[Dialogue] [Oe List ...] A Very Brief Collegium

Sat Sep 5 09:49:43 PDT 2015

Thank you Steve for choosing Dylan’s tough love poem.

Good to have many tones and many perspectives to view the last mile or two.

Best regards, Sherwood

From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Steve Ediger via OE
Sent: Friday, September 4, 2015 4:45 PM
To: Gordon Harper
Cc: ICA/OE List Serves; Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] A Very Brief Collegium

Gordon,

In the short time that I've known you, I have come to appreciate your long-suffering facilitation skills and well-considered advice.  You shine as a beacon in this community.  May God grant you the grace to accept what you cannot change and the strength to fight like hell for what you can change.

Steve Ediger  

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

 <http://www.poemhunter.com/dylan-thomas/poems/> Dylan Thomas

  <http://cat.ny.us.criteo.com/delivery/lg.php?cppv=1&cpp=OwjabHxiMnpldEF3VTdPRm96QVRGN2xKb3pJenJ3bElPbTlYWkpVa3l5NFNKQTFLUmlHQ2owMWhMMWpmQTdSYXZGajlVa1pQRHI4REZQVkZLLzJtWkgxNEE5TWpXNzVBOGtYVDZYSHdJWWI3R1dBZVVIQ0w1Vm9oa2JzWlcyK3hCenJKYUZwZjNoWk1qNi9oS1hjdFlpWnAyK2srbXlKQzN0bE14Wkt3WTRJNGF5V05EdkN2S3VyRW5XVGRqczBYQ3pqNklpcWcwNW1xaVZhQ3dtZElTU3B0T2d0QW00OGN2YlpvV0d2ZTljTkZEQVUwPXw%3D> 

  <https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=ac3RldmVlZGlnZXJAZ21haWwuY29t&type=zerocontent&guid=bddf2ccc-b07e-42e5-a674-87c64d651477> ᐧ

Steve Ediger

773-920-7350 (google voice)

505-426-7088 (mobile)

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 11:19 PM, Gordon Harper via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

Beloved Colleagues --

Few of us, as the end of life approaches, get the chance to speak directly to anything like our whole community.  It appears that I have that opportunity, and I’m taking advantage of it.

Last week, after two months of medical testing to find out what had suddenly landed on me and drained me of my strength and usual energy, Roxana and I got the diagnosis.  It’s a rare form of fairly fast moving (typically two months to two years) leukemia, called CMML.  There’s little to be done to treat it, especially in someone my age (about to be 79). I'm getting good medical care and have a fine local support community here in Seattle.

First of all, I want you all to know that I am at peace with this, as is Roxana.  My life--in good part because of you--has been rich, crazy, wonder-filled and a unique and unrepeatable journey with the Mystery. And no one knows better than you and I how to celebrate both our being here and the completion of our journeys.

I am taking this rare chance to express to all of you how much you’ve meant to me over the years--as the amazing collection of individual nobodies we are that rode out like the Man of La Mancha to throw our beings into the challenge of bending history.  More than that, you all contributed your own weird and special gifts, neuroses and idiosyncrasies to the makeup of our corporate life and community, all over the world.  Without you, there’d never have been such a community; so thank you, thank you, thank you.  

I hope to be able to chat with at least some of you individually or collectively over the time remaining to me, through one of the dizzying array of communication tools at hand today, and give you a little abuse. (What else would you expect from me? And please--do return the favor.) We’ll see how things work out.  In the meantime, this note will have to stand for my salute to all of you, my heartfelt gratitude for your having been and continuing to be who you are and for that remarkable webbing and mission that connects us.

The peace of God is yours this day --

Gordon  

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