[Dialogue] [Oe List ...] Our ever-dwindling Listserve

[Beret Griffith]

Thank you Milan.
Beret

On Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 2:41 PM Ellie Stock via Dialogue <
dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> Wow!  Thanks, Milan!  Very moving.
>
> Ellie :)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Milan Hamilton via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> To: ORDER LISTSERVE <oe at wedgeblade.net>
> Cc: Milan Hamilton <mellowmilan2 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Thu, Sep 16, 2021 12:24 pm
> Subject: [Oe List ...] Our ever-dwindling Listserve
>
> I believe it was Ken (Fisher?) who coined this greeting in response to Joe
> Ayers completion: “our ever-dwindling Listserve.” This was one of those
> “intrusions”into my psyche that resulted in the following poem and Googling
> the Henry V speech. It made me reflect on the stages of grief and where am
> I. Not only are we dwindling in numbers but the species of our beloved home
> are dwindling even faster. I get up every morning and dutifully tick off
> another of the days of this decade remaining (3,395 today) to have to
> reduce our carbon emission by the proverbial 45-50% in order to have a
> livable earth. And get just a little more angry/sad/resigned/accepting. I
> think I am cycling between resignation and acceptance currently. The
> response this particular notice and comment from Ken generated in me led to
> the following. I share it for the edification of the remnant. Milan H.
>
> *A Chair at the Table*
> St Crispin's Day Speech
> The *St Crispin's Day speech* is a part of William Shakespeare
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare>'s history play *Henry
> V* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_(play)>, Act IV
> <https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Henry_the_Fifth#ACT_FOURTH.> Scene
> iii(3) 18–67. On the eve of the Battle of Agincourt
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt>, which fell on Saint
> Crispin's Day <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Crispin%27s_Day>,
> Henry V urges his men, who were vastly outnumbered by the French, to recall
> how the English had previously inflicted great defeats upon the French. The
> speech has been famously portrayed by Laurence Olivier
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Olivier> to raise British spirits
> during the Second World War
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_World_War>, and by Kenneth Branagh
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Branagh> in the 1989 film *Henry V*
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_(1989_film)>; it made famous the
> phrase "band of brothers".[1]
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Crispin%27s_Day_Speech#cite_note-telegraph-1> The
> play was written around 1600, and several later writers have used parts of
> it in their own texts.
> WESTMORLAND
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Neville,_1st_Earl_of_Westmorland>. O
> that we now had here
> But one ten thousand of those men in England
> That do no work to-day!
>
> KING <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_of_England>. What's he that
> wishes so?
> My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin;
> If we are mark'd to die, we are enough
> To do our country loss; and if to live,
> The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
> God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
> By Jove <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(mythology)>, I am not
> covetous for gold,
> Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
> It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
> Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
> But if it be a sin to covet honour,
> I am the most offending soul alive.
> No, faith, my coz <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coz#Noun>, wish not a
> man from England.
> God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
> As one man more methinks would share from me
> For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
> Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,
> That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
> Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
> And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
> We would not die in that man's company
> That fears his fellowship to die with us.
> This day is call'd the feast of Crispian
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispin_and_Crispinian>.
> He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
> Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
> And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
> He that shall live this day, and see old age,
> Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
> And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
> Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
> And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
> Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
> But he'll remember, with advantages,
> What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
> Familiar in his mouth as household words—
> Harry the King, Bedford
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John,_Duke_of_Bedford> and Exeter
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Beaufort,_Duke_of_Exeter>,
> Warwick
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Beauchamp,_13th_Earl_of_Warwick>
>  and Talbot
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Talbot,_1st_Earl_of_Shrewsbury>,
> Salisbury
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Montagu,_4th_Earl_of_Salisbury> and
> Gloucester <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey,_Duke_of_Gloucester>—
> Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
> This story shall the good man teach his son;
> And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
> From this day to the ending of the world,
> But we in it shall be rememberèd—
> We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
> For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
> Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
> This day shall gentle his condition;
> And gentlemen in England now a-bed
> Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
> And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
> That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
> *Addendum*
> Ah we privileged few that in a land of myst’ry
> Sat at table, men and women, facing one another
> While girding ourselves for battles of the spirit
> More fierce than those we’d face outside
> Our hallowed halls where, singing songs familiar
> And others learned from theologians’ words
> Would stir our hearts and lead us into places
> None believed we’d ever tread.
> We century twenty band of timid souls
> Inspired first to save the Church by teaching
> Her to love the World a parish at a time;
> Then audacious though it seemed to all but we
> On fire with Consciousness flowing like a river
> Turned our gaze upon a suffering world four billion then,
> Now nearly eight before we blinked an eye, ours not G-O-D’s.
> Climbing the Mountain of Care, we thought could demonstrate
> Anew a balanced triangle, a band of twenty-four, a humanizing thread
> Of hope beyond hope to the poorest of the poor,
> Not realizing yet that they were Us, the ones in need.
> But wait, opportunity knocks, maybe only this once in a lifetime chance:
> The bicentennial of the good old USA! Are you ready for this?
> Yes! Said We, let us conduct five thousand Town Meetings
> And by the way, let’s make it several thousand more around the world.
> Town Meeting ’76! Was off and running. Of course, we did it,
> One in every county of the land belov-ed. Ours not G-O-D’s.
> And who knows how many in the world belov-ed, G-O-D’s for sure.
> What a historical ride on which we privileged few were taken:
> Painful years ahead, decisions, decisions, decisions.
> Sendouts galore! Broken chains of Care! Did I sign up for this?
> Oh Yeah! You did! And now you get to reap the fruits of your labor.
> Now the Sea of Tranquility’s becoming clear.
> Just got an E-mail about Audrey’s Joe, not the first of us to go to the
> Mystery’s embrace
> But there’s always one that wakes you up, not so?
> I knew Audrey! No, I don’t mean I knew Audrey, exactly. But I knew Audrey
> Back in nineteen-sixty-nine, Academy, and Summer 70.
> This feeling washed over me, of being one of the privileged ones
> Who knew Audrey and Joe, and the others of us who’ve gone to the Mystery’s
> care:
> My friend Terry, who “recruited” me, George and David, who taught me,
> And Bob, who mentored me and was my friend, and Audrey, who I knew in ’69.
> Chairs are missing at the table; we are dwindling one by one;
> Yet the stories as they leave us, telling us their work is done,
> Join with saints of all the ages, beckoning, beckoning, to leave out not a
> single one.
> I’m not naming any more of us, you know who you are.
> Except for that other Joe, who more importantly, knew me. Remember Joe?
> Joe used to say that when he went, all of us who went on ahead would wait
> hey--
> At the Pearly Gate hey.
> So, we could all march in together hey.
> Ah, we privileged few who were there on Crispin’s Day
>
> Milan Hamilton
> September 15, 2021
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
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