POST 20: New York City Rhythm
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, OUR NEIGHBORHOOD FOR TWENTY YEARS.
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK CITY
|
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, OUR NEIGHBORHOOD FOR TWENTY YEARS
|
“There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
Mother Teresa, A Simple Path
Benjamin and I came back to New York City in 1989 when I was admitted to a dual-degree program that combined seminary and social work school. What a shock. Between paying through the nose in rent for a one bedroom apartment the size of my mother’s living room, and being awakened at 4:30 am by the garbage trucks, I didn’t think I would last one week. Twenty-five-plus years later, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Years earlier fan-friends gushed about New York City Rhythm and the lure of the Big Apple. Now I was beginning to understand the attraction of this city of contrasts.
The New York City Rhythm led me straight to Union Theological Seminary and the Columbia University School of Social Work. I was floored by the scholarship I was exposed to. George Landes. Phyllis Trible. James Cone. Kosuke Koyama (an eminent Japanese ecumenist and theologian who would later deliver my ordination sermon in 1996). Tom Driver. Robin Scroggs. William Kennedy. David Lotz. Ann Ulanov. James Forbes. Just to name a few. I even had the bright idea to take a course in Biblical Hebrew at the Jewish Theological Seminary across the street, and my heart went straight into palpitations. I thought God wrote in the nice block letters that my goya Bible contained – but these guys were writing Hebrew biblical verses in cursive! This was a whole new system to learn! What a nice professor I had – he spent so much extra time with me to make sure I passed.
To the secular world these names may mean nothing, like names in a phonebook. However these people were the equivalent of superstars in the academic world. They not only were scholars but they made their teaching come alive. The lectern became a pulpit in a positive sense. Nearly every lecture felt transformative, like being at a revival. Even the lectures on Church history – the dead men in old places with antiquated views – come across inspirational. I was soaking it all in.
It wasn't all serious and books. I still enjoyed baking and decorating cakes, so I was called upon to bake a "fatted calf" cake for one of the worship services. Hey, seminarians gotta party too!
For once, the balance was tipping: the Handbook and Politburo were having a run for their money. In addition to all this coursework, I invested in therapy, inspired by many others, including Barry, a journey he spoke openly about in his autobiography. I had started this process in college. It was stop and go for years. Now here, in seminary, I went earnestly, deliberately, to a therapist to deal head on with what I recognized as symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder stemming from my history of abuse.
I wanted to become, in the words of the theologian Henri Nouman, a “wounded healer. ” Nouman wrote: “The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.” Perhaps transforming the hurts I had endured could become a beacon of hope for others.
To become that beacon of hope became my dream.
Notes:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/139677-the-greatest-disease-in-the-west-today-is-not-tb
Manilow, Barry. Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company,
1987. p. 113.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/9257558/Barry-Manilow-If-it-wasnt-for-therapy-I-wouldnt-be-sitting-here-now.html
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society
http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1202823-the-wounded-healer
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, A Simple Path
Benjamin and I came back to New York City in 1989 when I was admitted to a dual-degree program that combined seminary and social work school. What a shock. Between paying through the nose in rent for a one bedroom apartment the size of my mother’s living room, and being awakened at 4:30 am by the garbage trucks, I didn’t think I would last one week. Twenty-five-plus years later, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Years earlier fan-friends gushed about New York City Rhythm and the lure of the Big Apple. Now I was beginning to understand the attraction of this city of contrasts.
The New York City Rhythm led me straight to Union Theological Seminary and the Columbia University School of Social Work. I was floored by the scholarship I was exposed to. George Landes. Phyllis Trible. James Cone. Kosuke Koyama (an eminent Japanese ecumenist and theologian who would later deliver my ordination sermon in 1996). Tom Driver. Robin Scroggs. William Kennedy. David Lotz. Ann Ulanov. James Forbes. Just to name a few. I even had the bright idea to take a course in Biblical Hebrew at the Jewish Theological Seminary across the street, and my heart went straight into palpitations. I thought God wrote in the nice block letters that my goya Bible contained – but these guys were writing Hebrew biblical verses in cursive! This was a whole new system to learn! What a nice professor I had – he spent so much extra time with me to make sure I passed.
To the secular world these names may mean nothing, like names in a phonebook. However these people were the equivalent of superstars in the academic world. They not only were scholars but they made their teaching come alive. The lectern became a pulpit in a positive sense. Nearly every lecture felt transformative, like being at a revival. Even the lectures on Church history – the dead men in old places with antiquated views – come across inspirational. I was soaking it all in.
It wasn't all serious and books. I still enjoyed baking and decorating cakes, so I was called upon to bake a "fatted calf" cake for one of the worship services. Hey, seminarians gotta party too!
For once, the balance was tipping: the Handbook and Politburo were having a run for their money. In addition to all this coursework, I invested in therapy, inspired by many others, including Barry, a journey he spoke openly about in his autobiography. I had started this process in college. It was stop and go for years. Now here, in seminary, I went earnestly, deliberately, to a therapist to deal head on with what I recognized as symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder stemming from my history of abuse.
I wanted to become, in the words of the theologian Henri Nouman, a “wounded healer. ” Nouman wrote: “The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.” Perhaps transforming the hurts I had endured could become a beacon of hope for others.
To become that beacon of hope became my dream.
Notes:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/139677-the-greatest-disease-in-the-west-today-is-not-tb
Manilow, Barry. Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company,
1987. p. 113.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/9257558/Barry-Manilow-If-it-wasnt-for-therapy-I-wouldnt-be-sitting-here-now.html
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society
http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1202823-the-wounded-healer
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.