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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: A time for everything Another Angle, the occasional musings of a Kentucky pastor. A time for everything, even on borrowed time . First published 8 October 2006, in the Hart County News-Herald The next earlier Another Angle Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Being First, at Least for awhile-Champ Clark By The Rev. Joey N. Welsh A time for everything, even on borrowed time In one of my columns earlier in the summer I referred to one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3, that speaks eloquently to so many situations in life. Its opening verses came to mind the other day because they speak to death as well as to life situations. Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 reads: "To every thing there is a season,Though death is a part of our reality, we often do our best to deny its place in the grand scheme of things. Our society seems intent on defying the aging process, and we have developed surgical procedures to help in our denial. Some parents, even those with young children, do not have wills or life insurance, assuming, I suppose, that death will not intervene in their plans. More than the disposition of worldly goods, wills are important when small children are involved because they record the parents' wishes for guardianship of the kids in the event of a sudden tragedy. Few people have thought through their funeral and burial wishes, bequeathing the burden of those decisions to someone else. As a pastor I have had several conversations with parishioners over the years, people who have wanted to discuss leaving money to their church or to a church-related institution. Folks sometimes begin those conversations with an introduction similar to this: "If I die, I want to leave something in my will to..." What do they mean, "IF I die," speaking as if the issue is in doubt?We don't want to talk about death, whether the topic at hand is eternity or bequests or children or family keepsakes. We want to live as if we will be around forever in the here and now. If we think that, we are delusional. Ecclesiastes 3 should help us bring a bit of authenticity to our thoughts. There is a season for everything, including death. The passage from Ecclesiastes came to my thoughts afresh as I recalled an insightful afternoon I spent at a Broadway play a few years back. During a trip to New York in the fall of 1991 I went to see a musical, The Secret Garden, which was a great evening for me. Having seen what I came for, I had enough time to attend a matinee of something else the next day, and I went to the half-price ticket center in Times Square to see what was available. I got a ticket for a revival production of the 1938 play On Borrowed Time at The Circle in the Square Theatre, a truly excellent and intimate venue. My seat was on a front row, and I was within a few feet of most of the actors during the performance. The play was written by Paul Osborn (1901-1988), based on a book by L. E Watkin. Osborn, who was born in Evansville, had a fine career writing for stage and screen. His play Morning's At Seven (1939) has been revived on Broadway a couple of times and has been done in a number of regional theatres, including Actors Theatre of Louisville. Osborn also adapted John Hersey's A Bell For Adano for the stage in 1944.He was nominated for Academy Awards for two of his screenplays. East Of Eden (1955), based on just a part of John Steinbeck's sprawling novel, gave James Dean one of his few movie parts and won an Oscar for Jo Van Fleet in a supporting role. Sayonara (1957), adapted from James A. Michener's book, was nominated for ten Oscars and won four, including supporting performance accolades for Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki. On Borrowed Time is a comedy/fantasy with some profound thought on issues of life and death. It tells the story of a little boy who is orphaned when his parents are killed in an accident. He goes to live with his caring grandparents, his remaining relatives. One day the grandmother receives a visit from a gentleman caller named Mr. Brink (as in "brink of death"), and he takes her away. Soon after the death of the grandmother Mr. Brink returns for the grandfather, but he is unwilling to go until he is sure that his orphaned grandson can be cared for lovingly. The grandfather traps Mr. Brink in the apple tree near the house while pondering what to do about the boy. While he is trapped in the tree, death can't go calling on anyone anywhere, and suddenly, all over the world, no person or creature can die. At first this seems like a real blessing, but it is a profound curse. Even people who are crushed in machinery or severed on train tracks can't die. Death stops everywhere while the grandfather struggles with his grandson's future. That Broadway production was magical; it opened almost 20 years ago, on October 9, 1991. George C. Scott played the grandfather, and he was nothing like his famed portrayal in the biographical film Patton. The grandmother was acted by Theresa Wright, her 1991 stage performance coming nearly 50 years after she won an Oscar playing the young daughter-in-law of Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver (1942). Wright was still lovely and luminescent on stage that day. Nathan Lane played Mr. Brink, in a performance that was both comic and frightening; Lane was especially hilarious in his energetic frustration while trapped in the apple tree. The family doctor, who was puzzled by the inability of people in misery to go on and die, was played by Conrad Bain, an actor familiar to television viewers as the dad on Different Strokes. (In one telling moment in the play the doctor attempts to kill a captured housefly by sloshing it around in a bottle of disinfectant alcohol. The fly, instead of dying immediately, does the backstroke.) I was dazzled by the performances that day, but more impressive than the starpower of the actors on stage was the intensity of the play's underlying message: death is a part of life, an important and necessary part of life, and we deny the reality of death at our own peril. On Borrowed Time teaches us that we do a far greater thing when we accept and prepare for death, and I believe that is true both in the practical and in the spiritual realms of our being. My recollection of that wonderful production of Paul Osborn's play also brings to mind a portion of a prayer from the United Methodist funeral liturgy, "A Service of Death and Resurrection." Those words provide an even more reflective context for the issues raised by the play. The prayer reads, in part: "...Speak to us once moreThose are great thoughts, and my remembrance of them is prompted by fond reminiscences of a wonderful play. A good play, such as On Borrowed Time, can teach us a lot and remind us of much, even about truths that were important to the writer of Ecclesiastes. Let's remember such truths and be guided by their wisdom. E-mail: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com This story was posted on 2011-06-12 15:21:55
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Mayor Harris: Joe Johnson is face of Little League Baseball Joe Hare speaks out for keeping Joe Johnson name for LL Park Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Being First, at Least for awhile-Champ Clark Teresa Kindred: Oprah and A Big Orange Pot Dr. Roger D. Smith, DMD: Taxpayers are leery of industry recruiters Rev. Joey N. Welsh: More Birthday Appreciation: Learning From Peter Shaffer The best thing about small towns Posted Downtown Speed Limits vary by point of entry Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Twins, birthdays Pastor Paul A. Fryman: Living to look like Jesus View even more articles in topic Commentary |
 
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