Mental Musings

Fall is perhaps my favorite time of the year. Living in Maryland once again has helped me remember some wonderful falls when I was younger: walking around outside with the crisp air and all of the wonderful colors, jumping into a pile of freshly raked leaves, hayrides through pumpkin patches or just sitting inside by a raging fire. Almost twenty years ago I wrote a poem that intrigued those who read it, because they thought it was rather morbid. It was never my intention for it to be so, but it was supposed to draw the reader to the newness that lies just beneath all of the decay that we see. Let me know what you think. Content With Death © Steve Poole Although the wind outside is cold It's warm inside with a blazing fire I hear a fierce and mighty gust And see some leaves of red and gold As gently they fall, then rising higher Descend to a shifting grave of rust The wind will speak a stronger wail Like music of an aspen branch As death continues on beneath it And then the snow I k...

It was one of those Sundays. You know...soloist for the choral anthem could not attend because his wife was in emergency room; choir attendance for early service is way down because of the churches 75th Anniversary dinner Saturday evening; acoustic guitar player for praise band was out as he was the same one at the hospital with his wife; praise team and band had horrible microphone and monitor problems because much of the sound equipment had been used at the Community Center on Saturday night for the dinner; three of the praise team members were losing their voices; the soloist for the last service could not get the sound team's attentione to turn down the blaring monitors and wound up forgetting her words (something she has never done and of course happens in the service while we are live on the radio); and I could not see when the pastor was finished with the Baptism, so I sat there waiting in silence for a while before I realized he was done. I am a true believer that we are to...

There is a profound thought that I have held fast to ever since my study of J.S. Bach’s philosophy of church music as constructed by his actions. This thought has helped to guide my ministry in every situation regardless of most every other circumstance. It is a very simple thought that seems obvious at first glance. The thought: Bach made use of the resources he had. How does this relate to church music? How often have you heard or even thought such things as, “If we only had a good drummer,” or “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a good keyboardist,” or “Just think of what we could do if only we had a bigger budget.” I am sure there are many other examples. But Bach did not leave letters of complaints about what he did not have. Instead he based his music on what was available. This is one of the reasons for some rather unusual voicings in his church music. If he had castrati he wrote music for them. If he had violist he included a part for them in the accompaniment. Too many churches look ...

For several thousand years the synagogue (and later church) was the formal educational center for most communities. If children could not study in their synagogue or church, the were educated in their homes. Higher education was handled through apprenticeships. Boarding schools began to appear prior to the Medieval Age when children were sometimes sent to live in Monasteries where they were educated. In AD 850 the University of Constantinople was established and the shift from apprenticeships to the formal classroom began fro higher education . Private tutoring at home remained the norm for the aristocratic families, but after the sixteenth century it was increasingly accepted that adolescents of any rank might best be educated collectively. The government run public school for secondary and elementary education is actually a relatively new concept. On January 1, 1643, by unanimous vote, Dedham, Massachusetts authorized the first U.S. taxpayer-funded public school. Churches throughout...

Today Ashton and Zachary did a science experiment in chaos. I know when I was in school chaos was a normal part of our school days. But their science experiment was designed to give them a creative way to think about where everything came from. It started with a bunch of Lego (tm) bricks. They threw the Legos into the air and watched to see if they created anything. Of course, all that happened was that the Legos fell to the floor in a mass of disconnected bricks. Then they took the bricks and created something. Ashton created a dragon. I am not certain what Zachary created, he wouldn't tell me. Then they were asked which seemed more likely to them: everything just happened to fall together in some amazing explosion or that somebody created everything. A really simple experiment that I would think anybody could understand. Unfortunately not all scientists are as free thinking as Marilyn vos Savant who stated in Parade magazine, February 4, 1996, “I think that if it had been a re...

I know, I know, my vacation has been over for more than a week. But it has taken me this long to get caught back up. But it is done and I am back to blogging.