Order from Chaos
Krista Tippet of On Being
Though “Order from Chaos” sounds like it could be the heading for a story about the Nigerian election, it’s actually about a podcast I heard today.
Do you ever listen to Krista Tippett and her NPR program On Being? It airs weekly; I sometimes hear it at 7 am on New York public radio. It used to be called Speaking of Faith.
I just listened to the podcast of this week’s program, Krista interviewed Bruce Kramer, an academic, who was diagnosed with ALS five years ago and died last week while the program was in production.
When Kramer was diagnosed, he began blogging about his experience. Tippett often uses quotes from her guests to open areas for discussion. She said to him, “After the diagnosis, you wrote that ‘you had unknowingly prepared for this diagnosis all your life.’ Talk about that.”
He said he came from an addictive family and learned early that it was up to him, the oldest son, to bring order out of chaos. “When my mother sat down at the piano,” he said, he would know that things would be all right. No surprise that he turned to music himself.
“As a musician, your whole being is about making order out of chaos,” he said. He believed conducting was this process of pulling people together to make order.
Dr. Ed Thompson
He also talked about beauty. He said, “Life has to be beautiful to have meaning.” Music helped give his life beauty.
His words resonated with me – I also find music to be a major source of beauty.
The music of John Rutter’s Requiem, which I sang this morning with our Special Projects Choir at The Unitarian Church in Westport, is still filling my head. I loved it all, but Lux Aeterna was perhaps my favorite movement.
Our conductor and music director is our Minister of Music Dr. Ed Thompson.
Another Kind of Privilege
Krista Tippett and Bruce Kramer also talked about the privilege of the able-bodied. He spoke about ‘the look,’ the way that we so easily look right through a person with a disability. Or we become hyper attentive, leaning over someone in a wheelchair and speaking slowly and loudly as if the mind and hearing have gone along with the muscles or nerves of the legs.
I hadn’t thought about this kind of privilege before. But yes, I do have the privilege of being able-bodied.
And the Privilege of Safety
Dr. Margee Ensign, President, AUN
No Election News
I had hoped there might be results to share today, but the election news is, at the moment, non-existent.
There were delays on Saturday so the voting was extended into Sunday. I read in a report from CNN that the reasons were, “ballot paper arrived late or new digital voting card readers failed.” The earliest we may have results is Tuesday.
“Further marring the presidential race were attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants on polling stations that killed at least 11 people, including voters waiting at polls. Also, hackers broke into the election commission’s website.”
Update! I just found a BBC piece that says we may have results on Monday.
For more background on the situation in the country, you can find excellent coverage in The Economist. This piece with the graphs and charts is especially helpful. I found it through Max Siollun’s website, which has a link to an earlier BBC piece with lots of background information.
You can also find a brief audio file from a polling station on his website.
Stay tuned!
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