This is the 1172th column I have written for the Lake Country Calendar newspaper. In the autumn of 1995, Jack McCarthy called me. “How’d you like to write a column for us?” he asked.
That’s how it began.
Jack was the owner and publisher of The Calendar, a weekly newspaper serving the four small unincorporated communities of Winfield, Okanagan Centre, Oyama, and Carr’s Landing.
The Calendar hadn’t always been a newspaper. It has started as, quite literally, a calendar of local events, started by the Women’s Institute in 1951 and published monthly -- several sheets of letter-size paper, mimeographed and stapled.
Remember mimeographs? In the days before photocopying – loooong before digital images – community organizations and churches relied on mimeograph machines to print their publications. The operators typically came home with fingers stained with blue ink. And often with sore arms from turning a hand crank.
Jack McCarthy and a partner bought the old Calendar, and turned it into a weekly newspaper. He risked investing in typesetting equipment. For a former plumber, a Nashville musician (who for a while had the great Chet Atkins as backup guitarist!), and a man who planned to be a psychiatric nurse, it was a whole new career.
But he turned the Calendarinto much more than just a newspaper.
Leaving his mark
The Calendarbecame the glue that drew four independent communities together into a new municipality. Indeed, Jack invented the name that the provincial government eventually legislated into existence – “Lake Country.” Some cynics suggest that he simply got tired of including all four names in the paper’s masthead. Whatever the reason, the name stuck.
The Calendaralso became the voice of ordinary folks in the four communities. Over some 40 years, Jack collected a range of local columnists who reflected all regions and viewpoints.
Either Jack or a staff reporter attended every Council meeting of the new District of Lake Country. No significant policies slipped by unchallenged. And if local residents had a beef with municipal practices, they tended to go to Jack and demand, “What are YOU going to do about it?”
Growing up in the area, Jack knew everyone. Indeed, given the low population of the original communities, he was related to many of them!
Like all pioneer farm families, he grew up knowing what it meant to be poor. He also knew what it meant to work hard. So he was active in dozens of local causes, especially the Lions Club, and for many years chaired the municipal Parks and Recreation Committee.
He was the third generation of his family farming the same land. The McCarthy barn was a local landmark -- until it burned down one night, and took 30 years of Calendararchives with it.
Jack valued, and fought to retain, the close-knit community he grew up with. But it was a losing battle. Some attribute his eventual breakdown, which resulted in the sale of his newspaper to Black Press, to seeing his beloved community overwhelmed by growth-at-any-cost housing developments.
Jack McCarthy died Saturday June 23 at the age of 76.
I don’t expect to see his like again. I consider it a privilege to have worked for him, and with him.
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Copyright © 2018 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
I got quite a few responses about last week’s column on living with clocks stopped sometime in the past – including a few from people who felt they had been specifically ridiculed.
George Brigham had a couple of stories to share: “I’ve ministered in several multi-national congregations over the years and encouraged congregations to say the Lord’s Prayer in whatever language they felt most comfortable with. In one church that included 20+ nationalities it produced an interesting sound. It also enabled many of us to speak in modern English and a few die-hards to stick with ‘...who art in heaven...’ with one going even further back and using ‘...which art in heaven...’
Your watch story reminded me of an item from the 1950s BBC radio ‘The Goon Show. Eccles – the least bright character – is asked the time. He replies, ‘It’s 11.15. I asked a policeman this morning and got him to write it down for me so I wouldn’t forget.’”
Wayne Irwin wrote, “I like this one. The analogy is very helpful.” Jim Henderschedt sent a similar note.
Tom Watson had his own experience of time-warp: “Back in January, one line in Canada's anthem ‘O Canada’ was changed from ‘in all our sons command’ to ‘in all of us command.’ I recently began attending a 300-member men's club that meets every Tuesday morning. My ear suggests that at least 1/3 of the 300 members still sing the old phrase. I guess it's still early January on their watches.”
Isabel Gibson did a lot of thinking: “I think we resist change because too often we know only what we have experienced. We lack any historical context for all the changes that have occurred so far. "So it is, and so it has always been."
“I think we resist change because it feels like a little death: not consciously, but subconsciously.
“I think we resist change because it really can be risky. After all, doing things differently isn't what got us here.
“I think it's a wonder we change at all.”
James West commented, “You’re absolutely right on ‘Our Father who art in heaven’ being correct twice a day at precisely at 5:16:07. Please tell me that it’s an analogue watch, that shows the passage of time, and not digital which is only right for a nanosecond. In fact no timepiece is ever accurate because of the time it takes for the light to reach our eyes and our brains to process the information. Ain’t astrophysics and neurobiology fun?”
Valentina Gal didn’t want to abandon all traditions: “While I understand your sentiment about being stuck in time and agree with most of it, I take exception to your lumping the Lord’s Prayer into the mix.
“Certainly it is good to update our worship practices and put a fresh face on the familiar. However, some things also need to be respected and left the way they are. For me, the Lord’s Prayer is one of these pillars of faith that, once learned, is always at my fingertips. It acknowledges the sovereignty of God and praises him; reminds me that His will is what I need to remember; emphasizes my need to be grateful and helps me ask for protection and forgiveness. When recited as a group or congregation it also reinforces the idea of unity – that everyone in the room has a common desire and a common need. And older, sick, or frightened folk pull those words out of their memory to help them through a crisis. My mother certainly did when she was a prisoner in Dachau.
“Though the new and renewed can give us insight and a fresh perspective, let us remember to hold on to the tried and true in this unsettling and troubled time.”
John McTavish lamented the polarization. He quoted, "The learner in the kingdom of heaven... is like a householder who can produce from his store both the new and the old. "
John added, “I take from these words that we should be reciting both new creeds and old creeds, singing both new hymns and old hymns, offering both new prayers and old prayers. But, oh no, it's got to be the new. Or, oh no, it's got to be the old. What are we missing here? What is our poor Lord missing here?”
Jean (she didn’t give a last name) took issue with the “free will” paragraph I quoted from Richard Holloway: “Our criminal justice system does punish people for non-freewill actions. The consequences for survivors of the residential schools comes to mind; they had no choice to be in the schools, to be not in families, and to live lives of survivors. The incarceration rates of aboriginal people in Canada are higher than for non-aboriginal people in part due to the legacy of residential schools. For women, the choice to resist or not the act we call rape, can result in their death at the behest of criminal justice systems in their countries. There are many times where the consequence is not the result of free will.
" I agree that there are [some] circumstances where the free choice of individuals results in crime that has a consequence. The processes of the criminal justice system were set up, I used to think, to address just that issue: did intent go into the crime? When I look however at the behaviours of some politicians and some powerful and wealthy individuals, the justice system does not seem to be serving this point very well. It seems that the wealthy can escape consequences; impunity is the word to pay attention to.”
By way of reminder, if you’d like to be on the mailing list to receive notifications when I post a new poem to my webpage, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca, or subscribe yourself to the list by sending a blank email (no message) to poetry-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca (If it doesn’t work, write me directly.)
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PSALM PARAPHRASES
When I saw verse 2 in Psalm 123 (the alternate reading for this Sunday), about the way a maid is supposed to look at her mistress or a servant at his master, I thought about the way my dog looks at me.
1. I look up to you. You stand tall above me.
2. I must roll my eyes up to see your face.
On four paws, I circle around your ankles.
I adore you.
You feed me, you pet me, you walk me.
You are everything to me.
3. Open your heart to me.
We dogs have endured enough contempt.
We are scorned, we are beaten,
we are kickedoutinto the cold and wet, to fend for ourselves.
4. We know too well what it is like to be cursed as a cur.
So we worship you, but we also fear your power.
Show us that you can be loving;
Welcome us into the warmth of your family.
For paraphrases of mostof the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalmsfrom Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols.
Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca
Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://wwwDOThymnsightDOTca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,”an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom
Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony”-- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’sreaders. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet