Austen, Jane, Mansfield Park (Old Saybrook, CT: 2008, Tantor Media), 12 CDs, read by Wanda McCaddon

This is, to my recollection, the  first Jane Austen novel I have ever read.   I may read another, but I am not dashing out to get the collection.   The pace is obviously suited to a more leisurely climate, and the manners of the English country gentry are not exactly my cup of tea, even if this were a work of nonfiction.

The writing is elegantly and sensitively done, to be sure (although how many undergraduates would know that the word “awful” is better translated to “awesome” today and thus understand Fannie’s comment on Edmund’s soon-to-be parish church.  This was only the most striking of the translations needed for the modern reader and, fortunately, is not essential to the plot.  

She generally keeps the (romantic) story line moving along well, although [spoiler alert] I had figured out well before midbook whom Fanny would marry, and the only question was how Austen would pull it off.  I was a little annoyed by the somewhat strained plot twist she pulls near the end to make it work.  So, as you can tell, I am not likely to work my way through the Austen bibliography.

In Memoriam Schubert Miles Ogden (March 2, 1928 – June 6, 2019)

In Memoriam

Schubert Miles Ogden (March 2, 1928 – June 6, 2019)

We all have several “fathers and mothers.”  Our biological (i.e., genetic parents) may or may not be the people who raised us.  I know this very well, having adopted and raised two very young children (ages 3 and 12 months at placement), and each  had been with excellent foster care parents for his whole life before placement. 

Schubert Ogden was my theological parent.  He was also a giant in his field, with his own Wikipedia page: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=schubert+ogden&go=Go&ns0=1).  He was also selected by Time Magazine as one of the outstanding theologians of the mid-twentieth century.  With the book based on his doctoral thesis, Christ Without Myth, he firmly established his place in the academic hierarchy, but he is best remembered as one of the founders of the American school of Process Theology.  

His work was devoted to taking the process philosophy writings on God by his teacher, Charles Hartshorne of the University of Chicago, and rigorously applying the two major criteria for correct Christian theology:
    a)    Is it faithful to the to the witness of the Apostolic Tradition, as transmitted through the Church, and
    b)    Is it formulated in a way that assists the church in forming new disciples.

But that alone does not explain why I will be making a 2300+ mile trip to the town of Rollinsville, Colorado this week.

Schubert Ogden was a great Churchman and an outstanding human being.

I met Schubert Ogden when I took his two-semester Systematic Theology course in 1965-1966 at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.  He co-taught the course with another excellent theologian, John Deschner, whose short career was terminated by his death a year later.  The course waste taught as a dialogue in which they used Gustave Aulen’s Systematic Theology as a base and then would argue with one another over Aulen’s and each other’s positions.  They would alternate who did the initial presentation of a topic and who did the rebuttal.   As I listened I discovered that I more often understood and agreed with Schubert’s position, but that there as also a depth there that I could not comprehend. 

Schubert was always kind to students, so I went by his office one day and stated a couple of issues I was having, and he spent an hour answering my questions and suggesting further readings.  Thus started a process which went on for two years until I graduated from Perkins and went on to get my Ph.D. at Caltech.  

Schubert was also a strong churchman, a faithful attendant at his North Dallas Methodist congregation and an active participant in the seminary worship.   I can only guess what his view of the current United Methodist kerfuffle over the Church’s position on homosexuality would be.

Schubert and I never lived close together during the intervening half century, but I kept in touch by snail mail and by occasional visits. One memorable visit comes to mind: When I finished my doctorate in chemistry, I drove the family household goods in a trailer from Pasadena, CA to White Plains, NY.  Along the way I spent some time with Schubert and his wife, Joyce (an accomplished artiist who predeceased him by several years) at their home in a Chicago suburb.  It seems that the faculty at the University of Chicago was so impressed with his scholarly philosophical work that they brought him in at the level of University Professor!  Our next meeting was in Dallas.  It was about four years later, after I had taken a position at Texas A&M University.  When I asked him why he had left Chicago, he paused a moment and then replied: He missed the high quality graduate students at Chicago very much, but he really believed he would make a larger impact by training young people for the ministry.

Thank you, Professor Ogden.  I have been trained by four Nobel Prize winning chemistry, but I have never had a conversation with so perceptive a thinker as you.  It is a privilege to list you among my intellectual fathers. 

Oklahoma National Champions

I am deviating from my usual topics to do a book review of a rcent Oklahoma history volume that I thought might be of interest.  I picked up a library book before my March trip to Ponca City which I only recently had time to read, and I decided I had to share it with you.     .  

If you are interested in Oklahoma history, women’s basketball, or small denominational colleges, visit your local library or bookstore, (or online seller) for a copy of Dust Bowl Girls by Lydia Reeder (Chapel Hill, NC:  Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017).

The storyline is based on an actual college (Oklahoma Presbyterian College in Durant, OK, now defunct) and its  basketball team which electrified the nation by becoming the AAU national women’s basketball champions in the 1930s.  

It is also about a remarkable group of young women who composed that team, who had come from that part of the state during the Dust Bowl/Great Depression time.

But it is mostly about the remarkable coach at that college who scoured the girls’ high school basketball teams in that part of the state to find the rare talented player who could be molded into a championship team and the college president and his wife who enabled these young women to get a college education (usually the first in the family) and enabled them to propel themselves into a fuller life.

It is good to be reminded be that such people exist.                     

You'll Never Learn Any Younger!

When I finally figured out this favorite saying of Mom, it really annoyed me.  Since I had just screwed up, I obviously hadn’t learned the lesson now, there was no way I was going to be younger, so I had best learn it now.  So, now was the time to take a deep breath and change my ways. 

I guess I need someone to keep telling me.  (I never suggested that to Karen Kay, although I am sure she would have adopted the saying.)  I am really bad (and KK knew it) at maintaining a calendar, so she took over that role.   I was delighted, since it involved no habit change on my part (but I did have to communicate calendrically important dates to her).

Since she is gone, though, I guess it is time to grow up and do it myself.   And, the tools are better now.  Anyone who knows me knows that my handwriting is atrocious, so paper calendars don’t work well when they simply result in a guessing game to figure out what I wrote in that little rectangle.  Computers can help, especially since I am keyboard-proficient.   But phones never worked well for me, since I am not a good thumb-typist. 

But the combination of a smartphone and voice recognition has suddenly made this learning more likely to happen.  Especially since I stumbled across the app Todoist.  I simply open it up and tell it something (like “Help with the Easter egg hunt at the church at 10 a.m. Saturday”) and it not only gets it right quickly (generally), but it will show it on the screen anytime I view the app and it will send me an SMS notification at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning!

An old dog really can learn new tricks, Mom, and thanks for the constant reminder.