POST 22: MEMORY
“We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.”
Mother Teresa
More pieces fell into place when I began working at Broadway Presbyterian Church. Broadway Church was going through a profound change. Its pastor had recently come out as a gay man. He and his wife were in the process of a divorce. Many in the church had left. Most stayed and, like good Presbyterians; we prayed and diligently studied the issue of homosexuality in scripture and culture. All while doing this they kept on being a church in Morningside Heights, near Columbia University. They had formed a nonprofit, Broadway Community Inc.
I was asked to assist the church to develop services at their soup kitchen. What was initially to be a nine-month field assignment turned into a ten-year job. We strengthened health and educational services offered through Columbia University and other agencies. We talked with guests of the soup kitchen and as a result created a full-time recovery program built around individual and group support meetings, art therapy and work readiness skill development so that the guests themselves were involved in running the soup kitchen and developing services which would eventually include showers and a year-round shelter. We ran spiritual retreats and the community-led worship services for the church. We held picnics in the park and took the community’s kids to Great Adventure. Through it all I remembered those nascent fan club skills – organizing, dreaming, exploring, building and networking. I knew they were good for something!
The Fan Club experience was now twenty years in my past. Very few people knew I was a Barry Manilow fan – for despite the passing of the years the music still was anchored deep within me. I had just gotten used to being a loner, a timid lurker. I lived a compartmentalized life – the people around me introduced me to the intimate live bluesy jazz, gospel and classical pieces you can experience with the quantity of talent and venues in New York. My “artsy-fartsy” crowd as Barry would call them. However mention Barry Manilow? I would get an indulgent smile or an incredulous “really?!” or they would break out in a melodramatic rendition of “I Write the Songs.” So why bother.
I kept it all buried within.
I had two growing children and a job I loved – as Associate Pastor for Social Ministries/Program Director serving the homeless, mentally ill and people working on recovery from substance abuse. It was a busy time of field trips, playdates, and baking cakes that now looked like teddy bears, Sesame Street characters, trains, Pikachu, and Star Wars X-Wing fighters.
An endless loop of “One Voice” remained as a lingering undernote to my developing voice. I actively dismantled that Handbook.
Notes
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/838305.Mother_Teresa?page=7
Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:
The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
info@manilowmusicproject.org
Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.
Mother Teresa
More pieces fell into place when I began working at Broadway Presbyterian Church. Broadway Church was going through a profound change. Its pastor had recently come out as a gay man. He and his wife were in the process of a divorce. Many in the church had left. Most stayed and, like good Presbyterians; we prayed and diligently studied the issue of homosexuality in scripture and culture. All while doing this they kept on being a church in Morningside Heights, near Columbia University. They had formed a nonprofit, Broadway Community Inc.
I was asked to assist the church to develop services at their soup kitchen. What was initially to be a nine-month field assignment turned into a ten-year job. We strengthened health and educational services offered through Columbia University and other agencies. We talked with guests of the soup kitchen and as a result created a full-time recovery program built around individual and group support meetings, art therapy and work readiness skill development so that the guests themselves were involved in running the soup kitchen and developing services which would eventually include showers and a year-round shelter. We ran spiritual retreats and the community-led worship services for the church. We held picnics in the park and took the community’s kids to Great Adventure. Through it all I remembered those nascent fan club skills – organizing, dreaming, exploring, building and networking. I knew they were good for something!
The Fan Club experience was now twenty years in my past. Very few people knew I was a Barry Manilow fan – for despite the passing of the years the music still was anchored deep within me. I had just gotten used to being a loner, a timid lurker. I lived a compartmentalized life – the people around me introduced me to the intimate live bluesy jazz, gospel and classical pieces you can experience with the quantity of talent and venues in New York. My “artsy-fartsy” crowd as Barry would call them. However mention Barry Manilow? I would get an indulgent smile or an incredulous “really?!” or they would break out in a melodramatic rendition of “I Write the Songs.” So why bother.
I kept it all buried within.
I had two growing children and a job I loved – as Associate Pastor for Social Ministries/Program Director serving the homeless, mentally ill and people working on recovery from substance abuse. It was a busy time of field trips, playdates, and baking cakes that now looked like teddy bears, Sesame Street characters, trains, Pikachu, and Star Wars X-Wing fighters.
An endless loop of “One Voice” remained as a lingering undernote to my developing voice. I actively dismantled that Handbook.
Notes
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/838305.Mother_Teresa?page=7
Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:
The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
info@manilowmusicproject.org
Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.