(Note: the below is a draft of a post I had started in May of 2023. At that time I couldn’t know that I had but a few more months of peace at Gloria Dei before being sent once more out as a religious refugee. So read the below, with the accuracy of hindsight, to assess my mood and motives.)
I have found a new home. For how long, only God knows, but I have always been a pilgrim seeking a place, always trying to stay, and always kicked along on down the road.
As I sit in the choir of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, I wonder how long it will last, and ponder back at some of the gladness and sadness behind. We have a great choral director here. I have been blessed to sit under several excellent church choir directors, and directors of other choral groups. A few haven’t been that great, but by and large I have gotten the better ones.
My one sadness of the morning is how things now lie between me and the man I consider the best choral director I have ever worked under or even known — Dr. Geoff Wilcken. I sit next to an excellent bass singer who I would love to encourage to sing and learn under Geoff, but how do I explain why I would encourage him to learn from Geoff when I myself do not sing with him. How do I explain my banishment, my hurt, my sense of injustice and wrong, along with my continued respect for the work of Dr. Wilcken?
I have considered it a strength to always have a balanced view of someone, especially someone who puts themselves in an adversarial role to me. No matter how much I might stress their negatives, I still always ensure that I acknowledge the positive and good things they have do to and for me and others. I never realized how much of a curse it could be. For it would be much easier to forget and write people off rather than keep them as people.
Especially when it seems that those people have written me off.
At The Rainbow 