Famous Trumpet Players

The Bible says that Gabriel blew  a horn
And just so was the old tradition born.
Then John on Patmos said the trumpet sound
Will wake the dead and everyone rebound.

The troops of Charlemagne heard trumpet's blast
And charged ahead , triumphant to the last.
The trumpeter of Krakow in his tower
Inspired soldiers to their finest hour.

And in our Civil War the trumpet called
To action tired armies that were stalled.
While reveille an taps enclosed the day,
Early and late the bugle had its say.

In modern times the trumpet had a spurt
Of popularity, so James and Hirt
Armstrong, Marsalis, Miles and Dizzy
All kept the music headlines extra busy.

The instrument's the same since it was born,
Three small valves, a mouthpiece and a horn.
The players change, however, and they play
With stirring moving power every day.

So if you play the trumpet, play it strong
You can make sweet music all day long,
Brightening and entertaining all
Who listen gladly to your trumpet's call.

It All Began...

The question had been on people's minds for at least two thousand years, and many attempts were made to answer it.  Never had it been so simply asked as when Leibniz, three hundred years ago, queried, "Why something, why not nothing?"  Earlier inquirers, the Greeks, recognized the problem, saying "Niholo ex Niholo fit". . .or "nothing comes out of nothing." 

The Hebrews were acutely conscious of this imponderable question.  Their answer, or rather answers, were rooted in the conviction  that God initiated the process.  They did not try to explain the transition from nothing to something, but assumed God was shaping something that already existed.

Thus we have in scripture three different stories of creation, each one arising from a different perspective:

  The Priestly answer. The question was framed, "How did the elements of the universe come into existence?"  That sequence needed to include oceans, the sun and moon, birds, animals, man, and so on.  This sequence was based on the eight-act decree of Tiamat in the Babylonian poetic legend. The Hebrew priests, eager to enhance their solemn seven-day week, compressed these eight acts of "creation" into six days.  So we have the result in the first chapter of Genesis.

The humanistic answer.  The question was framed, "How did the first human beings come into existence"? Into an already existing garden, God deposited a man.  In order for the man to generate children, a woman was created.  Two children were born, one a crop farmer and the other a shepherd.  How these two men fathered children and where their wives came from is not covered. The story seems to suggest that agriculture of settled farmers was replacing  the hunter-gatherer plan for obtaining food. The story is found in the next three chapters of Genesis.

The anthropologist answer.  The question was framed, "How did the races of man arise?"  The story was composed when three recognizable distinct races were visible.  The tale begins with a man, Noah, being commissioned to build a boat large enough to carry his family and a pair of every existing animal.  Then an immense flood destroys every living thing outside the boat.  In our Bible there are two different versions of the epic lying side by side, but the results of the flood are that Noah becomes drunk and is sexually seduced by his three daughters, producing the three races of mankind: Europeans, Asians and Africans.  This story is found in Genesis 6 - 9.

Each story satisfies an aspect of creation.  As T. S. Eliot writes, "nobody likes to live with a mystery", and a resolution of that dilemma remains hidden after centuries of creative imaginative efforts. The mystery remains.  Neither scientific investigation or logic is capable of a satisfying answer.  The biblical answers are partial and inconclusive.  Our minds are not capable of answering the question.  Poetry, drama, dance, art and music are our efforts to address the issue, perhaps more perceptive than the sheer exercise of the mind.

The Message

There is a lively debate generated by the commentators who think they can explain precisely the message sent across the world by any action. They count themselves capable of reading the minds of the nations. It should be no surprise that their analysis reflects their own value system..

Critics of Jesus said his message of love for enemies sent a message of weakness and self-doubt.  Critics of Martin Luther King held that he sent a message of racism. Critics of President Obama say his actions sent the message that he is a dictator who caved before overwhelming objections to his actions. 

"Sending a message" is a cheap way of evaluating any action since it avoids dealing with the issue  involved; and it is clearly a prejudiced opinion. Evaluating motives, projecting results, analyzing effects . . . .that takes time and thought. 

In the case of President Obama, many regard his retreat from his personal aim to attack Syria as a bow to the democratic majority. Government of, by and for the people is still alive.

Two Sides of a Coin

The age-old debate about the conflict of the biblical view of the world and the scientific view is relentless.  Advocates of both sides heatedly defend their side in this science-versus-religion debate.  Fundamentalists proclaim that the religious view is comprehensive and complete.  Progressives disdain that picture as outmoded by the new world of scientific discovery.  They add evidence from linguistic studies, archeological discoveries, and scientific advances.

Focusing on the center of it all, the person of Jesus, we have the one side totally committed to the Christ of faith. The other side is obsessed with the Jesus of history.

The Christ of faith arises from reported miracles, sermons, teachings, and events - with the conclusive account of the resurrection.  Jesus is seen to be the exclusive Son of God. This view satisfies the search for meaning in life as well as the possibility of eternal existence.

The Jesus of history is understood to be a Galilean peasant-evangelist who challenged the authorities and was put to death by them.  The man had sisters and brothers and spent some time in Jerusalem.  This view holds that the elaboration of his life story, like leading a group of disciples, healing the sick and raising the dead, are all products of the imagination, fashioned to further the evangelistic enterprise.

Today's Christians are asked to choose which of these views they accept.  Sometimes the effort is made to combine them in an acceptable compromise, an accommodation that sees the two approaches as compatible. 

But the basic supposition here is that the human being is incapable of holding antithetical positions - the choice is depicted is an either-or option.  I think of the mind as a two-sided coin - there is no such thing as a one-sided coin.  We have a poetic side which sees life in terms of wonder and beauty and symmetry  and joy.  And we have a realistic side which sees life in economic, visible, materialist and practical terms.  Both sides are essential ingredients to an abundant life. 

It would be unrealistic to hold that we must choose which side we adopt as our rule of life.  The poet needs to eat and exercise; the workman needs to find the depths of imagination and richness.  Life that excludes one or the other is not possible.  There is no such thing as a one-sided coin.

       Larry Gruman.   2013

On Worship . . .

We have become accustomed to a sequence of events that constitute worship.In our Protestant tradition, the elements usually include hymns, Scripture reading, offering, prayer and sermon.  These standard activities may be arranged differently and augmented according to denomination or local tradition. 

Each of these actions has a valid purpose: celebration, unity, devotion, tradition, instruction, inspiration - -all important to the worshiping congregation.  But some more basic consideration needs to be made.

First, God does not need to be worshiped.  It is we who need to rise above our daily adoration of wealth, notoriety, stardom, success, and the all-too-human admiration of power and position.  It is we who need to reset our focus on things beyond everyday concerns, to consider timeless things like forgiveness, love, compassion, and justice.  Worship of God frees us from being all wrapped up in ourselves.

Second, our worship is not designed to change God's mind.  It is an opportunity to change our mind.  Worship encourages us to set our priorities in order, to recognize the rigidity, the prejudice, the unfairness in our minds.  It may set some new values; it may lead to our giving up some goals; it may call us to a new level of existence.

Finally, worship does not call on God for a miracle.  Its magic lies in the miracle it works in our own lives.  Worship is a kind of report to our Creator.  That can mean reflecting on what we have done with God's gift -- our selves.  That can mean facing up to the next step we must take in our personal evolution.  And that can move us to a higher level of humanity.  Worship lifts us.

Larry Gruman

87th BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

For my 87th birthday, my son Peter wrote a superb rendition of the Emancipation Proclamation celebrating the many poems I have written over the years to mark family events. Then he enlisted all our kids and grandkids from all over the country to contribute to the video version of this wonderful tribute. 

What a celebration! 

You can view the entire tribe - plus Ellie - here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBDY-4tMgY

And here is the text of my personalized version of the Emancipation Proclamation: 

Four score and seven years ago Charlotte and Del brought forth, upon the frozen tundra of the north central midwest, a new boy, conceived in Minneapolis, and dedicated to the proposition that "all poems are not created equal."

Now we are celebrating the birthday of Larry Gruman, a great minor poet, testing whether his poetry, or any poetry so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are well read on the subject of the YMCA, Valentine’s Day, swimming lessons and sweaters, trampolines, trains and the Ducks.

We have in fact come to dedicate portions of our homes as the final resting place for those poems, that this light verse may live. 

This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow, this poetry ourselves alone — The brave little cinquains, sonnets, blank verse, yes, even the doggerel which struggled to make a rhyme, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say about these poems; while it can never forget the man who gave them life.

It is rather for us, the children and grandchildren of Larry, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that, from these dozens, nay hundreds, of honorable heptameters, stanzas, even the occasional falling meter (but never the onomotopoeia), we take increased devotion to that cause for which they were created in the fullest measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve these poems shall not have been composed in vain; that this verse shall have a new birth of freedom, and that poetry of the Larry, by the Larry, for the family of the Larry, shall not perish from the earth.

THE. CALL. FROM. THE. MOUNTAINSIDE

"Is everybody ready for a rugged mountain climb?

We're leaving in the morning, and we want to go on time."

My Dad was just suggesting that he didn't want to stop, THE MOUNTAINSIDE IS CALLING: I'LL MEET YOU AT THE TOP

We checked our backpacks, every one, and counted out our gear.

The water, food, and sleeping bag, our socks and shoes: all here; 

Matches, flashlight, candy bars, a jackknife from the shop, THE MOUNTAINSIDE IS CALLING: I'LL MEET YOU AT THE TOP

The car is loaded and we're off; the sun has yet to show 

We shiver in the morning cold, but we're all set to go. 

We're all excited , happy, and our minds about to pop, THE MOUNTAINSIDE IS CALLING: I'LL MEET YOU AT THE TOP

We park our car, get loaded up, bent over with the pack, 

And set our sights away up high, we find the mountain track.

We follow Dad in single file and step along clip-clop, THE MOUNTAINSIDE IS CALLING: I'LL MEET YOU AT THE TOP

Halfway up the mountain we make our little camp. 

Of course the ground is rocky and everything is damp. 

But the climb has taken all our strength, we're all about to drop, THE MOUNTAINSIDE IS CALLING: I'LL MEET YOU AT THE TOP

We don't wake up til sunlight comes and then we spend the day.

Exploring creeks and rocky hills and making time to play.

When night- time comes we light a fire, we're ready now to flop, THE MOUNTAINSIDE IS CALLING: I'LL MEET YOU AT THE TOP

Our family adventure is done; we're heading  down. 

We'll  have a lot of memories to carry back to town.

And next year we will make it, the cream of the crop, THE MOUNTAINSIDE IS CALLING: I'LL MEET YOU AT THE TOP