Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Sun, 23 Dec 2007 05:57:31 -0500 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Ruth,
I think he was happy as a Christian. He was a lay Congregational
Methodist minister. But he had his other torments. The story I have is
that for many years he worked nights at the Sinclair Oil refinery in
Salamanca, NY watching gauges. He was there every night, all night,
watching. It was hard work for the fact that there was nothing else to
do. He was not even to have books, though he snuck in his pocket Bible.
I talked to him one time about madness, his comment, "You got to keep
that stuff away." He took sick one night and staid home in bed. That was
the night that the refinery burnt down.
My understanding of his spending long nights watching gauges made it a
bit easer for me to commute alone 5 hours a day for 12 years. That sort
of driving you cannot get away from yourself.
As I knew him he was always prepared to stop whatever he was doing and
preach. He got up early every morning and went to a corner dinner
downtown in Ithaca and preached Jesus to whomever would listen. He also
spent a whole lot of time visiting the terminally ill at the county
hospital. His death. He and my grandmother lived in a house that had a
driveway that went up hill from the road. He was out working on his car,
while my Grandmother was inside listening to the Texaco opera on the
radio I presume. The car rolled and pinned him to the ground. He was
there for hours in the sun and died of a heart attack brought on by
dehydration.
Least these are the stories that I have.
A good deal of the Christian story line, particularly in New England,
has been designed to keep people in a constant state of fear and
torment. You can check out either the text or an audio recording of
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinners_in_the_Hands_of_an_Angry_God> from
Jonathan Edwards, 1741. This is incredibly heavy material but if you
want an idea where your grgrgrandmother's self-torment came from it is
worth looking at. Lingering threads of these torments tend to pass along
through the generations. When the protestants first got the idea that
G-d speaks directly to each individual it was very powerful. But at the
same time the ministerial class was still busy telling as many
individuals as possible what G-d was saying to each one of them. It
comes down to the art of the most powerful persuader.
Merry Christmas.
][<en
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
|
|
|