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

Tue Nov 9 07:11:04 PST 2021

Thank you deeply, Milan, for this awesome work!
Mary Laura Jones
Grants Resource Development Consultant
53599 Pulver Road
Three Rivers, MI 49093
cell: 773 636-2022
mljones2022 at gmail.com

On Tue, Nov 9, 2021 at 9:07 AM Herman Greene via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

> 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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>>> OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
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>>>
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