[Oe List ...] For David

Thu Aug 7 00:30:36 EDT 2008

Thank you, Janice.   You expressed so eloquently much of what I've been thinking over the past few days.

In the early 70s, living in Adelaide, I experienced "McCleskey" as one of those "names" which was mentioned from time to time, as part of O:E/EI/ICA folklore, legend, mythology and history.  Then David visited as part of a LENS faculty, or something like that.  You've described him well.  

One thing stuck in my mind from that LENS visit. I remember him cautioning us Australians against  "being too casual". When in the USA 1978-80 I experienced what Bob Newhart might have meant by his "button down mind" on his comedy LPs.  I fell in love with button-down shirts in Oxford cloth.  I was even  described as "squeaky clean" in my button-down shirt by the friends of a female colleague in Philadelphia.  (I had read Andrew Weill's The Natural Mind on the role of drugs in society, but was not much of a partaker.) 

I had become used to "the blazer and tie" look - "dress for success" and all that.

Upon my return to Australia, and high school teaching, in May 1980, I was thought to be "a Yank" by my students.  Maybe it was the blazer and tie - and (State Street, Chicago) trenchcoat for those wintry early morning one-hour bus rides to the other side of the Adelaide suburbs.  Maybe it was the way I referred to "sidewalks" and "trash cans", with an appropriate accent, rather than "footpaths" and "rubbish bins".

I also noticed how "casual" we were Down Under - even "sloppy", like Earl in the TV series.  I became famous at a succession of schools for putting on the blazer-and-tie occasionally.  At one school I even put on the (State Street, Chicago) three-piece suit as a dare for a student so that she would, on that one particular day, wear her full school uniform - I had forgoten that I was on lunchtime yard duty on that day!  At another school someone sent a (fake) message to me that Channel 9 wanted me to audition as a newsreader!

David's comment has always been my starting point for discussions about "the Australian character".  "Don't come the raw prawn with me, mate" is something Pau Hogan might have said as he threw "another shrimp on the barbie".  There's something there about an impatience with "spin", a suspicion about media minders (for politicians), public relations people, and over-blown ideology and "mission statements" when "coming from the top".  "Shoot straight, you bastards!" says Bryan Brown's character in the movie Breaker Morant. There's a larrikinism that can also be deadly serious when it really matters - check the film Gallipoli with the very young honorary Australian Mel Gibson.

Tangents within tangents. But that's me spinning off from one comment of David's.  

I also remember David in meetings, in assemblies, giving well-articulated talks.  Once (c 1979) he spoke of "turning ourselves inside out" to show the world who we are.  In our diaspora, which comes together in so many different ways, that comment rings true - when I'm running The Wedge Workshop for students, showing a student charting or ORID, or chatting with a chaplain about transparent theology, or .... 

More tangents with tangents.

But apart from all the tangents I have memories of serious, thoughtful man with a quiet smile.  As the sister of a girlfriend took a long time to discover about me, about 20 years ago, beneath a quiet and serious person there is often much humour - for me it came from The Goon Show, Monty Python, Tom Lehrer and others.

My thoughts and prayers are with you, wherever you are, and your family and loved ones.

G & P

Frank Bremner

From: aulangca at stny.rr.comTo: silencefoundation at cox.netDate: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 22:49:25 -0400CC: OE at wedgeblade.netSubject: [Oe List ...] For David

Dear David,

Several times I was in a large audience at a GRA when you gave a "spin".  But my most vivid memory was when you came to an ICA in the East gathering at the retreat center at Shepherd Spring, Maryland, sometime before the Millenium Connection.  Here is what I remember:

You were a quiet one, waiting to find some small or large clearness 
    before you spoke.
And even then the words were not answers, charismatically announced
But questions that probed and fragments that invited new directions.
Thoughtful --  that you were, and deep, and not afraid,
A man of hope
Rooted solidly on something far beyond that meeting room.
Your presence helped us to step back, take a new breath, and see
That yes, perhaps we could find ways through that tangle of impossibilities.

So I join with many others in saluting what you've done and who you are.

Blessings and Peace to you and your Pat,

Janice Ulangca

**************************Janice Ulangca3413 Stratford DriveVestal, NY  13850607-797-4595aulangca at stny.rr.com***************************
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