Why Walter

Today, 4 November, would have been the 100th Birthday of Walter Cronkite (check out the day's google page....very cool.). As many of us of a certain generation recall, Walter was referred to as "the most trusted man in America." Of course, that got me thinking about trust and what we mean by trust and whom one trusts.

When I worked as summer program staff at Camp Jumonville, one of our tasks was to take our campers on the Ropes Course. These courses were very popular during that time period and still are in use by groups wanting to build team work and togetherness.

One of my favorite tasks on the course was the Trust Fall. Each member of the team would take their turn standing on a small platform, six to seven feet above the ground, with their back to their team members standing below. Said team members formed two parallel lines with their arms extended and alternating between each person. Their job was to catch their teammate as she fell. 
The teammate on the platform's job was to stand straight, cross her arms, hold onto her shirt, so as not to flail her arms and smack the teammates whose job it was to catch her.  Clearly the major task of the person on the platform was to trust.

I lead many kids, youth and adults through that challenge and also participated in it as a catcher and a faller.  The vast majority of times were successful. There already seemed be trust in the group and after doing this event that trust grew. On the rare occasion one flailed and smacked or one was slightly dropped....well, that person probably ended up working at haunted houses designing and delivering horrors.....just kidding. Although, some of the ghouls working at the haunted house I visited I'm quite sure the trust fall exercise didn't go well for them and they chose a career path of fright.

Trust involves consistency and constancy. We watch people, observe how they are with others and trust those who consistently display care and concern for folks.

Trust involves honesty.

Trust involves integrity.

Trust involves a strength that is not grunt and threaten, it is strength that is steadfast.

Who do you trust?  Who trusts you?  Why?

sj;

There is always the opportunity to start again.....

Who doesn’t like the clean page of a journal especially when you have something to say?


Who doesn’t like the final exam being by blue book especially when you know the material?


Who doesn’t like the new page on the calendar especially when the previous month has been harrowing?


In all this newness and in response to my need to reflect and write and…gulp!….share it and in reply to several persons (bless you) who inquired as to what happened to my blog… I begin again…..to keep things simple and because I tried other blog sites and my technological acumen was clearly lacking...I return to what worked previously and build on that good foundation.


I define myself as a minister on the margins. I have been ordained 24 years this past June in the United Methodist church. Ten of those years I spent as pastor to congregations in Pittsburgh, Greensburg, New Castle and Erie. The last fourteen, I have answered the call in extension ministry settings around justice work and community organizing on issues of public education reform, children, persons with disabilities and health and wellness.


I am drawn to the outsider, the freak, the one who marches to one’s entire own orchestra, those too often labeled so as to be easily dismissed by those in power. The ministry, as all good ministry should be, is a shared one a dynamic of both listening to and learning from, giving to and getting back, being and becoming…together.


This blog will be some reflection, some rants, some remembering of those days of yesterday which still define my present.


As pencils were gripped tightly or as fingers poised to strike the keyboard, in the words of the college professor prior to permission given to open the examination book, I, too say…”Begin;”

sj;