[Dialogue] Witness Sept 27, 2007

[Suzanne K. Heilman]

Where in Pa. are you living? I live in Williamsport, Lycoming County. I was
unaware of any colleagues living in Pa. I share your angst! I remember the
summer of '84. I was in Chicago, just back from 3 yrs, 8 months spent in
Australia. You gave me a ride to see my mother, who was attending a meeting.
I've never forgotten that.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nancy Grow" <nangrow at surfsouth.com>
To: <earthrise at yahoogroups.com>; <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 9:21 PM
Subject: [Dialogue] Witness Sept 27, 2007


> There are many things I don't bother following these days either from lack
> of time or lack of interest, but Witnesses is not one of them!  David
> Zahrt's recent contributionwas one of many that sounded close to my
> thoinking and feeling.  Perhaps all of us, whatever our journeys have
been,
> miss the "Blesses Community" of which he talks.  Certainly Bill and I,
> living in a development in Pennsylvania where everyone seems to work two
> jobs and few are interested in local or global affairs, experience a
> physical loneliness of common minds and hearts.
> It's not that I loved the long days and absence from my kids, but we did
> feel we were doing the responsible thing as parents to build them a better
> world than we had. As we read now of Azpitia, Malaysia, Zambia Kenya and
> all the rest, of the many countries we worked in personally, we are
> grateful for the colleagues that continue to labor with the vision that
> "All the earth belongs to all."  The results of our family's struggles
from
> 1966 to 2005 have paid off big time.  The individuals and the societies
are
> different and they are expanding far beyond our imagination, and we
> gratefully pass the baton to a new generation.  Yet we still hunger for
the
> daily encounter of the "Blessed Community."
> We don't find it in the local church or the neighborhood groups or in
> sifting our files or in dialogues with newcomers, good folk all, who
> somehow miss the point of what we were all about. What is lacking is the
> comprehensive view and demand of every aspect of our lives.  What is
> lacking for us is the sense of the Blessed Community.
> So what do we do?  Romanticize the past as though it were without flaw?
> Cry over the present as though it were too flawed?  Narrow our efforts to
> what we can easily and comfortably do? Worry about our grandkids' college
> funds instead of the world they will inherit?  Consider ourselves
> "retired"  when we reach eighty? What is the answer and who can supply the
> comprehensive, intentional and futuric view we are no longer able to
> provide for ourselves?
> I keep going back to Tennyson's "Ullyses":
> Though much is taken, much remains.
> And though we are not now that strength
> Which in old days moved heaven and earth,
> That which we are, we are:
> One equal passion of heroic hearts
> Made weak by time and change
> But strong in will... to strive, to seek, to find,
> And never yield!
>
> Nancy Grow, EI, OE, ICA
>
>
>
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