[Dialogue] Beloved Communities
David & Lin Zahrt
chbnb at netins.net
Thu Sep 6 22:00:41 EDT 2007
Janice,
Thanks. I appreciate knowing that my journaling makes sense to, or
speaks to others. The throes of the journey still remain. Even so I
know I am not traveling alone.
David
On Sep 3, 2007, at 2:19 PM, Janice Ulangca wrote:
> Oh, David, thank you for sharing this. Two observations as I
> prepare to leave for a week's vacation:
> 1) Your litany of all the issues you lived parallel with, with no
> real consciousness of them, resonated with me. I was hardly aware
> of the civil rights movement - was in the Philippines when it first
> emerged in most of white America's awareness, then was in one quite
> safe civil rights march in Evanston after I returned. Not much
> engagement, no danger. Also shameful, I was in college during the
> McCarthy era, with zero awareness of his dangerous fear-mongering.
> I pretty much went on my merry way, oblivious to poverty, the
> environment, oppression in any form.
> 2) Of all the pain I have experienced in my sheltered life, the
> greatest has been that of yearning for a significant place to plug
> in my life's expenditure when I felt isolated. Perhaps that is
> where you and Lyn are now. Thirty years ago and more, the O:E was
> doing so much, so many places, they could use everyone, whatever
> their experience or abilities. That's not true now - and one of
> the things about changes since 1988 that some of us grieve. By way
> of encouragement, though, I would say that the pain that I describe
> I have found to be a kind of divine discontent that moved me to
> find something new that turned out to be, even if difficult,
> finally a blessing.
>
> I wish you all the best as you both work through this. Silly as I
> know it is, I'm going to suggest a couple of places to look that
> might give you some ideas: Is Heifer International hiring any
> staff, or using any volunteers? Or is Wendel Berry (in
> Greensboro, NC, in same community as Nelson and Elaine Stover)
> gathering any folks to do some environmental work?
>
> Take care, fellow Iowans. The small town where I grew up, and
> started teaching (Gowrie, near Fort Dodge) was no hotbed of global
> awareness. So it took a long time to awaken my consciousness -
> beginning in a political science class my senior year at Cornell
> College (Mt. Vernon, IA), continuing with encountering poverty in
> the Philippines, and then in 1971 in RS-1. So I must be involved,
> as I can, with the Institute that has given me so much. It is also
> my Beloved Community.
>
> Janice Ulangca
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David & Lin Zahrt
> To: Colleague Dialogue
> Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 8:19 AM
> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Beloved Communities
>
> We watched Moyers on Fri night. The woman he interviewed, Grace,
> was an inspiration. That along with Karen's posting caused me to do
> a journal entry. I don't know if the things that tumble out are
> witness or simply journal entry. Anyway, they tumble out and you
> are the Community with whom I am able to share.
>
> Journal Reflection 09/07
> I was born on the eve of W W II. I have no sense of the
> enormity of the social upheaval it caused. I was subject to all of
> that upheaval. My Dad, having just finished his internship in
> obstetrics, was subscripted into the military. He was transferred
> to Texas for training. The family, Luella, and kids David & Christy
> went along. We ended up in Houston. I learned to sing The Eyes of
> Texas Are Upon You in Kindergarten!
> When Dad was transferred to Biloxi, MS for training we
> returned to Iowa City. Within 2 years Dad was reported missing in
> action. Within 5 years Mother remarried. For a number of reasons I
> grew up with the nagging feeling that my father had abandoned me.
> I heard about the atomic bomb but registered nothing on my
> social conscience. I ignored the throes of Post War recuperation. I
> attended University and signed up for ROTC so that I could be
> assured of getting through 4 years without being drafted into the
> military. I avoided the war in Korea and ignored it.
> I was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force when I
> graduated. Lin and I got married. She had one more year of nursing
> to complete. I applied for an extension of my ROTC commission and
> taught general science in the University High School.
> At that point I made a shift. I decided that I wanted to follow
> Carl Michaelson and applied for admission at Drew University
> Theological School. I was accepted. I continued the extension and
> completed Theological School. At the end of Theological School I
> had a conversation with the Air Force about the ambiguity of using
> God-talk to go to war and kill people. The Chaplains recommended
> that I resign my commission. I did so. When did Viet Nam erupt? I
> ignored it too. Jay was born while we were on campus. We began
> House Church with Stan & Glenda Long, Bain and Marge Davis, and
> others.
> I served two UMC parishes the last two years of Theological
> School. Heidi was born while we were in the first parish. The Civil
> Rights Movement was beginning to pick up steam. I saw it and let it
> be. As I reflect back it seems that my job was to tell the
> congregation what it wanted to hear. I was given Golden Handcuffs.
> If I wanted to stay I was to do what I was told.
> When I graduated from Theological School I had already served
> 2 years as Deacon and my ordination as Elder was due to happen. The
> District Superintendent told me that they were holding on my
> ordination as Elder and they didn't have an assignment for me so I
> would need to come to Annual Conference to see if there was
> anything 'left over'.
> By that time we had been exposed to the Ecumenical Institute
> and I decided that we should move all of our earthly belongings and
> go to EI's Summer '66. We attended. I felt the urge to do something
> in the Civil Rights Movement but wasn't ready to leave the family
> or take it with me while engaging in the movement. We decided to
> become staff at the Ecumenical Institute. I told myself it was a
> way of participating in the Civil Rights movement, and might better
> prepare me to return to the parish ministry!
> So, for the first time, I became personally engaged in an
> attempt to create Beloved Community and minister to social ills.
> We stayed with the Community for 20 years. During that time
> we committed ourselves to being and creating Beloved Community.
> Upon reflection, I now know we fell far short of the goal. During
> that time I ignored all of the other social, economic, cultural,
> and political ills that transpired. That I am not able to name the
> ones we ignored is evidence that we ignored them. Of late they are
> beginning to surface. Were they always there-Rwanda, Somalia,
> Afghanistan, Iraq, Brazil, Peru? The deforestation taking place in
> South America. The Climate Change spawned, and ignored, by
> unbridled consumerism. The rape, by agribusiness for the sake of
> financial profit, of the US's natural resources. The growing
> disparity between the rich and the poor around the Globe. How many
> issues have I ignored or omitted?
> What does this mean? Has the world always been this way?
> Are we simply getting old and filled with cynicism and despair to
> the point of depression? Are we human beings actually creating and
> precipitating our own Worldwide Rapture?
> In the meantime, where do we plug in? How do we make the
> difference we're capable of making? Where is the key--the whistle
> point?
> We returned to the family farm to care for Mother & Dad.
> When we returned I took a look at the standard agricultural
> practices and said (to myself) "We're mining the soil, poisoning
> the environment, and mortgaging the future." Needless to say there
> were very few neighbors with whom I could share that insight.
> Neither have we been able to find a 'church home'. We facilitated
> LIVING THE QUESTIONS. It stimulated no continued dialogue. So we
> are hungry for Blessed Community and at a loss to find it in the
> neighborhood.
> Now Mother and Dad are gone. No one else in the family is
> returning to the farm. It is time for us to write another Chapter
> in our book of life. We sincerely desire a way to become a part of
> a Blessed Community. At a minimum its internal life will need to be
> inclusive, interdependent, strive for self-sufficiency in food and
> energy. It will also have an external mission.
> David
> --
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> | David and Lin Zahrt
> | Country Homestead Bed and Breakfast
> | 22133 Larpenteur Rd
> | Turin, IA 51040 <mailto:chbnb at netins.net>
> | (712) 353-6772 Phone
> http://www.country-homestead.com
>
> -- Doorway to the Loess Hills --
> Where a change-of-pace is as good as a vacation,
> And a sense-of-place is soothing to the soul.
>
>
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David & Lin Zahrt
Country Homestead B&B
22133 Larpenteur Rd.
Turin, IA 51040
-- Doorway to the Loess Hills -
<http://country-homestead.com>
Where a change of pace is as good as a vacation, and a sense of place
is soothing to the soul.
<chbnb at netins.net>
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