl activities and postings.  Off to bed for me, and more tomorrow…

I have never, in my 30 years of following sports thoroughly and knowledgeably, seen such hate from the sports media and others directed at a player as is directed at Tim Tebow.  I should qualify this by saying directed at a regular player who has not gotten into trouble – this is not a case of someone who has committed a career-ending error or some heinous crime.  Yet Tebow seems to get people’s gizzards.  My specific reference points are things like the Sports Hub 98.5 FM where Felger and Mazz, among others, trash Tebow regularly, and websites like Deadspin and KSK, which I read regularly.  Callers to the radio shows seem to really dislike him as well.  Why is he so polarizing?

Tebow is a committed Christian who speaks about his faith often and truly lives it.  He is also a successful athlete competing in the NFL in an unconventional way.  Read the wiki article to get an idea on his background and activities.  The trashing of Tebow usually harps on two things:

-His arm.  The criticism is he cannot throw at a pro level, and this may well be legit.  The Broncos have committed to an option offense and he is running it with success, although most games have him struggling and then pulling off a win in the 4th quarter.  Again, this is a decent and fair criticism and may well play out.  For now, the team is winning and his teammates have his back.

-His faith.  Tebow gets hammered on being a Christian in a way I never saw Kurt Warner of Hakeem Olajuwon get attacked for their strong Christian and Islamic faith.  The guys on the local sports shows are ridiculous.  They will side with him, when a caller says he is a fraud, by pointing out, truthfully, that he is not a hypocrite and backs up his beliefs with action, but they then say he is “insufferable” and “hammers us over the head” with his faith.  Does he?  He is not grabbing the mic from a reporter and with wild eyes shouting about Christianity; he talks about it as part of his normal life, answers questions about it, etc.  That is all.  We have become such an effete society that we fear talking about things on a normal level.  If religion is important to someone why can’t he mention it, among other things, in an interview?  This is not the same as trying to forcibly convert someone.

I find myself here in the interesting position of defending an evangelical Christian when, in my experience, most evangelicals don’t even consider Orthodox people to be Christians.  I have no idea what, if anything, Tebow thinks on this issue – I have certainly seen nothing that tells me he looks down on Orthodox or Catholics.

Tebow seems like a good guy who is enjoying success in the NFL.  Who knows how long this will last, but for now let’s enjoy the competitive games and his spirit.

I have been at the new church, Sts. Anargyroi, in Marlborough for several weeks now and have already written several articles for our monthly zine Sofia (you can read the November issue by clicking on the Sofia button on the home page).  The December one will contain my musings on the Advent season versus the Christmas season, and one thing I mention is the tendency for the local oldies station to play “holiday” (as they call it) music earlier and earlier each year.  I generally boycott until close to Christmas, but in my unfocused button-pushing while driving I still hit the last programmed button occasionally and end up hearing the Christmas music.  Usually I immediately switch stations but if it is a Carpenters Christmas song then I have to hear it out, regardless of how early in Advent we are.  Today I heard (There’s No Place Like) Home For The Holidays – the wiki article points out that it is really more of a Thanksgiving song.  There is a line that goes “the traffic is terrific”, meaning that there is a lot of traffic and it is not a good thing.  This line struck me because it is a rare use of terrific in its original form, with the root of terror, meaning really bad.  The word today is used almost exclusively as a slang term to mean really good.  The Merriam Webster definition bears this out, with the “really bad” definition listed first and the “really good” one listed third.  Interesting stuff.  Some of the Christmas classics contain quaint language but this is an example of a word where the meaning has totally changed in general usage.  This phenomena is one of the reasons that the King James version of the Bible is, to me, not good for everyday use; the problem is not that the language is archaic but that many words are used in it that are still around and have totally different meanings.