SOUL SURMISE

I'M SORRY, JAPAN (INDONESIA) - A POEM BY EL GRUER

On days like these I often turn to this poem by El Gruer from her book The Paper Sky. 

El wrote it for Japan. Tonight it is for Indonesia.  We can become desensitised by the constant news stories. Let us remember those who are going through the toughest challenges a life can be thrown.

I’M SORRY, JAPAN

In our world, it was one of those days.

I had to study for an exam so I didn’t fail,

had a phone call with my Uncle dale,

and it was buy one get one free at the picture sale.

 

It was there that I heard, Japan, you hit 9 on the Richter scale.

So I stopped. I thought.

I’m sorry, Japan.

...

 

But by that time, the day was done

and the news was on.

From a comfortable distance,

I watched the day in your world.

 

I watched with eyes

desensitised to the perspective

of our Father’s eyes because

I was tuned out from your

blood    spilt   cries.

I sat calmly, as your

flood-damaged   souls   died.

I stopped. I really thought.

 

I am sorry, Japan, that your earthquake

failed to shake me

to my knees to cry out

Father, please, relieve.

 

I am sorry, Japan

that in my world, your world

wasn’t a part of our world, didn’t move

me to move things in the spiritual world.

...

 

I’m sorry, Japan,

that it wasn’t my plan

to pray for you today.

THE MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES... THE MOVIE PHILOMENA... AND FORGIVENESS

I found Philomena a spiritually stimulating movie. In another blog review ( read it here...) I looked at the evangelistic work of Philomena on Martin Sixsmith. In this blog I want to look at the end of the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie then I am heading in to a big spoiler so stop reading now… go and watch it… and then come back here after you have enjoyed. If you haven’t seen it and want to continue reading then having been warned a will give a little background. 

Philomena was an unmarried teenager, sent to an Irish Magdalene Laundry where Nuns looked after you in return for your working for a few years in their convent. It wasn’t pretty and many of the children were then sent off to be adopted. Fifty years after her son was born, and almost as many since she had seen him last, Philomena sets her heart on finding her son. Martin Sixsmith who has lost his journalist credibility in a political leak takes on the story. An unlikely partnership they set off on a trail that leads them to a shocking conclusion that the Nuns have lied to not only Philomena but her long lost son. By the time they discover this her son is dead and the hope of reconciliation gone. 

Sixsmith is outraged at this injustice and the behaviour of those who claim to represent a God that he already has trouble believing in. He bursts through the private doors of the Convent and begins an assault one of the old Nuns who he reckons is culpable. As he does so, Philomena appears on the scene, looks the Nun in the eye and tells her that she wants her to know that she forgives her. Sixsmith is even more exasperated and says to Philomena, “Just like that?” to which she answers, “No, not just like that,” expressing the cost of this brave act. When Sixsmith shares his anger Philomena looks at him with some pity and says, “that must be exhausting!”

It is one of the many many profound scenes in a movie that has lingered with me. Everybody needs forgiveness. We need to forgive those who have wronged us. We need to forgiveness for those we have wronged. we need to find ways to forgive ourselves when we flounder in our mistakes.

Of that idea of forgiveness to the social and political reconciliation in Belfast. Forgiveness needs spoken, and it is not lost on me that it is spoken to the Church in this instance, and there needs to be understanding that when it is falteringly uttered that the words come with a huge cost and deep pain. Yet, it is something that releases the anger and that pain. It is a freeing act. Philomena, not for the first time in this movie, reveals deep truth in the simplest of ways.

PAUL MCCARTNEY - JAMES CORDEN SEES JOY... STOCKI SEES HOPE...

If you haven't seen James Corden's Carpool Karaoke with Paul McCartney on his Late Late Show, you need to. You say that you are not a McCartney fan. I still hold that you need to see this. It is precious television. A brilliant spectacle and full of personal emotion for both McCartney and Corden.

The concept is fabulous. McCartney back in his old home in Liverpool, at the barbers in Penny Lane and pulling off a surprise pub gig too. The car karaoke scenes are hilarious, though they get emotional when they talk about Let It Be, McCartney remembering his mum and Corden his dad.

Corden makes a point about McCartney's music that is obvious and yet often overlooked. He describes the joy that McCartney eeks out of songs. Indeed, in todays times that sense of joy might be as important as the clever lyric that expresses our social critique and angst.

Corden reminded me of a blog I did on the, now 76 year old, ex Beatle for his birthday last year. Corden sees the sound of joy, I hear the words of hope! We all need a blend of those!

Paul McCartney is never seen as the most political or spiritual of The Beatles. He has certainly never written anything lyrical to challenge the political subversiveness of Imagine by Beatle John or the spiritual enthusiasm of My Sweet Lord by Beatle George.

However, a couple of years ago, as I lay on my early morning holiday bed listening to him on my iPod shuffle, I became aware of a theme that I had never recognised before in McCartney’s work; hope!

Now some might immediately jump to his song Hope Of Deliverance and say that it states the patently obvious. Maybe! However my songs that appeared spookily close together on that shuffle were Tug Of War from album of same title, Summer’s Day from McCartney II and Golden Earth Girl from Off the Ground.

All three songs speak of a deep hopefulness of what will happen beyond the difficult moments the singer is in; the entire culture in Tug Of War; the very personal in Summer’s Day; and the eco world in Golden Earth Girl.

Before this holiday eureka moment I had previously blogged about another McCartney song with an eschatological theme, The End Of The End from Memory Almost Full:

 

"On the day that I die I'd like bells to be rung
And songs that were sung to be hung out like blankets
That lovers have played on
And laid on while listening to songs that were sung

 

At the end of the end
It's the start of a journey
To a much better place
And a much better place
Would have to be special
No reason to cry
No need to be sad
At the end of the end"

Some of Macca’s most poetic lyrics indeed. McCartney does know about death losing parents, wife and two Beatles. What faith he is believing here is hard to understand though he does touch on Christian and eastern faith In his most spiritual work, the more classical, Ecce Cor Meum for which he mentions being shaped by a philosophy “the faith in a benevolent spirit.”

Finally, and most recently McCartney has added to his canon of hope 2014’s single Hope For The Future:

“Hope for the future

It's coming soon enough

How much can we achieve?

Hope for the future

It will belong to us

If we believe

If we believe”

Yet again, we might question what Macca is believing or putting his hope in. It would seem to me that McCartney confirmed in Hope For The Future my hunch that he is expressing a secular wishfulness of something better.

All of these songs might be McCartney-esque in their ambiguity of belief but I as a Christian can shake hands with the sentiments and actually, whether Macca knows it or not, the theology of them, vague and all as it might be!

 

 

 

BIDI BIDI REFUGEE CAMP THROUGH THE LENS - with DAVID CAVAN

 

BIBI BIDI REFUGEE CAMP THROUGH THE LENS

with DAVID CAVAN

SUNDAY MAY 13, 2018 @ 7pm

FITZROY (77 University Street, Belfast BT7 1HL)

 

Northern Ireland photographer David Cavan is not new to bringing his camera to some of the world's neediest situations. Working for TEARFUND he was been using his deepest gladness to photograph the world's deepest needs for some years.

Bidi Bidi, in northern Uganda, has been on our news for a few years now. The biggest refugee camp in the world it has taken in over 1million people escaping over the border from the bloody conflict in South Sudan.

In March, David was in Bidi Bidi with Alain Emerson and Fields of Life. The photograph at the top of this blog is one of there photographs David took. At this event I will chat with David about photography, how you take photographs in such a sensitive place, how much power a photograph has in changing the world and how it impacts the guy looking through the lens. 

David will be showing his photographs too. 

 

WHY FITZROY DOES THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SERIES

(With Fitzroy's Dave Thompson and creative crew presenting The Gospel According To... Finding Nemo on Sunday night (Feb 18, 2018 at 6.30pm), here is a blog about why we do such events.)

The Gospel According To... Series came about, as many good ideas, by accident. During my days as a University Chaplain we raised thousands of pounds to take students to South Africa to volunteer with Habitat For Humanity. At the launch of my book Walk On we had gotten local artists to cover U2 songs and so we went for it again as a fund raiser. 

Then we did Johnny Cash. Then Van Morrison. As part of these tribute nights I started to “Preach Jockey” them; that is to link the songs with commentary of a spiritual nature. I had been creating sermons through songs and chat on my BBC Radio Ulster show Rhythm and Soul for ten years. 

When I arrived in Fitzroy in 2008 it was a natural thing to repeat the idea and then develop it. The great advantage at Fitzroy was having an amazing array of talent, not only able to perform the songs but absolutely passionate about doing so. 

The creativity and ability of my congregation has widened the scope of The Gospel According To... Series. We now have not only done the rock music of Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, The Waterboys, Bob Dylan, Christy Moore and Bruce Springsteen but we have now stretched the canvas to include Harry Potter, The Lion King, Narnia, Les Miserables, West End Shows and Van Gogh. When Jonathan Abernathy-Barkley was our assistant we had other colours in our palette. Dave and Lorraine Thompson have brought the Disney and Pixar movies into play too.

With my penchant for all things U2 we have done a variety of events around their work. As well as The Gospel According To… U2 we have had an evenings on Songs Of Innocence and Joshua Tree. Songs of Experience is being prepared for the autumn, around time the SOE Tour arrives in Ireland.

Not everyone understands the concept. Some say that it is baptising secular music. For me it is not anymore baptising the artist in performing a song than it is to quote a novelist or poet in a sermon. Some seem to struggle with the idea of the Gospel of Bruce Springsteen. Of course it is not called that. It is The Gospel According To… It is seeking out what Springsteen or whoever says about Jesus and faith.

There are six important things that I am attempting to do through these evenings: -

 

USE OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE IN SHARING FAITH

Since I started trying to share my Christian faith in the early eighties I have constantly attempted to cross the gap from Scriptures into the culture by using the arts as a bridge. The use of quotations from all kind of sources has been rife in preaching for centuries. I just felt I could reach a younger, perhaps more secular audience by using quotations they would relate to and maybe be surprised I would use. This has all a Biblical model that from Acts chapter 17 where Paul does what I am doing; he takes the art and poets of the city, quotes them and then uses them to draw people to the truth of Jesus. This is an effective way to communicate in a cultural context.

 

ENGAGING FAITH AND CULTURE

It was Marshall McLuhan who said, anyone who thinks there is a difference between entertainment and education doesn’t know the first thing about either. The ability for people to engage and listen to the entertainment that surrounds and near saturates them is for me a vital part of discipleship. If we think entertainment is just noise I believe we are wrong! The discernment of Christians to understand what they are listening to, reading or watching is a vital part of the job of a pastor. I believe that if Jesus is Lord he should be Lord of our aesthetics. I believe in iPodic obedience! There is art that can give us a healthy soul in a positive way. I wrote my MTh dissertation on this idea. 

My hope is that The Gospel According To... Series awakens people to think about their art. I also hope that it will exercise the muscles of our imaginations as we connect art and faith. The most positive outcome of this series for me is that my very own children will often say to me that they have heard a song, read a story or watched a movie that we could do a Gospel According To... on. They have learned to look for the spiritual in their entertainment. Success!

 

DOUBLE LISTENING

In his book The Contemporary Christian, John Stott speaks of not being so caught up in the Word of God that we miss the contest of the world that it needs to apply into. He suggests it is necessary to listen and have a grasp of both. One of the ways to get a handle on the issues of the day is by engaging with the art of the day. It is a window into the soul of the society. The Gospel According To... Series gives us an opportunity to listen.

 

TRIPLE LISTENING

In the introduction to my book The Rock Cries Out I suggested something more than Stott's Double Listening. I was aware in my own spiritual formation that rock music had played a major part in God's speaking to me, leading me back to the Bible to wrestle with social and personal issues. God was speaking in unexpected places. Of course this wasn't an original idea. From Clement of Alexandria in the Second Century to John Stott again, this time in his book The Incomparable Christ, "there seems to be truth among all men." Again we might here God if we were able to listen and this Series is aimed at helping guide us in this listening.     

 

A GENTLE WAY FOR PEOPLE TO COME INTO CHURCH

What the Series has done is draw many people into or back to Church. For whatever reason many people have problems in coming to Church. They have stereotypes or have been damaged by Church experiences. What we have found is that The Gospel According To... Series has done is to encourage such folk into the Church again and reassess their relationship with it.I often describe it as a Burning Bush, an intrigue that catches people's attention draws them closer to sacred ground.

 

THE USE OF PEOPLE’S GIFTS

This was a bi-product that I hadn’t gone looking for. After we had done a few events in the series I realised how fulfilling it was for those who sang or played. Church is often not a place where arts are encouraged and many musicians, singers and performers feel that they cannot easily bring the life of art and faith together. To be allowed to use their gifts for God in these musical ways has not only been a an opportunity to develop and hone their gifts but also to grow in spiritual confidence as they find a role within the Body of Christ.

 

Fitzroy will be doing In The Time Of My Confession; Dylan's Gospel Years on April 8th at 7pm.

Watch for The Jesus Story in Poetry and Song on April 1st at 11pm

And in the autumn watch for U2's Songs Of Experience Tour; Performed and Surmised

TO THE EXILES IN BABYLON - by DOUG GAY

 

(my good friend Doug Gay, wrote this around Jeremiah 29. I used it this morning in Fitzroy. Exegetical insights through poetry...)

To all the exiles:

Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel

I have sent you into exile in Babylon

You are going nowhere quickly,

Don’t let the Ba-bylonians grind you down!

Build

Live

Plant

Love

Marry

Grow

Pray

Build houses – build them strong – take your time – dig foundations – build them to last – build extra bedrooms for the kids and for their kids

Build houses to last you 70 years – and live in them – unpack the suitcases then throw them away – put your pictures up – make the place homely -
And outside mark the plots where you will bury both the elders and yourselves
you’re going nowhere quickly

You must live here – I mean you to live - within these walls, in the secret spaces, behind closed doors, prayers can be said and secrets whispered, the songs of Zion can be sung, the language kept alive, the stories told, your children taught
within these walls dreams can be kept alive  - the dreams that Babylon cannot control

To all the exiles – 

Plant gardens, take your time and build raised beds, dig ditches to water them, plan your crop rotations, plant trees which will take decades to give you fruit

the earth will keep on giving to you – dig the soil, push the seed in the ground, cover and water it, fertilise the crops, wait for the sun and the rain - plant olives and vines, plant figs and pomegranates, plant lemons + oranges
almonds and apples – bend your tastes to foreign food
Plant wheat for bread and vines for wine – – this is your Eden – this is your Canaan – this is your shift – this is your time – this is your place

Here you must plant and harvest and eat and share – you are going nowhere quickly –
Within these gardens, seeds can grow, seeds of resistance and renewal, seeds of change, seeds of the future, seeds of hope, under these trees when they are grown, your children will sit down in circles and will plan the journey home

To all the exiles

Don’t let the empire make you hate yourselves
Fall in love with one another – take wives and husbands – give yourselves to one another - dance at each other’s weddings – make new families, you are going nowhere quickly
Make love, make babies,

Be proud when your bellies stretch and swell, they are full of the promise of your future,
welcome and bless your sons and daughters,
teach them the old stories in new ways

Multiply, multiply, multiply – become more
don’t let Babylon reduce you, make you less,
grow up and on into the people you were made and meant to be

To all the exiles,

take this place of cursing, cruelty, enslavement

take this place of exile, this non-home,
these enemies and masters, bullies, racists, bosses
take them and seek their welfare - you are going nowhere quickly
bring your best to their worst –
dig tunnels of love under the foundations of empire
pray hard for Babylon, pray daily for its good, seek its shalom,
in its shalom your own is lodged for now
do good, show love, do justice, live in peace – create a colony of heaven which the power of empire cannot overcome

To all the exiles,
I know the plans I have for you
Plans for your good not for your harm
To give you all a future and a hope
I will restore you, I will gather you and bring you back,
I will be found by you and hear you

You are going nowhere quickly

Build – Live – Plant – Harvest - Love – Marry – Grow – Pray – Love - Hope

Seek the welfare of the city. For in it you will find your own. AMEN.

DAVID CASSIDY - A TRIBUTE

I was ten years old. I was staying over at my cousin Sharon’s. She was a couple of years older and  all over her bedroom wall were posters of Donny Osmond and David Cassidy. I always go back to that moment as the life changer when I fell in love with music. Today it is hard to imagine who I would have been without those posters intriguing me into investigating pop music.

And I am now old enough to be able to admit that Osmond and Cassidy were my first pop idols. Donny actually more than David. Yet, this morning as I heard of David Cassidy’s death, and I had been following his illness for a couple of days, I was thankful for him and sad at his passing. I picked up a compilation CD, that I bought as a guilty pleasure, to listen to on the school run.

That school run became a like a machine gun, shooting out memory after memory of my adolescence. I always fell in love, even up to Janice, with I Think I Love You pumping through my head. I first went introspective and found catharsis in the melancholy with I Am A Clown, long before I had heard of Leonard Cohen. 

My first yearning to travel in America was listening to Some Kind Of A Summer where he name checked, South Dakota, Montana, Memphis among other places, a few years before I discovered Bruce Springsteen. The first political and social comment I was aware of was his cover of For What It’s Worth on his Cassidy Live record which also introduced me to The Beatles with Please Please Me. 

Then, like me David Cassidy wanted to grow up. It was easier for me as I journeyed through my teens discovering The Beatles and Bob Dylan, leaving Osmond and Cassidy far behind. Cassidy tried too. Rock Me Baby was a grown up rock work out and then came The Higher They Climb, The Harder They Fall record with Beach Boys’ covers Darlin’ and I Write The Songs as well as Ned Doheny’s Get It Up For Love and a co write with Buffalo Springfield’s Richie Furay, Love In Bloom. On the follow up record Home Is Where The Heart Is he did a great version of Paul McCartney’s Tomorrow.

It was yesterday that always haunted Cassidy. It was difficult for a Jackie magazine pin up and star of the bubblegum soap opera The Partridge Family to graduate to adult credibility. Yes, there were musical comebacks and a lifetime career in acting but you always felt that David Cassidy was ever frustrated by not over coming the poster boy image of himself. 

There is a spoken word piece of The Higher They Climb… that had a pop star down and out on a park bench, talking heart break, bankruptcy and alcohol problems. It was sadly too prophetic and Cassidy suffered them all.

Today, though I am listening to songs that I am near embarrassed that I know all of the words to, even the ones far too saccharine pop for my ears. I am remembering the good Cassidy stuff and remembering that without David Cassidy on my cousin’s wall, my life would be without a musical sound track and my sermons and blogs bereft of the art he introduced me to. 

DAVID CASSIDY - A TRIBUTE

I was ten years old. I was staying over at my cousin Sharon’s. She was a couple of years older and  all over her bedroom wall were posters of Donny Osmond and David Cassidy. I always go back to that moment as the life changer when I fell in love with music. Today it is hard to imagine who I would have been without those posters intriguing me into investigating pop music.

And I am now old enough to be able to admit that Osmond and Cassidy were my first pop idols. Donny actually more than David. Yet, this morning as I heard of David Cassidy’s death, and I had been following his illness for a couple of days, I was thankful for him and sad at his passing. I picked up a compilation CD, that I bought as a guilty pleasure, to listen to on the school run.

That school run became a like a machine gun, shooting out memory after memory of my adolescence. I always fell in love, even up to Janice, with I Think I Love You pumping through my head. I first went introspective and found catharsis in the melancholy with I Am A Clown, long before I had heard of Leonard Cohen. 

My first yearning to travel in America was listening to Some Kind Of A Summer where he name checked, South Dakota, Montana, Memphis among other places, a few years before I discovered Bruce Springsteen. The first political and social comment I was aware of was his cover of For What It’s Worth on his Cassidy Live record which also introduced me to The Beatles with Please Please Me. 

Then, like me David Cassidy wanted to grow up. It was easier for me as I journeyed through my teens discovering The Beatles and Bob Dylan, leaving Osmond and Cassidy far behind. Cassidy tried too. Rock Me Baby was a grown up rock work out and then came The Higher They Climb, The Harder They Fall record with Beach Boys’ covers Darlin’ and I Write The Songs as well as Ned Doheny’s Get It Up For Love and a co write with Buffalo Springfield’s Richie Furay, Love In Bloom. On the follow up record Home Is Where The Heart Is he did a great version of Paul McCartney’s Tomorrow.

It was yesterday that always haunted Cassidy. It was difficult for a Jackie magazine pin up and star of the bubblegum soap opera The Partridge Family to graduate to adult credibility. Yes, there were musical comebacks and a lifetime career in acting but you always felt that David Cassidy was ever frustrated by not over coming the poster boy image of himself. 

There is a spoken word piece of The Higher They Climb… that had a pop star down and out on a park bench, talking heart break, bankruptcy and alcohol problems. It was sadly too prophetic and Cassidy suffered them all.

 

Today, though I am listening to songs that I am near embarrassed that I know all of the words to, even the ones far too saccharine pop for my ears. I am remembering the good Cassidy stuff and remembering that without David Cassidy on my cousin’s wall, my life would be without a musical sound track and my sermons and blogs bereft of the art he introduced me to. 

TOM PETTY (1950 - 2017) A TRIBUTE

It was on Twitter. David Bazan Tweeted, “Bless Tom Petty.” I wondered had Petty made a pastorally helpful contribution to the aftermath of the horrific shooting in Las Vegas. Googling for information I discover he has been found at home unconscious, in cardiac arrest. After some confusion on social media and perhaps hope against hope… I brought this tribute down off my blog. The first words on the news this morning, however, confirmed that Tom Petty had indeed passed away. He had only come off a tour a week ago.

When I first heard the news of Petty’s cardiac arrest, the visceral reaction deep inside me and the shouts of “NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” told me all I needed to know about how much I loved Tom Petty. We have lost a lot of major rock stars in recent years including Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen but none since George Harrison has hit me as hard as hearing of the loss of Tom Petty.

It was in 1979 that a school friend, Gregory Clements, handed me Damn The Torpedoes and started raving about Petty. I had bought the American Girl single when it came out but Gregory was making a claim on Petty as being more than couple of singles.  I loved Damn The Torpedoes immediately and my fandom grew after Hard Promises, Long After Dark and Southern Accents. He and his Heartbreakers then became Bob Dylan’s backing band for goodness sake! My wife gifted me Tom Petty’s Playback box set on our wedding night!

There was a decade or two though when I have to admit I did not give Petty the place in rock history that he deserved. I even foolishly questioned his credentials to be alongside Harrison, Dylan and Orbison in The Travelling Wilburys. 

It was the incredible 4 hour documentary film Running Down A Dream that made me re-assess. That re-assessment was not just the music but the role that Petty played in the industry and his authenticity as a human being that played itself out when he reformed his pre Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch to give the guys who missed out their moments under the big venue spotlights.

In recent years his whopping 5CD Live Anthology, the bluesy Mojo and the brilliant Hypnotic Eye reminded us both who he was and what he had left to play and say. I am particularly thankful tonight that I got to see him in Dublin’s O2 in June 2012.

As always when someone passes my pastoral thoughts are with his loved ones, Petty’s wife and children and his band of 40 years. As I remember him over the next few weeks I will bask in those songs I have long loved dearly and probably find new ones I have missed across his vast catalogue. 

I will feel the Florida and Californian sun as I listen. There will be joyous rock n roll and poetic celebration and critique of the America he lived his life in. I will also here deep calls to my soul. No more so in the song Fault Lines from Hypnotic Eye: -

 

“See those fault lines
Lay down like land mines
It's hard to relax
A promise broken
The ground breaks open
Love falls through the cracks

And I've got a few of my own
I've got a few of my own fault lines
Running under my life
Running under my life”

 

Petty had lived in California for some 40 years and that idea of the San Andreas Fault lying beneath you all the time could be a frightening thought if you allowed it to linger. Over 200 people have lost their lives in earthquakes in that State since I was born in 1961. 

Petty’s song though is not about tectonic geographical shifts. He is using the image to dig deep in his own life. Another song on the same Hypnotic Eye album goes, “Meet me tonight at the Red River/And look down into your soul…” There is a lot of soul searching going on here and so I looked deep down into mine. I have pondered and prayed about my own fault lines regularly since I heard that song. I have preached and blogged about this helpful spiritual insight. 

As I type I am listening… and remembering… and giving thanks for music in general that has been my constant companion for 45 years, helping me make sense of the world and God and my place in God’s world. And particular thanks for Tom Petty… who has kept me very good company for so long. As my friend Chris Taylor Facebooked last night, “Tom Petty was my friend. He didn’t know it but we spent so much time together.” It is a strange relationship between the rock star and the fan but the grief going on inside me this morning tells me that I held Tom Petty very dearly. 

I am gutted!

 

GOD AND JED BARTLET IN WRESTLING CONVERSATION - THE GENIUS OF WEST WING'S TWO CATHEDRALS

The second series of West Wing ends with, in my opinion, the best hour of television ever made. It is why God made moving pictures. 

President Bartlet is having to decide if he will run again in the next Presidential Election, after coming clean about the fact that he has MS. Decisions are to be made, under all kinds of political pressure across Capitol Hill, never mind in his own staff team who have given up so much to invest in Bartlet.

The biggest drama of all is going on inside the soul of Bartlet himself. Feeling uneasy about breaking a promise to his wife to only stand once and insecure about what his admission to having MS would do to his career, he has a standoff… with himself… and God.

Adding to the poignancy, and deep emotional drama of the episode, Bartlet’s wrestling with God happens at the funeral of his secretary Mrs Landingham, killed by a drunk driver as she drove her new car home for the first time. Mrs Landingham becomes an angel speaking to Bartlet through flashbacks as his battle with God is played out.

Part of the genius of the episode is taking us back to Jed’s school days when Mrs Landingham worked for his father, a tough school principal. As Mrs Landingham believed in the inspiration of the young Jed and attempted to get him to fight for fair wages for the women staff at the school so God uses the flashback to help Bartlett decide whether to stand for election or not.

I don’t use God poetically. This is a spiritual slice of television drama. Ultimately it is about a man finding his vocation place in the world. God is at the centre of this episode. That the Wikipedia entry on this episode misses that, beggars belief!

Most obviously God takes a barracking from Bartlet in the Cathedral where Mrs Landingham’s funeral takes place. Bartlet asks for the Cathedral to be secured and stands at the altar screaming at God. It is Old Testament Psalmist stuff. He asks why God has taken the life of a woman driving her first ever brand new car and then unleashes his tirade of seeming injustices. It is not pretty. He calls God a ‘feckless thug” at one point. In a repeat of a flashback to those schooldays he lights a cigarette, stamps it out on the altar and walks away shouting, “You get Hoynes”, a reference to his Vice President who will stand for election in his place.

How does God take the rollicking? Well, God is not finished with Jed yet. As if there is not enough going on in this episode, there is a storm creeping up the east coast of America and Bartlett has his spiritually sensitive eye on it. Why is it here? There has been no such weather phenomena in over 100 years? Why now? Is God speaking?

With the wind blowing the door of his office open, the ghost of Mrs Landingham become the angel that Bartlet teases everything out with. She tells him that God doesn’t make car crashes. Back in school, he needed figures before deciding. Then she repeats a phrase from back in this school days… it is the altar call… “If you don’t want to run again I respect that… but if you don’t run because you think it is going to be too hard or you think you're gonna lose… well Jed, I don’t even want to know you.”

Bartlet walks out the open door and surrenders to the wind and rain… to God… and his vocation on earth! Wow!

BUT the genius Aaron Sorkin, writer of West Wing, isn’t done with us yet and as Bartlet walks to the car and from the car to the podium to answer the press, Dire Straits, Brothers In Arms perfectly soundtracks the tension and intention. With his team around him, a team in this TV series determined on fighting the dark with light, the music heightened the mood. 

Given guidance about where to find an easy question in the press scrum, Bartlet leaves easy and is asked… “Are you going to stand for another term?” You need to watch it for the most wonderful conclusion of a series ever…