[Dialogue] John Giancola

[James Wiegel]

What a talented partner you have!  Tell Jim many thanks for this!
Jim Wiegel  

 
 
Theunknown is what is.  And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat.  Unknown is what is.  Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing.    John Lennon



401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353
623-363-3277

jfwiegel at yahoo.com

www.partnersinparticipation.com
 

    On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, 10:34:31 AM MST, Karen Snyder via Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:  
 
 Jim Troxel asked me to post this remembrance of John’s life:

“If a man does not keep pace with hiscompanions,

perhaps it is because he hears adifferent drummer.”

Henry David Thoreau.

 

It was the early part of1966 on the campus of Oklahoma State University located in Stillwater that I, asa naive sophomore, first encountered John Giancola, a senior philosophy major. Johnwas active in the Methodist Wesley Foundation, led by our campus ministers CarlCaskey and Vance Engleman, which served as the hotbed of student awakenment andactivism in which I and a lot of other students were caught up.  We recruited students and faculty to attendthe weekend religious seminars of the Ecumenical Institute (EI) and organizedcaravans to make the road trip up to EI in Chicago’s Inner City at least twicea quarter. We labeled ourselves the FATAGS, the Friday Afternoon Tea and GleeSociety, and eventually helped lead some 5000 students and faculty to protest theschool administration’s reduction of our first amendment rights. We hammeredout a bi-weekly off-campus student newspaper called The Drummer paying homage to Thoreau.*   While Ron Stevens served as its editor, twoof our intellectual leaders were Rob Work and John Giancola. While Rob wasquieter and laid back, John was more spirited and outgoing. Indeed, John wasthe life of our parties. 

 

The mostbizarre parties we held in the small auditorium of the Foundation were are-enactment of The Sound of Music moviethat came out the year before. I have no recollection as to how or why we gotinto this as our cabaret. We’d dole out the parts and invariably John lobbiedfor and was always cast as the Mother Abbess whose rendition of “Climb Every Mountain”was the highpoint of the evening. John’s casting was perhaps a hint of hisfuture inclinations. 

 

It was John’s spiritand energy, though, that I remember the most. He was the center of whateverdiscussion or activity we were caught up in at the moment. His enthusiasmengaged all around him and none of us ever expected that whatever windmill we’dbe going after that we wouldn’t conquer the giants. His smile played the tuneof the pied piper and it was hard not to follow him whatever road he took. Johnhad the gruff appearance of Tevye from Fiddleron the Roof. His compassion for subjects, causes and the people around himwas infectious.

 

John and Robgraduated in the spring of 1966 and both found their way to Chicago eventuallyto join the staff of the EI, which modeled itself as a “lay ecumenicalreligious family order.” Vance Engleman and Judy Sparks Montgomery would takethe plunge as well and other Wesley Foundation folks would join up in Chicago,myself included. But, alas, the structures of EI were too confining for John.He marched to a different drummer. So he moved to New York to find his bliss. 

 

I have notseen him since he left OSU. But, obviously, he had a big impact on my life. Mytribute to John is that he played the role in my life of the Avatar. He servedas an embodiment of the essence of a superhuman being in an earthly form. Hewas, in other words, bigger than life. He transcended the particulars of themoment to enable us to see the larger picture of what we were about. He led usto new awarenesses that we couldn’t see for ourselves. And, for an unformedadolescent who was caught up in the whirlwind of the ‘60s, he had a profoundinfluence on my life direction. 

 

John diedrecently due to complications arising from the COVID virus.  Thank you, John, for being you.

 

Jim Troxel

  

  
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