Newfoundland

Raise your glass and drink with me to that island in the sea
Where friendship is a word they understand. 
You will never be alone when you're in a Newfie's home.
There's no price tag on the doors in Newfoundland. 

This morning I picked up the new read for my book club, "The Day the World Came to Town."  It's about 9/11, when our whole hemisphere was in chaos and all of the planes in the sky were ordered to land immediately (but not in the U.S.,) So tiny Gander, Newfoundland welcomed 38 planes containing 6,935 passengers.  Therefore we Americans should be forever grateful for what they did.  The truth is, we know almost nothing about them.

Like so many other book club picks, I didn't think I would like it but after reading only 7 pages I was hooked.  Here's why.  The writer, Jim Defede, begins by introducing us to these very quirky, strange, stubborn but ultimately kind people .  Here are a few facts:

Where is Newfoundland?  Most folks don't know.  It's an island in the Atlantic just off the Canadian shore.

How do you pronounce Newfoundland?  Most folks do it wrong and Newfoundlanders don't like it one bit.  "'Understand Newfoundland.' The words rhyme and the cadence is similar."

What is their style of speech?  More old English and Irish than new.  They generally end sentences with "me dear" or "me lovely."  In response to "what do you do" you might hear "I'se be a fisherman."

Is Newfoundland a country?  No.  They are part of Canada but they consider themselves to be Newfoundlanders first and Canadians second. They became part of the British Empire in 1497 but  became part of Canada 400 plus years later in 1949.

What time zone are they in?  They have their very own time zone.  They are exactly one hour and 30 minutes ahead of the U.S.

How do Newfoundlanders survive their harsh existence?  They count on each other for their survival.

Gander Bay

So on the morning of September 11, 2001, after American Airlines Flight 11 had already crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, United Airlines Flight 175 had slammed into the South Tower, and American Airlines Flight 77 had struck the Pentagon, Transportation Secretary Norman Mneta (who was in a bunker under the White House,) ordered that the airspace over the entire United States be shut down.  The planes coming from Europe were not allowed to land in the U.S. because more terrorists could be on these planes.  Despite the risk, Canada accepted the planes.

And that's how the town of Gander with it's 10,000 citizens dropped everything to care for it's 6,000 plus stranded visitors.

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Young Turks

Professor Emeritus of Systematic
Theology Theodore H. Runyon

Young Turks - Young persons eager for radical change in established organizations. 

People still, after all these decades, ask me, "How did you and your husband get involved in Civil Rights?  Of course, there's no one simple answer.  We were "called" for sure but it was definitely a journey.

Around 1965 Ken and I, along with our two toddlers, left our home and our suburban lifestyle in Plantation, Florida in exchange for three years at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.  We knew we were called to inner city work.  If we'd gone to another seminary and Ken studied under different professors, I know things would have been different.

But at Emory, we both came under the influence of four young professors who were eventually called the "Young Turks."  Two of them, Bill Mallard and Ted Runyon, were especially impactful.

Ted Runyon died on May 11th at the age of 87.  Here is a small portion of a remembrance by Kendall Soulen:

...He was a member of the storied faculty cohort...known as "the young Turks" by their older colleagues.  Ted and his academic peers were instrumental in Candler's early involvement in the Civil Right movement, as well as other hot-button issues of a turbulent era, including liberation theology, the global struggle for human rights, and the "death of God" controversy.  Still without tenure in the early 1960s, and so not privy to the meetings of full professors, the young Turks met together informally to read each other's work and for mutual support and encouragement.

Ted Runyon was a Fulbright scholar who received his doctorate on the theology of Paul Tillich at the University of Gottingen.  That tells us a lot.

I understand that he was loved and respected all over the world but we in Florida claimed him as our own.  I hate to think how our lives and careers would have been different if it had not been for visionaries like Ted Runyon and others on the Emory campus in the 1960s and beyond.

P.S.  When my husband, David Runyan, first came to Florida and he started meeting tons of United Methodists, many times the first question he would be asked was "Are you related to Ted?'  The first few times he said "Yes" because his father was named Ted - and was a Methodist minister and educator.  But, eventually he leaned to say "No, but I hear he's a great guy."


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More of Why I Love Florida

Florida's Next Governor?

Here are some more "Why I Love Florida" stories - all straight from the pages of this morning's Orlando Sentinel.

Thank Goodness It Wasn't a Snake
A Miami woman called 911 to report finding an iguana in her toilet.  The cops asked if it was really an iguana and not a snake.  Even though snakes are pretty common in South Florida toilets,  I don't really understand how you could mistake an iguana for a snake or why it would make a difference.  They removed the iguana.

Naked Squatter
Squatters are common in some parts of Florida.  Cops were called about a naked woman squatting (by that I mean living illegally) in a Big Pine Key home.  An officer knocked on the door.  The naked woman answered.  She refused to get dressed and this resulted in, first a tussle, and then the officer having to call for backup.

Never French Kiss a Poisonous Snake

Not a Snake

A man in Bostwick is in critical condition after he tried to kiss his eastern diamondback rattlesnake on the lips.  The snake bit him on the tongue.


And finally:

Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell tells us that some Democrats are hoping that South Florida resident Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson will run for governor for Florida.  Scott points out a couple of problems: Dwayne has no experience, is not a Democrat, and he hasn't voted in an election in ten years.

However he's a very rich celebrity and has expressed interest in running for the presidency.  I agree with Scott when he says about Dwayne "In other words, he's White House material."


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Mother's Day - Again

Hope this has been a good day for you.  As my minister, David Miller, said this morning, "Celebrate if you had a mother!"  That pretty much covers all of us.  He went on to tell us the difference between honoring and loving.  They are not the same thing.

Since my older kids are in their 50s, I've had my share of Mother's Days.  It's never been my favorite holiday, especially, when my kids were little and I was married to a minister.  For instance, back in the day we used to celebrate the oldest mom (sometimes two old ladies would have an argument across the sanctuary,) the youngest mom (what's to celebrate about a 15 year old giving birth,) and (my personal favorite) the mom with the most kids.  I won this last one a couple of times, and since I was the minister's spouse, some other moms thought it was unfair.

I actually thought that myself.

Also some of the Mother's Day sermons were (not by Ken but other ministers, of course) terrible.  My favorite terrible ones had to do with getting us moms to shape up and do a better job.  My particular favorite was a story this minister told about a terrible mom who didn't get up and make her son's lunch so he got into trouble in school for having a baloney sandwich and a can of beer in his lunch box.

This impressed me since I did not pack my older kids' lunches at that time.  We all got up early but they were on their own with the lunch packing.

So my response to the sermon was this:  When we got in the car on that Mother's Day in the 70's I asked them to please not ever put a can of beer in their lunch boxes because it would make me look bad.

I was fine with the baloney sandwich.


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Get Out of Dodge

Summer and winter and spring time and harvest,
Sun moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness,
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. - Great is Thy Faithfulness

I'm reading a book called Saturn Run, supposedly written by one of my very favorite writers, John Sanford, but he's obviously had help from, not only his co-author, Ctein, but other space geeks because it's very sciencey.  It's about us earthlings having to get ourselves to Saturn on the double.

And now this week we've got Dr. Stephen Hawking telling us (for real) that we need to be ready to find another planet to live on within the next one hundred years because we are rapidly screwing this one up.  His top five reasons are:

• Climate change
• Threat of nuclear war
• Genetically engineered viruses
• Population growth

So while Dave and I are thinking through ways of staying in our condo for the long term (aging in place) Dr. Hawking is telling us we might need to leave the planet unless we change our ways. 

This morning during communion I was reading through my favorite verse of one of my favorite hymns (quoted above.)  By the way, the music to this great hymn was written by Dave's grandfather, William Runyan.  

I just hope that God really does have faith in us to work together with all other living things to save this planet.  I'm not up for a trip to Saturn.


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100 Most Influential People in the World

I finally finished reading all of the bios in Time magazine's 100 most influential people.  The bios are written by other famous people.  This is always a tremendous learning process for me. They're in five categories:

• Pioneers
• Artists
• Leaders
• Titans
• Icons

Some I didn't know (so I learned something,)  some I didn't like (Putin, for example,) some I could not figure out why they're on the list (Rupaul, for example.)

I understand why Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are on the list even though Henry Kissinger's bio of Jared is extremely non committal.  Also in the Pioneers category, along with Zika virus expert, Celina Turchi and Chobani CEO, and big time refugee hiring boss, Hamdi Ulukaya, we have Chance the Rapper.  I didn't understand that choice until I read his bio (by Common.)

So happy to see in the Leaders category Melinda Gates and Pope Francis, two of my favorite people.  (They could have been in all five categories.)

I learned a lot about what it means to be a Titan.  Happy to see George Church on the list, with bio by Stephen Colbert.  And I'm even OK with Tom Brady being on this Titan list. 

As for the last category, Icons, I wish there had been a definition of the word.  Viola Davis is an excellent actor whose fame is long overdue, but Icon?  I agree with having John Lewis on the list, for a variety of reasons.  But Rupaul?


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