Somewhere in a box in my garage or basement is a favorite book, Onward and Upward in the Garden by Catherine S. White, a literary editor at “The New Yorker” for 34 years. It’s a compilation of essays about gardening that were published in the magazine over the years. Here you will find intelligent and [...]
At a time few of us remember, the medium of radio inhabited the epicenter of public attention. It was a source of news and entertainment and, in the theatre of the mind, the source of exotic worlds every individual listener conjured in his or her own mind. Television was supposed to bring the irrelevance, even the death, of radio. It didn’t happen. But it did force radio into highly formatted silos of programming: all pop, all rock, all news, all urban, all slush (soft and lush), all classical and the like. Of course, with the advent of cable television, the same thing happened to television. Cable gave us television silos. In cable’s early days my old boss, Ted Turner, was often told by those who deemed themselves his superiors, “No one wants 24 hours of news.”
So, I want to argue the case for paying attention to radio against the forecasts of its demise.
If you are engaged in ministry you have a destination on your radio dial. Listen to Krista Tippett’s program, “On Being.” It is originated by American Public Media, a source of programming far more creative at times than what is served up by NPR. It’s heard on hundreds of stations, mostly public radio but also on some commercial stations, and at various times but you can search for your local outlet on the program’s website. The program originated as “Speaking of Faith,” a title I prefer because there is so little compelling programming about religion on the radio dial. I think Krista wanted to embrace a wider metaphysics and non-mainstream religions. So be it. She’s still a gifted reporter exploring the spiritual world and the realms of faith. I have found nothing to equal her programs in the medium of modern radio.
But wait! There are occasional illuminations that we might find and share with each other. One that I heard on my Atlanta public radio station briefly is a program titled “The Promised Land.” I haven’t heard it recently, leading me to think it has been dropped locally. But it seems to live elsewhere and it lives on the web. Check out a program in the series about Nalini Nadkarni, a young woman who climbed trees in her yard as a girl to escape a chaotic family life. She discovered that scientists did research on trees by standing on the ground, the equivalent of studying “ankles.” She has developed rigging to study the trees high up in the canopy. What she has accomplished as a scientist is extraordinary. But, wait for the surprise. What she has accomplished as a humanitarian is a revelation. You do know that humans are the agents of the miraculous. Right? What she had done as a prison ministry qualifies as a miracle. One inmate tells his story. ”I was imprisoned as a criminal. I was released as a scientist.” Amen.
I had a wonderful friend during my years in Chicago, a Catholic priest full of Irish blarney and joie de vivre. Over spirit-filled lunches at a favorite watering hole, we surveyed the terms and conditions of survival and progress in a confusing world. Father John had an emphatic position about youth and religion: make it hard! Make requirements. Expect sacrificial commitment. Connect with tough assignments. Invite sacrifice. Organize real work in the community. Do these things, he argued, and youth would beat a path to your church door.
I have proved the worth of Father John’s ideas about youth starting last August. I’m teaching an enrichment class in opera at an all-girls public charter school where I’m a trustee. Two days a week I meet for an hour with a group of sixth-graders. I’m not teaching them how to read music, I’m not teaching them to sing. I am introducing them to a world of music that embraces human history, culture, and drama that spans the range of human emotions and experience. For all my scholars, opera was as far from their previous experiences in life that you could imagine. So, I fearlessly followed Father John’s advice and challenged them to learn to think with their ears!
I started out with the seductive duet La chi darem la mano from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. That starting point led to understanding Mozart’s world, his “sound world” and the emerging modernity in the Europe of the late 18th century. Our topics ranged from the origins of opera to a new production premiered just a few years ago. We’ve compared musical styles, the forms of storytelling in music, the ranges of the human voice and the lives of important composers. There are an amazing array of opera performances available on YouTube and that has meant enriching the experience of listening with the experience of seeing.
All of this adds up to something quite new in the lives of these young women. They are beyond their years in using the tools of textual analysis that I have imparted to them. They are now willing to state a position with greater self-confidence when I pose questions. They are mindful that they have taken on a challenge and found a world of music just waiting for their ears! On one afternoon when we were preparing to attend Atlanta Opera’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor I played the mad scene for them from a YouTube video. Afterward, several of the girls started to sing spontaneously. To me this is a sure sign that lives are changing. Add to that experience the afternoon I played them a video of Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot and that swept them away on the wings of music in a way I think will change them forever. Imagine their experience as you listen:
In future posts I will apply Father John’s manifesto to the sad and decaying state of public education. In the meantime, think about your ministry to youth. What would Father John say about it?
Gary on April 30th, 2012
