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

Tue Nov 9 06:07:20 PST 2021

Wonderful message Milan

On Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 12:45 AM Milan Hamilton via OE <
oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> Thanks. Love you Nancy❤️🤠
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Sep 16, 2021, at 3:45 PM, Nancy Trask via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> wrote:
>
> 
> Dear Milan,
> You have completely hit it out of the ballpark and over the parking lot.
> The original Shakespeare is enough to give me goosebumps, but your
> "addendum" is goosebumps and tears and amazement, the whole emotional
> response.  It is a treasure for us all.  Thank you & thank you & thank you
> again.
> Grace & peace,
> Nancy
>
> Nancy Trask
> (515) 505-0456
> NLT462 at gmail.com
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 12:24 PM Milan Hamilton via OE <
> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
>> 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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>>
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