RABBIT TRAILS: DISPATCHES FROM THE SHED
Updates, news and blog stories from around the Ted and Company universe.
Since early September I have been living in my childhood home in Spring City, PA with my dad, who is in a gentle stage of dementia. I wanted to use this time of imposed sabbatical to work on some personal things, be present in his life and give breaks to my brother and his wife who live next door. As well, I have been cleaning out rooms and the basement, discovering a few gems but mostly decades of memories and fleetingly meaningful detritus. This time has been deep, occasional hilarious, and an exercise on being present in the moment. I’ve also dabbled in a new written form, with apologies to actual poets… Gospel During supper the gospel is proclaimed. Willie, Johnny and EmmyLou sing of grace and blood, and sacrifice. Prepared by care-giver for Dad. She, with a Menno background ‘Fallen away’ and returned, carrying life as a blessing and…
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Celtic theologian John Phillip Newell recently spoke at the virtual conference Beyond the Pandemic: How Shall We Live? He says, “Celtic spirituality invites us into a deeper awareness of the sacred in one another and all things.” He then noted a three-fold approach to this way of seeing: Let go of old ways of seeing that have failed to see and reverence the sacred in one another as races, as nations, as species, as religions. Reimagine new ways of seeing, or allow ourselves to dream of ways of seeing, living and relating we haven’t known before. Commit ourselves to beginning to live these new ways of seeing now as a way of preparing the foundations for a new day in our world. Recently I spent a week on a silent retreat (a first for me) at Red Point, Maryland, a block off the beach on the north neck of the Chesapeake Bay. Rabbit…
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Boredom. What does it mean to be bored and can we agree what it means? Is it okay to be bored? Are we missing something important if we’re bored? Are we missing something important if we’re NOT bored? If we don’t allow ourselves time for boredom, give our brains a rest? During this pandemic, in the midst of despair, grief, and touch deprivation, there is also boredom. There are a spate of resources cropping up to address this issue, including this one: I can’t imagine being bored, because apparently as an enneagram 7 I have a well honed ability to avoid boredom at all costs. * * What can be fascinating about the Enneagram is the gentle warm feeling when you are described in phrases that ring true and stroke the ego just a whisper. “ You enjoy talking enthusiastically about the ideas and possibilities that fill your head.” Yeah,…
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So it’s early May. In normal years, we would be 20 plus games into the baseball season. Yes I hear you, ‘Oh no, a sports related blog!’ But fear not friends, I will try not to bore you, however you are welcome to bail out at this point. Hmm, to bail out, a baseball term; The act of hurling your body backwards to avoid a pitch up and in. A very reptilian brain response to the imminent danger of a fastball thrown with either purpose or neglect, Bob Gibson or Sudden Sam Mcdowell. My life, since I was 8 or 9, has revolved around the rhythms of sports, first baseball, then football, followed by basketball. With a smattering of boxing, olympics and for a brief period in the early seventies, hockey. But the through line is baseball. My older brother Tim and I have a shorthand connection to many pieces…
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What’s the path forward for a theater company? A traveling theater company? A standing non-profit theater serving a small city? A moderately sized theater company employing 15 actors, director, designers? Broadway houses? A one woman vaudeville style traveling clown and puppet show? All of these questions have a similar answer. Hell if I know. In the last couple of weeks, in response to months of cancelizations, I have pivoted from touring for the foreseeable future toward creating a new project with partner Michelle Milne, co-actor in Ted and Company’s We Own This Now. We had been talking about the Enneagram for a couple of years while on the road with hosts, and also with friends and family members. It’s a fascinating, complicated, almost endless path in the attempt to understand ourselves and those we encounter in work, home, and social circles. Fascinating and complicated—yeah, like us. A year and a…
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A word about the post office and postal workers… I would think at this point in our new realities, they don’t want to be called heroes. I think, rather, they want to be safe and also have a job in 5 months. Helen Madigan is one of my favorite comics and her routine says it better than I could. A note of admonition to come back to finish this rather short post instead of following the Youtube rabbit trails of all Helen’s brilliant work, or other people’s posting about similar rants or videos of how to clean ear wax out of your AirPods. The post office has been the butt of jokes probably since the pony express was in business. *Rabbit trail*: The Pony Express was in operation for only 18 months, until the connection of the telegraph lines across the US. Following another *rabbit trail*: The telegraph made it…
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