<div style="color:black;font: 10pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wow! Thanks, Milan! Very moving.
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<div>Ellie :)<br>
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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black"><font size="2">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Milan Hamilton via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net><br>
To: ORDER LISTSERVE <oe@wedgeblade.net><br>
Cc: Milan Hamilton <mellowmilan2@gmail.com><br>
Sent: Thu, Sep 16, 2021 12:24 pm<br>
Subject: [Oe List ...] Our ever-dwindling Listserve<br>
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<div dir="ltr">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.</div>
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<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:15.693333625793457px;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:19.97333335876465px;">A Chair at the Table</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:15.693333625793457px;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">St Crispin's Day Speech</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:15.693333625793457px;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">The <b>St Crispin's Day speech</b> is a part of <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare" title="William Shakespeare" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">William Shakespeare</a>'s history play <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_(play)" title="Henry V (play)" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);"><i>Henry V</i></a>, <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Henry_the_Fifth#ACT_FOURTH." title="s:The Life of Henry the Fifth" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Act IV</a> Scene iii(3) 18–67. On the eve of the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt" title="Battle of Agincourt" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Battle of Agincourt</a>, which fell on <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Crispin%27s_Day" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Saint Crispin's Day</a>, 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 <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Olivier" title="Laurence Olivier" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Laurence Olivier</a> to raise British spirits during the <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_World_War" title="Second World War" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Second World War</a>, and by <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Branagh" title="Kenneth Branagh" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Kenneth Branagh</a> in the 1989 film <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_(1989_film)" title="Henry V (1989 film)" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);"><i>Henry V</i></a>; it made famous the phrase "band of brothers".<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Crispin%27s_Day_Speech#cite_note-telegraph-1" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);"><sup>[1]</sup></a> The play was written around 1600, and several later writers have used parts of it in their own texts.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:15.693333625793457px;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Neville,_1st_Earl_of_Westmorland" title="Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">WESTMORLAND</a>. O that we now had here<br>
But one ten thousand of those men in England<br>
That do no work to-day!<br>
<br>
<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_of_England" title="Henry V of England" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">KING</a>. What's he that wishes so?<br>
My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin;<br>
If we are mark'd to die, we are enough<br>
To do our country loss; and if to live,<br>
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.<br>
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.<br>
By <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(mythology)" title="Jupiter (mythology)" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Jove</a>, I am not covetous for gold,<br>
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;<br>
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;<br>
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.<br>
But if it be a sin to covet honour,<br>
I am the most offending soul alive.<br>
No, faith, my <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coz#Noun" title="wikt:coz" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">coz</a>, wish not a man from England.<br>
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour<br>
As one man more methinks would share from me<br>
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!<br>
Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,<br>
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,<br>
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,<br>
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;<br>
We would not die in that man's company<br>
That fears his fellowship to die with us.<br>
This day is call'd the feast of <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispin_and_Crispinian" title="Crispin and Crispinian" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Crispian</a>.<br>
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,<br>
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,<br>
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.<br>
He that shall live this day, and see old age,<br>
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,<br>
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."<br>
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,<br>
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."<br>
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,<br>
But he'll remember, with advantages,<br>
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,<br>
Familiar in his mouth as household words—<br>
Harry the King, <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John,_Duke_of_Bedford" title="John, Duke of Bedford" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Bedford</a> and <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Beaufort,_Duke_of_Exeter" title="Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Exeter</a>,<br>
<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Beauchamp,_13th_Earl_of_Warwick" title="Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Warwick</a> and <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Talbot,_1st_Earl_of_Shrewsbury" title="John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Talbot</a>, <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Montagu,_4th_Earl_of_Salisbury" title="Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Salisbury</a> and <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey,_Duke_of_Gloucester" title="Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114);">Gloucester</a>—<br>
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.<br>
This story shall the good man teach his son;<br>
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,<br>
>From this day to the ending of the world,<br>
But we in it shall be rememberèd—<br>
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;<br>
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me<br>
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,<br>
This day shall gentle his condition;<br>
And gentlemen in England now a-bed<br>
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,<br>
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks<br>
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;">Addendum</span></b></div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Ah we privileged few that in a land of myst’ry</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Sat at table, men and women, facing one another</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">While girding ourselves for battles of the spirit</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">More fierce than those we’d face outside</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Our hallowed halls where, singing songs familiar</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">And others learned from theologians’ words</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Would stir our hearts and lead us into places</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">None believed we’d ever tread.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">We century twenty band of timid souls</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Inspired first to save the Church by teaching</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Her to love the World a parish at a time;</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Then audacious though it seemed to all but we</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">On fire with Consciousness flowing like a river</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Turned our gaze upon a suffering world four billion then,</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Now nearly eight before we blinked an eye, ours not G-O-D’s.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Climbing the Mountain of Care, we thought could demonstrate</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Anew a balanced triangle, a band of twenty-four, a humanizing thread</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Of hope beyond hope to the poorest of the poor,</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Not realizing yet that they were Us, the ones in need.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">But wait, opportunity knocks, maybe only this once in a lifetime chance:</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">The bicentennial of the good old USA! Are you ready for this?</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Yes! Said We, let us conduct five thousand Town Meetings</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">And by the way, let’s make it several thousand more around the world.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Town Meeting ’76! Was off and running. Of course, we did it,</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">One in every county of the land belov-ed. Ours not G-O-D’s.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">And who knows how many in the world belov-ed, G-O-D’s for sure.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">What a historical ride on which we privileged few were taken:</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Painful years ahead, decisions, decisions, decisions.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Sendouts galore! Broken chains of Care! Did I sign up for this?</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Oh Yeah! You did! And now you get to reap the fruits of your labor.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Now the Sea of Tranquility’s becoming clear.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Just got an E-mail about Audrey’s Joe, not the first of us to go to the Mystery’s embrace</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">But there’s always one that wakes you up, not so?</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">I knew Audrey! No, I don’t mean I knew Audrey, exactly. But I knew Audrey</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Back in nineteen-sixty-nine, Academy, and Summer 70.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">This feeling washed over me, of being one of the privileged ones</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Who knew Audrey and Joe, and the others of us who’ve gone to the Mystery’s care:</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">My friend Terry, who “recruited” me, George and David, who taught me,</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">And Bob, who mentored me and was my friend, and Audrey, who I knew in ’69.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Chairs are missing at the table; we are dwindling one by one;</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Yet the stories as they leave us, telling us their work is done,</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Join with saints of all the ages, beckoning, beckoning, to leave out not a single one.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">I’m not naming any more of us, you know who you are. </div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Except for that other Joe, who more importantly, knew me. Remember Joe?</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Joe used to say that when he went, all of us who went on ahead would wait hey--</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">At the Pearly Gate hey.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">So, we could all march in together hey.</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Ah, we privileged few who were there on Crispin’s Day</div>
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<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">Milan Hamilton</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;">September 15, 2021</div>
<div class="yiv5610697158MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:New serif;"> </div>
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