I had a column all prepared for today – and then Stuart McLean died….

            Roughly half of the CBC’s hour-long National news that evening was about McLean. I haven’t seen that much time devoted to any other celebrity: not to Leonard Cohen, or Prince, or even Gordie Howe. Perhaps for Queen Elizabeth, but she hasn’t died yet, so that’s purely hypothetical.

That’s how important Stuart McLean was to our national psyche.

            And yet he was just a storyteller.

            He spent 20 years inventing and relating stories about some very ordinary people. Dave and Morley, and their two children Sam and Stephanie, and their neighbours, and Morley’s mum … A dog named Arthur, a cat named Galway, and a visiting ferret who never got a name….

            Not a prime minister or a president among them.

A world without villains

            Stuart McLean was a national treasure. I’ve heard him called Canada’s Garrison Keillor. Maybe he was also Canada’s Mark Twain. He told the stories of our people, our land, our whatever-we-are, with wit, gentle humour, and insight.

            Like a limited number of other writers – Elizabeth Goudge and Dorothy Gilman come to mind – McLean didn’t need to create villains. He recognized that conflict isn’t necessarily between good and evil, but simply between differing personalities. Between Dave’s good-hearted attempts to be helpful, and Mary Turlington’s obsession with getting things just right. Between Morley, whose Christmases always seemed to get away from her somehow, and Polly Anderson’s perfect parties.

            But they were kindly differences. There was no malice in any of his characters. Not even in Murphy, the boy who kept enticing young Sam into risky adventures.

            McLean portrayed this country. But not by dumping geography lessons on us. I don’t recall any stories set on the endless expanse of the prairies – unlike, say, W.O. Mitchell, another great storyteller. Or in the far north, like Farley Mowat. Dave and Morley made occasional trips to Dave’s home town of Big River in Cape Breton. But they clearly lived in Toronto. In a modern urban neighbourhood, like 80 per cent of us, not in Stephen Leacock’s small towns.

            And yet they were quintessentially Canadian. A mixed bag that included immigrants like Rashida Chudary, and old Eugene Conte from Italy. Decent folks, getting along with each other.

Too serious to take seriously

            There was always a chuckle lurking in Stuart McLean’s voice as he read his stories in the weekly CBC radio broadcasts. Life, it seemed to say, is too serious to take seriously.

            But there were no phony laugh tracks in McLean’s broadcasts. The laughter – lots of it – came from live audiences. When the audience anticipated a punch-line by snickering and snorting too soon, McLean would caution them, “Don’t get ahead of me now!”

            Perhaps most importantly, Stuart McLean recognized that stories define who we are. Thick texts and research papers may foster knowledge, but stories move our hearts.

            We recognize ourselves, and we know where we belong.

            In the many interviews broadcast after Stuart McLean’s death from melanoma on February 15, his colleagues and collaborators said, over and over, that he was a good listener. When they took the Vinyl Café show on the road, Stuart went to the local coffee shops and just listened to people.

            Then he gave us back ourselves.

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Copyright © 2017 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

Dame Evelyn Glennie’s insights about listening with one’s whole body may have been a bit much for some of you to grasp.

Tom Watson recalled an ear-opening experience: “One time, a Deaf Mission group came to see me about the prospect of using the church chapel each Sunday afternoon for their worship services. I asked was for how long, each week. They replied, ‘We need about 2 1/2 hours.’

            “I couldn't remember the last time any United Church congregation was willing to sit through a 2 1/2 hour service, so I asked what they did during that time.

            "’The first part is a social time,’ they said, ‘as we can't pick up the phone and talk to others the way you can.’ They said their actual worship was much like ours -- scripture, prayers, sermon… and hymns.

            “The notion that they sang threw me. They offered to demonstrate. Using sign language, they sang the hymn ‘Jesus Loves Me.’ I could feel the whole room vibrate. It was a profoundly moving experience.”

James Russell forwarded a passage from the recently published novel, The Nix. You may have heard of a concert piece by composer John Cage, which consists of 4'33" of silence, except for the noises the audience makes during it. In the novel, a sensitive musician listening to a tape of the performance notes that at a certain point the nature of the silence changes.

            "There," she said.  "The sound gets warmer.  Do you hear it?  Warmer and fuller.  The sound gets bigger and blooms.  They are beginning to understand."

            "Understand what?"

            "Maybe they're not being tricked.  Maybe they're not being mocked.  Maybe they're not outsiders.   They're beginning to get it.  That maybe they're part of something.  They're beginning to realize they haven't come here to listen to music.  They're beginning to realize that they are the music.  They are themselves what they've come here to find.  The thought is exhilarating to them.  Can you hear it?"

Ted Wilson wrote, “I always figured the Good Lord gave us two eyes, two ears and one mouth intending that we should never talk more than 20% of the time, and look and listen the other 80% of the time.  This week’s Softedges puts a whole new perspective on that ratio.

            I also find that it helps to digest what I have seen and heard for a while before drawing any conclusions.  Perhaps my brain needs some time to assimilate all the information it receives, before it can fully process it.”

Valentina Gal sent some pointers from the Samaritans, religious and charitable organization committed to listening without judgement. On suicide hotlines, for example. Valentina gathered these tips, second hand, from a Samaritans’ website. (I’ve omitted the Bible verses used to justify each point.)

·       Show that you care. Give undivided attention. Remove any distractions.

·       Have patience. It may take time before a person is ready to open up.

·       Use open questions, those that need more than a yes/no answer. Focus on feelings rather than facts. Don't jump in with your own ideas. Use silence.

·       Say it back to check that you have understood, but don't interrupt to offer a solution.

·       Have courage. Don't be put off by a negative response, and don't feel that you have to fill a silence.

The initials of those five points spell out SHUSH.

I suspect Isabel Gibson was grinning when she responded, “I hear you.”

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

The lectionary gives me a choice, today – Psalm 2 or Psalm 99. I preferred my paraphrase of Psalm 99. (This psalm would work well broken into responsive readings.)

1          Like a halo of holiness, the spirit of God envelops the earth.
Out of nothingness, God's spirit gives life;
let us acknowledge our insignificance.
In the emptiness of infinity, God's spirit creates meaning;
let us acknowledge our interdependence.

2          Look around if you would see God;
raise your sights beyond the ruts of your routines.

3          But do not attempt to face God as an equal--
Fling yourself face down on your mother earth.

4          Almighty God, you love to do right.
In your dealings with your creation, you are always fair.

5          We humans grovel before your greatness.
Humbly, we kiss the humus from which you fashioned us.
You are holiness itself.

6          The humus holds the recycled cells of those
who came this way before us;
Step by step they searched for you, until you found them.

7          By the pillar of fire and the whispering breeze,
by bonfire and whirlwind, by prophecy and parable,
you showed them your way.

8          Because they tried to follow you, you forgave them their failings;
But those who laid traps for them, you did not tolerate.

9          So integrate yourselves with the Holy One!
Gather at the foot of the mountain, where even the rocks reach up in praise.
Our God is holiness embodied.

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…

•        Ralph Milton has a new project, 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 www.singhallelujah.ca

•        Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com

•        Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>

•        Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com 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’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

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TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.

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            My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and about five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca

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